RECOLLECTIONS
OF THE CIVIL WAR
_With the Leaders at Washington
and in the Field in the Sixties_
BY
CHARLES A. DANA
_ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF WAR FROM 1863 TO 1865_
WITH PORTRAIT
[Illustration: Publisher's seal]
NEW YORK
_D. Appleton and Company_
1902
COPYRIGHT, 1898,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
[Illustration: C. A. Dana. (Signature)]
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CIVIL WAR
THE WORKS OF CHARLES A. DANA.
=Recollections of the Civil War.=
By CHARLES A. DANA. With Portrait. Large 12mo.
Cloth, gilt top, uncut, $2.00.
The late Charles A. Dana's "Recollections of the Civil War" forms
one of the most remarkable volumes of historical, political, and
personal reminiscences which have been given to the public. Mr. Dana
was not only practically a member of the Cabinet and in the
confidence of the leaders of Washington, but he was also the chosen
representative of the War Department with General Grant and other
military commanders, and he was present at many of the councils
which preceded movements of the greatest importance.
=Appletons' American Cyclopædia.=
A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by
CHARLES A. DANA and GEORGE RIPLEY. Complete in
16 volumes of over 800 pages each. Fully illustrated with
several thousand Wood Engravings and numerous Colored
Lithographic Maps. _Sold only by subscription._
=The Household Book of Poetry.=
Edited by CHARLES A. DANA. Illustrated with Steel Engravings.
New and enlarged edition. Royal 8vo. Cloth,
$5.00; morocco, antique, $10.00; tree calf, $12.00.
=Fifty Perfect Poems.=
Selected and edited by CHARLES A. DANA and ROSSITER
JOHNSON. Royal 8vo. Illustrated. White silk, $10.00;
morocco, $15.00.
=The Household Book of Songs.=
Collected and arranged by CHARLES A. DANA and F. A.
BOWMAN. Half roan, cloth sides, $2.50.
=The Art of Newspaper Making.=
Three Lectures. 16mo. Cloth, $1.00.
=Eastern Journeys.=
Some Notes of Travel in Russia, in the Caucasus, and to
Jerusalem. 16mo. Cloth, $1.00.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
PREFACE.
Mr. Dana wrote these Recollections of the civil war according to a
purpose which he had entertained for several years. They were completed
only a few months before his death on October 17, 1897. A large part of
the narrative has been published serially in McClure's Magazine. In the
chapter about Abraham Lincoln and the Lincoln Cabinet Mr. Dana has drawn
from a lecture which he delivered in 1896 before the New Haven Colony
Historical Society. The incident of the self-wounded spy, in the chapter
relating to the secret service of the war, was first printed in the
North American Review for August, 1891. A few of the anecdotes about Mr.
Lincoln which appear in this book were told by Mr. Dana originally in a
brief contribution to a volume entitled Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln
by Distinguished Men of his Time, edited by the late Allen Thorndike
Rice, and published in 1886.
Although Mr. Dana was in one sense the least reminiscent of men, living
actively in the present, and always more interested in to-morrow than
in yesterday, and although it was his characteristic habit to toss into
the wastebasket documents for history which many persons would have
treasured, he found in the preparation of the following chapters
abundant material wherewith to stimulate and confirm his own memory, in
the form of his official and unofficial reports written at the front for
the information of Mr. Stanton and Mr. Lincoln, and private letters to
members of his family and intimate friends.
Charles Anderson Dana was forty-four years old when his appointment as
Assistant Secretary of War put him behind the scenes of the great drama
then enacting, and brought him into personal relations with the
conspicuous civilians and soldiers of the war period. Born in New
Hampshire on August 8, 1819, he had passed by way of western New York,
Harvard College, and Brook Farm into the profession which he loved and
in which he labored almost to the last day of his life. When Secretary
Stanton called him to Washington he had been engaged for nearly fifteen
years in the management of the New York Tribune, the journal most
powerful at that time in solidifying Northern sentiment for the crisis
that was to come. When the war was over and the Union preserved, he
returned at once to journalism. His career subsequently as the editor of
The Sun for thirty years is familiar to most Americans.
