John Aaron Rawlins (February 13, 1831 September 6, 1869) was a general officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a cabinet officer in the Grant administration. A longtime confidant of Ulysses S. Grant, Rawlins served on Grant's staff throughout the war, rising to the rank of brevet major general, and was Grant's chief defender against allegations of insobriety. He was appointed Secretary of War when Grant was elected President of the United States.
Rawlins was a self-made man who overcame an impoverished family background, scanty education, and an absentee father who was prone to drink. After studying law, Rawlins passed the bar in 1854 and started a practice in Galena, Illinois. He was a Douglas Democrat at the outbreak of the Civil War; a noted public speaker, he gave a notable pro-Union speech at the start of hostilities, and he soon became close friends with Ulysses S. Grant, a Galena resident, United States Military Academy graduate, and Mexican–American War veteran who had served in the Army for 11 years. Rawlins persuaded Grant to drill and muster a local volunteer militia company and send them to the state capital in Springfield so they could be inducted into federal service. After brief service in the Illinois militia as a mustering officer, Grant was soon recommissioned in the Army to serve under Union General John C. Frémont, commander of Union Army forces in the western United States. Rawlins also joined the Union Army and served primarily as an officer on Grant's staff; his promotions were linked to Grant's success on the battlefields and Grant's advancement in the Union Army under President Abraham Lincoln. Rawlins contracted tuberculosis in 1863, but continued to serve on Grant's staff during Reconstruction.
After Grant won the 1868 election and assumed the presidency in March 1869, he named Rawlins as his Secretary of War. With the exception perhaps of his approving the height of the Brooklyn Bridge, before construction, Rawlins' brief tenure saw several controversies. Rawlins supported insurrection against Spanish rule in Cuba, established an anti-Mormon policy for the Utah Territory, and reduced the authority of General William Tecumseh Sherman, Grant's successor as commander of the Army. Rawlins' tuberculosis continued to worsen, and he died in September 1869, five months into his term. Except for a 1916 biography, The Life of John A. Rawlins, by James Harrison Wilson, Rawlins' short life is not well known, while Grant, perhaps protecting his own reputation, rarely mentioned him in his popular Memoirs, published in 1885. With Rawlins' death, strong cabinet-level support for an independent Cuba ended, and did not become a priority until the Spanish–American War in 1898.
Early life and career
John Aaron Rawlins was born on February 13, 1831, in East Galena, Illinois, the second of ten children born to James Dawson and Lovisa Collier Rawlins, both of Scotch-Irish descent, whose ancestors originally settled in Culpeper County, Virginia. James Rawlins was a descendant of Robert Rawlins, who originally settled in Maryland, and he became a farmer and charcoal maker in Missouri and Illinois.
In 1849, James Rawlins migrated to California during the Gold Rush, and he stayed for three years. While his father was absent, Rawlins became the primary caretaker of his mother, sister, and six brothers. James did not strike gold, and upon returning home he halfheartedly devoted his time to his family farm and timber lands, while John Rawlins took on increasing responsibility as the head of the family. Rawlins blamed his father James' carefree lifestyle and lack of attention to his family on strong drinks. His father's behavior affected Rawlins' own attitudes and fears concerning alcohol, and he became a teetotaler. According to historian Bruce Catton, Rawlins' abstention was caused by his belief that if he took even one drink, he would not be able to stop.
Rawlins' early education was scanty; he attended local schools in Illinois and spent a year and a half at Rock River Seminary in Mount Morris, Illinois. Rawlins attracted notice locally as a "self-made man" by going through a period of self-directed study to make up for his lack of formal education. He then studied law in the office of Isaac P. Stevens of Galena and attained admission to the bar in 1854. Rawlins practiced in partnership with Stevens, and later with David Sheean, who had studied under Rawlins.