Arlington Heights and the Potomac--Washington--The Federal
camp--General M‘Dowell--Flying rumours--Newspaper correspondents
--General Fremont--Silencing the Press and Telegraph--A Loan
Bill--Interview with Mr. Cameron--Newspaper criticism on Lord
Lyons--Rumours about M‘Clellan--The Northern army as reported
and as it is--General M‘Clellan.
_July 8th._--I hired a horse at a livery stable, and rode out to
Arlington Heights, at the other side of the Potomac, where the
Federal army is encamped, if not on the sacred soil of Virginia,
certainly on the soil of the district of Columbia, ceded by that
State to Congress for the purposes of the Federal Government. The
Long Bridge which spans the river, here more than a mile broad, is an
ancient wooden and brick structure, partly of causeway, and partly of
platform, laid on piles and uprights, with drawbridges for vessels
to pass. The Potomac, which in peaceful times is covered with small
craft, now glides in a gentle current over the shallows unbroken by
a solitary sail. The “rebels” have established batteries below Mount
Vernon, which partially command the river, and place the city in a
state of blockade.
As a consequence of the magnificent conceptions which were
entertained by the founders regarding the future dimensions of
their future city, Washington is all suburb and no city. The only
difference between the denser streets and the remoter village-like
environs, is that the houses are better and more frequent, and
the roads not quite so bad in the former. The road to the Long
Bridge passes by a four-sided shaft of blocks of white marble,
contributed, with appropriate mottoes, by the various States, as a
fitting monument to Washington. It is not yet completed, and the
materials lie in the field around, just as the Capitol and the
Treasury are surrounded by the materials for their future and final
development. Further on is the red, and rather fantastic, pile of the
Smithsonian Institute, and then the road makes a dip to the bridge,
past some squalid little cottages, and the eye reposes on the shore
of Virginia, rising in successive folds, and richly wooded, up to
a moderate height from the water. Through the green forest leaves
gleams the white canvas of the tents, and on the highest ridge
westward rises an imposing structure, with a portico and colonnade
in front, facing the river, which is called Arlington House, and
belongs, by descent, through Mr. Custis, from the wife of George
Washington, to General Lee, Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate
army. It is now occupied by General M‘Dowell as his head-quarters,
and a large United States’ flag floats from the roof, which shames
even the ample proportions of the many stars and stripes rising up
from the camps in the trees.
At the bridge there was a post of volunteer soldiers. The sentry on
duty was sitting on a stump, with his firelock across his knees,
reading a newspaper. He held out his hand for my pass, which was in
the form of a letter, written by General Scott, and ordering all
officers and soldiers of the army of the Potomac to permit me to
pass freely without let or hindrance, and recommending me to the
attention of Brigadier-General M‘Dowell and all officers under his
orders. “That’ll do, you may go,” said the sentry. “What pass is
that, Abe?” inquired a non-commissioned officer. “It’s from General
Scott, and says he’s to go wherever he likes.” “I hope you’ll go
right away to Richmond, then, and get Jeff Davis’s scalp for us,”
said the patriotic sergeant.
At the other end of the bridge a weak _tête de pont_, commanded by
a road-work further on, covered the approach, and turning to the
right I passed through a maze of camps, in front of which the various
regiments, much better than I expected to find them, broken up into
small detachments, were learning elementary drill. A considerable
number of the men were Germans, and the officers were for the most
part in a state of profound ignorance of company drill, as might
be seen by their confusion and inability to take their places when
the companies faced about, or moved from one flank to the other.
They were by no means equal in size or age, and, with some splendid
exceptions, were inferior to the Southern soldiers. The camps were
dirty, no latrines--the tents of various patterns--but on the whole
they were well castrametated.
