George Henry Sharpe (February 26, 1828 – January 13, 1900) was an American lawyer, soldier, Secret Service officer, diplomat, politician, and Member of the Board of General Appraisers.
Sharpe was born in 1828, in Kingston, New York, into a prominent Ulster County family. He earned his bachelor's degree at Rutgers University and studied law at Yale University. He practiced law in New York City from 1847 to 1851. He served as Secretary of the United States Legation in Vienna, Austrian Empire from 1851 to 1852 and then resumed his law practice in New York from 1854 to 1861.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Sharpe served as a captain in a New York regiment for three months and then returned to civilian life. In 1862, at the request of the Governor of New York, he raised a new regiment and went back into service as a colonel with the Army of the Potomac. In 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker selected Sharpe to command the Bureau of Military Information (BMI), the Army of the Potomac's intelligence operation. He served in that role until the end of the war. By the war's end, Sharpe was promoted to brevet major general.
After the war, Sharpe mixed his law practice and the pursuit of his interests in New York state Republican Party politics with several stints in Federal government service. He went to Europe to investigate the Lincoln assassination conspiracy for the State Department. He served as a U.S. Marshal in New York City and as Surveyor of the Port of New York. In 1878, he was elected to the New York State Assembly and served for four years, for two of which he was selected as Speaker. In 1884 he was appointed head of the U.S. Commission to Central and South America and then he ended his career with an appointment to the U.S. Board of General Appraisers in 1890.
Education and early career Born February 26, 1828, in Kingston, New York, Sharpe earned his bachelor's degree at Rutgers University in 1847 and then studied law at Yale University. He entered private practice in New York City, New York from 1848 to 1851, with the firm of Bidwell & Strong (now known as Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft).The Nominees for Surveyor of the Port and United States Marshal, The New York Times, March 15, 1873. He was Secretary of the United States Legation in Vienna, Austrian Empire for the U.S. State Department from 1851 to 1852. He resumed private practice in Kingston from 1854 to 1861.
Civil War military career
Sharpe had joined the 20th New York State Militia Regiment, based in Kingston, after returning to the United States from his service abroad. By 1861, he had been commissioned to the rank of captain and had been elected to the command of Company B. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April, the regiment served on guard duty at Annapolis and Baltimore until July. His company was dissolved back in New York for lack of troops at the end of August and Sharpe returned to civilian life.Tsouras, pp. 21-23.
Sharpe took up his practice of law again and pursued his interest in local Republican politics. However, in July 1862, when President Lincoln issued a call for volunteers, the governor asked Sharpe to help raise a new regiment. He did so and was appointed colonel of volunteers of the 120th New York Infantry.Tsouras, pp. 23–26 Sharpe and the regiment served in the defenses of Washington and from October onward with the Army of the Potomac.Tsouras, pp. 27-30. They participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg and the infamous Mud March in December but did not see heavy action.Tsouras, pp. 30-34
In January 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker was appointed to command the Army of the Potomac and he sought to rebuild the army’s intelligence operation.Tsouras, pp. 36–37, 40. In February, he selected Sharpe to command what became the Bureau of Military Information (BMI) and ultimately appointed him deputy provost marshal general of the Army of the Potomac, under Provost Marshal Brig. Gen. Marsena R. Patrick.Tsouras, pp. 49–50. Sharpe then built up the BMI staff of analysts, scouts and guides, and civilian support.Tsouras, pp. 52–57. By the time of the Army of the Potomac’s next major operation at Chancellorsville, in late April, Sharpe had obtained the service of three additional analysts and 24 scouts and guides.Tsouras, p. 459.
The BMI was the U.S. military’s first “all source” intelligence organization. As the bureau’s commander, Sharpe deployed scouts and enlisted civilian agents to report on activities behind enemy lines. He and his assistant analysts interrogated prisoners, deserters, and refugees, and analyzed documents (mostly letters and newspapers). Sharpe also obtained reports from cavalry reconnaissance, Balloon Corps observation, and Signal Corps observation and flag signal intercepts for his analysis. He and his assistants wrote the BMI’s reports.Tsouras, pp. vi–vii, 58–59, 66.
Sharpe served as the head of the BMI for the remainder of the war. His service and the BMI's work was essential to the Union's success in the Eastern Theater because of their ability to determine the whereabouts and activities of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, even when the two armies were out of contact and other Union arms like the cavalry were not operating effectively.Tsouras, pp. 2-3. On July 4, 1864, to better support all of the Union forces operating in the Richmond-Petersburg area, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant redesignated the provost marshal of the Army of the Potomac as the provost marshal of the Armies Operating Against Richmond, transferring Sharpe and the BMI to his headquarters.Tsouras, p. 273. On February 7, 1865, Sharpe was promoted brevet brigadier general of volunteers (backdated to December 20, 1864).Tsouras, pp. 335–36.