It is proper to note the circumstance that the three years covered by
Mr. Dana's Recollections as here recorded constitute the only term
during which he held any public office, and the only break in more than
half a century of continuous experience in the making of newspapers. His
connection with the Government during those momentous years is an
episode in the story of a life that throbbed from boyhood to age with
intellectual energy, and was crowded with practical achievement.
NEW YORK, _October 17, 1898_.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I.--FROM THE TRIBUNE TO THE WAR DEPARTMENT 1
First meeting with Mr. Lincoln--Early correspondence
with Mr. Stanton--A command obtained for General
Frémont--The new energy in the military operations--Mr.
Stanton disclaims the credit--The War Secretary's opinion
of McClellan--Mr. Dana called into Government service--The
Cairo investigation and its results--First acquaintance
with General Grant.
II.--AT THE FRONT WITH GRANT'S ARMY 16
War speculation in cotton--In business partnership
with Roscoe Conkling--Appointed special commissioner
to Grant's army--The story of a cipher code--From Memphis
to Milliken's Bend--The various plans for taking
Vicksburg--At Grant's headquarters--The beginning of
trouble with McClernand.
III.--BEFORE AND AROUND VICKSBURG 35
The hard job of reopening the Mississippi--Admiral
Porter runs the Confederate batteries--Headquarters moved
to Smith's plantation--Delay and confusion in McClernand's
command--The unsuccessful attack on Grand Gulf--The
move to the east shore--Mr. Dana manages with
Grant's help to secure a good horse.
IV.--IN CAMP AND BATTLE WITH GRANT AND HIS GENERALS 47
Marching into the enemy's country--A night in a
church with a Bible for pillow--Our communications are
cut--Entering the capital of Mississippi--The War
Department gives Grant full authority--Battle of Champion's
Hill--General Logan's peculiarity--Battlefield
incidents--Vicksburg invested and the siege begun--Personal
traits of Sherman, McPherson, and McClernand.
V.--SOME CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS 61
Grant before his great fame--His friend and mentor,
General Rawlins--James Harrison Wilson--Two semi-official
letters to Stanton--Character sketches for the information
of the President and Secretary--Mr. Dana's early
judgment of soldiers who afterward won distinction.
VI.--THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG 78
Life behind Vicksburg--Grant's efforts to procure
reinforcements--The fruitless appeal to General Banks--Mr.
Stanton responds to Mr. Dana's representations--A steamboat
trip with Grant--Watching Joe Johnston--Visits to Sherman
and Admiral Porter--The negro troops win glory--Progress
and incidents of the siege--Vicksburg wakes up--McClernand's
removal.
VII.--PEMBERTON'S SURRENDER 91
The artillery assault of June 20th--McPherson springs
a mine--Grant decides to storm the city--Pemberton asks
for an interview and terms--The "unconditional surrender"
note--At the meeting of Grant and Pemberton between
the lines--The ride into Vicksburg and the Fourth
of July celebration there.
VIII.--WITH THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND 103
Appointment as Assistant Secretary of War--Again to
the far front--An interesting meeting with Andrew
Johnson--Rosecrans's complaints--His view of the situation
at Chattanooga--At General Thomas's headquarters--The
first day of Chickamauga--The battlefield telegraph
service--A night council of war at Widow Glenn's--Personal
experiences of the disastrous second day's battle--The
"Rock of Chickamauga."
IX.--THE REMOVAL OF ROSECRANS 120
Preparing to defend Chattanooga--Effect on the army
of the day of disaster and glory--Mr. Dana suggests Grant
or Thomas as Rosecrans's successor--Portrait of Thomas--The
dignity and loyalty of his character illustrated--The
army reorganized--It is threatened with starvation--An
estimate of Rosecrans--He is relieved of the command
of the Army of the Cumberland.
X.--CHATTANOOGA AND MISSIONARY RIDGE 132
Thomas succeeds Rosecrans in the Army of the
Cumberland--Grant supreme at Chattanooga--A visit to the
army at Knoxville--A Tennessee Unionist's family--Impressions
of Burnside--Grant against Bragg at Chattanooga--The
most spectacular fighting of the war--Watching
the first day's battle--With Sherman the second day--The
moonlight fight on Lookout Mountain--Sheridan's
whisky flask--The third day's victory and the glorious
spectacle it afforded--The relief of General Burnside.
