Skip to content
Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides
 
Created in collaboration with the Holocaust & Human Rights Center, the NYS Education Department, and the NYS Archives Partnership Trust.

1862

Home

General Grant's Order No. 11

Issued on December 17, 1862, by General Grant, Order No. 11 was a response to what was then seen as an illicit market in Southern cotton by unscrupulous traders thought to be mostly Jews.  While several of Grant’s generals and other high-ranking officers supported the order, Jews pro-tested directly to President Abraham Lincoln via a strongly worded telegram. They regarded the order as “an enormous outrage on all laws and humanity, . . . the grossest violation of the Constitution and [their] rights as good citizens under it,” and followed up their telegram with a visit to Washington, DC, on January 3, 1863, just two days after the implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation. Prior to the visit, however, protest rallies were held in St. Louis, Louisville, and Cincinnati. Lincoln additionally received telegrams protesting the order from the B’nai B’rith Lodge of St. Louis, Missouri, and the Board of Delegates of American Israelites in New York. These strategies worked. Lincoln revoked the order on January 4, 1863, and on January 6, 1863, Lincoln received a delegation led by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise (1819– 1900) of Cincinnati thanking him for his decision. Grant himself, responding to both supporters and protestors,  revoked  the  order  on  January  17,  1863.  In  1868, when  Grant  chose  to  run  for  president, the issue resurfaced, and he was forced to distance himself from it, telling voters that he harbored no prejudice against Jews. He won the election with Jewish support. After he was elected, however, Grant tried to make amends. He appointed a record number of Jewish Americans to the government, attended the dedication of a synagogue in Washington in 1876 and condemned Jewish persecution in other countries. 

General Order No. 11 is an unusual document in that it banished an entire group of people based on their religion and ethnicity. Though the Jewish population in the United States was relatively small in 1860, comprising between 150,000 to 200,000 people (barely ½ of 1% of the 34.4 million Americans), antisemitic beliefs were widespread.  The Order was so extreme that it was overruled, and President Abraham Lincoln immediately disavowed it, even if its author General Grant, did not.  Approximately 7,000 Jews fought for the Union in the Civil War and at least two U.S. Army units were comprised entirely of Jewish Americans: a company of Illinois volunteers and an outfit of New York riflemen.  Nevertheless, the order should not be seen as a single aberration, or as Grant as unique in holding antisemitic stereotypes.  Rather, it should be seen as a product of the times – stereotypes imported from Europe unfairly maligned Jewish Americans as profiting from the war, especially in the black market in cotton- and as an indication of the pervasive antisemitism in the military and on the home front. 

General Grant's Order 11

General Grant's Order 11,
Issued December 17, 1862,
Published in the New York Herald,
January 5, 1863

Discussion Questions 

  1. What was the main reason for General Grant issuing Order No. 11 on December 17, 1862? 

  1. How did Jewish communities respond to Order No. 11? 

  1. What actions did President Abraham Lincoln take in response to the protests against Order No. 11? 

  1. What role did Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise play in the opposition to Order No. 11? 

  1. How did the revocation of Order No. 11 unfold, and who was involved? 

  1. Why did the controversy surrounding Order No. 11 resurface during Grant’s presidential campaign in 1868? 

  1. How did Grant attempt to make amends for Order No. 11 after becoming president? 

  1. What steps did Grant take to demonstrate his support for the Jewish community during his presidency? 

  1. What were the broader constitutional and ethical concerns raised by Jewish leaders regarding Order No. 11? 

  1. How did Lincoln’s handling of Order No. 11 reflect his leadership style and approach to civil rights?   

  1. How large was the Jewish population in the United States in 1860, and what percentage of the total population did it comprise? How did Jewish Americans contribute to the Union Army during the Civil War? 

  1. What role did European stereotypes play in shaping American perceptions of Jewish Americans at the time? 

  1. How does the historical context of General Order No. 11 help us understand antisemitism in 19th-century America?  

 

 

Sources 

Mendelsohn, Adam D. “Shirker, Smuggler, Soldier, Spy — Jewish Americans in the U.S. Civil War and the Rise of Modern Antisemitism”.  https://militaryhistorynow.com/2022/11/13/shirker-smuggler-soldier-spy-jewish-americans-in-the-u-s-civil-war-and-the-rise-of-modern-antisemitism/  

Wizevich, Eli.” Why Union General Ulysses S. Grant Issued an Order to Expel Jews From Certain Confederate States During the Civil War,” Smithsonian Magazine  December 17, 2024.