Background
Joseph Dana Webster was born at Hampton, N. H. , the son of Josiah Webster, a Congregational minister, and Elizabeth (Wright) Webster.
Joseph Dana Webster was born at Hampton, N. H. , the son of Josiah Webster, a Congregational minister, and Elizabeth (Wright) Webster.
He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1832 and studied law, but in 1835 entered the government service as a civil engineer.
He was commissioned in the army, July 7, 1838, as a second lieutenant of topographical engineers and was promoted first lieutenant, July 14, 1849, and captain, March 3, 1853. Resigning, April 7, 1854, he settled in Chicago - where he had connections through his marriage in 1844 to a Miss Wright of that city - and acquired a considerable interest in a company manufacturing agricultural implements. In 1855 he was chosen as one of the three members of the Chicago sewerage commission, which was charged both with the construction of an extensive sewer system and with the raising of the level of a great part of the city. He was appointed major and paymaster in the volunteer army, July 1, 1861, but never performed duty as a paymaster, for he was sent at once to Cairo, Ill. , and employed on fortification and other engineering duties until his appointment, Feburary 1, 1862, as colonel, 16t Illinois Light Artillery. Meanwhile, Grant had selected him as his chief of staff; he served with him at Belmont, Forts Henry and Donelson, and Shiloh. His position was not precisely what the title now suggests. The chief of staff, according to Grant's instructions, was to act as his adviser, and also to look after anything not otherwise attended to. He was a general utility man. On the first day at Shiloh, for example, when the Union troops were being forced back on the river, Grant sent Webster to collect artillery for a last stand, if necessary, on the heights above the landing, and here he assembled one hundred guns. Grant repeatedly recommended his promotion. On December 3, 1862, President Lincoln wrote to the secretary of war: "Let Col. James D. Webster, of Illinois, be appointed a Brigadier General of Volunteers"; but in some way this order was overlooked until Lincoln repeated it. The appointment was not finally made until April 1863, with rank, however, from November 29, 1862. Shortly before, Webster had been put in charge by Grant of all the military railways in the area of his operations. Webster managed them before, during, and after the Vicksburg campaign. He was then designated as Sherman's chief of staff, remaining at the administrative headquarters in Nashville while his commanding general was in the field during the Atlanta campaign and the march to the sea. Thus he was with Thomas at the battle of Nashville. After Sherman reached Savannah the headquarters were transferred, and Webster joined his chief in the Carolinas. He was brevetted major general of volunteers, March 13, 1865, and on Nov. 6 of that year resigned from the army. His entire military service had been passed in close association either with Grant or with Sherman, both of whom had profound confidence in him. Some years after the war, when Gen. William Sooy Smith, in personal correspondence with Sherman, complained that statements published by the latter had done him injustice, Sherman proposed that the whole case be submitted to Webster as a competent and impartial judge. After leaving the army Webster returned to Chicago and spent the rest of his life there. He was assessor of internal revenue from 1869 to 1872, assistant United States treasurer from 1872 to 1875, and collector of internal revenue from 1875 until his death.