XI.--THE WAR DEPARTMENT IN WAR TIMES 156
Grant's plans blocked by Halleck--Mr. Dana on duty at
Washington--Edwin McMasters Stanton--His deep religious
feeling--His swift intelligence and almost superhuman
energy--The Assistant Secretary's functions--Contract
supplies and contract frauds--Lincoln's intercession
for dishonest contractors with political influence--A
characteristic letter from Sherman.
XII.--ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND HIS CABINET 168
Daily intercourse with Lincoln--The great civil leaders
of the period--Seward and Chase--Gideon Welles--Friction
between Stanton and Blair--Personal traits of the
President--Lincoln's surpassing ability as a politician--His
true greatness of character and intellect--His genius
for military judgment--Stanton's comment on the Gettysburg
speech--The kindness of Abraham Lincoln's heart.
XIII.--THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC IN '64 186
Mr. Lincoln sends Mr. Dana again to the front--General
Halleck's character--First visit to the Army of the
Potomac--General Meade's good qualities and bad--Winfield
Scott Hancock--Early acquaintance with Sedgwick--His
death--Humphreys's accomplishments as a soldier and as
a swearer--Grant's plan of campaign against Lee--Incidents
at Spottsylvania--The "Bloody Angle."
XIV.--THE GREAT GAME BETWEEN GRANT AND LEE 200
Maneuvering and fighting in the rain, mud, and
thickets--Virginian conditions of warfare--Within eight
miles of Richmond--The battle of Cold Harbor--The
tremendous losses of the campaign--The charge of butchery
against Grant considered in the light of statistics--What
it cost in life and blood to take Richmond.
XV.--THE MARCH ON PETERSBURG 212
In camp at Cold Harbor--Grant's opinion of Lee--Trouble
with newspaper correspondents--Moving south of
the James River--The great pontoon bridge--The fighting
of the colored troops--Failure to take Petersburg at first
attack--Lee loses Grant and Beauregard finds him--Beauregard's
service to the Confederacy.
XVI.--EARLY'S RAID AND THE WASHINGTON PANIC 224
President Lincoln visits the lines at Petersburg--Trouble
with General Meade--Jubal Early menaces the Federal
capital--The excitement in Washington and Baltimore--Clerks
and veteran reserves called out to defend Washington--Grant
sends troops from the front--Plenty of generals, but no
head--Early ends the panic by withdrawing--A fine letter
from Grant about Hunter.
XVII.--THE SECRET SERVICE OF THE WAR 235
Mr. Stanton's agents and spies--Regular subterranean
traffic between Washington and Richmond--A man who
spied for both sides--The arrest of the Baltimore
merchants--Stanton's remarkable speech on the meaning
of disloyalty--Intercepting Jefferson Davis's letters
to Canada--Detecting the plot to burn New York, and the
plan to invade Vermont--Story of the cleverest and
pluckiest of spies and his remarkable adventures.
XVIII.--A VISIT TO SHERIDAN IN THE VALLEY 248
Mr. Dana carries to Sheridan his major-general's
commission--A ride through the Army of the Shenandoah--The
affection of Sheridan's soldiers for the general--How
he explained it--His ideas about personal courage in
battle--The War Department and the railroads--How the
department worked for Lincoln's re-election--Election
night of November, 1864--Lincoln reads aloud passages
from Petroleum V. Nasby while the returns come in.
XIX.--"ON TO RICHMOND" AT LAST! 263
The fall of the Confederacy--In Richmond just after
the evacuation--A search for Confederate archives--Lincoln's
propositions to the Virginians--A meeting with the
Confederate Assistant Secretary of War--Andrew Johnson
turns up at Richmond--His views as to the necessity of
punishing rebels--The first Sunday services at the
Confederate capital under the old flag--News of Lee's
surrender reaches Richmond--Back to Washington with Grant.