The road to Arlington House passed through some of the finest woods
I have yet seen in America, but the axe was already busy amongst
them, and the trunks of giant oaks were prostrate on the ground. The
tents of the General and his small staff were pitched on the little
plateau in which stood the house, and from it a very striking and
picturesque view of the city, with the White House, the Treasury, the
Post Office, Patent Office, and Capitol, was visible, and a wide
spread of country, studded with tents also as far as the eye could
reach, towards Maryland. There were only four small tents for the
whole of the head-quarters of the grand army of the Potomac, and in
front of one we found General M‘Dowell, seated in a chair, examining
some plans and maps. His personal staff, as far as I could judge,
consisted of Mr. Clarence Brown, who came over with me, and three
other officers, but there were a few connected with the departments
at work in the rooms of Arlington House. I made some remark on the
subject to the General, who replied that there was great jealousy on
the part of the civilians respecting the least appearance of display,
and that as he was only a brigadier, though he was in command of
such a large army, he was obliged to be content with a brigadier’s
staff. Two untidy-looking orderlies, with ill-groomed horses, near
the house, were poor substitutes for the force of troopers one would
see in attendance on a general in Europe but the use of the telegraph
obviates the necessity of employing couriers. I went over some of the
camps with the General. The artillery is the most efficient-looking
arm of the service, but the horses are too light, and the number of
the different calibres quite destructive to continuous efficiency in
action. Altogether I was not favourably impressed with what I saw,
for I had been led by reiterated statements to believe to some extent
the extravagant stories of the papers, and expected to find upwards
of 100,000 men in the highest state of efficiency, whereas there were
not more than a third of the number, and those in a very incomplete,
ill-disciplined state. Some of these regiments were called out
under the President’s proclamation for three months only, and will
soon have served their full time, and as it is very likely they will
go home, now the bubbles of national enthusiasm have all escaped,
General Scott is urged not to lose their services, but to get into
Richmond before they are disbanded.
It would scarcely be credited, were I not told it by General
M‘Dowell, that there is no such thing procurable as a decent map of
Virginia. He knows little or nothing of the country before him, more
than the general direction of the main roads, which are bad at the
best; and he can obtain no information, inasmuch as the enemy are
in full force all along his front, and he has not a cavalry officer
capable of conducting a reconnaissance, which would be difficult
enough in the best hands, owing to the dense woods which rise up in
front of his lines, screening the enemy completely. The Confederates
have thrown up very heavy batteries at Manassas, about thirty miles
away, where the railway from the West crosses the line to Richmond,
and I do not think General M‘Dowell much likes the look of them, but
the cry for action is so strong the President cannot resist it.
On my way back I rode through the woods of Arlington, and came out on
a quadrangular earthwork, called Fort Corcoran, which is garrisoned
by the 69th Irish, and commands the road leading to an aqueduct
and horse-bridge over the Potomac. The regiment is encamped inside
the fort, which would be a slaughter-pen if exposed to shell-fire.
The streets were neat, the tents protected from the sun by shades
of evergreens and pine boughs. One little door, like that of an
ice-house, half buried in the ground, was opened by one of the
soldiers, who was showing it to a friend, when my attention was
more particularly attracted by a sergeant, who ran forward in great
dudgeon, exclaiming “Dempsey! Is that you going into the ‘magazine’
wid yer pipe lighted?” I rode away with alacrity.
In the course of my ride I heard occasional dropping shots in the
camp. To my looks of inquiry, an engineer officer said quietly, “They
are volunteers shooting themselves.” The number of accidents from the
carelessness of the men is astonishing; in every day’s paper there is
an account of deaths and wounds caused by the discharge of firearms
in the tents.
Whilst I was at Arlington House, walking through the camp attached
to head-quarters, I observed a tall red-bearded officer seated on a
chair in front of one of the tents, who bowed as I passed him, and as
I turned to salute him, my eye was caught by the apparition of a row
of Palmetto buttons down his coat. One of the officers standing by
said, “Let me introduce you to Captain Taylor, from the other side.”
It appears that he came in with a flag of truce, bearing a despatch
from Jefferson Davis to President Lincoln, countersigned by General
Beauregard at Manassas. Just as I left Arlington, a telegraph was
sent from General Scott to send Captain Taylor, who rejoices in the
name of Tom, over to his quarters.
The most absurd rumours were flying about the staff, one of whom
declared very positively that there was going to be a compromise, and
that Jeff Davis had made an overture for peace. The papers are filled
with accounts of an action in Missouri, at a place called Carthage,
between the Federals commanded by Colonel Sigel, consisting for the
most part of Germans, and the Confederates under General Parsons, in
which the former were obliged to retreat, although it is admitted
the State troops were miserably armed, and had most ineffective
artillery, whilst their opponents had every advantage in both
respects, and were commanded by officers of European experience.
Captain Taylor had alluded to the news in a jocular way to me, and
said, “I hope you will tell the people in England we intend to whip
the Lincolnites in the same fashion wherever we meet them,” a remark
which did not lead me to believe there was any intention on the part
of the Confederates to surrender so easily.
_July 9th._--Late last night the President told General Scott to send
Captain Taylor back to the Confederate lines, and he was accordingly
escorted to Arlington in a carriage, and thence returned without any
answer to Mr. Davis’s letter, the nature of which has not transpired.
A swarm of newspaper correspondents has settled down upon Washington,
and great are the glorifications of the high-toned paymasters,
gallant doctors, and subalterns accomplished in the art of war, who
furnish minute items to my American brethren, and provide the yeast
which overflows in many columns; but the Government experience the
inconvenience of the smallest movements being chronicled for the use
of the enemy, who, by putting one thing and another together, are no
doubt enabled to collect much valuable information. Every preparation
is being made to put the army on a war footing, to provide them with
shoes, ammunition waggons, and horses.
I had the honour of dining with General Scott, who has moved to
new quarters, near the War Department, and met General Fremont, who
is designated, according to rumour, to take command of an important
district in the West, and to clear the right bank of the Mississippi
and the course of the Missouri. “The Pathfinder” is a strong
Republican and Abolitionist, whom the Germans delight to honour--a
man with a dreamy, deep blue eye, a gentlemanly address, pleasant
features, and an active frame, but without the smallest external
indication of extraordinary vigour, intelligence, or ability; if he
has military genius, it must come by intuition, for assuredly he has
no professional acquirements or experience. Two or three members of
Congress, and the General’s staff, and Mr. Bigelow, completed the
company. The General has become visibly weaker since I first saw
him. He walks down to his office, close at hand, with difficulty;
returns a short time before dinner, and reposes; and when he has
dismissed his guests at an early hour, or even before he does so,
stretches himself on his bed, and then before midnight rouses himself
to look at despatches or to transact any necessary business. In
case of an action it is his intention to proceed to the field in a
light carriage, which is always ready for the purpose, with horses
and driver; nor is he unprepared with precedents of great military
commanders who have successfully conducted engagements under similar
circumstances.
Although the discussion of military questions and of politics was
eschewed, incidental allusions were made to matters going on around
us, and I thought I could perceive that the General regarded the
situation with much more apprehension than the politicians, and that
his influence extended itself to the views of his staff. General
Fremont’s tone was much more confident. Nothing has become known
respecting the nature of Mr. Davis’s communication to President
Lincoln, but the fact of his sending it at all is looked upon as
a piece of monstrous impertinence. The General is annoyed and
distressed by the plundering propensities of the Federal troops,
who have been committing terrible depredations on the people of
Virginia. It is not to be supposed, however, that the Germans, who
have entered upon this campaign as mercenaries, will desist from
so profitable and interesting a pursuit as the detection of Secesh
sentiments, chickens, watches, horses, and dollars, I mentioned that
I had seen some farm-houses completely sacked close to the aqueduct.
The General merely said, “It is deplorable!” and raised up his hands
as if in disgust. General Fremont, however, said, “I suppose you
are familiar with similar scenes in Europe. I hear the allies were
not very particular with respect to private property in Russia”--a
remark which unfortunately could not be gainsaid. As I was leaving
the General’s quarters, Mr. Blair, accompanied by the President,
who was looking more anxious than I had yet seen him, drove up, and
passed through a crowd of soldiers, who had evidently been enjoying
themselves. One of them called out, “Three cheers for General Scott!”
and I am not quite sure the President did not join him.
_July 10th._--To-day was spent in a lengthy excursion along the front
of the camp in Virginia, round by the chain bridge which crosses the
Potomac about four miles from Washington.
The Government have been coerced, as they say, by the safety of the
Republic, to destroy the liberty of the press, which is guaranteed
by the Constitution, and this is not the first instance in which
the Constitution of the United States will be made _nominis umbra_.
The telegraph, according to General Scott’s order, confirmed by the
Minister of War, Simon Cameron, is to convey no despatches respecting
military movements not permitted by the General; and to-day the
newspaper correspondents have agreed to yield obedience to the order,
reserving to themselves a certain freedom of detail in writing their
despatches, and relying on the Government to publish the official
accounts of all battles very speedily. They will break this agreement
if they can, and the Government will not observe their part of the
bargain. The freedom of the press, as I take it, does not include the
right to publish news hostile to the cause of the country in which it
is published; neither can it involve any obligation on the part of
Government to publish despatches which may be injurious to the party
they represent. There is a wide distinction between the publication
of news which is known to the enemy as soon as to the friends of the
transmitters, and the utmost freedom of expression concerning the
acts of the Government or the conduct of past events; but it will be
difficult to establish any rule to limit or extend the boundaries
to which discussion can go without mischief, and in effect the only
solution of the difficulty in a free country seems to be to grant the
press free licence, in consideration of the enormous aid it affords
in warning the people of their danger, in animating them with the
news of their successes, and in sustaining the Government in their
efforts to conduct the war.
The most important event to-day is the passage of the Loan Bill,
which authorises Mr. Chase to borrow, in the next year, a sum
of £50,000,000, on coupons, with interest at 7 per cent, and
irredeemable for twenty years--the interest being guaranteed on a
pledge of the Customs duties. I just got into the House in time to
hear Mr. Vallandigham, who is an ultra-democrat, and very nearly a
secessionist, conclude a well-delivered argumentative address. He is
a tall, slight man, of a bilious temperament, with light flashing
eyes, dark hair and complexion, and considerable oratorical power.
“Deem me ef I wouldn’t just ride that Vallandiggaim on a reay-al,”
quoth a citizen to his friend, as the speaker sat down, amid a
few feeble expressions of assent. Mr. Chase has also obtained the
consent of the Lower House to his bill for closing the Southern ports
by the decree of the President, but I hear some more substantial
measures are in contemplation for that purpose. Whilst the House is
finding the money the Government are preparing to spend it, and they
have obtained the approval of the Senate to the enrolment of half
a million of men, and the expenditure of one hundred millions of
dollars to carry on the war.
I called on Mr. Cameron, the Secretary of War. The small brick house
of two stories, with long passages, in which the American Mars
prepares his bolts, was, no doubt, large enough for the 20,000 men
who constituted the armed force on land of the great Republic, but
it is not sufficient to contain a tithe of the contractors who haunt
its precincts, fill all the lobbies and crowd into every room. With
some risk to coat-tails, I squeezed through iron-masters, gun-makers,
clothiers, shoemakers, inventors, bakers, and all that genus which
fattens on the desolation caused by an army in the field, and was
introduced to Mr. Cameron’s room, where he was seated at a desk
surrounded by people, who were also grouped round two gentlemen as
clerks in the same small room. “I tell you, General Cameron, that
the way in which the loyal men of Missouri have been treated is a
disgrace to this Government,” shouted out a big, black, burly man--“I
tell you so, sir.” “Well, General,” responded Mr. Cameron, quietly,
“so you have several times. Will you, once for all, condescend to
particulars?” “Yes, sir; you and the Government have disregarded our
appeals. You have left us to fight our own battles. You have not sent
us a cent----” “There, General, I interrupt you. You say we have sent
you no money,” said Mr. Cameron, very quietly. “Mr. Jones will be
good enough to ask Mr. Smith to step in here.” Before Mr. Smith came
in, however, the General, possibly thinking some member of the press
was present, rolled his eyes in a Nicotian frenzy, and perorated:
“The people of the State of Missouri, sir, will power-out every drop
of the blood which only flows to warm patriotic hearts in defence of
the great Union, which offers freedom to the enslaved of mankind, and
a home to persecuted progress, and a few-ture to civil-zation. We
demand, General Cameron, in the neame of the great Western State----”
Here Mr. Smith came in, and Mr. Cameron said, “I want you to tell me
what disbursements, if any, have been sent by this department to the
State of Missouri.” Mr. Smith was quick at figures, and up in his
accounts, for he drew out a little memorandum book, and replied (of
course, I can’t tell the exact sum), “General, there has been sent,
as by vouchers, to Missouri, since the beginning of the levies, six
hundred and seventy thousand dollars and twenty-three cents.” The
General looked crestfallen, but he was equal to the occasion, “These
sums may have been sent, sir, but they have not been received. I
declare in the face of----” “Mr. Smith will show you the vouchers,
General, and you can then take any steps needful against the parties
who have misappropriated them.”
