A much more significant battle would occur nine days later at Wilson’s Creek, and saw Captain Granger be commended for “active and conspicuous gallantry” and brevetted a Major. In this capacity he saw his first action of the war, a minor skirmish at Dug Spring on 1 August 1861 in which Sturgis’s force made up the right wing. During the Civil War Granger quickly rose through the ranks, first as a mustering officer in Ohio, then as a division inspector, and then as an acting assistant adjutant general for Major Samuel Sturgis. Also, like many northern Americans, granger was a fervent Unionist and saw upholding the constitution as a sacred duty. Granger, like many other northern white Americans at the time, probably had a fairly conservative view of the issue of slavery and black civil rights. Lee but he did receive two citations for gallantry. Fighting in the Siege of Veracruz and through to the Battle for Mexico City, Granger was outshone by contemporaries like Robert E. A career Army officer, he graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1845 and like many of his fellow West Point alums he saw action in the Mexican-American War as a second lieutenant. Still, it was the order pertaining to slavery and the emancipation of the slaves that would symbolize what had been gained after five long years of war.īrigadier General Gordon Granger had a distinguished career leading up to his historic moment in Galveston. 4 declared the acts of the Texas legislature and governor illegitimate and paroling all military and civil officials associated with the Confederate government. No.5 pertained to the proper sale of cotton under the auspices of federal agents from ports in New Orleans or New York, and No. As recorded in the New York Times, no special significance was attached to Orders No.3 compared to the other two. General Granger’s reading of General Orders No.3 in Galveston, Texas on 19 June 1865 occurred simultaneously with two other orders that day. The actual event commemorated by “Juneteenth” was a small and seemingly unimportant event to the lives of most the population of the United States. The order informed the slaves that the war was over and that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation two and one-half years earlier.”

He stepped onto the balcony of Ashton Villa, the former headquarters of the Texas Confederate Army, and read General Orders No. “On June 19 Granger made the news of freedom official.

General orders number 3