XX.--THE CLOSING SCENES AT WASHINGTON 273
Last interview with Mr. Lincoln--Why Jacob Thompson
escaped--At the deathbed of the murdered President--Searching
for the assassins--The letters which Mr. Lincoln
had docketed "Assassination"--At the conspiracy
trial--The Confederate secret cipher--Jefferson Davis's
capture and imprisonment--A visit to the Confederate
President at Fortress Monroe--The grand review of the
Union armies--The meeting between Stanton and Sherman--End
of Mr. Dana's connection with the War Department.
INDEX. 293
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CIVIL WAR.
CHAPTER I.
FROM THE TRIBUNE TO THE WAR DEPARTMENT.
First meeting with Mr. Lincoln--Early correspondence with Mr.
Stanton--A command obtained for General Frémont--The new energy in
the military operations--Mr. Stanton disclaims the credit--The War
Secretary's opinion of McClellan--Mr. Dana called into Government
service--The Cairo investigation and its results--First acquaintance
with General Grant.
I had been associated with Horace Greeley on the New York Tribune for
about fifteen years when, one morning early in April, 1862, Mr.
Sinclair, the advertising manager of the paper, came to me, saying that
Mr. Greeley would be glad to have me resign. I asked one of my
associates to find from Mr. Greeley if that was really his wish. In a
few hours he came to me saying that I had better go. I stayed the day
out in order to make up the paper and give them an opportunity to find a
successor, but I never went into the office after that. I think I then
owned a fifth of the paper--twenty shares; this stock my colleagues
bought.
Mr. Greeley never gave a reason for dismissing me, nor did I ever ask
for one. I know, though, that the real explanation was that while he
was for peace I was for war, and that as long as I stayed on the Tribune
there was a spirit there which was not his spirit--that he did not like.
My retirement from the Tribune was talked of in the newspapers for a day
or two, and brought me a letter from the Secretary of War, Edwin M.
Stanton, saying he would like to employ me in the War Department. I had
already met Mr. Lincoln, and had carried on a brief correspondence with
Mr. Stanton. My meeting with Mr. Lincoln was shortly after his
inauguration. He had appointed Mr. Seward to be his Secretary of State,
and some of the Republican leaders of New York who had been instrumental
in preventing Mr. Seward's nomination to the presidency, and in securing
that of Mr. Lincoln, had begun to fear that they would be left out in
the cold in the distribution of the offices. General James S. Wadsworth,
George Opdyke, Lucius Robinson, T. B. Carroll, and Henry B. Stanton were
among the number of these gentlemen. Their apprehensions were somewhat
mitigated by the fact that Mr. Chase, to whom we were all friendly, was
Secretary of the Treasury. But, notwithstanding, they were afraid that
the superior tact and pertinacity of Mr. Seward and of Mr. Thurlow Weed,
Seward's close friend and political manager, would get the upper hand,
and that the power of the Federal administration would be put into the
control of the rival faction; accordingly, several of them determined to
go to Washington, and I was asked to go with them.
I believe the appointment for our interview with the President was made
through Mr. Chase; but at any rate we all went up to the White House
together, except Mr. Henry B. Stanton, who stayed away because he was
himself an applicant for office.
Mr. Lincoln received us in the large room upstairs in the east wing of
the White House, where he had his working office. The President stood up
while General Wadsworth, who was our principal spokesman, and Mr. Opdyke
stated what was desired. After the interview had begun, a big Indian,
who was a messenger in attendance in the White House, came into the room
and said to the President:
"She wants you."
"Yes, yes," said Mr. Lincoln, without stirring.
Soon afterward the messenger returned again, exclaiming, "I say, she
wants you!"
The President was evidently annoyed, but instead of going out after the
messenger he remarked to us:
"One side shall not gobble up everything. Make out a list of places and
men you want, and I will endeavor to apply the rule of give and take."
General Wadsworth answered:
"Our party will not be able to remain in Washington, but we will leave
such a list with Mr. Carroll, and whatever he agrees to will be
agreeable to us."
Mr. Lincoln continued: "Let Mr. Carroll come in to-morrow, and we will
see what can be done."
This is the substance of the interview, and what most impressed me was
the evident fairness of the President. We all felt that he meant to do
what was right and square in the matter. While he was not the man to
promote factious quarrels and difficulties within his party, he did not
intend to leave in the lurch the friends through whose exertions his
nomination and election had finally been brought about. At the same time
he understood perfectly that we of New York and our associates in the
Republican body had not gone to Chicago for the purpose of nominating
him, or of nominating any one in particular, but only to beat Mr.