“That is only a small specimen of what we have to go through with
our people,” said the Minister, as the General went off with a lofty
toss of his head, and then gave me a pleasant sketch of the nature of
the applications and interviews which take up the time and clog the
movements of an American statesman. “These State organisations give
us a great deal of trouble.” I could fully understand that they did
so. The immediate business that I had with Mr. Cameron--he is rarely
called General now that he is Minister of War--was to ask him to give
me authority to draw rations at cost price, in case the army took
the field before I could make arrangements, and he seemed very well
disposed to accede; “but I must think about it, for I shall have all
our papers down upon me if I grant you any facility which they do not
get themselves.” After I left the War Department, I took a walk to
Mr. Seward’s, who was out. In passing by President’s Square, I saw a
respectably-dressed man up in one of the trees, cutting-off pieces of
the bark, which his friends beneath caught up eagerly. I could not
help stopping to ask what was the object of the proceeding. “Why,
sir, this is the tree Dan Sickles shot Mr. ---- under. I think it’s
quite a remarkable spot.”
_July 11th._--The diplomatic circle is so _totus teres atque
rotundas_, that few particles of dirt stick on its periphery from
the road over which it travels. The radii are worked from different
centres, often far apart, and the tires and naves often fly out in
wide divergence; but for all social purposes is a circle, and a very
pleasant one. When one sees M. de Stoeckle speaking to M. Mercier,
or joining in with Baron Gerolt and M. de Lisboa, it is safer to
infer that a little social re-union is at hand for a pleasant
civilised discussion of ordinary topics, some music, a rubber, and
a dinner, than to resolve with the _New York Correspondent_, “that
there is reason to believe that a diplomatic movement of no ordinary
significance is on foot, and that the ministers of Russia, France,
and Prussia have concerted a plan of action with the representative
of Brazil, which must lead to extraordinary complications, in view
of the temporary embarrassments which distract our beloved country.
The Minister of England has held aloof from these reunions for a
sinister purpose no doubt, and we have not failed to discover that
the emissary of Austria, and the representative of Guatemala have
abstained from taking part in these significant demonstrations. We
tell the haughty nobleman who represents Queen Victoria, on whose
son we so lately lavished the most liberal manifestations of our
good will, to beware. The motives of the Court of Vienna, and of the
republic of Guatemala, in ordering their representatives not to join
in the reunion which we observed at three o’clock to-day, at the
corner of Seventeenth Street and One, are perfectly transparent; but
we call on Mr. Seward instantly to demand of Lord Lyons a full and
ample explanation of his conduct on the occasion, or the transmission
of his papers. There is no harm in adding, that we have every
reason to think our good ally of Russia, and the minister of the
astute monarch, who is only watching an opportunity of leading a
Franco-American army to the Tower of London and Dublin Castle, have
already moved their respective Governments to act in the premises.”
That paragraph, with a good heading, would sell several thousands of
the “New York Stabber” to-morrow.
