General Ulysses S. Grant Engraved Portrait.

MARSHAL, William Edgar. [Ulysses S. Grant].

Item Number: 135004

Large format portrait of Ulysses S. Grant as the First Four-Star General in U.S. History by American engraver William Edgar Marshall. A student of Cyrus Durand in New York City and then in Paris (1863-1865), William Marshall became noted for his portraits and graphics work. In 1865, he exhibited at the Paris Salon. Framed in a period style frame. The entire piece measures 24 inches by 30 inches.

Following the close of the American Civil War, Congress revisited the idea of a superior General rank initially intended for bestowal upon George Washington who held the rank of “General and Commander-in-Chief” which was a grade senior to all American major generals and brigadier generals from the American Revolutionary War, but only entitled him to the three-star insignia of an Army lieutenant general. On July 25, 1866, Congress enacted legislation authorizing the grade of General of the Army, and on that same date the new grade was conferred on Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant as a reward for saving the Union in the American Civil War. The grade was recognized and continued in various acts until the Act of July 15, 1870, which contained the requirement that “the offices of general and lieutenant general shall continue until a vacancy shall exist in the same, and no longer, and when such vacancy shall occur in either of said offices shall become inoperative, and shall, by virtue of this act, from thence forward be held to be repealed.”