Seward, and thereupon to do the best that could be done as regards the
selection of the candidate.
My acquaintance with Mr. Stanton had come about through an editorial
which I had written for the Tribune on his entrance to the War
Department. I had sent it to him with a letter calling his attention to
certain facts with which it seemed to me the War Department ought to
deal. In reply I received the following letter:
WASHINGTON, _January 24, 1862_.
MY DEAR SIR: Yours of the 22d only reached me this evening. The
facts you mention were new to me, but there is too much reason to
fear they are true. But that matter will, I think, be corrected
_very speedily_.
You can not tell how much obligation I feel myself under for your
kindness. Every man who wishes the country to pass through this
trying hour should stand on watch, and aid me. Bad passions and
little passions and mean passions gather around and hem in the
great movements that should deliver this nation.
Two days ago I wrote you a long letter--a three pager--expressing
my thanks for your admirable article of the 21st, stating my
position and purposes; and in that letter I mentioned some of the
circumstances of my unexpected appointment. But, interrupted before
it was completed, I will not inflict, or afflict, you with it.
I know the task that is before us--I say _us_, because the Tribune
has its mission as plainly as I have mine, and they tend to the
same end. But I am not in the smallest degree dismayed or
disheartened. By God's blessing we shall prevail. I feel a deep,
_earnest_ feeling growing up around me. We have no jokes or
trivialities, but all with whom I act show that they are now in
dead earnest.
I know you will rejoice to know this.
As soon as I can get the machinery of the office working, the rats
cleared out, and the rat holes stopped we shall _move_. This army
has got to fight or run away; and while men are striving nobly in
the West, the champagne and oysters on the Potomac must be stopped.
But patience for a short while only is all I ask, if you and others
like you will rally around me.
Yours truly,
EDWIN M. STANTON.
C. A. DANA, Esq.
A few days after this I wrote Mr. Stanton a second letter, in which I
asked him to give General Frémont a chance. At the breaking out of the
war Frémont had been made a major general in the regular army and the
command of the Western Department had been given to him. His campaign in
Missouri in the summer of 1861 gave great dissatisfaction, and in
November, 1861, he was relieved, after an investigation by the Secretary
of War. Since that time he had been without a command. I believed, as
did many others, that political intrigue was keeping Frémont back. I was
anxious that he should have fair play, in order that the great mass of
people who had supported him for the presidency in 1856, and who still
were his warm friends, might not be dissatisfied. To my letter Mr.
Stanton replied:
WASHINGTON, _February 1, 1862_.
DEAR SIR: If General Frémont has any fight in him, he shall (so far
as I am concerned) have a chance to show it, and I have told _him_
so. The times require the help of every man according to his gifts,
and, having neither partialities nor grudges to indulge, it will be
my aim to practice on the maxim, "the tools to him that can handle
them."[A]
There will be serious trouble between Hunter and Lane. What Lane's
expedition has in view, how it came to be set on foot, and what is
expected to be accomplished by it, I do not know and have tried in
vain to find out. It seems to be a haphazard affair that no one
will admit himself to be responsible for. But believing that Lane
has pluck, and is an earnest man, he _shall have fair play_. If you
know anything about him or his expedition pray tell it to me.
To bring the War Department up to the standard of the times, and
work an army of five hundred thousand with machinery adapted to a
peace establishment of twelve thousand, is no easy task. This was
Mr. Cameron's great trouble, and the cause of much of the
complaints against him. All I ask is reasonable time and patience.
The pressure of members of Congress for clerk and army
appointments, notwithstanding the most stringent rules, and the
persistent strain against all measures essential to obtain time for
thought, combination, and conference, is discouraging in the
extreme--it often tempts me to quit the helm in despair. The only
consolation is the confidence and support of good and patriotic
men; to their aid I look for strength.
Yours truly, EDWIN M. STANTON.
