Person:Adam Badeau (1)

Watchers
Adam Badeau
b.29 Dec 1831 New York, New York
m.
  1. Ann M. BadeauAbt 1827 -
  2. Adam Badeau1831 - 1895
  3. Nicholas W. Badeau, Jr1833 - 1862
  4. Jane BadeauAbt 1840 -
  5. John Wesley Badeau1841 - 1860
  6. Edgar Lafayette BadeauAbt 1844 - 1849
  7. Charles W. BadeauAbt 1845 -
  8. Alise Gardner BadeauAbt 1847 - 1848
  9. Deborah Sargent Badeau1849 - 1850
m. 29 Apr 1875
Facts and Events
Name[1] Adam Badeau
Gender Male
Birth[1] 29 Dec 1831 New York, New York
Military? 29 Apr 1862 New York, New YorkCommissioned as a captain, U.S. Volunteers.
Military? 27 May 1863 Vicksburg, MississippiSeverely wounded in the foot.
Military? 29 Mar 1864 Promoted to Lieut. Col. and appointed military secretary to Gen. Grant
Military? 9 Apr 1865 Brevetted to Brig. Gen.
Marriage 29 Apr 1875 New York, New Yorkto Marie Elizabeth Nils
Census[3] 1890 Richmond, New York, United States
Death[1] 19 Mar 1895 Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey
Burial[1] Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Westchester County, New York

Badeau was born in New York City to a family of Huguenot descent but his parents moved to Beekmantown in Westchester County when he was young; he attended the Irving Institute there in the 1840s.[2]

He worked at first as a theater critic in New York City, where he was a friend of Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth, and his brother, John Wilkes. A collection of his reviews was published in 1859 as The Vagabond. When war broke out, he worked briefly as a clerk in the State Department, then accompanied the military expedition to Port Royal, South Carolina, as a reporter for the New York Express.[2]

He volunteered for the U.S. Army in 1862, was appointed to the staff of Brig. Gen. Thomas Sherman in 1863, and then was chosen to be military secretary to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, but was severely wounded (he lost a foot) during an unsuccessful assault on Port Hudson on the very day he reported for duty to Grant's headquarters. He later participated in the Wilderness and Appomattox campaigns and was a member of the party accompanying Grant at Lee's surrender. He retired in 1869 as a Brevet Brig. General of U.S. Volunteers (though he had never held a command), but remained a confidant of Grant and accompanied him on his world tour in 1877-78. He also became acquainted with Henry Adams, who describes him in The Education of Henry Adams.[2]

Badeau served as U.S. secretary of mission and consul to the Court of St. James in London (1870-81) and was consul-general in Havana (1882-84), resigning from the latter position after a disagreement with the State Department. (He had been nominated in 1881 to be U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Denmark, but declined.) During this period he wrote a novel, Conspiracy; a Cuban Romance (1885). He offered to assist Grant with his memoirs (for a hefty salary and a share of the profits), but the two had a falling-out over Badeau's methods (and, apparently, his increasingly abrasive personality) and Grant sacked him.[2]

Badeau was the author of Military History of Ulysses S. Grant (1868), Our Relations with England (1970), Aristocracy in England (1886), and Grant in Peace (1887).

His papers are collected in the Princeton University library.

References
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Find A Grave.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Henry John Steiner. A Little Pale Blue-eyed Man
    Apr 2005.
  3. United States. 1890 Veterans and Widows Special Census.

    Castleton, Richmond County, New York, dwelling/family 625/799:
    "Badeau, Gen."