_July 12th._--There are rumours that the Federals, under Brigadier
M‘Clellan, who have advanced into Western Virginia, have gained some
successes; but so far it seems to have no larger dimensions than the
onward raid of one clan against another in the Highlands. And whence
do rumours come? From Government departments, which, like so many
Danaes in the clerks’ rooms, receive the visits of the auriferous
Jupiters of the press, who condense themselves into purveyors of
smashes, slings, baskets of champagne, and dinners. M‘Clellan is,
however, considered a very steady and respectable professional
soldier. A friend of his told me to-day one of the most serious
complaints the Central Illinois Company had against him was that,
during the Italian war, he seemed to forget their business; and that
he was busied with maps stretched out on the floor, whereupon he,
superincumbent, penned out the points of battle and strategy when
he ought to have been attending to passenger trains and traffic.
That which was flat blasphemy in a railway office may be amazingly
approved in the field.
_July 13th._--I have had a long day’s ride through the camps of the
various regiments across the Potomac, and at this side of it, which
the weather did not render very agreeable to myself or the poor hack
that I had hired for the day, till my American Quartermaine gets me
a decent mount. I wished to see with my own eyes what is the real
condition of the army which the North have sent down to the Potomac,
to undertake such a vast task as the conquest of the South. The
Northern papers describe it as a magnificent force, complete in all
respects, well-disciplined, well-clad, provided with fine artillery,
and with every requirement to make it effective for all military
operations in the field.
In one word, then, they are grossly and utterly ignorant of what an
army is or should be. In the first place, there are not, I should
think, 30,000 men of all sorts available for the campaign. The
papers estimate it at any number from 50,000 to 100,000, giving the
preference to 75,000. In the next place, their artillery is miserably
deficient; they have not, I should think, more than five complete
batteries, or six batteries, including scratch guns, and these are of
different calibres, badly horsed, miserably equipped, and provided
with the worst set of gunners and drivers which I, who have seen
the Turkish field-guns, ever beheld. They have no cavalry, only a
few scarecrow-men, who would dissolve partnership with their steeds
at the first serious combined movement, mounted in high saddles, on
wretched mouthless screws, and some few regulars from the frontiers,
who may be good for Indians, but who would go over like ninepins at
a charge from Punjaubee irregulars. Their transport is tolerably
good, but inadequate; they have no carriage for reserve ammunition;
the commissariat drivers are civilians, under little or no control;
the officers are unsoldierly-looking men; the camps are dirty to
excess; the men are dressed in all sorts of uniforms; and from what I
hear, I doubt if any of these regiments have ever performed a brigade
evolution together, or if any of the officers know what it is to
deploy a brigade from column into line. They are mostly three months’
men, whose time is nearly up. They were rejoicing to-day over the
fact that it was so, and that they had kept the enemy from Washington
“without a fight.” And it is with this rabblement that the North
propose not only to subdue the South, but according to some of their
papers, to humiliate Great Britain, and conquer Canada afterwards.
I am opposed to national boasting, but I do firmly believe
that 10,000 British regulars, or 12,000 French, with a proper
establishment of artillery and cavalry, would not only entirely
repulse this army with the greatest ease, under competent commanders,
but that they could attack them and march into Washington over them
or with them whenever they pleased. Not that Frenchman or Englishman
is perfection, but that the American of this army knows nothing of
discipline, and what is more, cares less for it.
Major-General M‘Clellan--I beg his pardon for styling him
Brigadier--has really been successful. By a very well-conducted
and rather rapid march, he was enabled to bring superior forces to
bear on some raw levies under General Garnett (who came over with
me in the steamer), which fled after a few shots, and were utterly
routed, when their gallant commander fell, in an abortive attempt
to rally them by the banks of the Cheat river. In this “great
battle” M‘Clellan’s loss is less than 30 killed and wounded, and
the Confederates loss is less than 100. But the dispersion of such
guerilla bands has the most useful effect among the people of the
district; and M‘Clellan has done good service, especially as his
little victory will lead to the discomfiture of all the Secessionists
in the valley of the Keanawha, and in the valley of Western Virginia.
I left Washington this afternoon, with the Sanitary Commissioners,
for Baltimore, in order to visit the Federal camps at Fortress
Monroe, to which we proceeded down the Chesapeake the same night.