C. A. DANA, Esq., Tribune Office.
Very soon after Mr. Stanton went into office military affairs were
energized, and a forward movement of the armies was apparent. It was
followed by several victories, notably those of Fort Henry and Fort
Donelson. On several occasions the Tribune credited to the head of the
War Department this new spirit which seemed to inspire officers and men.
Mr. Stanton, fearful of the effect of this praise, sent to the paper the
following dispatch:
_To the Editor of the New York Tribune:_
SIR: I can not suffer undue merit to be ascribed to my official
action. The glory of our recent victories belongs to the gallant
officers and soldiers that fought the battles. No share of it
belongs to me.
Much has recently been said of military combinations and organizing
victory. I hear such phrases with apprehension. They commenced in
infidel France with the Italian campaign, and resulted in Waterloo.
Who can organize victory? Who can combine the elements of success
on the battlefield? We owe our recent victories to the spirit of
the Lord that moved our soldiers to rush into battle and filled the
heart of our enemies with dismay. The inspiration that conquered in
battle was in the hearts of the soldiers and from on high; and
wherever there is the same inspiration there will be the same
results. Patriotic spirit, with resolute courage in officers and
men, is a military combination that never failed.
We may well rejoice at the recent victories, for they teach us that
battles are to be won now and by us in the same and only manner
that they were ever won by any people, or in any age, since the
days of Joshua, by boldly pursuing and striking the foe. What,
under the blessing of Providence, I conceive to be the true
organization of victory and military combination to end this war,
was declared in a few words by General Grant's message to General
Buckner: "_I propose to move immediately on your works._"
Yours truly, EDWIN M. STANTON.
On receiving this I at once wired to our representative in Washington to
know if Mr. Stanton meant to "repudiate" the Tribune. I received my
answer from Mr. Stanton himself:
WASHINGTON, _February 19, 1862_.
DEAR SIR: It occurred to me that your kind notice of myself might
be perverted into a disparagement of the Western officers and
soldiers to whom the merit of the recent victories justly belongs,
and that it might create an antagonism between them and the head of
the War Department. To avoid _that_ misconstruction was the object
of my dispatch--leaving the matter to be determined as to
publication to the better judgment of the Tribune, my own mind not
being clear on the point of its expediency. Mr. Hill called to see
me this evening, and from the tenor of your dispatch it seemed to
me that your judgment did not approve the publication, or you would
not speak of me as "repudiating" anything the Tribune says. On
reflection _I am convinced the communication should not be
published_, as it might imply an antagonism between myself and the
Tribune. On this, as on any future occasion, I defer to your
judgment. We have one heart and mind in this great cause, and upon
many essential points you have a wider range of observation and
clearer sight than myself; I am therefore willing to be guided by
your wisdom.
Yours truly, EDWIN M. STANTON.
C. A. DANA, Esq.
On receiving this letter we of course published his telegram at once.
When Mr. Stanton went into the War Department there was great
dissatisfaction in the Tribune office with McClellan. He had been placed
in command of the Army of the Potomac in the preceding August, and since
November 1st had been in command of all the armies of the United States;
but while he had proved himself an excellent drillmaster, he had at the
same time proved that he was no general at all. His friends were loyal,
however, and whatever success our armies met with was attributed to his
generalship.
When the capture of Fort Donelson was announced, McClellan's friends
claimed that he had directed it by telegraph from his headquarters on
the Potomac. Now the terminus of the telegraph toward Fort Donelson was
many miles from the battlefield. Besides, the absurdity of a general
directing the movements of a battle a thousand miles off, even if he had
fifty telegraph wires leading to every part of the field, was apparent.
Nevertheless, McClellan's supporters kept up their claim. On February
20th the Associated Press agent at Washington, in reporting a railroad
convention in Washington at which Mr. Stanton had spoken, said:
"Secretary Stanton in the course of his address paid a high compliment
to the young and gallant friend at his side, Major-General McClellan, in
whom he had the utmost confidence, and the results of whose military
schemes, gigantic and well matured, were now exhibited to a rejoicing
country. The Secretary, with upraised hands, implored Almighty God to
aid them and himself, and all occupying positions under the Government,
in crushing out this unholy rebellion."
I did not believe Stanton had done any such thing, so I sent the
paragraph to him. The Secretary replied:
[Private.]
WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1862_.