In April 1865, after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, as deputy provost marshal general, Sharpe paroled 28,000 Confederate Army soldiers, among them General Lee.Tsouras, pp. 362, 364. At that point, the BMI’s mission ended and it went out of existence. In June, Grant promoted Sharpe to brevet major general of volunteers (effective March 13, 1865) and Sharpe returned to Kingston with his regiment and soon mustered out with them.Tsouras, pp. 364, 367–69.
Postbellum career
Federal service and New York Republican Party politics After the war, Sharpe returned to his career in law in New York and the pursuit of his interests in politics. In 1867, however, based on his knowledge of Sharpe's service as an intelligence officer, Secretary of State William H. Seward, asked Sharpe to become a special agent of the U.S. State Department and go to Europe to locate and investigate Americans who might have been involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Seward was particularly interested in finding John Surratt, whose mother Mary Surratt had been hanged as one of the assassination conspirators, as well as former Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin. Sharpe found no evidence of either's participation in the conspiracy. Surratt was brought back to the United States and put on trial in a civilian court. The trial ended with a hung jury and Surratt was freed and not tried again.Tsouras, pp. 383–85.
In 1868, with his growing involvement in New York Republican politics and his relationship with Ulysses Grant from the war, Sharpe became a delegate to the 1868 Republican national convention and campaigned for Grant's nomination for the presidency and then for his election in November.Tsouras, pp. 392–95. In September 1869, Sharpe was appointed to the Central Committee of the Republican Party of New York and in 1873 he was appointed to the party executive committee.Tsouras, p. 392. In 1870, President Grant appointed Sharpe United States Marshal for the Southern District of New York as part of Grant's plan to break the Tweed Ring’s hold on the government of New York City. Sharpe oversaw the census that demonstrated that the Democratic victories in the 1868 elections had been due to fraud—a form of ballot box stuffing. He and his marshals also oversaw voter registration and the conduct of elections until Sharpe left the post in 1873.Tsouras, pp. 395–402.
In 1873, Grant appointed Sharpe Surveyor of the Port of New York, under Collector of Customs Chester A. Arthur. At the time, the New York Custom House was the single largest source of revenue for the federal government. It was the practice of the day for the party in power to appoint the officers and employees of the Custom House and for them in turn to make contributions to the party. Sharpe conducted his duties accordingly, although he and Arthur did not dismiss any employees for failure to contribute and Sharpe ran the Surveyor's Office efficiently. By 1877, however, attitudes toward the civil service and political patronage had shifted and President Rutherford Hayes asked Arthur and his principal subordinates, Surveyor Sharpe and Naval Officer Alonzo B. Cornell to resign. They refused and Hayes removed them from office the next year.Tsouras, pp. 404–09.
Service in the New York State Assembly After returning from Washington, Sharpe immersed himself in state politics. He won election to the New York State Assembly (Ulster Co., 1st D.) in November 1878. He was given chairmanship of the insurance committee of the Assembly. A year later he was reelected to the Assembly and won the Speakership. His performance as Speaker was praised for its fairness by the press and even by his opponents.Tsouras, pp. 409–12.
In the fall of 1880, Sharpe again served as a delegate at the Republican national convention. The New York delegation was led by Senator Roscoe Conkling, who was a leader of the Stalwarts faction of the party, which supported nominating President Grant for a third term and opposed the civil service reforms advocated by Republicans like President Hayes. Sharpe was the convention floor leader supporting Grant’s nomination. Nevertheless, the Stalwarts could not muster sufficient votes to nominate Grant. The party nominated James A. Garfield for president and, after Sharpe’s initial suggestion, to promote party unity and balance the ticket geographically (albeit over Conkling’s objections), nominated Stalwart Chester Arthur for vice president.Tsouras, pp. 412–16.
After the convention, Sharpe campaigned hard for the Garfield ticket and they prevailed in November. Sharpe was also reelected to the Assembly. He was reappointed as Speaker in January 1881 but only after a surprising challenge from a Garfield-supported candidate. A conflict between Conkling and Garfield over New York Customs House patronage led to Conkling's resignation from the Senate. Conkling tried to force the Republicans in the Assembly to re-elect him to affirm his status as leader of the party but they declined. Sharpe, who had long been a loyal Conkling supporter, opposed his move on the grounds that it was an affront to the American system of government and that it would likely weaken support for the Republican Party. Conkling's supporters saw Sharpe's opposition as a betrayal that would damage him for the rest of his political career.Tsouras, pp. 416-23. Before the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, U.S. Senators were appointed by state legislatures.