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Grenville Mullen Dodge was born on April 12, 1831 in Putnamville, Massachusetts and educated at Norwich University, a private military institution in Vermont. After earning a degree in civil engineering, Dodge worked as a surveyor for the Union Pacific Railroad. During the Civil War, he joined the Union Army and was promoted first to colonel and then to general. As commander of the XCI Corps, Dodge supervised railroad repairs and was wounded during William Tecumseh Sherman's siege of Atlanta. A subsequent transfer to the Department of Missouri led to duty in the "Indian Wars", a momentous discovery, and a conflict that colored much of his life.
During an 1865 military campaign in the Black Hills, Dodge discovered a potential pass for a transcontinental railroad. In 1866, Dodge resigned from the army and, with General Sherman's blessing, became chief engineer for the Union Pacific. Although Dodge had been hired to plot a path to the Pacific, a major railway investor sought a route of his own. Thomas Clark Durant, a smuggler who had once used information from Dodge to export Confederate cotton, saw that Dodge's "diversion points" grew into towns. Dodge's ability to design bridges that could cross chasms was matched only by Durant's need to oversee – and interfere with – his chief engineer's work. Silas Seymour, an engineering consultant, battled Dodge on Durant's behalf even after the former general won election to Congress in 1866 and continued to advance the interests of the railroad.
On May 10, 1869, a golden spike was driven into the track at Promontory Point, Utah to celebrate the completion of the nation's first transcontinental railroad. His mission complete, Grenville Dodge resigned his post as Union Pacific's chief engineer and retired to Council Bluffs, Iowa. A respected member of the community, Dodge helped found the General Mills Corporation and had a city in Kansas named in his honor. Soon, however, Dodge's past interrupted his retirement. In 1872, a Congressional committee began to investigate a financial scandal, Crédit Mobilier, which placed Thomas Clark Durant at its epicenter. Although he disliked Durant, Dodge had purchased 100 shares of stock and reaped a windfall profit. Rather than testify in Washington, Dodge moved to Texas, where he eluded federal marshals until his death in 1916.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenville_Dodge
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tcrr/peopleevents/p_d odges.html
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