DEAR SIR: The paragraph to which you called my attention was a
ridiculous and impudently impertinent effort to puff the general by
a false publication of words I never uttered. Sam Barlow, one of
the secretaries of the meeting, was its author, as I have been
informed. It is too small a matter for _me_ to contradict, but I
told Mr. Kimlen, the other secretary, that I thought the gentlemen
who invited me to be present at their meeting owed it to themselves
to see that one of their own officers should not misrepresent what
I said. It was for them, and due to their own honor, to see that an
officer of the Government might communicate with them in safety;
and if it was not done, I should take care to afford no other
opportunity for such practices.
The fact is that the agents of the Associated Press and a gang
around the Federal Capitol appear to be organized for the purpose
of magnifying their idol.
And if such men as those who composed the railroad convention in
this city do not rebuke such a practice as that perpetrated in this
instance, they can not be conferred with in future.
You will of course see the propriety of my not noticing the matter
and thereby giving it importance beyond the contempt it inspires. I
think you are well enough acquainted with me to judge in future the
value of any such statement.
I notice the Herald telegraphic reporter announces that I had a
second attack of illness on Friday and could not attend the
department. I was in the department, or in the Cabinet, from nine
in the morning until nine at night, and never enjoyed more perfect
health than on that day and at present.
For _your_ kind solicitude accept my thanks. I shall not needlessly
impair my means of usefulness.
Yours truly, EDWIN M. STANTON.
C. A. DANA, Esq.
P.S.--Was it not a funny sight to see a certain military hero in
the telegraph office at Washington last Sunday organizing victory,
and by sublime military combinations capturing Fort Donelson _six
hours_ after Grant and Smith had taken it sword in hand and had
victorious possession! It would be a picture worthy of Punch.
Thus, when the newspapers announced my unexpected retirement from the
Tribune, I was not unknown to either the President or the Secretary of
War.
To Mr. Stanton's letter asking me to go into the service of the War
Department, I replied that I would attempt anything he wanted me to do,
and in May he wrote me that I was to be appointed on a commission to
audit unsettled claims against the quartermaster's department at Cairo,
Ill. I was directed to be in Cairo on June 17th. My formal appointment,
which I did not receive until after I reached Cairo, read thus:
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, D.C., _June 16, 1862_.
SIR: By direction of the President, a commission has been
appointed, consisting of Messrs. George S. Boutwell, Stephen T.
Logan, and yourself, to examine and report upon all unsettled
claims against the War Department, at Cairo, Ill., that may have
originated prior to the first day of April, 1862.
Messrs. Boutwell and Logan have been requested to meet with you at
Cairo on the eighteenth day of June instant, in order that the
commission may be organized on that day and enter immediately upon
the discharge of its duties.
You will be allowed a compensation of eight dollars per day and
mileage.
Mr. Thomas Means, who has been appointed solicitor for the
Government, has been directed to meet you at Cairo on the
eighteenth instant, and will act, under the direction of the
commission, in the investigation of such claims as may be
presented.
EDWIN M. STANTON,
_Secretary of War_.
Hon. CHARLES A. DANA, of New York,
Cairo, Ill.
On reaching Cairo on the appointed day, I found my associates, Judge
Logan, of Springfield, Ill., one of Mr. Lincoln's friends, and Mr.
Boutwell, of Massachusetts, afterward Governor of his State, Secretary
of the Treasury, and a United States senator. We organized on the 18th,
as directed. Two days after we met Judge Logan was compelled by illness
to resign from the commission, and Shelby M. Cullom, now United States
senator from Illinois, was appointed in his place.
The main Union armies had by this time advanced far to the front, but
Cairo was still an important military depot, almost an outpost, in
command of General William K. Strong, whom I had known well in New York
as a politician. There was a large number of troops stationed in the
town, and from there the armies on the Mississippi River, in Missouri,
and in Kentucky, got all their supplies and munitions of war. The
quartermaster's department at Cairo had been organized hastily, and the
demands upon it had increased rapidly. Much of the business had been
done by green volunteer officers who did not understand the technical
duties of making out military requisitions and returns. The result was
that the accounts were in great confusion, and hysterical newspapers
were charging the department with fraud and corruption. The War
Department decided to make a full investigation of all disbursements at
Cairo from the beginning. Little actual cash had thus far been paid out
upon contracts, and it was not too late to correct overcharges and
straighten out the system. The matter could not be settled by any
ordinary means, and the commission went there as a kind of supreme
authority, accepting or rejecting claims and paying them as we thought
fit after examining the evidence.
Sixteen hundred and ninety-six claims, amounting to $599,219.36, were
examined by us. Of those approved and certified for payment the amount
was $451,105.80. Of the claims rejected, a considerable portion were for
losses suffered in the active operations of the army, either through
departure from discipline on the part of soldiers, or from requisitions
made by officers who failed to give receipts and certificates to the
persons concerned, who were thus unable to support their claims by
sufficient evidence. Many claims of this description were also presented
by men whose loyalty to the Government was impeached by credible
witnesses. In rejecting these the commission set forth the disloyalty of
the claimants, in the certificates written on the face of their
accounts. Other accounts, whose rightfulness was established, were
rejected on proof of disloyalty. The commission regarded complicity in
the rebellion as barring all claims against the United States.
A question of some interest was raised by the claim of the trustees of
the Cairo city property to be paid for the use by the Government wharf
boats of the paved portion of the levee which protected the town against
the Ohio River. We were unable to see the matter in the light presented
by the trustees. Our judgment was that the Government ought not to pay
for the use of necessary landing places on these rivers or elsewhere
during the exigencies of the war, and we so certified upon the face of
the claims. A similar principle guided our decision upon several claims
for the rent of vacant lots in Cairo, which had been used by the
military authorities for the erection of temporary barracks or stables.
We determined that for these no rent ought, under the circumstances, to
be allowed, but we suggested that in justice to the owners this
temporary occupation should be terminated as soon as possible by the
sale and removal of the buildings.
A very small percentage of the claims were rejected because of fraud. In
almost every case it was possible to suppose that the apparent fraud was
accident. My observation throughout the war was the same. I do not
believe that so much business could be transacted with a closer
adherence to the line of honesty. That there were frauds is a matter of
course, because men, and even some women, are wicked, but frauds were
the exception.
Our commission finished its labors at Cairo on July 31, 1862, and I went
at once to Washington with the report, placing it in the hands of Mr.
Stanton on August 5th. It was never printed, and the manuscript is still
in the files of the War Department.
There was a great deal of curiosity among officers in Washington about
the result of our investigation, and all the time that I was in the city
I was being questioned on the subject. It was natural enough that they
should have felt interested in our report. The charges of fraud and
corruption against officers and contractors had become so reckless and
general that the mere sight of a man in conference with a high official
led to the suspicion and often the charge that he was conspiring to rob
the Government. That in this case, where the charges seemed so well
based, so small a percentage of corruption had been proved was a source
of solid satisfaction to every one in the War Department.
All the leisure that I had while in Cairo I spent in horseback riding up
and down the river banks and in visiting the adjacent military posts. My
longest and most interesting trip was on the Fourth of July, when I went
down the Mississippi to attend a big celebration at Memphis. I remember
it particularly because it was there that I first met General Grant. The
officers stationed in the city gave a dinner that day, to which I was
invited. At the table I was seated between Grant and Major John A.
Rawlins, of his staff. I remember distinctly the pleasant impression
Grant made--that of a man of simple manners, straightforward, cordial,
and unpretending. He had already fought the successful battles of Fort
Donelson and Shiloh, and, when I met him, was a major general in command
of the district of West Tennessee, Department of the Missouri, under
Halleck, with headquarters at Memphis. Although one would not have
suspected it from his manners, he was really under a cloud at the time
because of his operations at Shiloh. Those who did not like Grant had
accused him of having been taken by surprise there, and had declared
that he would have been beaten if Buell had not come up. I often talked
later with Grant's staff officers about Shiloh, and they always affirmed
that he would have been successful if Buell had not come to his relief.
I believe Grant himself thought so, although he never said so directly
in any one of the many talks I had with him about the battle.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] A month later General Frémont was assigned to the command of the
"Mountain Department," composed of parts of Virginia, Kentucky, and
Tennessee.