Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/45

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Grenville Mellen Dodge (April 12, 1831 – January 3, 1916) was a Union army officer on the frontier and during the Civil War and Indian campaigns including the Powder River Expedition, a U.S. Congressman, businessman, and railroad executive who helped construct the Transcontinental Railroad. He is considered one of the earliest pioneers of military intelligence. He was one of the founders of the General Mills Corporation.

Prior to the war, he was involved in surveying for railroads, including the Union Pacific. His wartime service began in the western theater, where he commanded a brigade at the the Battle of Pea Ridge, followed by command District of the Mississippi, where he was involved in protecting and building railroads. He then began Chief of Intelligence for Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. He was appointed major general in June of 1864 and commanded the XVI Corps during William T. Sherman's Atlanta campaign. During the ensuing siege of Atlanta, while looking through an eyehole in the Union breastworks a Confederate sharpshooter spotted him and shot him in the head. After recovering, he was to complete the war as commander of the Department of the Missouri.