TESTIMONY OF GEN. B.J. SWEET--LIST OF OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF THE
McCLELLAN CLUBS IN CHICAGO.
The services of Brig.-Gen. B.J. Sweet, in relation to the Northwestern
Conspiracy, have already been briefly mentioned, and the reader will
perhaps find the report of that officer's testimony full of interest.
After the communications by the writer to Gen. Sweet (then Colonel)
in command of Camp Douglas, which were made by request of Gen. Paine,
dispatches were regularly forwarded to that officer, who never failed to
receive them with gratification. The service was one of extreme danger,
difficulty and delicacy, requiring the most careful attention, unceasing
vigilance, and only the consciousness of discharging an important and
imperative duty to the country, and the confident belief that invaluable
aid might thus be rendered, could have induced the writer to enter upon
and pursue a line of service, a thousand times more distasteful and
perilous than active service upon the field.
The recognition of the writer's services by Brig.-Gen. Paine, and
subsequently by Maj. Gen. Hooker, in commendatory letters, will ever be
remembered, showing as it did, a grateful appreciation by those gallant
officers, of services of which, from their character, the public could
have no knowledge for the time being.
The following is the testimony of Gen. Sweet, as substantially given
before the military commission in Cincinnati: