RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
THE WORKS OF CHARLES A. DANA. 
 
 Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 By CHARLES A. DANA. With Portrait. Large izmo. 
 Cloth, giit 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. 
 
 Apple tons American Cyclopaedia. 
 
 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 En 
 gravings. New and enlarged edition. Royal 8vo. Cloth, 
 $5.00 ; morocco, antique, $ic.oo ; 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. i6mo. Cloth, $1.00. 
 
 Eastern Journeys. 
 
 Some Notes of Travel in Russia, in the Caucasus, and to 
 Jerusalem. i6mo. Cloth, $1.00. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 
 
AppTeion & Company. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS 
 OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 W ith the Leaders at Washington 
 and in the Field in the Sixties 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES A. pANA 
 
 ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF ffVR FROM 1863 TO 1865 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT 
 
 UN/VERSI7 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. Appleton and Company 
 1902 
 
47 
 
 V 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1898, 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
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 Abra 
 ham Lincoln and the Lincoln Cabinet Mr. Dana has 
 drawn from a lecture which he delivered in 1896 be 
 fore the New Haven Colony Historical Society. The 
 incident of the self-wounded spy, in the chapter relat 
 ing 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 
 
 v 
 
 > 
 
 1-02776 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 always more interested in to-morrow than in yester 
 day, 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 mate 
 rial wherewith to stimulate and confirm his own mem 
 ory, in the form of his official and unofficial reports 
 written at the front for the information of Mr. Stan- 
 ton 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 en 
 acting, 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 Washing 
 ton 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. 
 
 vi 
 
Preface. 
 
 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 Gov 
 ernment 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 77, i8g8. 
 
 Vll 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. FROM THE TRIBUNE TO THE WAR DEPARTMENT . i 
 
 First meeting with Mr. Lincoln Early correspondence 
 with Mr. Stanton A command obtained for General Fre 
 mont The new energy in the military operations Mr. 
 Stanton disclaims the credit The War Secretary s opin 
 ion of McClellan Mr. Dana called into Government serv 
 ice The Cairo investigation and its results First acquaint 
 ance 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 Mem 
 phis 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 McCler- 
 nand 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 GEN 
 ERALS 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 De 
 partment 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. 
 
 ix 
 
Recollections of the Civil IV ar. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 V. SOME CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS 6l 
 
 Grant before his great fame His friend and mentor, 
 General Rawlins James Harrison Wilson Two semi-offi 
 cial letters to Stanton Character sketches for the infor 
 mation of the President and Secretary Mr. Dana s early 
 judgment of soldiers who afterward won distinction. 
 
 VI. THE SIEGE OF VlCKSBURG 78 
 
 Life behind Vicksburg Grant s efforts to procure rein 
 forcements The fruitless appeal to General Banks Mr. 
 Stanton responds to Mr. Dana s representations A steam 
 boat 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 2oth McPherson springs 
 a mine Grant decides to storm the city Pemberton asks 
 for an interview and terms The "unconditional surren 
 der" note At the meeting of Grant and Pemberton be 
 tween 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 John 
 son Rosecrans s complaints His view of the situation at 
 Chattanooga At General Thomas s headquarters The 
 first day of Chickamauga The battlefield telegraph serv 
 ice 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 I2O 
 
 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 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAP. PAGB 
 
 X. CHATTANOOGA AND MISSIONARY RIDGE . . .132 
 
 Thomas succeeds Rosecrans in the Army of the Cum 
 berland Grant supreme at Chattanooga A visit to the 
 army at Knoxville A Tennessee Unionist s family Im 
 pressions of Burnside Grant against Bragg at Chatta 
 nooga The most spectacular fighting of the war Watch 
 ing 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 reli 
 gious feeling His swift intelligence and almost super 
 human energy The Assistant Secretary s functions Con 
 tract supplies and contract frauds Lincoln s intercession 
 for dishonest contractors with political influence A char 
 acteristic 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 Fric 
 tion 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 Gettys 
 burg 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 Poto 
 mac 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 Inci 
 dents at Spottsylvania The " Bloody Angle." 
 
 XIV. THE GREAT GAME BETWEEN GRANT AND LEE. . 2OO 
 
 Maneuvering and fighting in the rain, mud, and thick 
 ets 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 
 
 xi 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 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 Beau- 
 regard 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 Balti 
 more 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 with 
 drawing 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 disloy 
 alty 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 com 
 mission 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 depart 
 ment worked for Lincoln s re-election Election night of 
 November, 1864 Lincoln reads aloud passages from Petro 
 leum 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 Lin- 
 
 xii 
 
Contents. 
 
 coin 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 Confed 
 erate 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 Thomp 
 son escaped At the deathbed of the murdered President 
 Searching for the assassins The letters which Mr. Lin 
 coln 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 Sher 
 man End of Mr. Dana s connection with the War Depart 
 ment. 
 
 INDEX 293 
 
 Xlll 
 
UNiVER 
 
 OF 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 CIVIL WAR. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM THE TRIBUNE TO THE WAR DEPARTMENT. 
 
 First meeting with Mr. Lincoln Early correspondence with Mr. Stan- 
 ton A command obtained for General Fremont 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 adver 
 tising 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 say 
 ing 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 
 
 2 I 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 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 appre 
 hensions 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, sev 
 eral of them determined to go to Washington, and I was 
 asked to go with them. 
 
 I believe the appointment for our interview with 
 
 2 
 
From the Tribune to the War Department. 
 
 the President was made through Mr. Chase; but at any 
 rate we all went up to the White House together, ex 
 cept 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 inter 
 view had begun, a big Indianian, 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, ex 
 claiming, " 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 en 
 deavor to apply the rule of give and take." 
 
 General Wadsworth answered: 
 
 " Our party will not be able to remain in Washing 
 ton, 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 Presi 
 dent. We all felt that he meant to do what was right 
 and square in the matter. While he was not the man 
 
 3 
 
 UK iVE- 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 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 Trib 
 une on his entrance to the War Department. I had 
 sent it to him with a letter calling his attention to cer 
 tain facts with which it seemed to me the War Depart 
 ment 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 2 ist, 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 
 
 4 
 
From the Tribune to the War Department. 
 
 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 triviali 
 ties, 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 Fremont a 
 chance. At the breaking out of the war Fremont 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 1 86 1 gave great dissatisfaction, and in November, 
 1 86 1, he was relieved, after an investigation by the Sec 
 retary of War. Since that time he had been without a 
 command. I believed, as did many others, that political 
 intrigue was keeping Fremont back. I was anxious 
 that he should have fair play, in order that the great 
 mass of people who had supported him for the presi 
 dency in 1856, and who still were his warm friends, 
 might not be dissatisfied. To my letter Mr. Stanton 
 replied: 
 
 5 
 
Recollections of the Civil ffiar. 
 
 WASHINGTON, February /, 1862. 
 
 DEAR SIR: If General Fremont 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/ * 
 
 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 ac 
 complished 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 thou 
 sand 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 Con 
 gress for clerk and army appointments, notwithstand 
 ing the most stringent rules, and the persistent strain 
 against all measures essential to obtain time for thought, 
 combination, and conference, is discouraging in the ex 
 treme 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 mili 
 tary affairs were energized, and a forward movement 
 
 * A month later General Fremont was assigned to the command of 
 the " Mountain Department," composed of parts of Virginia, Ken 
 tucky, and Tennessee. 
 
 6 
 
From the tribune to the War Department. 
 
 of the armies was apparent. It was followed by several 
 victories, notably those of Fort Henry and Fort Done!- 
 son. 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, fear 
 ful of the effect of this praise, sent to the paper the fol 
 lowing 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 be 
 longs to the gallant officers and soldiers that fought the 
 battles. No share of it belongs to me. 
 
 Much has recently been said of military combina 
 tions 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 vic 
 tories 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 organi 
 zation 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 imme 
 diately on your works" 
 
 Yours truly, EDWIN M. STANTON. 
 
 7 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 On receiving this I at once wired to our representa 
 tive 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 even 
 ing, 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 " any 
 thing the Tribune says. On reflection / 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 ist had been in command of all the 
 armies of the United States; but while he had proved 
 
 8 
 
From the tribune to the War Department. 
 
 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 ab 
 surdity 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. Never 
 theless, McClellan s supporters kept up their claim. On 
 February 2Oth the Associated Press agent at Washing 
 ton, 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 ex 
 hibited to a rejoicing country. The Secretary, with up 
 raised hands, implored Almighty God to aid them and 
 himself, and all occupying positions under the Govern 
 ment, 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 
 
 9 
 
Recollections of the Civil 
 
 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 meet 
 ing 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 rail 
 road convention in this city do not rebuke such a prac 
 tice as that perpetrated in this instance, they can not be 
 conferred with in future. 
 
 You will of course see the propriety of my not noti 
 cing 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 de 
 partment, 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 
 
 10 
 
From the tribune to the War Department. 
 
 victorious possession! It would be a picture worthy of 
 Punch. 
 
 Thus, when the newspapers announced my unex 
 pected 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, 111. I was directed to be in Cairo 
 on June I7th. 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, 111., 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 organ 
 ized on that day and enter immediately upon the dis 
 charge of its duties. 
 
 You will be allowed a compensation of eight dollars 
 per day and mileage. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Means, who has been appointed so 
 licitor 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 investi 
 gation of such claims as may be presented. 
 
 EDWIN M. STANTON, 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 Hon. CHARLES A. DANA, of New York, 
 Cairo, 111. 
 
 II 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 On reaching Cairo on the appointed day, I found 
 my associates, Judge Logan, of Springfield, 111., one 
 of Mr. Lincoln s friends, and Mr. Boutwell, of Massa 
 chusetts, afterward Governor of his State, Secretary of 
 the Treasury, and a United States senator. We organ 
 ized on the 1 8th, 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 mili 
 tary 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 quar 
 termaster 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 re 
 sult was that the accounts were in great confusion, and 
 hysterical newspapers were charging the department 
 with fraud and corruption. The War Department de 
 cided 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 ordi 
 nary means, and the commission went there as a kind 
 
 12 
 
From the tribune to the War Department. 
 
 of supreme authority, accepting or rejecting claims and 
 paying them as we thought fit after examining the evi 
 dence. 
 
 Sixteen hundred and ninety-six claims, amounting 
 to $599,219.36, were examined by us. Of those ap 
 proved 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 per 
 sons concerned, who were thus unable to support their 
 claims by sufficient evidence. Many claims of this de 
 scription were also presented by men whose loyalty 
 to the Government was impeached by credible wit 
 nesses. 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 
 
 13 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 our decision upon several claims for the rent of vacant 
 lots in Cairo, which had been used by the military au 
 thorities for the erection of temporary barracks or 
 stables. We determined that for these no rent ought, 
 under the circumstances, to be allowed, but we sug 
 gested that in justice to the owners this temporary oc 
 cupation 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 ob 
 servation 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 ques 
 tioned 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 
 
From the Tribune to the War Department. 
 
 charges seemed so well based, so small a percentage of 
 corruption had been proved was a source of solid satis 
 faction 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 sta 
 tioned 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 dis 
 tinctly 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. 
 
 15 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 AT THE FRONT WITH GRANT S ARMY. 
 
 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. 
 
 As Mr. Stanton had no immediate need of my serv 
 ices, I returned in August to New York, where I was 
 occupied with various private affairs until the middle 
 of November, when I received a telegram from Assist- 
 ant-Secretary-of-War P. H. Watson, asking me to go 
 immediately to Washington to enter upon another in 
 vestigation. I went, and was received by Mr. Stanton, 
 who offered me the place of Assistant Secretary of War. 
 I said I would accept. 
 
 "All right," said he; "consider it settled." 
 As I went out from the War Department into the 
 street I met Major Charles G. Halpine " Miles 
 O Reilly " of the Sixty-ninth New York Infantry. I 
 had known Halpine well as a newspaper man in New 
 York, and I told him of my appointment as Mr. Stan- 
 ton s assistant. He immediately repeated what I had 
 told him to some newspaper people. It was reported in 
 the New York papers the next morning. The Secre 
 tary was greatly offended and withdrew the appoint- 
 
 16 
 
At the Front with Grant s Army. 
 
 merit. When I told Halpine I had, of course, no idea 
 he was going to repeat it; besides, I did not think there 
 was any harm in telling. 
 
 Immediately after this episode I formed a partner 
 ship with Roscoe Conkling and George W. Chadwick to 
 buy cotton. The outcry which the manufacturers had 
 raised over the inability to get cotton for their indus 
 tries had induced the Government to permit trading 
 through the lines of the army, and the business looked 
 profitable. Conkling and I each put ten thousand dol 
 lars into the firm, and Chadwick gave his services, which, 
 as he was an expert in cotton, was considered equal to 
 our capital. To facilitate our operations, I went to 
 Washington to ask Mr. Stanton for letters of recom 
 mendation to the generals on and near the Mississippi, 
 where we proposed to begin our purchases. Mr. Stan- 
 ton and I had several conversations about the advisabil 
 ity of allowing such traffic, but he did not hesitate about 
 giving me the letters I asked. There were several of 
 them: one to General Hurlbut, then at Memphis; an 
 other to General Grant, who had begun his movement 
 against Vicksburg; and another to General Curtis, who 
 commanded in Arkansas. The general purport of them 
 was: " Mr. Dana is my friend; you can rely upon what 
 he says, and if you can be kind to him in any way you 
 will oblige me." 
 
 It was in January, 1863, that Chadwick and I went 
 to Memphis, where we stayed at the Gayoso House, at 
 that time the swell hotel of the town and the headquar 
 ters of several officers. 
 
 It was not long after I began to study the trade 
 
 3 17 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 in cotton before I saw it was a bad business and ought 
 to be stopped. I at once wrote Mr. Stanton the follow 
 ing letter, which embodied my observations and gave 
 my opinion as to what should be done: 
 
 MEMPHIS, January 21, 1863. 
 
 DEAR SIR: You will remember our conversations on 
 the subject of excluding cotton speculators from the 
 regions occupied by our armies in the South. I now 
 write to urge the matter upon your attention as a meas 
 ure of military necessity. 
 
 The mania for sudden fortunes made in cotton, rag 
 ing in a vast population of Jews and Yankees scattered 
 throughout this whole country, and in this town almost 
 exceeding the numbers of the regular residents, has to 
 an alarming extent corrupted and demoralized the army. 
 Every colonel, captain, or quartermaster is in secret 
 partnership with some operator in cotton; every soldier 
 dreams of adding a bale of cotton to his monthly pay. 
 I had no conception of the extent of this evil until I 
 came and saw for myself. 
 
 Besides, the resources of the rebels are inordinately 
 increased from this source. Plenty of cotton is brought 
 in from beyond our lines, especially by the agency of 
 Jewish traders, who pay for it ostensibly in Treasury 
 notes, but really in gold. 
 
 What I would propose is that no private purchaser 
 of cotton shall be allowed in any part of the occupied 
 region. 
 
 Let quartermasters buy the article at a fixed price, 
 say twenty or twenty-five cents per pound, and forward 
 it by army transportation to proper centers, say Helena, 
 Memphis, or Cincinnati, to be sold at public auction on 
 Government account. Let the sales take place on 
 regular fixed days, so that all parties desirous of buying 
 can be sure when to be present. 
 
 But little capital will be required for such an opera 
 tion. The sales being frequent and for cash, will con- 
 
 18 
 
At the Front with Granfs Army. 
 
 stantly replace the amount employed for the purpose. 
 I should say that two hundred thousand dollars would 
 be sufficient to conduct the movement. 
 
 I have no doubt that this two hundred thousand 
 dollars so employed would be more than equal to thirty 
 thousand men added to the national armies. 
 
 My pecuniary interest is in the continuance of the 
 present state of things, for while it lasts there are occa 
 sional opportunities of profit to be made by a daring 
 operator; but I should be false to my duty did I, on that 
 account, fail to implore you to put an end to an evil so 
 enormous, so insidious, and so full of peril to the 
 country. 
 
 My first impulse was to hurry to Washington to 
 represent these things to you in person; but my en 
 gagements here with other persons will not allow me 
 to return East so speedily. I beg you, however, to act 
 without delay, if possible. An excellent man to put at 
 the head of the business would be General Strong. I 
 make this suggestion without any idea whether the em 
 ployment would be agreeable to him. 
 
 Yours faithfully, CHARLES A. DANA. 
 
 Mr. STANTON. 
 
 P. S. Since writing the above I have seen General 
 Grant, who fully agrees with all my statements and sug 
 gestions, except that imputing corruption to every 
 officer, which of course I did not intend to be taken 
 literally. 
 
 I have also just attended a public sale by the quar 
 termaster here of five hundred bales of cotton confis 
 cated by General Grant at Oxford and Holly Springs. 
 It belonged to Jacob Thompson and other notorious 
 rebels. This cotton brought to-day over a million and 
 a half of dollars, cash. This sum alone would be five 
 times enough to set on foot the system I recommend, 
 without drawing upon the Treasury at all. In fact, 
 there can be no question that by adopting this system 
 the quartermaster s department in this valley would be- 
 
 19 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 come self-supporting, while the army would become 
 honest again, and the slaveholders would no longer 
 find that the rebellion had quadrupled the price of their 
 great staple, but only doubled it. 
 
 As soon as I could get away from Memphis I went 
 to Washington, where I had many conversations with 
 Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton about restricting the 
 trade in cotton. They were deeply interested in my 
 observations, and questioned me closely about what I 
 had seen. My opinion that the trade should be stopped 
 had the more weight because I was able to say, " Gen 
 eral Grant and every general officer whom I have seen 
 hopes it will be done." 
 
 The result of these consultations was that on March 
 31, 1863, Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring 
 unlawful all commercial intercourse with the States in 
 insurrection, except when carried on according to the 
 regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. 
 These regulations Mr. Chase prepared at once. At the 
 same time that Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation, 
 Mr. Stanton issued an order forbidding officers and all 
 members of the army to have anything to do with the 
 trade. In spite of all these regulations, however, and 
 the modifications of them which experience brought, 
 there was throughout the war more or less difficulty 
 over cotton trading. 
 
 From Washington I went back to New York. I 
 had not been there long before Mr. Stanton sent for me 
 to come to Washington. He wanted some one to go to 
 Grant s army, he said, to report daily to him the mili 
 tary proceedings, and to give such information as would 
 
 20 
 
At the Front with Grant 3 s Army. 
 
 enable Mr. Lincoln and himself to settle their minds as 
 to Grant, about whom at that time there were many 
 doubts, and against whom there was some complaint. 
 
 " Will you go? " Mr. Stanton asked. " Yes," I said. 
 " Very well," he replied. " The ostensible function I 
 shall give you will be that of special commissioner of 
 the War Department to investigate the pay service of 
 the Western armies, but your real duty will be to report 
 to me every day what you see." 
 
 On March I2th Mr. Stanton wrote me the follow 
 ing letter: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, 
 WASHINGTON CITY, March, 12, 1863. 
 
 DEAR SIR: I inclose you a copy of your order of 
 appointment and the order fixing your compensation, 
 with a letter to Generals Sumner,* Grant, and Rose- 
 crans, and a draft for one thousand dollars. Having 
 explained the purposes of your appointment to you per 
 sonally, no further instructions will be given unless 
 specially required. Please acknowledge the receipt of 
 this, and proceed as early as possible to your duties. 
 Yours truly, EDWIN M. STANTON. 
 
 C. A. DANA, Esq., New York. 
 My commission read: 
 
 ORDERED, That C. A. Dana, Esq., be and he is 
 hereby appointed special commissioner of the War De 
 partment to investigate and report upon the condition 
 of the pay service in the Western armies. All pay 
 masters and assistant paymasters will furnish to the said 
 commissioner for the Secretary of War information upon 
 any matters concerning which he may make inquiry 
 
 * General E. V. Sumner, who had just been relieved, at his own 
 request, from the Army of the Potomac and appointed to the Depart 
 ment of the Missouri. He was on his way thither when he died, on 
 March 2ist. 
 
 21 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 of them as fully and completely and promptly as if di 
 rectly called for by the Secretary of War. Railroad 
 agents, quartermasters, and commissioners will give 
 him transportation and subsistence. All officers and 
 persons in the service will aid him in the performance of 
 his duties, and will afford him assistance, courtesy, and 
 protection. The said commissioner will make report to 
 this department as occasion may require. 
 
 The letters of introduction and explanation to the 
 generals were identical: 
 
 GENERAL: Charles A. Dana, Esq., has been ap 
 pointed a special commissioner of this department to 
 investigate and report upon the condition of the pay 
 service in the Western armies. You will please aid him 
 in the performance of his duties, and communicate to 
 him fully your views and wishes in respect to that 
 branch of the service in your command, and also give 
 to him such information as you may deem beneficial to 
 the service. He is specially commended to your cour 
 tesy and protection. Yours truly, 
 
 EDWIN M. STANTON. 
 
 I started at once for Memphis, going by way of 
 Cairo and Columbus. 
 
 I sent my first dispatch to the War Department 
 from Columbus, on March 2Oth. It was sent by a secret 
 cipher furnished by the War Department, which I used 
 myself, for throughout the war I was my own cipher 
 clerk. The ordinary method at the various headquar 
 ters was for the sender to write out the dispatch in full, 
 after which it was translated from plain English into the 
 agreed cipher by a telegraph operator or clerk retained 
 for that exclusive purpose, who understood it, and by 
 another it was retranslated back again at the other end 
 
 22 
 
At the Front with Grant s Army. 
 
 of the line. So whatever military secret was trans 
 mitted was at the mercy always of at least two outside 
 persons, besides running the gantlet of other prying 
 eyes. Dispatches written in complex cipher codes were 
 often difficult to unravel, unless transmitted by the 
 operator with the greatest precision. A wrong word 
 sometimes destroyed the sense of an entire dispatch, 
 and important movements were delayed thereby. This 
 explains the oft-repeated " I do not understand your 
 telegram " found in the official correspondence of the 
 war period. 
 
 I have become familiar since the war with a great 
 many ciphers, but I never found one which was more 
 satisfactory than that which I used in my messages to 
 Mr. Stanton. In preparing my message I first wrote it 
 out in lines of a given number of words, spaced regu 
 larly so as to form five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten 
 columns. My key contained various " routes/ to be 
 followed in writing out the messages for transmission. 
 Thus, a five-column message had one route, a six-col 
 umn another, and so on. The route was indicated by 
 a " commencement word." If I had put my message 
 into five columns, I would write at the beginning the 
 word " Army," or any one in a list of nine words. The 
 receiver, on looking for that word in his key, would 
 see that he was to write out what he had received in 
 lines of five words, thus forming five columns; and then 
 he was to read it down the fifth column, up the third, 
 down the fourth, up the second, down the first. At the 
 end of each column an " extra " or " check " word was 
 added as a blind. A list of " blind " words was also 
 
 23 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 printed in the key, with each route, which could be in 
 serted, if wished, at the end of each line so as still further 
 to deceive curious people who did not have the key. 
 The key contained also a large number of cipher words. 
 Thus, P. H. Sheridan was "soap" or "Somerset"; 
 President was " Pembroke " or " Penfield." Instead of 
 writing "there has been," I wrote "maroon"; instead 
 of secession, "mint"; instead of Vicksburg, "Cupid." 
 My own cipher was " spunky " or " squad." The days, 
 months, hours, numerals, and alphabet all had ciphers. 
 
 The only message sent by this cipher to be trans 
 lated by an outsider on the route, so far as I know, was 
 that one of 4 P. M., September 20, 1863, in which I re 
 ported the Union defeat at Chickamauga. General R. 
 S. Granger, who was then at Nashville, was at the tele 
 graph office waiting for news when my dispatch passed 
 through. The operator guessed out the dispatch, as he 
 afterward confessed, and it was passed around Nash 
 ville. The agent of the Associated Press at Louisville 
 sent out a private printed circular quoting me as an 
 authority for reporting the battle as a total defeat, and 
 in Cincinnati Horace Maynard repeated, the same day 
 of the battle, the entire second sentence of the dispatch, 
 " Chickamauga is as fatal a name in our history as Bull 
 Run." 
 
 This premature disclosure to the public of what was 
 only the truth, well known at the front, caused a great 
 deal of trouble. I immediately set on foot an investiga 
 tion to discover who had penetrated our cipher code, 
 and soon arrived at a satisfactory understanding of the 
 matter, of which Mr. Stanton was duly informed. No 
 
 24 
 
At the Front with Granfs Army. 
 
 blame could attach to me, as was manifest upon tHe in 
 quiry; nevertheless, the sensation resulted in consid 
 erable annoyance all along the line from Chattanooga 
 to Washington. I suggested to Mr. Stanton the ad 
 visability of concocting a new and more difficult cipher, 
 but it was never changed, so far as I now remember. 
 
 It was from Columbus, Ky., on March 20, 1863, 
 that I sent my first telegram to the War Department. 
 I did not remain in Columbus long, for there was abso 
 lutely no trustworthy information there respecting af 
 fairs down the river, but took a boat to Memphis, 
 where I arrived on March 23d. I found General Hurl- 
 but in command. I had met Hurlbut in January, when 
 on my cotton business, and he gave me every oppor 
 tunity to gather information concerning the operations 
 against Vicksburg. Four different plans for reaching 
 the city were then on foot, the essential element of all 
 of them being to secure for the army on the high 
 ground behind the city a foothold whence it could 
 strike, and at the same time be supplied from a river 
 base. The first and oldest and apparently most prom 
 ising of these plans was that of the canal across the 
 neck of the peninsula facing Vicksburg, on the Lou 
 isiana side. When I reached Memphis this canal was 
 thought to be nearly done. 
 
 The second route was by Lake Providence, about 
 forty miles north of Vicksburg, in Louisiana. It was 
 close to the western bank of the Mississippi, with which 
 it was proposed to connect it by means of a canal. The 
 Bayou Macon connected Lake Providence with the 
 Tensas River. By descending the Tensas to the 
 
 25 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Washita, the Washita to the Red, the Red to the Mis 
 sissippi, the army could be landed on the east bank of 
 the Mississippi about one hundred and fifty miles south 
 of Vicksburg, and thence could be marched north. Mc- 
 Pherson, with his Seventeenth Corps, had been ordered 
 by Grant on January 3Oth to open this route. It was 
 reported at Memphis when I arrived there that the 
 cutting of Lake Providence was perfectly successful, 
 but that Bayou Macon was full of snags, which must be 
 got out before the Tensas would be accessible. 
 
 The third and fourth routes proposed for getting 
 behind Vicksburg namely, by Yazoo Pass and Steele s 
 Bayou were attracting the chief attention when I 
 reached Memphis. Yazoo Pass opened from the east 
 ern bank of the Mississippi at a point about one hun 
 dred and fifty miles above Vicksburg into Moon Lake, 
 and thence into the Coldwater River. Through the 
 Coldwater and the Tallahatchie the Yazoo River was 
 reached. If troops could follow this route and capture 
 Haynes s Bluff, fourteen miles from the mouth of the 
 Yazoo, Vicksburg at once became untenable. The 
 Yazoo Pass operation had begun in February, but the 
 detachment had had bad luck, and on my arrival at 
 Memphis was lying up the Yallabusha waiting for re- 
 enforcements and supplies. 
 
 An attempt was being made also to reach the Yazoo 
 by a roundabout route through Steele s Bayou, Deer 
 Creek, the Rolling Fork, and the Big Sunflower. Grant 
 had learned of this route only a short time before my 
 arrival, and had at once sent Sherman with troops and 
 Admiral Porter with gunboats to attempt to reach the 
 
 26 
 
At the Front with Grant s Army. 
 
 Yazoo. On March 27th reports came to Memphis that 
 Sherman had landed twenty regiments on the east bank 
 of the Yazoo above Haynes s Bluff, and that the gun 
 boats were there to support him. Reports from other 
 points also were so encouraging that the greatest en 
 thusiasm prevailed throughout the army, and General 
 Grant was said to be dead sure he would have Vicks- 
 burg within a fortnight. 
 
 Five days later, however, we heard at Memphis that 
 there had been a series of disasters in these different 
 operations, that the Yazoo Pass expedition was defi 
 nitely abandoned, and that General Grant had an en 
 tirely new plan of campaign. 
 
 I had not been long at Memphis before I decided 
 that it was impossible to gather trustworthy news there. 
 I had to rely for most of my information on the reports 
 brought up the river by occasional officers, not all 
 of whom w r ere sure of what they told, and on the stories 
 of persons coming from the vicinity of the different 
 operations. Occasionally an intelligent planter arrived 
 whom I was inclined to believe, but on the whole I 
 found that my sources of information were few and un 
 certain. I accordingly suggested to Mr. Stanton, three 
 days after my arrival, that I would be more useful far 
 ther down the river. In reply he telegraphed: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, 
 WASHINGTON CITY, March 30, 1863. 
 
 C. A. DANA, Esq., Memphis, Tenn., via Cairo: 
 
 Your telegrams have been received, and althougK 
 the information has been meager and unsatisfactory, I 
 am conscious that arises from no fault of yours. You 
 will proceed to General Grant s headquarters, or wher- 
 
 27 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ever you may be best able to accomplish th e purposes 
 designated by this department. You will consider your 
 movements to be governed by your own discretion, 
 without any restriction. 
 
 EDWIN M. STANTON, 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 As soon after receiving his telegram as I could get a 
 boat I left Memphis for Milliken s Bend, where General 
 Grant had his headquarters. I reached there at noon on 
 April 6th. 
 
 The Mississippi at Milliken s Bend was a mile wide, 
 and the sight as we came down the river by boat was 
 most imposing. Grant s big army was stretched up and 
 down the river bank over the plantations, its white tents 
 affording a new decoration to the natural magnificence 
 of the broad plains. These plains, which stretch far 
 back from the river, were divided into rich and old plan 
 tations by blooming hedges of rose and Osage orange, 
 the mansions of the owners being inclosed in roses, 
 myrtles, magnolias, oaks, and every other sort of beau 
 tiful and noble trees. The negroes whose work made 
 all this wealth and magnificence were gone, and there 
 was nothing growing in the fields. 
 
 For some days after my arrival I lived in a steam 
 boat tied up to the shore, for though my tent was 
 pitched and ready, I was not able to get a mattress and 
 pillow. From the deck of the steamer I saw in those 
 days many a wonderful and to me novel sight. One 
 I remember still. I was standing out on the upper 
 deck with a group of officers, when we saw far away, 
 close to the other shore of the river, a long line of some- 
 
 28 
 
At the Front -with Granfs Army. 
 
 thing white floating in the water. We thought it was 
 foam, but it was too long and white, and that it was 
 cotton which had been thrown into the river, but it was 
 too straight and regular. Presently we heard a gun 
 fired, then another, and then we saw it was an enor 
 mous flock of swans. They arose from the water one 
 after the other, and sailed away up the river in long, 
 curving, silver lines, bending and floating almost like 
 clouds, and finally disappearing high up in the air above 
 the green woods on the Mississippi shore. I suppose 
 there were a thousand of them. 
 
 I had not been long at Milliken s Bend before I 
 was on friendly terms with all the generals, big and 
 little, and one or two of them I found were very rare 
 men. Sherman especially impressed me as a man of 
 genius and of the widest intellectual acquisitions. 
 Every day I rode in one direction or another with an 
 officer, inspecting the operations going on. From what 
 I saw on my rides over the country I got a new insight 
 into slavery, which made me no more a friend to that 
 institution than I was before. I had seen slavery in 
 Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri, but it was 
 not till I saw these great Louisiana plantations with all 
 their apparatus for living and working that I really felt 
 the aristocratic nature of the institution, and the in 
 fernal baseness of that aristocracy. Every day my con 
 viction was intensified that the territorial and political 
 integrity of the nation must be preserved at all costs, 
 no matter how long it took; that it was better to keep 
 up the existing war as long as was necessary, rather 
 than to make arrangement for indefinite wars hereafter 
 
 29 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 and for other disruptions; that we must have it out then, 
 and settle forever the question, so that our children 
 would be able to attend to other matters. For my own 
 part, I preferred one nation and one country, with a 
 military government afterward, if such should follow, 
 rather than two or three nations and countries with 
 the semblance of the old Constitution in each of them, 
 ending in wars and despotisms everywhere. 
 
 As soon as I arrived at Milliken s Bend, on April 
 6th, I had hunted up Grant and explained my mission. 
 He received me cordially. Indeed, I think Grant was 
 always glad to have me with his army. He did not like 
 letter writing, and my daily dispatches to Mr. Stanton 
 relieved him from the necessity of describing every day 
 what was going on in the army. From the first neither 
 he nor any of his staff or corps commanders evinced 
 any unwillingness to show me the inside of things. In 
 this first interview at Milliken s Bend, for instance, 
 Grant explained to me so fully his new plan of cam 
 paign for there was now but one that by three 
 o clock I was able to send an outline of it to Mr. Stan- 
 ton. From that time I saw and knew all the interior 
 operations of that toughest of tough jobs, the reopen 
 ing of the Mississippi. 
 
 The new project, so Grant told me, was to transfer 
 his army to New Carthage, and from there carry it over 
 the Mississippi, landing it at or about Grand Gulf; to 
 capture this point, and then to operate rapidly on the 
 southern and eastern shore of the Big Black River, 
 threatening at the same time both Vicksburg and Jack 
 son, and confusing the Confederates as to his real ob- 
 
 30 
 
At the Front ivith Grant 3 s Army. 
 
 jective. If this could be done he believed the enemy; 
 would come out of Vicksburg and fight. 
 
 The first element in this plan was to open a passage 
 from the Mississippi near Milliken s Bend, above Vicks 
 burg, to the bayou on the west side, which led around 
 to New Carthage below. The length of navigation in 
 this cut-off was about thirty-seven miles, and the plan 
 was to take through with small tugs perhaps fifty barges, 
 enough, at least, to transfer the whole army, with artil 
 lery and baggage, to the other side of the Mississippi in 
 twenty-four hours. If necessary, troops were to be 
 transported by the canal, though Grant hoped to march 
 them by the road along its bank. Part of McClernand s 
 corps had already reached New Carthage overland, 
 and Grant was hurrying other troops forward. The 
 canal to the bayou was already half completed, 
 thirty-five hundred men being at work on it when I 
 arrived. 
 
 The second part of the plan was to float down the 
 river, past the Vicksburg batteries, half a dozen steam 
 boats protected by defenses of bales of cotton and wet 
 hay; these steamboats were to serve as transports of 
 supplies after the army had crossed the Mississippi. 
 
 Perhaps the best evidence of the feasibility of the 
 project was found in the fact that the river men pro 
 nounced its success certain. General Sherman, who 
 commanded one of the three corps in Grant s army, and 
 with whom I conversed at length upon the subject, 
 thought there was no difficulty in opening the passage, 
 but that the line would be a precarious one for supplies 
 after the army was thrown across the Mississippi. Sher- 
 
 31 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 man s preference was for a movement by way of Yazoo 
 Pass, or Lake Providence, but it was not long before I 
 saw in our daily talks that his mind was tending to the 
 conclusion of General Grant. As for General Grant, his 
 purpose was dead set on the new scheme. Admiral 
 Porter cordially agreed with him. 
 
 An important modification was made a few days 
 after my arrival in the plan of operations. It was deter 
 mined that after the occupation of Grand Gulf the main 
 army, instead of operating up the Big Black toward 
 Jackson, should proceed down the river against Port 
 Hudson, co-operating with General Banks against 
 that point, and that after the capture of Port Hud 
 son the two united forces should proceed against 
 Vicksburg. 
 
 There seemed to be only one hitch in the campaign. 
 Grant had intrusted the attack on Grand Gulf to Mc- 
 Clernand. Sherman, Porter, and other leading officers 
 believed this a mistake, and talked frankly with me 
 about it. One night when we had all gathered at 
 Grant s headquarters and were talking over the cam 
 paign very freely, as we were accustomed to do, both 
 Sherman and Porter protested against the arrangement. 
 But Grant would not be changed. McClernand, he 
 said, was exceedingly desirous of the command. He 
 was the senior of the other corps commanders. He was 
 an especial favorite of the President, and the position 
 which his corps occupied on the ground when the move 
 ment was first projected was such that the advance 
 naturally fell to its lot; besides, he had entered zealously 
 into the plan from the first, while Sherman had doubted 
 
 32 
 
At the Front with Grant s Army. 
 
 and criticised, and McPherson, whom Grant said he 
 would really have much preferred, was away at Lake 
 Providence, and though he had approved of the scheme, 
 he had taken no active part in it. 
 
 I believed the assignment of this duty to McClernand 
 to be so dangerous that I added my expostulation to 
 those of the generals, and in reporting the case to Mr. 
 Stanton I wrote: " I have remonstrated so far as I could 
 properly do so against intrusting so momentous an 
 operation to McClernand." 
 
 Mr. Stanton replied: "Allow me to suggest that 
 you carefully avoid giving any advice in respect to com 
 mands that may be assigned, as it may lead to misun 
 derstanding and troublesome complications." Of 
 course, after that I scrupulously observed his directions, 
 even in extreme cases. 
 
 As the days went on everybody, in spite of this hitch, 
 became more sanguine that the new project would suc 
 ceed. For my part I had not a doubt of it, as one can 
 see from this fragment written from Milliken s Bend on 
 April 1 3th to one of my friends: 
 
 " Like all who really know the facts, I feel no sort 
 of doubt that we shall before long get the nut cracked. 
 Probably before this letter reaches New York on its 
 way to you the telegraph will get ahead of it with the 
 news that Grant, masking Vicksburg, deemed impreg 
 nable by its defenders, has carried the bulk of his army 
 down the river through a cut-off which he has opened 
 without the enemy believing it could be done; has occu 
 pied Grand Gulf, taken Port Hudson, and, effecting a 
 junction with the forces of Banks, has returned up the 
 4 33 
 
Recollections of the Civil U^ar. 
 
 river to threaten Jackson and compel the enemy to come 
 out of Vicksburg and fight him on ground of his own 
 choosing. Of course this scheme may miscarry in whole 
 or in parts, but as yet the chances all favor its execution, 
 which is now just ready to begin." 
 
 34 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BEFORE AND AROUND VICKSBURG. 
 
 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 unsuc 
 cessful attack on Grand Gulf The move to the east shore Mr. 
 Dana secures a good horse. 
 
 ON the new lines adopted by General Grant, the 
 work went on cheeringly, though every day changes 
 were made in the details. I spent my days in riding from 
 point to point, noting the progress. I went out often 
 with Colonel G. G. Pride, the engineer officer, in whose 
 mess I was, and who was superintending the construc 
 tion of the canal which led from Duckport to the bayou. 
 The work on this canal was a curious sight to see, for 
 there was a force equal to five regiments at the digging, 
 while a large number of pioneers were engaged in clear 
 ing the bayou beyond. The canal was opened on April 
 1 3th, and the authorities agreed that there was no rea 
 son to doubt its usefulness, though the obstructions in 
 the bayou were so numerous that it was thought that it 
 would require several days more to clear a passage for 
 tugs and barges. 
 
 One of my most interesting trips from Milliken s 
 Bend was made with Major James H. Wilson to view 
 the casemated batteries our engineers were constructing 
 
 35 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 on the shore opposite Vicksburg. They hoped with the 
 thirty-pound Parrotts they were putting in to be able 
 to destroy any building in the town. From behind the 
 levee of the peninsula we were able with our glasses to 
 examine the fortifications of Vicksburg. 
 
 The best look I had at that town, however, while 
 I was at Milliken s Bend was not from the peninsula 
 opposite, but from a gunboat. On April I2th I went 
 down with a flag of truce to the vicinity of Vicksburg, 
 so that I got a capital view. It was an ugly place, 
 with its line of bluffs commanding the channel for fully 
 seven miles, and battery piled above battery all the 
 way. 
 
 Admiral Porter s arrangements for carrying out the 
 second part of Grant s scheme that is, running the 
 Vicksburg batteries were all completed by April i6th, 
 the ironclads and steamers being protected in vulnerable 
 parts by bulwarks of hay, cotton, and sand bags, and 
 the barges loaded with forage, coal, and the camp equip 
 ment of General McClernand s corps, which was already 
 at New Carthage. No doubt was felt that the design 
 was known in Vicksburg, and it was arranged that Ad 
 miral Porter should open fire there with all his guns as 
 he swept past the town, and that the new batteries on 
 the levee opposite the city should also participate. 
 Admiral Porter was to go with the expedition on a small 
 tug, and he invited me to accompany him, but it seemed 
 to me that I ought not to get out of my communica 
 tions, and so refused. Instead, I joined Grant on his 
 headquarters boat, which was stationed on the right 
 bank of the river, where from the bows we could see the 
 
 36 
 
Before and Around Vicksburg. 
 
 squadron as it started, and could follow its course until 
 it was nearly past Vicksburg. 
 
 Just before ten o clock on the night of April i6th 
 the squadron cast loose its moorings. It was a strange 
 scene. First a mass of black things detached itself from 
 the shore, and we saw it float out toward the middle 
 of the stream. There was nothing to be seen except 
 this big black mass, which dropped slowly down the 
 river. Soon another black mass detached itself, and an 
 other, then another. It was Admiral Porter s fleet of 
 ironclad turtles, steamboats, and barges. They floated 
 down the Mississippi darkly and silently, showing 
 neither steam nor light, save occasionally a signal astern, 
 where the enemy could not see it. 
 
 The vessels moved at intervals of about two hundred 
 yards. First came seven ironclad turtles and one heavy 
 armed ram ; following these were two side-wheel 
 steamers and one stern-wheel, having twelve barges in 
 tow; these barges carried the supplies. Far astern of 
 them was one carrying ammunition. The most of the 
 gunboats had already doubled the tongue of land which 
 stretches northeasterly in front of Vicksburg, and they 
 were immediately under the guns of nearly all the Con 
 federate batteries, when there was a flash from the upper 
 forts, and then for an hour and a half the cannonade was 
 terrific, raging incessantly along the line of about four 
 miles in extent. I counted five hundred and twenty- 
 five discharges. Early in the action the enemy put the 
 torch to a frame building in front of Vicksburg to light 
 up the scene and direct his fire. 
 
 About 12.45 A - M - one f our steamers, the Henry 
 
 37 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Clay, took fire, and burned for three quarters of an 
 hour. The Henry Clay was lost by being abandoned 
 by her captain and crew in a panic, they thinking her to 
 be sinking. The pilot refused to go with them, and 
 said if they would stay they would get her through safe. 
 After they had fled in the yawls, the cotton bales on her 
 deck took fire, and one wheel became unmanageable. 
 The pilot then ran her aground, and got upon a plank, 
 on which he was picked up four miles below. 
 
 The morning after Admiral Porter had run the 
 Vicksburg batteries I went with General Grant to New 
 Carthage to review the situation. We found the squad 
 ron there, all in fighting condition, though most of them 
 had been hit. Not a man had been lost. 
 
 As soon as we returned to Milliken s Bend Grant 
 ordered that six transport steamers, each loaded with 
 one hundred thousand rations and forty days coal, 
 should be made ready to run the Vicksburg batteries. 
 The order was executed on the night of the 22d. The 
 transports were manned throughout, officers, engineers, 
 pilots, and deck hands, by volunteers from the army, 
 mainly from Logan s division. This dangerous service 
 was sought with great eagerness, and experienced men 
 had been found for every post. If ten thousand men had 
 been wanted instead of one hundred and fifty, they 
 would have engaged with zeal in the adventure. In 
 addition to bulwarks of hay, cotton, and pork barrels, 
 each transport was protected by a barge on each side 
 of it. Orders were to drop noiselessly down with the 
 current from the mouth of the Yazoo, and not show 
 steam till the enemy s batteries began firing, when the 
 
 38 
 
Before and Around Vicksburg. 
 
 boats were to use all their legs. The night was cloudy, 
 and the run was made with the loss of one of the trans 
 ports, the Tigress, which was sunk, and a few men 
 wounded. 
 
 The day after these transports with supplies ran the 
 Vicksburg batteries General Grant changed his head 
 quarters to Smith s plantation, near New Carthage. 
 All of McClernand s corps, the Thirteenth, was now 
 near there, and that officer said ten thousand men would 
 be ready to move from New Carthage the next day. 
 McPherson s corps, which had been busy upon the Lake 
 Providence expedition and other services, but which 
 had been ordered to join, was now, except one division, 
 moving over from Milliken s Bend. Sherman s corps, 
 the Fifteenth, which had been stationed at Young s 
 Point, was also under marching orders to New Car 
 thage. 
 
 Grant s first object now was to cross the Mississippi 
 as speedily as possible and capture Grand Gulf before it 
 could be re-enforced; but first it was necessary to know 
 the strength of this point. On the 22d Admiral Porter 
 had gone down with his gunboats and opened fire to 
 ascertain the position and strength of the batteries. He 
 reported them too strong to overcome, and earnestly 
 advised against a direct attack. He suggested that the 
 troops either be marched down the west side from New 
 Carthage to a point where they could be ferried over the 
 Mississippi just below Grand Gulf, or that they be em 
 barked on the transports and barges and floated past 
 the batteries in the night. 
 
 The day after Grant changed his headquarters to 
 
 39 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Smith s plantation he went himself with General Porter 
 to reconnoiter Grand Gulf. His reconnoissance con 
 vinced him that the place was not so strong as Admiral 
 Porter had supposed, and an attack was ordered to be 
 made as soon as the troops could be made ready, the 
 next day, April 26th, if possible. 
 
 An irritating delay occurred then, however. Mc- 
 Clernand s corps was not ready to move. When we 
 came to Smith s plantation, on the 24th, I had seen 
 that there was apparently much confusion in McCler- 
 nand s command, and I was astonished to find, now 
 that he was ordered to move across the Mississippi, that 
 he was planning to carry his bride with her servants, 
 and baggage along with him, although Grant had 
 ordered that officers should leave behind everything 
 that could impede the march. 
 
 On the 26th, the day when it was hoped to make 
 an attack on Grand Gulf, I went with Grant by water 
 from our headquarters at Smith s plantation down 
 to New Carthage and to Perkins s plantation below, 
 where two of McClernand s divisions were encamped. 
 These troops, it was supposed, were ready for immediate 
 embarkation, and there were quite as many as all the 
 transports could carry, but the first thing which struck 
 us both on approaching the points of embarkation was 
 that the steamboats and barges were scattered about 
 in the river and in the bayou as if there was no idea of 
 the imperative necessity of the promptest movement 
 possible. 
 
 We at once steamed to Admiral Porter s flagship, 
 which was lying just above Grand Gulf, and Grant sent 
 
 40 
 
Before and Around Ficksburg. 
 
 for McClernand, ordering him to embark his men with 
 out losing a moment. In spite of this order, that night 
 at dark, when a thunderstorm set in, not a single cannon 
 or man had been moved. Instead, McClernand held a 
 review of a brigade of Illinois troops at Perkins s about 
 four o clock in the afternoon. At the same time a salute 
 of artillery was fired, notwithstanding the positive 
 orders that had repeatedly been given to use no ammu 
 nition for any purpose except against the enemy. 
 
 When we got back from the river to headquarters, 
 on the night of the 26th, we found that McPherson had 
 arrived at Smith s plantation with the first division of his 
 corps, the rear being not very far behind. His whole 
 force would have been up the next day, but it was neces 
 sary to arrest its movements until McClernand could 
 be got out of the way; this made McClernand s delay 
 the more annoying. General Lorenzo Thomas, who 
 was on the Mississippi at this time organizing negro 
 troops, told me that he believed now that McPherson 
 would actually have his men ready to embark before 
 McClernand. 
 
 Early the next morning, April 27th, I went with 
 Grant from Smith s plantation back to New Carthage. 
 As soon as we arrived the general wrote a very severe 
 letter to McClernand, but learning that at last the trans 
 port steamers and barges had been concentrated for 
 use he did not send the rebuke. Grant spent the day 
 there completing the preparations for embarking, and 
 on the morning of the 28th about ten thousand men 
 were on board. This force was not deemed sufficient 
 for the attack on Grand Gulf, so the troops were brought 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 down to Hard Times landing, on the Louisiana side, 
 almost directly across the river from Grand Gulf, where 
 a portion of them were debarked, and the transports 
 sent back for Hovey s division, six thousand strong. 
 We spent the night at Hard Times waiting for these 
 troops, which arrived about daylight on the morning of 
 the 29th. 
 
 There were now sixteen thousand men at Hard 
 Times ready to be landed at the foot of the Grand Gulf 
 bluff as soon as its batteries were silenced. At precisely 
 eight o clock the gunboats opened their attack. Seven, 
 all ironclads, were engaged, and a cannonade was 
 kept up for nearly six hours. We soon found that the 
 enemy had five batteries, the first and most formidable 
 of them being placed on the high promontory close to 
 the mouth of the Big Black. The lower batteries, 
 mounting smaller guns and having no more than two 
 pieces each, were silenced early in the action, but this 
 one obstinately resisted. For the last four hours of the 
 engagement the whole seven gunboats were employed 
 in firing at this one battery, now at long range, seeking 
 to drop shells within the parapet, now at the very foot 
 of the hill, within about two hundred yards, endeavor 
 ing to dismount its guns by direct fire. It was hit again 
 and again, but its pieces were not disabled. At last, 
 about half past one o clock, Admiral Porter gave the 
 signal to withdraw. The gunboats had been hit more 
 or less severely. I was on board the Benton during the 
 attack, and saw that her armor had been pierced re 
 peatedly both in her sides and her pilot house, but she 
 had not a gun disabled; and except for the holes 
 
 42 
 
Before and Around Vicksburg. 
 
 through her mail, some of them in her hull, she was as 
 ready to fight as at the beginning of the action. 
 
 The batteries having proved too much for the gun 
 boats, General Grant determined to execute an alterna 
 tive plan which he had had in mind from the first; that 
 was, to debark the troops and march them south across 
 the peninsula which faces Grand Gulf to a place out of 
 reach of the Confederate guns. While the engagement 
 between the gunboats and batteries had been going on, 
 all the rest of McClernand s corps had reached Hard 
 Times, having marched around by land, and three divi 
 sions of McPherson s corps had also come up. This 
 entire body of about thirty-five thousand men was im 
 mediately started across the peninsula to De Shroon s 
 plantation, where it was proposed to embark them again. 
 
 Late in the evening I left Hard Times with Grant 
 to ride across the peninsula to De Shroon s. The night 
 was pitch dark, and, as we rode side by side, Grant s 
 horse suddenly gave a nasty stumble. I expected to see 
 the general go over the animal s head, and I watched 
 intently, not to see if he was hurt, but if he would show 
 any anger. I had been with Grant daily now for three 
 weeks, and I had never seen him ruffled or heard him 
 swear. His equanimity was becoming a curious spec 
 tacle to me. When I saw his horse lunge my first 
 thought was, " Now he will swear." For an instant his 
 moral status was on trial; but Grant was a tenacious 
 horseman, and instead of going over the animal s head, 
 as I imagined he would, he kept his seat. Pulling up 
 his horse, he rode on, and, to my utter amazement, with 
 out a word or sign of impatience. And it is a fact that 
 
 43 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 though I was with Grant during the most trying cam 
 paigns of the war, I never heard him use an oath. 
 
 In order to get the transports past Grand Gulf, Por 
 ter s gunboats had engaged the batteries about dusk. 
 This artillery duel lasted until about ten o clock, the 
 gunboats withdrawing as soon as the transports were 
 safely past, and steaming at once to De Shroon s plan 
 tation, where General McClernand s corps was all ready 
 to take the transports. The night was spent in em 
 barking the men. By eleven o clock the next morning, 
 April 3Oth, three divisions were landed on the east 
 shore of the Mississippi at the place General Grant had 
 selected. This was Bruinsburg, sixty miles south of 
 Vicksburg, and the first point south of Grand Gulf 
 from which the highlands of the interior could be 
 reached by a road over dry land. 
 
 I was obliged to separate from Grant on the 3Oth, 
 for the means for transporting troops and officers were 
 so limited that neither an extra man nor a particle of 
 unnecessary baggage was allowed, and I did not get 
 over until the morning of May ist, after the army had 
 moved on Port Gibson, where they first engaged the 
 enemy. As soon as I was landed at Bruinsburg I 
 started in the direction of the battle, on foot, of course, 
 as no horses had been brought over. I had not gone 
 far before I overtook a quartermaster driving toward 
 Port Gibson; he took me into his wagon. About four 
 miles from Port Gibson we came upon the first signs of 
 the battle, a field where it was evident that there had 
 been a struggle. I got out of the wagon as we ap 
 proached, and started toward a little white house with 
 
 44 
 
Before and ground Vicksburg. 
 
 green blinds, covered with vines. The little white house 
 had been taken as a field hospital, and the first thing my 
 eyes fell upon as I went into the yard was a heap of arms 
 and legs which had been amputated and thrown into 
 a pile outside. I had seen men shot and dead men 
 plenty, but this pile of legs and arms gave me a vivid 
 sense of war such as I had not before experienced. 
 
 As the army was pressing the Confederates toward 
 Port Gibson all that day I followed in the rear, without 
 overtaking General Grant. While trailing along after 
 the Union forces I came across Fred Grant, then a lad 
 of thirteen, who had been left asleep by his father on a 
 steamer at Bruinsburg, but who had started out on 
 foot like myself as soon as he awoke and found the 
 army had marched. We tramped and foraged together 
 until the next morning, when some officers who had 
 captured two old horses gave us each one. We got the 
 best bridles and saddles we could, and thus equipped 
 made our way into Port Gibson, which the enemy had 
 deserted and where General Grant now had his head 
 quarters. I rode that old horse for four or five days, 
 then by a chance I got a good one. A captured Con 
 federate officer had been brought before General Grant 
 for examination. Now this man had a very good horse, 
 and after Grant had finished his questions the officer 
 said: 
 
 " General, this horse and saddle are my private 
 property; they do not belong to the Confederate army; 
 they belong to me as a citizen, and I trust you will let 
 me have them. Of course, while I am a prisoner I do 
 not expect to be allowed to ride the horse, but I hope 
 
 45 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 you will regard him as my property, and finally restore 
 him to me." 
 
 " Well," said Grant, " I have got four or five first- 
 rate horses wandering somewhere about the Southern 
 Confederacy. They have been captured from me in 
 battle or by spies. I will authorize you, whenever you 
 find one of them, to take possession of him. I cheer 
 fully give him to you; but as for this horse, I think he is 
 just about the horse Mr. Dana needs." 
 
 I rode my new acquisition afterward through that 
 whole campaign, and when I came away I turned him 
 over to the quartermaster. Whenever I went out with 
 General Grant anywhere he always had some question 
 to ask about that horse. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IN CAMP AND BATTLE WITH GRANT AND HIS GENERALS. 
 
 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 Battle 
 field incidents Vicksburg invested and the siege begun Per 
 sonal traits of Sherman, McPherson, and McClernand. 
 
 
 
 IT was the second day of May, 1863, when I rode 
 into Port Gibson, Miss., and inquired for Grant s head 
 quarters. I found the general in a little house of 
 the village, busily directing the advance of the army. 
 He told me that in the battle of the day before the 
 Confederates had been driven back on the roads to 
 Grand Gulf and Vicksburg, and that our forces were 
 now in full pursuit. By the next morning, May 3d, our 
 troops had possession of the roads as far as the Big 
 Black. As soon as he was sure of this, General Grant 
 started with a brigade of infantry and some twenty cav 
 alrymen for Grand Gulf. I accompanied him on the 
 trip. When within about seven miles of Grand Gulf we 
 found that the town had been deserted, and leaving the 
 brigade we entered with the cavalry escort. 
 
 During this ride to Grand Gulf Grant made inquiries 
 on every side about the food supplies of the country we 
 were entering. He told me he had been gathering in- 
 
 47 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 formation on this point ever since the army crossed the 
 Mississippi, and had made up his mind that both beef 
 and cattle and corn were abundant in the country. The 
 result of this inquiry was that here at Grand Gulf Grant 
 took the resolve which makes the Vicksburg campaign 
 so famous that of abandoning entirely his base of sup 
 plies as soon as the army was all up and the rations on 
 the way arrived, boldly striking into the interior, and 
 depending on the country for meat and even for bread. 
 
 We did not reach Grand Gulf until late on May 3d, 
 but at one o clock on the morning of the 4th Grant was 
 off for the front. He had decided that it was useless to 
 bring up the army to this place, to the capture of which 
 we had been so long looking, and which had been 
 abandoned so quickly now that our army was across 
 the Mississippi. I did not follow until later in the day, 
 and so had an opportunity of seeing General Sherman. 
 His corps was marching from above as rapidly as pos 
 sible down to Hard Times landing, and he had come 
 over to Grand Gulf to see about debarking his troops 
 there; this he succeeded in doing a couple of days later. 
 
 That evening I joined Grant at his new headquar 
 ters at Hankinson s Ferry on the Big Black, and now 
 began my first experience with army marching into an 
 enemy s territory. A glimpse of my life at this time is 
 given in a letter to a child, written the morning after I 
 rejoined Grant: 
 
 " All of a sudden it is very cold here. Two days ago 
 it was hot like summer, but now I sit in my tent in my 
 overcoat, writing, and thinking if I only were at home 
 instead of being almost two thousand miles away. 
 
 48 
 
In Camp and Battle with Grant and his Generals. 
 
 " Away yonder, in the edge of the woods, I hear 
 the drum-beat that calls the soldiers to their supper. It 
 is only a little after five o clock, but they begin the day 
 very early and end it early. Pretty soon after dark they 
 are all asleep, lying in their blankets under the trees, 
 for in a quick march they leave their tents behind. 
 Their guns are all ready at their sides, so that if they 
 are suddenly called at night they can start in a moment. 
 It is strange in the morning before daylight to hear the 
 bugle and drums sound the reveille, which calls the army 
 to wake up. It will begin perhaps at a distance and 
 then run along the whole line, bugle after bugle and 
 drum after drum taking it up, and then it goes from 
 front to rear, farther and farther away, the sweet sounds 
 throbbing and rolling while you lie on the grass with 
 your saddle for a pillow, half awake, or opening your 
 eyes to see that the stars are all bright in the sky, or 
 that there is only a faint flush in the east, where the 
 day is soon to break. 
 
 " Living in camp is queer business. I get my meals 
 in General Grant s mess, and pay my share of the ex 
 penses. The table is a chest with a double cover, which 
 unfolds on the right and the left; the dishes, knives and 
 forks, and caster are inside. Sometimes we get good 
 things, but generally we don t. The cook is an old 
 negro, black and grimy. The cooking is not as clean as 
 it might be, but in war you can t be particular about 
 such things. 
 
 " The plums and peaches here are pretty nearly ripe. 
 The strawberries have been ripe these few days, but the 
 soldiers eat them up before we get a sight of them. The 
 5 49 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 figs are as big as the end of your thumb, and the green 
 pears are big enough to eat. But you don t know what 
 beautiful flower gardens there are here. I never saw 
 such roses; and the other day I found a lily as big as a 
 tiger lily, only it was a magnificent red." 
 
 Grant s policy now was to push the Confederates 
 ahead of him up the Big Black River, threatening Jack 
 son, the State capital, and the Big Black bridge behind 
 Vicksburg, and capturing both if necessary. His 
 opinion was that this maneuver would draw Pember- 
 ton out of Vicksburg and bring on a decisive battle 
 within ten days. 
 
 From Hankinson s Ferry, the headquarters were 
 changed on the 7th to Rocky Springs, and there we 
 remained until the nth. By that time McClernand 
 and McPherson had advanced to within ten or twelve 
 miles of the railroad which runs from Vicksburg to 
 Jackson, and were lying nearly in an east and west line; 
 and Sherman s entire corps had reached Hankinson s 
 Ferry. Supplies which Grant had ordered from Milli- 
 ken s Bend had also arrived. The order was now given 
 to Sherman to destroy the bridge at Hankinson s Ferry, 
 the rear guards were abandoned, and our communica 
 tions cut. So complete was our isolation that it was ten 
 days after we left Rocky Springs, on May nth, before I 
 was able to get another dispatch to Mr. Stanton. 
 
 This march toward Jackson proved to be no easy 
 affair. More than one night I bivouacked on the 
 ground in the rain after being all day in my saddle. The 
 most comfortable night I had, in fact, was in a church 
 of which the officers had taken possession. Having no 
 
 50 
 
In Camp and Battle with Grant and his Generals. 
 
 pillow, I went up to the pulpit and borrowed the Bible 
 for the night. Dr. H. L. Hewitt, who was medical 
 director on Grant s staff, slept near me, and he always 
 charged me afterward with stealing that Bible. 
 
 In spite of the roughness of our life, it was all of in 
 tense interest to me, particularly the condition of the 
 people over whose country we were marching. A fact 
 which impressed me was the total absence of men 
 capable of bearing arms. Only old men and children 
 remained. The young men were all in the army or 
 had perished in it. The South was drained of its youth. 
 An army of half a million with a white population of 
 only five millions to draw upon, must soon finish the 
 stock of raw material for soldiers. Another fact of 
 moment was that we found men who had at the first 
 sympathized with the rebellion, and even joined in it, 
 now of their own accord rendering Grant the most 
 valuable assistance, in order that the rebellion might 
 be ended as speedily as possible, and something saved 
 by the Southern people out of the otherwise total and 
 hopeless ruin. " Slavery is gone, other property is 
 mainly gone," they said, " but, for God s sake, let us save 
 some relic of our former means of living." 
 
 In this forward movement the left of the army was 
 ordered to hug the Big Black as closely as possible, 
 while the right moved straight on Raymond. On the 
 1 2th, the right wing, under McPherson, met the ene 
 my just west of Raymond. Grant at the time had his 
 headquarters about at the center of the army, with Sher 
 man s corps, some seven miles west of Raymond. 
 I left him to go to the scene of the battle at once. It 
 
 Si 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 was a hard-fought engagement, lasting some three 
 hours. McPherson drove the Confederates back to and 
 through Raymond, and there stopped. The next day 
 the advance of the army toward Jackson was continued. 
 It rained heavily on the march and the roads were very 
 heavy, but the troops were in the best of spirits at their 
 successes and prospects. This work was a great im 
 provement on digging canals and running batteries. On 
 the afternoon of the I4th, about two and a half miles 
 west of Jackson, McPherson and Sherman were tem 
 porarily stopped by the enemy, but he was quickly de 
 feated, and that night we entered the capital of Mis 
 sissippi. 
 
 At Jackson I received an important telegram from 
 Stanton, though how it got to me there I do not re 
 member. General Grant had been much troubled by 
 the delay McClernand had caused at New Carthage, but 
 he had felt reluctant to remove him as he had been 
 assigned to his command by the President. My re 
 ports to the Secretary on the situation had convinced 
 him that Grant ought to have perfect independence in 
 the matter, so he telegraphed me as follows: 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., May 6, 1863. 
 C. A. DANA, Esq., Smith s Plantation, la. 
 
 General Grant has full and absolute authority to 
 enforce his own commands and to remove any person 
 who by ignorance in action or any cause interferes 
 with or delays his operations. He has the full con 
 fidence of the Government, is expected to enforce his 
 authority, and will be firmly and heartily supported, 
 but he will be responsible for any failure to exert his 
 powers. You may communicate this to him. 
 
 E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. 
 
 52 
 
In Camp and Battle with Grant and his Generals. 
 
 The very evening of the day that we reached Jack 
 son, Grant learned that Lieutenant-General Pember- 
 ton had been ordered by General Joe Johnston to come 
 out of Vicksburg and attack our rear. Grant immedi 
 ately faced the bulk of his army about to meet the ene 
 my, leaving Sherman in Jackson to tear up the railroads 
 and destroy all the public property there that could be 
 of use to the Confederates. I remained with Sherman 
 to see the work of destruction. I remember now noth 
 ing that I saw except the burning of vast quantities of 
 cotton packed in bales, and that I was greatly aston 
 ished to see how slowly it burned. 
 
 On the afternoon of the I5th I joined Grant again 
 at his headquarters at Clinton. Early the next morn 
 ing we had definite information about Pemberton. 
 He was about ten miles to the west, with twenty-five 
 thousand men, as reported, and our advance was almost 
 up with him. We at once went forward to the front. 
 Here we found Pemberton in a most formidable po 
 sition on the crest of a wooded ridge called Cham 
 pion s Hill, over which the road passed longitudinally. 
 About eleven o clock in the morning of the i6th 
 the battle began, and by four in the afternoon it was 
 won. 
 
 After the battle I started out on horseback with 
 Colonel Rawlins to visit the field. When we reached 
 Logan s command we found him greatly excited. He 
 declared the day was lost, and that he would soon be 
 swept from his position. I contested the point with 
 him. " Why, general," I said, " we have gained the 
 day." 
 
 53 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 He could not see it. " Don t you hear the cannon 
 over there? " he answered. " They will be down on us 
 right away! In an hour I will have twenty thousand 
 men to fight." 
 
 I found afterward that this was simply a curious 
 idiosyncrasy of Logan s. In the beginning of a fight he 
 was one of the bravest men that could be, saw no 
 danger, went right on fighting until the battle was over. 
 Then, after the battle was won, his mind gained an 
 immovable conviction that it was lost. Where we were 
 victorious, he thought that we were defeated. I had a 
 very interesting conversation with Logan on this day, 
 when he attempted to convince me that we had lost the 
 battle of Champion s Hill. It was merely an intellectual 
 peculiarity. It did not in the least impair his value as a 
 soldier or commanding officer. He never made any 
 mistake on account of it. 
 
 On leaving Logan, Rawlins and I were joined by 
 several officers, and we continued our ride over the 
 field. On the hill where the thickest of the fight had 
 taken place we stopped, and were looking around at 
 the dead and dying men lying all about us, when sud 
 denly a man, perhaps forty-five or fifty years old, who 
 had a Confederate uniform on, lifted himself up on his 
 elbow, and said: 
 
 " For God s sake, gentlemen, is there a Mason 
 among you? " 
 
 "Yes," said Rawlins, " I am a Mason." He got 
 off his horse and kneeled by the dying man, who gave 
 him some letters out of his pocket. When he came 
 back Rawlins had tears on his cheeks. The man, he 
 
 54 
 
In Camp and Battle with Grant and his Generals. 
 
 told us, wanted him to convey some souvenir a minia 
 ture or a ring, I do not remember what to his wife, 
 who was in Alabama. Rawlins took the package, and 
 some time afterward he succeeded in sending it to the 
 woman. 
 
 I remained out late that night conversing with the 
 officers who had been in the battle, and think it must 
 have been about eleven o clock when I got to Grant s 
 headquarters, where I was to sleep. Two or three 
 officers who had been out with me went with me into 
 the little cottage which Grant had taken possession of. 
 We found a wounded man there, a tall and fine-looking 
 man, a Confederate. He stood up suddenly and said: 
 " Kill me! Will some one kill me? I am in such an 
 guish that it will be mercy to do it I have got to die 
 kill me don t let me suffer! " We sent for a surgeon, 
 who examined his case, but said it was hopeless. He 
 had been shot through the head, so that it had cut off 
 the optic nerve of both eyes. He never could possibly 
 see again. Before morning he died. 
 
 I was up at daylight the next day, and off with Grant 
 and his staff after the enemy. We rode directly west, 
 and overtook Pemberton at the Big Black. He had 
 made a stand on the bottom lands at the east head of the 
 Big Black bridge. Here he fought in rifle-pits, pro 
 tected by abatis and a difficult bayou. Lawler s brigade, 
 of McClernand s corps, charged the left of the Con 
 federate rifle-pits magnificently, taking more prisoners 
 than their own numbers. The others fled. Pemberton 
 burned his bridge and retreated rapidly into Vicks- 
 burg, with only three cannon out of sixty-three with 
 
 55 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 which he had entered upon this short, sharp, and de 
 cisive campaign. 
 
 There was nothing for Grant to do now but build 
 bridges and follow. Before morning four bridges had 
 been thrown across the Big Black, and by the even 
 ing of that day, the i8th, the army had arrived be 
 hind Vicksburg, which was now its front. In twenty- 
 four hours after Grant s arrival the town was invested, 
 the bluffs above the town had been seized so that we 
 could get water from the Mississippi, and Haynes s Bluff 
 up the Yazoo had been abandoned by the Confederates. 
 With the Yazoo highlands in our control there was no 
 difficulty in establishing a line of supplies with our origi 
 nal base on the Mississippi. On the 2Oth I was able 
 to get off to Mr. Stanton the first dispatch from the 
 rear of Vicksburg. In it I said, " Probably the town 
 will be carried to-day." 
 
 The prediction was not verified. The assault we 
 expected was not made until the morning of the 22d. 
 It failed, but without heavy loss. Early in the after 
 noon, however, McClernand, who was on the left of 
 our lines, reported that he was in possession of two 
 forts of the rebel line, was hard pressed, and in great 
 need of re-enforcements. Not doubting that he had 
 really succeeded in taking and holding the works he 
 pretended to hold, General Grant sent a division to his 
 support, and at the same time ordered Sherman and 
 McPherson to make new attacks. McClernand s report 
 was false, for, although a few of his men had broken 
 through in one place, he had not taken a single fort, and 
 the result of the second assault was disastrous. We 
 
 56 
 
In Camp and Battle with Grant and his Generals. 
 
 were repulsed, losing quite heavily, when but for his 
 error the total loss of the day would have been incon 
 siderable. 
 
 The failure of the 22d convinced Grant of the 
 necessity of a regular siege, and immediately the army 
 settled down to that. We were in an incomparable 
 position for a siege as regarded the health and com 
 fort of our men. The high wooded hills afforded pure 
 air and shade, and the deep ravines abounded in springs 
 of excellent water, and if they failed it was easy to bring 
 it from the Mississippi. Our line of supplies was beyond 
 the reach of the enemy, and there was an abundance of 
 fruit all about us. I frequently met soldiers coming into 
 camp with buckets full of mulberries, blackberries, and 
 red and yellow wild plums. 
 
 The army was deployed at this time in the following 
 way: The right of the besieging force was held by Gen 
 eral Sherman, whose forces ran from the river along the 
 bluffs around the northeast of the town. Sherman s 
 front was at a greater distance from the enemy than that 
 of any other corps, and the approach less advantageous, 
 but he began his siege works with great energy and 
 admirable skill. Everything I saw of Sherman at the 
 Vicksburg siege increased my admiration for him. He 
 was a very brilliant man and an excellent commander 
 of a corps. Sherman s information was great, and he 
 was a clever talker. He always liked to have people 
 about who could keep up with his conversation; besides, 
 he was genial and unaffected. I particularly admired 
 his loyalty to Grant. He had criticised the plan of 
 campaign frankly in the first place, but had supported 
 
 57 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 every movement with all his energy, and now that we 
 were in the rear of Vicksburg he gave loud praise to the 
 commander in chief. 
 
 To the left of Sherman lay the Seventeenth Army 
 Corps, under Major-General J. B. McPherson. He was 
 one of the best officers we had. He was but thirty-two 
 years old at the time, and a very handsome, gallant- 
 looking man, with rather a dark complexion, dark eyes, 
 and a most cordial manner. McPherson was an en 
 gineer officer of fine natural ability and extraordinary 
 acquirements, having graduated Number One in his 
 class at West Point, and was held in high estimation by 
 Grant and his professional brethren. Halleck gave him 
 his start in the civil war, and he had been with Grant 
 at Donelson and ever since. He was a man without 
 any pretensions, and always had a pleasant hand-shake 
 for you. 
 
 It is a little remarkable that the three chief figures in 
 this great Vicksburg campaign Grant, Sherman, and 
 McPherson were all born in Ohio. The utmost cor 
 diality and confidence existed between these three men, 
 and it always seemed to me that much of the success 
 achieved in these marches and battles was owing to this 
 very fact. There was no jealousy or bickering, and in 
 their unpretending simplicity they were as alike as three 
 peas. No country was ever more faithfully, unselfishly 
 served than was ours in the Vicksburg campaign by 
 these three Ohio officers. 
 
 To McPherson s left was the Thirteenth Army 
 Corps, under Major-General John A. McClernand. 
 Next to Grant he was the ranking officer in the army. 
 
 58 
 
In Camp and Battle with Grant and his Generals. 
 
 The approaches on his front were most favorable to us, 
 and the enemy s line of works evidently much the weak 
 est there, but he was very inefficient and slow in push 
 ing his siege operations. Grant had resolved on the 
 23d to relieve McClernand for his false dispatch of the 
 day before stating that he held two of the enemy s 
 forts, but he changed his mind, concluding that it would 
 be better on the whole to leave him in his command 
 till the siege was concluded. From the time that I 
 had joined Grant s army at Milliken s Bend and heard 
 him criticising Porter, Sherman, and other officers, 
 I had been observing McClernand narrowly myself. 
 My own judgment of him by this time was that he had 
 not the qualities necessary for commander even of a 
 regiment. In the first place, he was not a military man; 
 he was a politician and a member of Congress. He was 
 a man of a good deal of a certain kind of talent, not of a 
 high order, but not one of intellectual accomplishments. 
 His education was that which a man gets who is in 
 Congress five or six years. In short, McClernand was 
 merely a smart man, quick, very active-minded, but his 
 judgment was not solid, and he looked after himself a 
 good deal. Mr. Lincoln also looked out carefully for 
 McClernand, because he was an Illinois Democrat, with 
 a considerable following among the people. It was a 
 great thing to get McClernand into the war in the first 
 place, for his natural predisposition, one would have 
 supposed, would have been to sympathize with the 
 South. As long as he adhered to the war he carried 
 his Illinois constituency with him; and chiefly for this 
 reason, doubtless, Lincoln made it a point to take 
 
 59 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 special care of him. In doing this the President really 
 served the greater good of the cause. But from the 
 circumstances of Lincoln s supposed friendship, Mc- 
 Clernand had more consequence in the army than he de 
 served. 
 
 60 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 SOME CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS. 
 
 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 Sec 
 retary Mr. Dana s early judgment of soldiers who afterward won 
 distinction. 
 
 LIVING at headquarters as I did throughout the siege 
 of Vicksburg, I soon became intimate with General 
 Grant, not only knowing every operation while it was 
 still but an idea, but studying its execution on the spot. 
 Grant was an uncommon fellow the most modest, the 
 most disinterested, and the most honest man I ever 
 knew, with a temper that nothing could disturb, and a 
 judgment that was judicial in its comprehensiveness and 
 wisdom. Not a great man, except morally; not an 
 original or brilliant man, but sincere, thoughtful, deep, 
 and gifted with courage that never faltered; when the 
 time came to risk all, he went in like a simple-hearted, 
 unaffected, unpretending hero, whom no ill omens could 
 deject and no triumph unduly exalt. A social, friendly 
 man, too, fond of a pleasant joke and also ready with 
 one; but liking above all a long chat of an evening, and 
 ready to sit up with you all night, talking in the cool 
 breeze in front of his tent. Not a man of sentimentality, 
 
 61 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 not demonstrative in friendship, but always holding to 
 his friends, and just even to the enemies he hated. 
 
 After Grant, I spent more time at Vicksburg with his 
 assistant adjutant general, Colonel John A. Rawlins, and 
 with Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, than with anybody 
 else. Rawlins was one of the most valuable men in 
 the army, in my judgment. He had but a limited edu 
 cation, which he had picked up at the neighbourhood 
 school and in Galena, 111., near which place he was 
 born and where he had worked himself into the law; 
 but he had a very able mind, clear, strong, and not sub 
 ject to hysterics. He bossed everything at Grant s 
 headquarters. He had very little respect for persons, and 
 a rough style of conversation. I have heard him curse 
 at Grant when, according to his judgment, the general 
 was doing something that he thought he had better not 
 do. But he was entirely devoted to his duty, with the 
 clearest judgment, and perfectly fearless. Without him 
 Grant would not have been the same man. Rawlins 
 was essentially a good man, though he was one of the 
 most profane men I ever knew; there was no guile in 
 him he was as upright and as genuine a character as I 
 ever came across. 
 
 James H. Wilson I had first met at Milliken s Bend, 
 when he was serving as chief topographical engineer 
 and assistant inspector general of the Army of the Ten 
 nessee. He was a brilliant man intellectually, highly 
 educated, and thoroughly companionable. We became 
 warm friends at once, and were together a great deal 
 throughout the war. Rarely did Wilson go out on a 
 specially interesting tour of inspection that he did not 
 
 62 
 
Some Contemporary Portraits. 
 
 invite me to accompany him, and I never failed, if I 
 were at liberty, to accept his invitations. Much of the 
 exact information about the condition of the works 
 which I was able to send to Mr. Stanton Wilson put in 
 my way. 
 
 I have already spoken of McClernand, Sherman, and 
 McPherson, Grant s three chief officers, but there were 
 many subordinate officers of value in his army, not a 
 few of whom became afterward soldiers of distinction. 
 At the request of Secretary Stanton, I had begun at 
 Vicksburg a series of semi-official letters, in which I 
 undertook to give my impressions of the officers in 
 Grant s army. These letters were designed to help Mr. 
 Lincoln and Mr. Stanton in forming their judgments of 
 the men. In order to set the personnel of the command 
 ing force distinctly before the reader, I quote here one 
 of these letters, written at Cairo after the siege had 
 ended. It has never been published before, and it gives 
 my judgment at that time of the subordinate officers in 
 the Vicksburg campaign: 
 
 CAIRO, ILL., July 12, 1863. 
 
 DEAR SIR: Your dispatch of June 2Qth, desiring 
 me to " continue my sketches," I have to-day seen for 
 the first time. It was sent down the river, but had not 
 arrived when I left Vicksburg on the 5th instant. 
 
 Let me describe the generals of division and bri 
 gade in Grant s army in the order of the army corps 
 to which they are attached, beginning with the Thir 
 teenth. 
 
 The most prominent officer of the Thirteenth Corps, 
 next to the commander of the corps, is Brigadier-Gen 
 eral A. P. Hovey. He is a lawyer of Indiana, and from 
 forty to forty-five years old. He is ambitious, active, 
 nervous, irritable, energetic, clear-headed, quick-witted, 
 
 63 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 and prompt-handed. He works with all his might and 
 all his mind; and, unlike most volunteer officers, makes 
 it his business to learn the military profession just as if 
 he expected to spend his life in it. He distinguished 
 himself most honorably at Port Gibson and Champion s 
 Hill, and is one of the best officers in this army. He 
 is a man whose character will always command respect, 
 though he is too anxious about his personal renown 
 and his own advancement to be considered a first-rate 
 man morally, judged by the high standard of men like 
 Grant and Sherman. 
 
 Hovey s principal brigadiers are General McGinnis 
 and Colonel Slack. McGinnis is brave enough, but too 
 excitable. He lost his balance at Champion s Hill. He 
 is not likely ever to be more than a brigadier. Slack is 
 a solid, steady man, brave, thorough, and sensible, but 
 will never set the river afire. His education is poor, but 
 he would make a respectable brigadier general, and, I 
 know, hopes to be promoted. 
 
 Next to Hovey is Osterhaus. This general is uni 
 versally well spoken of. He is a pleasant, genial fellow, 
 brave and quick, and makes a first-rate report of a re- 
 connoissance. There is not another general in this 
 army who keeps the commander in chief so well in 
 formed concerning whatever happens at his outposts. 
 As a disciplinarian he is not equal to Hovey, but is 
 much better than some others. On the battlefield he 
 lacks energy and concentrativeness. His brigade com 
 manders are all colonels, and I don t know much of 
 them. 
 
 The third division of the Thirteenth Corps is com 
 manded by General A. J. Smith, an old cavalry officer 
 of the regular service. He is intrepid to recklessness, 
 his head is clear though rather thick, his disposition 
 honest and manly, though given to boasting and self- 
 exaggeration of a gentle and innocent kind. His divi 
 sion is well cared for, but is rather famous for slow 
 instead of rapid marching. McClernand, however, dis 
 liked him, and kept him in the rear throughout the late 
 
UNIVER 
 
 or 
 Some Contemporary Portraits. ^^ 
 
 campaign. He is a good officer to command a division 
 in an army corps, but should not be intrusted with any 
 important independent command. 
 
 Smith s principal brigadier is General Burbridge, 
 whom I judge to be a mediocre officer, brave, rather 
 pretentious, a good fellow, not destined to greatness. 
 
 The fourth division in the Thirteenth Corps is Gen 
 eral Carr s. He has really been sick thoughout the 
 campaign, and had leave to go home several weeks 
 since, but stuck it out till the surrender. This may 
 account for a critical, hang-back disposition which he 
 has several times exhibited. He is a man of more culti 
 vation, intelligence, and thought than his colleagues 
 generally. The discipline in his camps I have thought 
 to be poor and careless. He is brave enough, but lacks 
 energy and initiative. 
 
 Carr s brigadiers comprise General M. K. Lawler 
 and General Lee, of Kansas. Lawler weighs two hun 
 dred and fifty pounds, is a Roman Catholic, and was a 
 Douglas Democrat, belongs in Shawneetown, 111., and 
 served in the Mexican War. He is as brave as a lion, 
 and has about as much brains; but his purpose is al 
 ways honest, and his sense is always good. He is a 
 good disciplinarian and a first-rate soldier. He once 
 hung a man of his regiment for murdering a comrade, 
 without reporting the case to his commanding general 
 either before or after the hanging, but there was no 
 doubt the man deserved his fate. Grant has two or 
 three times gently reprimanded him for indiscretions, 
 but is pretty sure to go and thank him after a battle. 
 Carr s third brigadier I don t know. 
 
 In the Fifteenth Corps there are two major generals 
 who command divisions namely, Steele and Blair 
 and one brigadier, Tuttle. Steele has also been sick 
 through the campaign, but has kept constantly at his 
 post. He is a gentlemanly, pleasant fellow. . . . Sher 
 man has a high opinion of his capacity, and every one 
 says that he handles troops with great coolness and 
 skill in battle. To me his mind seems to work in a 
 
 6 65 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 desultory way, like the mind of a captain of infantry 
 long habituated to garrison duty at a frontier post. He 
 takes things in bits, like a gossiping companion, and 
 never comprehensively and strongly, like a man of clear 
 brain and a ruling purpose. But on the whole I con 
 sider him one of the best division generals in this army, 
 yet you can not rely on him to make a logical state 
 ment, or to exercise any independent command. 
 
 Of Steele s brigadiers, Colonel Woods eminently de 
 serves promotion. A Hercules in form, in energy, and 
 in pertinacity, he is both safe and sure. Colonel Manter, 
 of Missouri, is a respectable officer. General Thayer is 
 a fair but not first-rate officer. 
 
 Frank Blair is about the same as an officer that he 
 is as a politician. He is intelligent, prompt, determined, 
 rather inclining to disorder, a poor disciplinarian, but a 
 brave fighter. I judge that he will soon leave the army, 
 and that he prefers his seat in Congress to his commis 
 sion. 
 
 In Frank Blair s division there are two brigadier 
 generals, Ewing and Lightburne. Ewing seems to pos 
 sess many of the qualities of his father, whom you know 
 better than I do, I suppose. Lightburne has not served 
 long with this army, and I have had no opportunity 
 of learning his measure. Placed in a command during 
 the siege where General Sherman himself directed what 
 was to be done, he has had little to do. He seems to 
 belong to the heavy rather than the rapid department of 
 the forces. 
 
 Colonel Giles Smith is one of the very best briga 
 diers in Sherman s corps, perhaps the best of all next to 
 Colonel Woods. He only requires the chance to de 
 velop into an officer of uncommon power and useful 
 ness. There are plenty of men with generals commis 
 sions who in all military respects are not fit to tie his 
 shoes. 
 
 Of General Tuttle, who commands Sherman s third 
 division, I have already spoken, and need not here re 
 peat it. Bravery and zeal constitute his only qualifica- 
 
 66 
 
Some Contemporary Portraits. 
 
 tions for command. His principal brigadier is General 
 Mower, a brilliant officer, but not of large mental cali 
 bre. Colonel Wood, who commands another of his 
 brigades, is greatly esteemed by General Grant, but I 
 do not know him; neither do I know the commander of 
 his third brigade. 
 
 Three divisions of the Sixteenth Corps have been 
 serving in Grant s army for some time past. They are 
 all commanded by brigadier generals, and the brigades 
 by colonels. The first of these divisions to arrive before 
 Vicksburg was Lauman s. This general got his promo 
 tion by bravery on the field and Iowa political influence. 
 He is totally unfit to command a very good man but a 
 very poor general. His brigade commanders are none 
 of them above mediocrity. The next division of the 
 Sixteenth Corps to join the Vicksburg army was Gen 
 eral Kimball s. He is not so bad a commander as Lau- 
 man, but he is bad enough; brave, of course, but lacking 
 the military instinct and the genius of generalship. I 
 don t know any of his brigade commanders. The third 
 division of the Sixteenth Corps now near Vicksburg is 
 that of General W. S. Smith. He is one of the best 
 officers in that army. A rigid disciplinarian, his division 
 is always ready and always safe. A man of brains, a 
 hard worker, unpretending, quick, suggestive, he may 
 also be a little crotchety, for such is his reputation; but 
 I judge that he only needs the opportunity to render 
 great services. What his brigade commanders are 
 worth I can t say, but I am sure they have a first-rate 
 schoolmaster in him. 
 
 I now come to the Seventeenth Corps and to its 
 most prominent division general, Logan. This is a 
 man of remarkable qualities and peculiar character. 
 Heroic and brilliant, he is sometimes unsteady. Inspir 
 ing his men with his own enthusiasm on the field of 
 battle, he is splendid in all its crash and commotion^ but 
 before it begins he is doubtful of the result, and after it is 
 over he is fearful we may yet be beaten. A man of 
 instinct and not of reflection, his judgments are often 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 absurd, but his extemporaneous opinions are very apt 
 to be right. Deficient in education, he is full of gener 
 ous attachments and sincere animosities. On the whole, 
 few can serve the cause of the country more effectively 
 than he, and none serve it more faithfully. 
 
 Logan s oldest brigade commander is General John 
 D. Stevenson, of Missouri. He is a person of much 
 talent, but a grumbler. He was one of the oldest 
 colonels in the volunteer service, but because he had 
 always been an antislavery man all the others were 
 promoted before him. This is still one of his grounds 
 for discontent, and in addition younger brigadiers have 
 been put before him since. Thus the world will not 
 go to suit him. He has his own notions, too, of what 
 should be done on the field of battle, and General Mc- 
 Pherson has twice during this campaign had to rebuke 
 him very severely for his failure to come to time on 
 critical occasions. 
 
 Logan s second brigade is commanded by General 
 Leggett, of Ohio. This officer has distinguished him 
 self during the siege, and will be likely to distinguish 
 himself hereafter. He possesses a clear head, an equable 
 temper, and great propulsive power over his men. He 
 is also a hard worker, and whatever he touches goes 
 easily. The third brigade of this division has for a short 
 time been commanded by Colonel Force. I only know 
 that Logan, McPherson, and Grant all think well of 
 him. 
 
 Next in rank among McPherson s division generals 
 is McArthur. He has been in the reserve throughout 
 the campaign, and has had little opportunity of proving 
 his mettle. He is a shrewd, steady Scotchman, trust 
 worthy rather than brilliant, good at hard knocks, but 
 not a great commander. Two of his brigadiers, how 
 ever, have gained very honorable distinction in this 
 campaign, namely Crocker, who commanded Quin- 
 by s division at Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, and 
 Champion s Hill, and Ransom. Crocker was sick 
 throughout, and, as soon as Quinby returned to his com- 
 
 68 
 
Some Contemporary Portraits. 
 
 mand, had to go away, and it is feared may never be 
 able to come back. He is an officer of great promise 
 and remarkable power. Ransom has commanded on 
 McPherson s right during the siege, and has exceeded 
 every other brigadier in the zeal, intelligence, and 
 efficiency with which his siege works were constructed 
 and pushed forward. At the time of the surrender his 
 trenches were so well completed that the engineers 
 agreed that they offered the best opportunity in the 
 whole of our lines for the advance of storming columns. 
 Captain Comstock told me that ten thousand men 
 could there be marched under cover up to the very 
 lines of the enemy. In the assault of May 22d, Ransom 
 was equally conspicuous for the bravery with which he 
 exposed himself. No young man in all this army has 
 more future than he. 
 
 The third brigade of McArthur s division, that of 
 General Reid, has been detached during the campaign 
 at Lake Providence and elsewhere, and I have not been 
 able to make General R. s acquaintance. 
 
 The third division of the Seventeenth Corps was 
 commanded during the first of the siege by General 
 Quinby. This officer was also sick, and I dare say did 
 not do justice to himself. A good commander of a 
 division he is not, though he is a most excellent and 
 estimable man, and seemed to be regarded by the sol 
 diers with much affection. But he lacks order, system, 
 command, and is the very opposite of his successor, 
 General John E. Smith, who, with much less intellect 
 than Quinby, has a great deal better sense, with a firm 
 ness of character, a steadiness of hand, and a freedom 
 from personal irritability and jealousy which must soon 
 produce the happiest effect upon the division. Smith 
 combines with these natural qualities of a soldier and 
 commander a conscientious devotion not merely to the 
 doing but also to the learning of his duty, which renders 
 him a better and better general every day. He is also fit 
 to be intrusted with any independent command where 
 judgment and discretion are as necessary as courage 
 
 69 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 and activity, for in him all these qualities seem to be 
 happily blended and balanced. 
 
 Of General Matthias, who commands the brigade 
 in this division so long and so gallantly commanded 
 by the late Colonel Boomer, I hear the best accounts, 
 but do not know him personally. The medical in 
 spector tells me that no camps in the lines are kept in 
 so good condition as his; and General Sherman, under 
 whom he lately served, speaks of him as a very valuable 
 officer. The second brigade is commanded by Colonel 
 Sanborn, a steady, mediocre sort of man; the third by 
 Colonel Holmes, whom I don t know personally, but 
 who made a noble fight at Champion s Hill, and saved 
 our center there from being broken. 
 
 General Herron s division is the newest addition to 
 the forces under Grant, except the Ninth Corps, of 
 which I know nothing except that its discipline and 
 organization exceed those of the Western troops. Her- 
 ron is a driving, energetic sort of young fellow, not 
 deficient either in self-esteem or in common sense, and, 
 as I judge, hardly destined to distinctions higher than 
 those he has already acquired. Of his two brigadiers, 
 Vandever has not proved himself of much account dur 
 ing the siege; Orme I have seen, but do not know. 
 Herron has shown a great deal more both of capacity 
 and force than either of them. But he has not the first 
 great requisite of a soldier, obedience to orders, and 
 believes too much in doing things his own way. Thus, 
 for ten days after he had taken his position he disre 
 garded the order properly to picket the bottom between 
 the bluff and the river on his left. He had made up 
 his own mind that nobody could get out of the town by 
 that way, and accordingly neglected to have the place 
 thoroughly examined in order to render the matter 
 clear and certain. Presently Grant discovered that men 
 from the town were making their escape through that 
 bottom, and then a more peremptory command to Her 
 ron set the matter right by the establishment of the 
 necessary pickets. 
 
 70 
 
Some Contemporary Portraits. 
 
 I must not omit a general who formerly commanded 
 a brigade in Logan s division, and has for some time 
 been detached to a separate command at Milliken s 
 Bend. I mean General Dennis. He is a hard-headed, 
 hard-working, conscientious man, who never knows 
 when he is beaten, and consequently is very hard to 
 beat. He is not brilliant, but safe, sound, and trust 
 worthy. His predecessor in that command, General 
 Sullivan, has for some time been at Grant s headquar 
 ters, doing nothing with more energy and effect than he 
 would be likely to show in any other line of duty. He 
 is a gentlemanly fellow, intelligent, a charming com 
 panion, but heavy, jovial, and lazy. 
 
 I might write another letter on the staff officers and 
 staff organization of Grant s army, should you desire it. 
 
 Yours faithfully, C. A. DANA. 
 
 Mr. STANTON. 
 
 The day after sending to Mr. Stanton this letter on 
 the generals of divisions and of brigades in the army 
 which besieged Vicksburg, I wrote him another on the 
 staff officers of the various corps. Like its predecessor, 
 this letter has never appeared in the records of the war: 
 
 CAIRO, ILL., July 13, 1863. 
 
 DEAR SIR: In my letter of yesterday I accidentally 
 omitted to notice General C. C. Washburn among the 
 generals of division in Grant s army. He is now in 
 command of two of the divisions detached from the 
 Sixteenth Army Corps namely, that of Kimball and 
 that of W. S. Smith and, as I happen to know, is 
 anxious to be put in command of an army corps, for 
 which purpose it has been suggested that a new corps 
 might be created out of these two divisions, with the 
 addition of that of Lauman, also detached from the Six 
 teenth, or that of Herron. But I understand from Gen 
 eral Grant that he is not favorable to any such arrange 
 ment. Washburn being one of the very youngest in 
 
 71 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 rank of his major generals, he intends to put him in 
 command of a single division as soon as possible, in 
 order that he may prove his fitness for higher com 
 mands by actual service, and give no occasion for older 
 soldiers to complain that he is promoted without regard 
 to his merits. 
 
 I know Washburn very well, both as a politician and 
 a military man, and I say frankly that he has better 
 qualities for the latter than for the former function. He 
 is brave, steady, respectable; receives suggestions and 
 weighs them carefully; is not above being advised, but 
 acts with independence nevertheless. His judgment is 
 good, and his vigilance sufficient. I have not seen him 
 in battle, however, and can not say how far he holds 
 his mind there. I don t find in him, I am sorry to say, 
 that effort to learn the military art which every com 
 mander ought to exhibit, no matter whether he has re 
 ceived a military education or not. Washburn s whole 
 soul is not put into the business of arms, and for me 
 that is an unpardonable defect. But he is a good man, 
 and above the average of our generals, at least of those 
 in Grant s command. 
 
 I now come to the staff organization and staff 
 officers of this army, beginning, of course, with those 
 connected with the head of the department. Grant s 
 staff is a curious mixture of good, bad, and indifferent. 
 As he is neither an organizer nor a disciplinarian him 
 self, his staff is naturally a mosaic of accidental elements 
 and family friends. It contains four working men, two 
 who are able to accomplish their duties without much 
 work, and several who either don t think of work, or 
 who accomplish nothing no matter what they under 
 take. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Rawlins, Grant s assistant ad 
 jutant general, is a very industrious, conscientious man, 
 who never loses a moment, and never gives himself any 
 indulgence except swearing and scolding. He is a 
 lawyer by profession, a townsman of Grant s, and has a 
 great influence over him, especially because he watches 
 
 72 
 
Some Contemporary Portraits. 
 
 him day and night, and whenever he commits the folly 
 of tasting liquor hastens to remind him that at the be 
 ginning of the war he gave him [Rawlins] his word of 
 honor not to touch a drop as long as it lasted. Grant 
 thinks Rawlins a first-rate adjutant, but I think this is a 
 mistake. He is too slow, and can t write the English 
 language correctly without a great deal of careful con 
 sideration. Indeed, illiterateness is a general charac 
 teristic of Grant s staff, and in fact of Grant s generals 
 and regimental officers of all ranks. 
 
 Major Bowers, judge-advocate of Grant s staff, is 
 an excellent man, and always finds work to do. Lieu 
 tenant-Colonel Wilson, inspector general, is a person 
 of similar disposition. He is a captain of engineers in 
 the regular army, and has rendered valuable services in 
 that capacity. The fortifications of Haynes s Bluff were 
 designed by him and executed under his direction. His 
 leading idea is the idea of duty, and he applies it vig 
 orously and often impatiently to others. In conse 
 quence he is unpopular among all who like to live 
 with little work. But he has remarkable talents and 
 uncommon executive power, and will be heard from 
 hereafter. 
 
 The quartermaster s department is under charge of 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Bingham, who is one of those I 
 spoke of as accomplishing much with little work. He 
 is an invalid almost, and I have never seen him when he 
 appeared to be perfectly well; but he is a man of first-rate 
 abilities and solid character, and, barring physical weak 
 ness, up to even greater responsibilities than those he 
 now bears. 
 
 The chief commissary, Lieutenant-Colonel Mac- 
 feely, is a jolly, agreeable fellow, who never seems 
 to be at work, but I have heard no complaints of de 
 ficiencies in his department. On the contrary, it seems 
 to be one of the most efficacious parts of this great 
 machine. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Kent, provost-marshal general, 
 is a very industrious and sensible man, a great improve- 
 
 73 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ment on his predecessor, Colonel Hillyer, who was a 
 family and personal friend of Grant s. 
 
 There are two aides-de-camp with the rank of 
 
 colonel, namely, Colonel and Colonel , both 
 
 personal friends of Grant s. is a worthless, 
 
 whisky-drinking, useless fellow. is decent and 
 
 gentlemanly, but neither of them is worth his salt so 
 far as service to the Government goes. Indeed, in all 
 my observation, I have never discovered the use of 
 Grant s aides-de-camp at all. On the battlefield he 
 sometimes sends orders by them, but everywhere else 
 they are idle loafers. I suppose the army would be 
 better off if they were all suppressed, especially the 
 colonels. 
 
 Grant has three aides with the rank of captain. Cap 
 tain is a relative of Mrs. Grant. He has been a 
 
 stage driver, and violates English grammar at every 
 phrase. He is of some use, for he attends to the mails. 
 
 Captain is an elegant young officer of the regular 
 
 cavalry. He rides after the general when he rides out; 
 the rest of the time he does nothing at all. Captain 
 Badeau, wounded at Port Hudson since he was at 
 tached to Grant s staff, has not yet reported. 
 
 I must not omit the general medical staff of this 
 army. It is in bad order. Its head, Dr. Mills, is im 
 practicable, earnest, quarrelsome. He was relieved sev 
 eral weeks since, but Grant likes him, and kept him on 
 till the fall of Vicksburg. In this he was right, no doubt, 
 for a change during the siege would have been trouble 
 some. The change, I presume, will now be made. It 
 must be for the better. 
 
 The office of chief of artillery on the general staff 
 I had forgotten, as well as that of chief engineer. The 
 former is occupied by Lieutenant-Colonel Duff, of the 
 Second Illinois Artillery. He is unequal to the position, 
 not only because he is disqualified by sickness, but be 
 cause he does not sufficiently understand the manage 
 ment of artillery. The siege suffered greatly from his 
 incompetence. General Grant knows, of course, that he 
 
 74 
 
Some Contemporary Portraits. 
 
 is not the right person; but it is one of his weaknesses 
 that he is unwilling to hurt the feelings of a friend, and 
 so he keeps him on. 
 
 The chief engineer, Captain Comstock, is an officer 
 of great merit. He has, too, what his predecessor, Cap 
 tain Prime, lacked, a talent for organization. His acces 
 sion to the army will be the source of much improve 
 ment. 
 
 If General Grant had about him a staff of thor 
 oughly competent men, disciplinarians and workers, the 
 efficiency and righting quality of his army would soon 
 be much increased. As it is, things go too much by 
 hazard and by spasms; or, when the pinch comes, Grant 
 forces through, by his own energy and main strength, 
 what proper organization and proper staff officers 
 would have done already. 
 
 The staff of the Thirteenth Corps was formed by 
 General McClernand. The acting adjutant general, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Scates, is a man of about fifty-five 
 or sixty years old; he was a judge in Illinois, and left an 
 honored and influential social position to serve in the 
 army. General Ord speaks in high terms of him as an 
 
 officer. The chief of artillery, Colonel , is an ass. 
 
 The chief quartermaster, Lieutenant-Colonel , 
 
 General McClernand s father-in-law, lately resigned his 
 commission. He was incompetent. . . . His successor 
 has not yet been appointed. The chief commissary, 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel , is a fussy fellow, who with 
 
 much show accomplishes but little. General McCler 
 nand s aides went away with him or are absent on 
 leave. Not a man of them is worth having. The en 
 gineer on his staff, Lieutenant Hains, is an industrious 
 and useful officer. The medical director, Dr. Ham 
 mond, had just been appointed. 
 
 In the Fifteenth Corps staff all have to be working 
 men, for Sherman tolerates no idlers and finds some 
 thing for everybody to do. If an officer proves unfit 
 for his position, he shifts him to some other place. 
 Thus his adjutant, Lieutenant-Colonel Hammond, a 
 
 75 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 restless Kentuckian, kept everything in a row as long as 
 he remained in that office. Sherman has accordingly 
 made him inspector general, and during the last two 
 months has kept him constantly employed on scouting 
 parties. In his place as adjutant is Captain Sawyer, a 
 quiet, industrious, efficient person. The chief of artil 
 lery, Major Taylor, directed by Sherman s omnipresent 
 eye and quick judgment, is an officer of great value, 
 though under another general he might not be worth 
 so much. The chief engineer, Captain Pitzman, 
 wounded about July I5th, is a man of merit, and his 
 departure was a great loss to the regular ranks. General 
 Sherman has three aides-de-camp, Captain McCoy, 
 Captain Dayton, and Lieutenant Hill, and, as I have 
 said, neither of them holds a sinecure office. His medi 
 cal director, Dr. McMillan, is a good physician, I be 
 lieve; he has been in a constant contention with Dr. 
 Mills. The quartermaster, Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. 
 Smith, is a most efficient officer; he has been doing duty 
 as commissary also. 
 
 On the whole, General Sherman has a very small 
 and very efficient staff; but the efficiency comes mainly 
 from him. What a splendid soldier he is! 
 
 The staff of the Seventeenth Army Corps is the 
 most complete, the most numerous, and in some re 
 spects the most serviceable in this army. 
 
 The adjutant general, Lieutenant-Colonel Clark, is 
 a person of uncommon quickness, is always at work, and 
 keeps everything in his department in first-rate order. 
 The inspector general, Lieutenant-Colonel Strong, does 
 his duties with promptness and thoroughness; his re 
 ports are models. The chief of artillery, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Powell, thoroughly understands his business, 
 and attends to it diligently. The provost-marshal gen 
 eral, Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, is a judicious and in 
 dustrious man. Both the quartermaster and commis 
 sary are new men, captains, and I do not know them, 
 but McPherson speaks highly of them. The medical 
 director, Dr. Boucher, has the reputation of keeping his 
 
Some Contemporary Portraits. 
 
 hospitals in better order and making his reports more 
 promptly and satisfactorily than any other medical 
 officer in this army. General McPherson has four aides- 
 de-camp: Captain Steele, Captain Gile, Lieutenant 
 Knox, and Lieutenant Vernay. The last of these is 
 the best, and Captain Steele is next to him. The en 
 gineer officer, Captain Hickenlooper, is a laborious 
 man, quick, watchful, but not of great capacity. The 
 picket officer, Major Willard,whom I accidentally name 
 last, is a person of unusual merit. 
 
 In the staffs of the division and brigadier generals 
 I do not now recall any officer of extraordinary capacity. 
 There may be such, but I have not made their acquaint 
 ance. On the other hand, I have made the acquaint 
 ance of some who seemed quite unfit for their places. 
 I must not omit, however, to speak here of Captain 
 Tresilian, engineer on the staff of Major-General 
 Logan. His general services during the siege were not 
 conspicuous, but he deserves great credit for construct 
 ing the wooden mortars which General McPherson 
 used near its close with most remarkable effect. Both 
 the idea and the work were Tresilian s. 
 
 Very possibly you may not wish to go through this 
 mass of details respecting so many officers of inferior 
 grades, upon whose claims you may never be called to 
 pass judgment. But if you care to read them here they 
 are. I remain, dear sir, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, C. A. DANA. 
 
 Mr. STANTON. 
 
 77 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG. 
 
 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 Watch 
 ing 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. 
 
 WE had not been many days in the rear of Vicks 
 burg before we settled into regular habits. The men 
 were detailed in reliefs for work in the trenches, and be 
 ing relieved at fixed hours everybody seemed to lead a 
 systematic life. 
 
 My chief duty throughout the siege was a daily 
 round through the trenches, generally with the corps 
 commander or some one of his staff. As the lines of 
 investment were six or seven miles long, it occupied the 
 greater part of my day; sometimes I made a portion 
 of my tour of inspection in the night. One night in 
 riding through the trenches I must have passed twenty 
 thousand men asleep on their guns. I still can see the 
 grotesque positions into which they had curled them 
 selves. The trenches were so protected that there was 
 no danger in riding through them. It was not so safe 
 to venture on the hills overlooking Vicksburg. I went 
 on foot and alone one day to the top of a hill, and was 
 
 78 
 
The Siege o 
 
 looking at the town, when I suddenly heard something 
 go whizz, whizz, by my ear. " What in the world is 
 that? " I asked myself. The place was so desolate that 
 it was an instant before I could believe that these were 
 bullets intended for me. When I did realize it, I imme 
 diately started to lie down. Then came the question, 
 which was the best way to lie down. If I lay at right 
 angles to the enemy s line the bullets from the right and 
 left might strike me; if I lay parallel to it then those 
 directly from the front might hit me. So I concluded it 
 made no difference which way I lay. After remaining 
 quiet for a time the bullets ceased, and I left the hill-top. 
 I was more cautious in the future in venturing beyond 
 cover. 
 
 Through the entire siege I lived in General Grant s 
 headquarters, which were on a high bluff northeast of 
 Sherman s extreme left. I had a tent to myself, and 
 on the whole was very comfortable. We never lacked 
 an abundance of provisions. There was good water, 
 enough even for the bath, and we suffered very little 
 from excessive heat. The only serious annoyance was 
 the cannonade from our whole line, which from the 
 first of June went on steadily by night as well as by day. 
 The following bit from a letter I wrote on June 2d, to 
 my little daughter, tells something of my situation: 
 
 It is real summer weather here, and, after coming 
 in at noon to-day from my usual ride through the 
 trenches, I was very glad to get a cold bath in my tent 
 before dinner. I like living in tents very well, especially 
 if you ride on horseback all day. Every night I sleep 
 with one side of the tent wide open and the walls put 
 
 79 
 
Recollections of the Civil 
 
 up all around to get plenty of air. Sometimes I wake 
 up in the night and think it is raining, the wind roars 
 so in the tops of the great oak forest on the hillside 
 where we are encamped, and I think it is thundering 
 till I look out and see the golden moonlight in all its 
 glory, and listen again and know that it is only the 
 thunder of General Sherman s great guns, that neither 
 rest nor let others rest by night or by day. 
 
 We were no sooner in position behind Vicksburg 
 than Grant saw that he must have reinforcements. Joe 
 Johnston was hovering near, working with energy to 
 collect forces sufficient to warrant an attempt to relieve 
 Vicksburg. The Confederates were also known to be 
 reorganizing at Jackson. Johnston eventually gathered 
 an army behind Grant of about twenty-five thousand 
 men. 
 
 Under these threatening circumstances it was neces 
 sary to keep a certain number of troops in our rear, 
 more than Grant could well spare from the siege, and 
 he therefore made every effort to secure reinforcements. 
 He ordered down from Tennessee, and elsewhere in his 
 own department, all available forces. He also sent to 
 General Banks, who was then besieging Port Hudson, 
 a request to bring his forces up as promptly as prac 
 ticable, and assuring him that he (Grant) would gladly 
 serve under him as his senior in rank, or simply co 
 operate with him for the benefit of the common cause, 
 if Banks preferred that arrangement. To Halleck, on 
 May 29th, he telegraphed: " If Banks does not come to 
 my assistance I must be reinforced from elsewhere. I 
 will avoid a surprise, and do the best I can with the 
 means at hand." This was about the extent of Grant s 
 
 80 
 
Stege of Vicksburg. 
 
 personal appeals to his superiors for additional forces. 
 No doubt, however, he left a good deal to my repre 
 sentations. 
 
 As no reply came from Banks, I started myself on 
 the 30th for Port Hudson at Grant s desire, to urge 
 that the reinforcements be furnished. 
 
 The route used for getting out from the rear of 
 Vicksburg at that time was through the Chickasaw 
 Bayou into the Yazoo and thence into the Mississippi. 
 From the mouth of the Yazoo I crossed the Mississippi 
 to Young s Point, and from there went overland across 
 the peninsula to get a gunboat at a point south of 
 Vicksburg. As we were going down the river we met 
 a steamer just above Grand Gulf bearing one of the 
 previous messengers whom Grant had sent to Banks. 
 He was bringing word that Banks could send no forces; 
 on the other hand, he asked reinforcements from Grant 
 to aid in his siege of Port Hudson, which he had closely 
 invested. This news, of course, made my trip unneces 
 sary, and I returned at once to headquarters, having 
 been gone not over twenty-four hours. 
 
 As soon as this news came from Banks, I sent an 
 urgent appeal to Mr. Stanton to hurry reinforcements 
 sufficient to make success beyond all peradventure. 
 The Government was not slow to appreciate Grant s 
 needs or the great opportunity he had created. Early 
 in June I received the following dispatch from Mr. 
 Stanton: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, June 3, 1863. 
 
 Your telegrams up to the 3Oth have been received. 
 Everything in the power of this Government will be 
 7 81 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 put forth to aid General Grant. The emergency is not 
 underrated here. Your telegrams are a great obliga 
 tion, and are looked for with deep interest. I can not 
 thank you as much as I feel for the service you are now 
 rendering. You have been appointed an assistant ad 
 jutant general, with rank of major, with liberty to re 
 port to General Grant if he needs you. The appoint 
 ment may be a protection to you. I shall expect daily 
 reports if possible. EDWIN M. STANTON, 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 C. A. DANA, Esq., 
 Grant s Headquarters near Vicksburg. 
 
 My appointment as assistant adjutant general was 
 Stanton s own idea. He was by nature a very anxious 
 man. When he perceived from my dispatches that I 
 was going every day on expeditions into dangerous ter 
 ritory, he became alarmed lest I might be caught by the 
 Confederates; for as I was a private citizen it would 
 have been difficult to exchange me. If I were in the 
 regular volunteer service as an assistant adjutant gen 
 eral, however, there would be no trouble about an ex 
 change, hence my appointment. 
 
 The chief variations from my business of watching 
 the siege behind Vicksburg were these trips I made to 
 inspect the operations against the enemy, who was now 
 trying to shut us in from the rear beyond the Big Black. 
 His heaviest force was to the northeast. On June 6th 
 the reports from Satartia, our advance up the Yazoo, 
 were so unsatisfactory that Grant decided to examine 
 the situation there himself. That morning he said to 
 me at breakfast: 
 
 " Mr. Dana, I am going to Satartia to-day; would 
 you like to go along? " 
 
 82 
 
The Siege of Ficksburg. 
 
 I said I would, and we were soon on horseback, 
 riding with a cavalry guard to Haynes s Bluff, where we 
 took a small steamer reserved for Grant s use and carry- 
 ing his flag. Grant was ill and went to bed soon after 
 he started. We had gone up the river to within two 
 miles of Satartia, when we met two gunboats coming 
 down. Seeing the general s flag, the officers in charge 
 of the gunboats came aboard our steamer and asked 
 where the general was going. I told them to Satartia. 
 
 " Why," said they, " it will not be safe. Kimball 
 [our advance was under the charge of Brigadier-Gen 
 eral Nathan Kimball, Third Division, Sixteenth Army 
 Corps] has retreated from there, and is sending all his 
 supplies to Haynes s Bluff. The enemy is probably in 
 the town now." 
 
 I told them Grant was sick and asleep, and that I 
 did not want to waken him. They insisted that it was 
 unsafe to go on, and that I would better call the gen 
 eral Finally I did so, but he was too sick to decide. 
 
 " I will leave it with you," he said. I immediately 
 said we would go back to Haynes s Bluff, which we did. 
 
 The next morning Grant came out to breakfast fresh 
 as a rose, clean shirt and all, quite himself. " Well, Mr. 
 Dana," he said, " I suppose we are at Satartia now." 
 
 " No, general," I said, " we are at Haynes s Bluff." 
 And I told him what had happened. 
 
 He did not complain, but as he was short of officers 
 at that point he asked me to go with a party of cavalry 
 toward Mechanicsburg to find if it were true, as re 
 ported, that Joe Johnston was advancing from Canton 
 to the Big Black. We had a hard ride, not getting back 
 
 83 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 to Vicksburg until the morning of the eighth. The 
 country was like all the rest around Vicksburg, broken, 
 wooded, unpopulous, with bad roads and few streams. 
 It still had many cattle, but the corn was pretty thor 
 oughly cleared out. We found that Johnston had not 
 moved his main force as rumored, and that he could not 
 move it without bringing all his supplies with him. 
 
 Throughout the siege an attack from Johnston con 
 tinued to threaten Grant and to keep a part of our army 
 busy. Almost every one of my dispatches to Mr. Stan- 
 ton contained rumors of the movements of the Con 
 federates, and the information was so uncertain that 
 often what I reported one day had to be contradicted 
 the next. About the I5th of June the movements of 
 the enemy were so threatening that Grant issued an 
 order extending Sherman s command so as to include 
 Haynes s Bluff, and to send there the two divisions of 
 the Ninth Corps under General Parke. These troops 
 had just arrived from Kentucky, and Grant had intended 
 to place them on the extreme left of our besieging line. 
 
 Although our spies brought in daily reports of forces 
 of the enemy at different points between Yazoo City 
 and Jackson, Johnston s plan did not develop oppor 
 tunity until the 22d, when he was said to be crossing 
 the Big Black north of Bridgeport. Sherman imme 
 diately started to meet him with about thirty thou 
 sand troops, including cavalry. Five brigades more 
 were held in readiness to reinforce him if necessary. 
 The country was scoured by Sherman in efforts to beat 
 Johnston, but no trace of an enemy was found. It was, 
 however, ascertained that he had not advanced, but was 
 
 84 
 
Siege of Vicksburg. 
 
 still near Canton. As there was no design to attack 
 Johnston until Vicksburg was laid low, Sherman made 
 his way to Bear Creek, northwest of Canton, where he 
 could watch the Confederates, and there went into 
 camp. 
 
 I went up there several times to visit him, and always 
 came away enthusiastic over his qualities as a soldier. 
 His amazing activity and vigilance pervaded his entire 
 force. The country where he had encamped was ex 
 ceedingly favorable for defense. He had occupied the 
 commanding points, opened rifle-pits wherever they 
 would add to his advantage, obstructed the cross-roads 
 and most of the direct roads also, and ascertained every 
 point where the Big Black could be forded between the 
 line of Benton on the north and the line of railroads 
 on the south. By his rapid movements, also, and by 
 widely deploying on all the ridges and open headlands, 
 Sherman produced the impression that his forces were 
 ten times as numerous as they really were. Sherman 
 remained in his camp on Bear Creek through the rest of 
 the siege, in order to prevent any possible attack by Joe 
 Johnston, the reports about whose movements con 
 tinued to be contradictory and uncertain. 
 
 Another variation in my Vicksburg life was visiting 
 Admiral Porter, who commanded the fleet which 
 hemmed in the city on the river-side. Porter was a very 
 active, courageous, fresh-minded man, and an experi 
 enced naval officer, and I enjoyed the visits I made to 
 his fleet. His boats were pretty well scattered, for the 
 Confederates west of the Mississippi were pressing in, 
 and unless watched might manage to cross somewhere. 
 
 85 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Seven of the gunboats were south of Vicksburg, one at 
 Haynes s Bluff, one was at Chickasaw Bayou, one at 
 Young s Point, one at Milliken s Bend, one at Lake 
 Providence, one at Greenell, one at Island Sixty-five, 
 two were at White River, and so on, and several were 
 always in motion. They guarded the river so com 
 pletely that no hostile movement from the west ever 
 succeeded, or was likely to do so. 
 
 The most serious attack from the west during the 
 siege was that on June 7th, when a force of some two 
 thousand Confederates engaged about a thousand 
 negro troops defending Milliken s Bend. This engage 
 ment at Milliken s Bend became famous from the con 
 duct of the colored troops. General E. S. Dennis, who 
 saw the battle, told me that it was the hardest fought 
 engagement he had ever seen. It was fought mainly 
 hand to hand. After it was over many men were found 
 dead with bayonet stabs, and others with their skulls 
 broken open by butts of muskets. " It is impossible," 
 said General Dennis, " for men to show greater gal 
 lantry than the negro troops in that fight." 
 
 The bravery of the blacks in the battle at Milliken s 
 Bend completely revolutionized the sentiment of the 
 army with regard to the employment of negro troops. 
 I heard prominent officers who formerly in private had 
 sneered at the idea of the negroes fighting express 
 themselves after that as heartily in favor of it. Amorg 
 the Confederates, however, the feeling was very dif 
 ferent. All the reports which came to us showed that 
 both citizens and soldiers on the Confederate side mani 
 fested great dismay at the idea of our arming negroes. 
 
 86 
 
The Siege of Vicksburg. 
 
 They said that such a policy was certain to be followed 
 by insurrection with all its horrors. 
 
 Although the presence of Joe Johnston on the east, 
 and the rumors of invasion by Kirby Smith from the 
 west, compelled constant attention, the real work be 
 hind Vicksburg was always that of the siege. No 
 amount of outside alarm loosened Grant s hold on the 
 rebel stronghold. The siege went on steadily and 
 effectively. By June loth the expected reinforcements 
 began to report. Grant soon had eighty-five thousand 
 men around Vicksburg, and Pemberton s last hope was 
 gone. The first troops to arrive were eight regiments 
 under General Herron. They came from Missouri, 
 down the Mississippi to Young s Point, where they were 
 debarked and marched across the peninsula, care being 
 taken, of course, that the Confederate garrison at Vicks 
 burg should see the whole march. The troops were 
 then ferried across the Mississippi, and took a position 
 south of Vicksburg between Lauman s troops and the 
 Mississippi River, completely closing the lines, and thus 
 finally rendering egress and ingress absolutely impos 
 sible. Herron took this position on June I3th. He 
 went to work with so much energy that on the night 
 of the 1 5th he was able to throw forward his lines on 
 his left, making an advance of five hundred yards, and 
 bringing his artillery and rifle-pits within two or three 
 hundred yards of the enemy s lines. 
 
 Herron was a first-rate officer, and the only consum 
 mate dandy I ever saw in the army. He was always 
 handsomely dressed; I believe he never went out with 
 out patent-leather boots on, and you would see him in 
 
 87 
 
Recollections of the Civil 
 
 the middle of a battle well, I can not say exactly that 
 he went into battle with a lace pocket-handkerchief, but 
 at all events he always displayed a clean white one. But 
 these little vanities appeared not to detract from his 
 usefulness. Herron had already proved his ability and 
 fighting qualities at the battle of Prairie Grove, Decem 
 ber 7, 1862. 
 
 Just as our reinforcements arrived we began to re 
 ceive encouraging reports from within Vicksburg. De 
 serters said that the garrison was worn out and hungry; 
 besides, the defense had for several days been conducted 
 with extraordinary feebleness, which Grant thought was 
 due to the deficiency of ammunition or to exhaustion 
 and depression in the garrison, or to their retirement 
 to an inner line of defense. The first and third of these 
 causes no doubt operated to some extent, but the sec 
 ond we supposed to be the most influential. The de 
 serters also said that fully one third of the garrison were 
 in hospital, and that officers, as well as men, had begun 
 to despair of relief from Johnston. 
 
 These reports from within the town, as well as the 
 progress of the siege and the arrival of reinforcements, 
 pointed so strongly to the speedy surrender of the place 
 that I asked Mr. Stanton in my dispatch of June I4th 
 to please inform me by telegram whether he wished me 
 to go to General Rosecrans after the fall of Vicksburg 
 or whether he had other orders for me. 
 
 The next day after this letter, however, the enemy 
 laid aside his long-standing inactivity and opened vio 
 lently with both artillery and musketry. Two mortars 
 which the Confederates got into operation that day in 
 
 88 
 
The Siege of Vicksburg. 
 
 front of General A. J. Smith particularly interested our 
 generals. I remember going with a party of some 
 twenty officers, including Sherman, Ord, McPherson, 
 and Wilson, to the brow of a hill on McPherson s front 
 to watch this battery with our field glasses. From 
 where we were we could study the whole operation. 
 We saw the shell start from the mortar, sail slowly 
 through the air toward us, fall to the ground and ex 
 plode, digging out a hole which looked like a crater. I 
 remember one of these craters which must have been 
 nine feet in diameter. As you watched a shell coming 
 you could not tell whether it would fall a thousand feet 
 away or by your side. Yet nobody budged. The men 
 sat there on their horses, their reins loose, studying and 
 discussing the work of the batteries, apparently indif 
 ferent to the danger. It was very interesting as a study 
 of human steadiness. 
 
 By the middle of June our lines were so near the 
 enemy s on Sherman s and McPherson s front that 
 General Grant began to consider the project of another 
 general assault as soon as McClernand s, Lauman s, and 
 Herron s lines were brought up close. Accordingly, 
 Sherman and McPherson were directed to hold their 
 \vork until the others were up to them. Herron, of 
 course, had not had time to advance, though since his 
 arrival he had worked with great energy. Lauman had 
 done little in the way of regular approaches. But the 
 chief difficulty in the way was the backwardness of Mc- 
 Clernand. His trenches were mere rifle-pits, three or 
 four feet wide, and would allow neither the passage of 
 artillery nor the assemblage of any considerable number 
 
 89 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 of troops. His batteries were, with scarcely an excep 
 tion, in the position they apparently had held when the 
 siege was opened. 
 
 This obstacle to success was soon removed. On the 
 1 8th of June McClernand was relieved and General Ord 
 was put into his place. The immediate occasion of Mc- 
 Clernand s removal was a congratulatory address to the 
 Thirteenth Corps which he had fulminated in May, 
 and which first reached the besieging army in a copy 
 of the Missouri Democrat. In this extraordinary ad 
 dress McClernand claimed for himself most of the glory 
 of the campaign, reaffirmed that on May 22d he had 
 held two rebel forts for several hours, and imputed to 
 other officers and troops failure to support him in their 
 possession, which must have resulted in the capture of 
 the town, etc. Though this congratulatory address was 
 the occasion of McClernand s removal, the real causes 
 of it dated farther back. These causes, as I understood 
 at the time, were his repeated disobedience of important 
 orders, his general unfortunate mental disposition, and 
 his palpable incompetence for the duties of his position. 
 I learned in private conversation that in General Grant s 
 judgment it was necessary that McClernand should be 
 removed for the reason, above all, that his bad relations 
 with other corps commanders, especially Sherman and 
 McPherson, rendered it impossible that the chief com 
 mand of the army should devolve upon him, as it would 
 have done were General Grant disabled, without some 
 pernicious consequence to the Union cause. 
 
 90 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 PEMBERTON S SURRENDER. 
 
 The artillery assault of June 20 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. 
 
 Two days after McClernand s removal General 
 Grant attempted to settle the question whether he 
 should make a further attempt to storm Vicksburg or 
 leave its reduction to the regular progress of siege op 
 erations. To test what an assault would do, he began, 
 at four o clock on the morning of June 2Oth, an artil 
 lery attack, in which about two hundred cannon were 
 engaged. During the attack no Confederates were 
 visible, nor was any reply made to our artillery. Their 
 musketry fire also amounted to nothing. Of course, 
 some damage was done to the buildings of the town by 
 our concentrated cannonade, but we could not tell 
 whether their mills, foundry, or storehouses were de 
 stroyed. Their rifle-pits and defenses were little in 
 jured. At ten o clock the cannonade ceased. It was 
 evident that the probabilities of immediate success by 
 assault would not compensate for the sacrifices. 
 
 After the artillery attack on the 2Oth, the next ex 
 citing incident of the siege was the springing of a 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 mine by McPherson. Directly in front of his position 
 the enemy had a great fort which was regarded as the 
 key of their line. As soon as McPherson had got into 
 position behind Vicksburg he had begun to run trenches 
 toward this fort, under which he subsequently tunneled, 
 hoping that by an explosion he would open it to our 
 occupation. The mine was sprung about four o clock 
 on the afternoon of June 25th. It was charged with 
 twelve hundred pounds of powder. The explosion was 
 terrific, forming a crater fully thirty-five feet in diame 
 ter, but it did not open the fort. There still remained 
 between the new ground which we had gained by the 
 explosion and the main works of the fort an ascent so 
 steep that an assault was practically impossible. The 
 enemy very soon opened a galling fire from within the 
 fort with shells with short fuses, thrown over the ridge 
 by hand, like grenades, and these did some execution. 
 The wounds inflicted by these missiles were frightful. 
 To this we replied as actively as possible, and this con 
 flict between parties invisible to each other, not only 
 on account of the darkness, but also on account of the 
 barrier between them, was kept up with fury during 
 the night and the next forenoon. Immediately on the 
 springing of the mine a tremendous cannonade was 
 opened along our whole line, accompanied by active 
 firing from the rifle-pits. This fire was continued with 
 little relaxation during the night and the next day. 
 After several days of this kind of warfare, we had made 
 no progress whatever, not being able either to plant a 
 battery or to open a rifle-pit upon the new ground. 
 Eventually McPherson completed another mine, 
 
 92 
 
Pembertorfs Surrender. 
 
 which he exploded on the first day of July. Many Con 
 federates were killed, and six were thrown over into 
 our lines by the explosion. They were all dead but 
 one, a negro, who got well and joined our army. Mc- 
 Pherson did not, however, get possession of the place 
 through this mine, as he had hoped. 
 
 Little advancement was made in the siege after Mc- 
 Pherson sprang his first mine on the 25th of June, 
 except in the matter of time and in the holding of the 
 lines of investment. Several things conspired to pro 
 duce inactivity and a sort of listlessness among the vari 
 ous commands the heat of the weather, the unex 
 pected length of the siege, the endurance of the defense, 
 the absence of any thorough organization of the en 
 gineer department, and, above all, the well-grounded 
 general belief of our officers and men that the town must 
 presently fall through starvation, without any special 
 effort or sacrifice. This belief was founded on the re 
 ports from within Vicksburg. Every new party of 
 deserters which reached us agreed that the provisions 
 of the place were near the point of total exhaustion, 
 that rations had been reduced lower than ever, that ex 
 treme dissatisfaction existed among the garrison, and it 
 was generally expected indeed, there was a sort of 
 conviction on all hands that the city would be sur 
 rendered on Saturday, July 4th, if, indeed, it could hold 
 out so long as that. 
 
 While apathy grew in our ranks, the Confederates 
 displayed more activity than ever. On the morning of 
 June 27th they sprang a countermine on Sherman s 
 front, which destroyed the mines Sherman s engineers 
 
 93 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 had nearly finished, and threw the head of his sap into 
 general confusion. McPherson was prevented from 
 taking possession of the fort, which had been partially 
 destroyed. Ord s (lately McClernand s) working par 
 ties, which were now well up to the Confederate lines, 
 were checked by hand grenades. Lauman was almost 
 nightly assailed by little sorties of the enemy, and 
 always lost a few men in them, killed, wounded, or 
 captured. 
 
 The operations west of the Mississippi became more 
 threatening, too. Our scouts brought in word that 
 Price and Kirby Smith were about to attempt to pro 
 vision Vicksburg by way of Milliken s Bend. There 
 were rumors also that some two thousand or more 
 skiffs had been prepared within the town, by which it 
 was thought the garrison might escape. 
 
 The general indisposition of our troops to prosecute 
 the siege zealously, and the evident determination on 
 the part of the enemy to hold out until the last, caused 
 General Grant to hold a council of war on the morning 
 of June 30th, to take judgment on the question of trying 
 another general assault, or leaving the result to the 
 exhaustion of the garrison. The conclusion of the 
 council was in favor of the latter policy, but two 
 days later, July 2d, Grant told me that if the enemy 
 did not give up Vicksburg by the 6th he should 
 storm it. 
 
 Happily, there was no need to wait until the 6th. 
 The general expectation that something would happen 
 by July 4th was about to be confirmed. On the morn 
 ing of Friday, July 3d, a soldier appeared on the Con- 
 
 94 
 
Pemberton s Surrender. 
 
 federate line, in McPherson s front, bearing a flag of 
 truce. General A. J. Smith was sent to meet this man, 
 who proved to be an officer, General J. S. Bowen. He 
 bore a letter from Pemberton addressed to Grant. The 
 letter was taken to headquarters, where it was read by 
 the general and its contents were made known to the 
 staff. It was a request for an armistice to arrange terms 
 for the capitulation of Vicksburg. To this end Pember 
 ton asked that three commissioners be appointed to 
 meet a like number to be named by himself. Grant 
 immediately wrote this reply: 
 
 The useless effusion of blood you propose stopping 
 by this course can be ended at any time you may choose 
 by an unconditional surrender of the city and garrison. 
 Men who have shown so much endurance and cour 
 age as those now in Vicksburg will always challenge 
 the respect of an adversary, and I can assure you 
 will be treated with all the respect due to prisoners of 
 war. 
 
 I do not favor the proposition of appointing com 
 missioners to arrange terms of capitulation, because I 
 have no terms other than those indicated above. 
 
 Bowen, the bearer of Pemberton s letter, who had 
 been received by A. J. Smith, expressed a strong desire 
 to converse with General Grant. While declining this, 
 Grant requested Smith to say to Bowen that if Gen 
 eral Pemberton desired to see him an interview would 
 be granted between the lines in McPherson s front at 
 any hour in the afternoon which Pemberton might ap 
 point. After Bowen s departure a message was soon 
 sent back to Smith, accepting the proposal for an in 
 terview, and appointing three o clock as the hour. 
 
 95 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Grant was there with his staff and with Generals Ord, 
 McPherson, Logan, and A. J. Smith. Sherman was 
 not present, being with his command watching Joe 
 Johnston, and ready to spring upon the latter as soon 
 as Pemberton was captured. Pemberton came late, 
 attended by General Bowen and Colonel L. M. Mont 
 gomery. 
 
 It must have been a bitter moment for the Confed 
 erate chieftain. Pemberton was a Northern man, a 
 Pennsylvanian by birth, from which State he was ap 
 pointed to West Point, graduating in 1837. In the old 
 army he fell under the spell of the influence of Jefferson 
 Davis, whose close friend he was. Davis appears to have 
 thought Pemberton was a military genius, for he was 
 jumped almost at a stroke, without much previous serv 
 ice, to be a lieutenant general, and the defense of the 
 Mississippi River was given over to his charge. His 
 dispositions throughout the entire campaign, after Grant 
 crossed at Bruinsburg, were weak, and he was easily 
 overcome, although his troops fought well. As Joe 
 Johnston truthfully remarks in his Narrative, Pember 
 ton did not understand Grant s warfare at all. Penned 
 up and finally compelled to surrender a vital post and 
 a great army to his conqueror, an almost irremediable 
 disaster to his cause, Pemberton not only suffered the 
 usual pangs of defeat, but he was doubly humiliated by 
 the knowledge that he would be suspected and accused 
 of treachery by his adopted brethren, and that the re 
 sult would be used by the enemies of Davis, whose 
 favorite he was, to undermine the Confederate admin 
 istration. As the events proved, it was indeed a great 
 
Pemberton s Surrender. 
 
 blow to Davis s hold upon the people of the South. 
 These things must have passed through Pemberton s 
 mind as he faced Grant for this final settlement of the 
 fate of Vicksburg. 
 
 The conversation was held apart between Pember- 
 ton and his two officers and Grant, McPherson, and A. 
 J. Smith, the rest of us being seated on the ground 
 near by. 
 
 We could, however, see that Pemberton was much 
 excited, and was impatient in his answers to Grant. He 
 insisted that his army be paroled and allowed to march 
 beyond our lines, officers and all, with eight days ra 
 tions, drawn from their own stores, officers to retain 
 their private property and body servants. Grant heard 
 what Pemberton had to say, and left him at the end 
 of an hour and a half, saying that he would send in his 
 ultimatum in writing before evening; to this Pember 
 ton promised to reply before night, hostilities to cease 
 in the meantime. Grant then conferred at his head 
 quarters with his corps and division commanders, all 
 of whom, except Steele, who advised unconditional 
 surrender, favored a plan proposed by McPherson, and 
 finally adopted by Grant. The argument against the 
 plan was one of feeling only. In its favor it was urged 
 that it would at once not only tend to the demoral 
 ization of the enemy, but also release Grant s whole 
 army for offensive operations against Joe Johnston and 
 Port Hudson, while to guard and transport so many 
 prisoners would require a great portion of our army s 
 strength. Keeping the prisoners would also absorb all 
 our steamboat transportation, while paroling them 
 8 97 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 would leave it free to move our troops. Paroling would 
 also save us an enormous expenditure. 
 
 After long consideration, General Grant reluctantly 
 gave way to these reasons, and at six o clock in the 
 afternoon he sent a letter by the hands of General Logan 
 and Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, in which he stated as 
 terms that, as soon as rolls could be made out and pa 
 roles signed by officers and men, Pemberton would be 
 allowed to march out of our lines, the officers taking with 
 them their side-arms and clothing, and the field, staff, 
 and cavalry officers one horse each. The rank and file 
 were to retain all their clothing, but no other property. 
 If these conditions were accepted, any amount of ra 
 tions deemed necessary was to be taken from the 
 stores they had, besides the necessary cooking utensils. 
 Thirty wagons also, counting two two-horse or mule 
 teams as one, were to be allowed to transport such arti 
 cles as could not be carried along. The same conditions 
 were allowed to all sick and wounded officers and sol 
 diers as fast as they became able to travel. 
 
 The officer who received this letter stated that it 
 would be impossible to answer it by night, and it was 
 not till a little before peep of day that the reply was 
 furnished. In the main the terms were accepted, but 
 Pemberton proposed as amendments: 
 
 At 10 A. M. to-morrow I propose to evacuate the 
 works in and around Vicksburg, and to surrender the 
 city and garrison under my command by marching out 
 with my colors and arms, stacking them in front of my 
 present lines, after which you will take possession. Of 
 ficers to retain their side-arms and personal property, 
 and the rights and property of citizens to be respected. 
 
Pembertorfs Surrender. 
 
 General Grant immediately replied: 
 
 I can make no stipulations with regard to the treat 
 ment of citizens and their private property. . . . The 
 property which officers will be allowed to take with 
 them will be as stated in my proposition of last evening. 
 ... If you mean by your proposition for each brigade 
 to march to the front of the line now occupied by it, 
 and stack arms at 10 A. M., and then return to the in 
 side and there remain as prisoners until properly pa 
 roled, I will make no objection to it. 
 
 Should no notification be received of your accept 
 ance of my terms by 9 A. M., I shall regard them as hav 
 ing been rejected, and shall act accordingly. 
 
 The answer came back promptly, " The terms pro 
 posed by you are accepted." 
 
 We had a glorious celebration that day. Pember- 
 ton s note had been received just after daylight, and at 
 the appointed hour of ten o clock the surrender was 
 consummated, the Confederate troops marching out and 
 stacking arms in front of their works, while Pemberton 
 appeared for a moment with his staff upon the parapet 
 of the central fort. At eleven o clock Grant entered 
 the city. He was received by Pemberton with more 
 marked impertinence than at their former interview. 
 Grant bore it like a philosopher, and in reply treated 
 Pemberton with even gentler courtesy and dignity than 
 before. 
 
 I rode into Vicksburg at the side of the conqueror, 
 and afterward perambulated among the conquered. 
 The Confederate soldiers were generally more con 
 tented even than we were. Now they were going home, 
 they said. They had had enough of the war. The cause 
 of the Confederacy was lost. They wanted to take the 
 
 99 
 
Recollections of (he Civil War. 
 
 oath of allegiance many of them. I was not surprised 
 to learn a month later that of the twenty-odd thousand 
 well men who were paroled at Vicksburg the greater 
 part had since dispersed, and I felt sure they could 
 never be got to serve again. The officers, on the other 
 hand, all declared their determination never to give in. 
 They had mostly on that day the look of men who have 
 been crying all night. One major, who commanded 
 a regiment from Missouri, burst into tears as he fol 
 lowed his disarmed men back into their lines after they 
 had surrendered their colors and the guns in front of 
 them. 
 
 I found the buildings of Vicksburg much less dam 
 aged than I had expected. Still, there were a good 
 many people living in caves dug in the banks. Natu 
 rally the shells did less damage to these vaults than to 
 dwellings. There was a considerable supply of railroad 
 cars in the town, with one or two railroad locomotives 
 in working condition. There was also an unexpected 
 quantity of military supplies. At the end of the first 
 week after our entrance sixty-six thousand stand of 
 small arms had been collected, mainly in good condi 
 tion, and more were constantly being discovered. They 
 were concealed in caves, as well as in all sorts of build 
 ings. The siege and seacoast guns found exceeded 
 sixty, and the whole captured artillery was above two 
 hundred pieces. The stores of rebel ammunition also 
 proved to be surprisingly heavy. As Grant expressed 
 it, there was enough to have kept up the defense for 
 six years at the rate they were using it. The stock of 
 army clothing was officially invoiced at five million 
 
 100 
 
Pemberton s Surrender. 
 
 dollars Confederate prices. Of sugar, molasses, and 
 salt there was a large quantity, and sixty thousand 
 pounds of bacon were found in one place. 
 
 The way in which Grant handled his army at the 
 capitulation of Vicksburg was a splendid example of 
 his energy. As soon as negotiations for surrender 
 began on the 3d, he sent word to Sherman, at his camp 
 on Bear Creek, to get ready to move against Johnston. 
 Sherman always acted on the instant, and that very 
 afternoon he threw bridges across the Big Black. He 
 started his forces over the river on the 4th as soon as 
 he received word that Pemberton had accepted Grant s 
 ultimatum. 
 
 In the meantime Grant had ordered part of Ord s 
 corps, all of Steele s division, and the two divisions of 
 the Ninth Corps, which was at Haynes s Bluff, to be 
 ready to join Sherman as soon as the capitulation 
 was effected. Their movement was so prompt that 
 by Sunday night, July 5th, part of Ord s force was 
 across the Big Black and Steele was well up to the 
 river. 
 
 As Grant supposed that Banks needed help at Port 
 Hudson, he had sent a messenger to him on the ist of 
 the month telling him the surrender was imminent, and 
 offering aid if he needed it. A division that of Herron 
 was now made ready to march as soon as word came 
 back. In the city itself there was the greatest activity. 
 The occupation of the place by our forces was directed 
 by General McPherson, who was appointed to the com 
 mand. Three divisions were detailed to garrison the 
 line of fortifications and to furnish the guards for the 
 
 101 
 
Recollections of the Civil 
 
 interior of the city. By the night of the 5th no troops 
 remained outside of Vicksburg. 
 
 The paroling of the Confederate troops began as 
 soon as the occupation was complete, and was pushed 
 with all possible rapidity. At the same time those parts 
 of the fortifications which we were now to defend were 
 selected, and the men began to obliterate the siege 
 approaches at which they had worked so hard and so 
 long. So busy was Grant with the mobilization of his 
 army for offensive field operations and the garrisoning 
 of Vicksburg that he did not take time even to write 
 to Washington. My telegram of July 5th to Mr. Stan- 
 ton describing the surrender and the condition of things 
 in Vicksburg conveyed this request from Grant for in 
 structions from Washington: 
 
 General Grant, being himself intensely occupied, de 
 sires me to say that he would like to receive from Gen 
 eral Halleck as soon as practicable either general or 
 specific instructions as to the future conduct of the 
 war in his department. He has no idea of going into 
 summer quarters, nor does he doubt his ability to em 
 ploy his army so as to make its blows tell toward the 
 great result; but he would like to be informed whether 
 the Government wishes him to follow his own judg 
 ment or to co-operate in some particular scheme of 
 operations. 
 
 With the fall of Vicksburg my mission was at an 
 end. On the 6th of July I left Grant for the North, 
 stopping at Helena, Ark., on my way up the river long 
 enough to get news of Gen. Prentiss s recent operations. 
 Thence I went on to Cairo and Washington. 
 
 102 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WITH THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. 
 
 Appointment as Assistant Secretary of War Again to the far front 
 An interesting meeting with Andrew Johnson Rosecrans s com 
 plaints His view of the situation at Chattanooga At General 
 Thomas s headquarters The first day of Chickamauga The bat 
 tlefield telegraph service A night council of war at Widow Glenn s 
 Personal experiences of the disastrous second day s battle The 
 " Rock of Chickamauga." 
 
 I HAPPENED to be the first man to reach the capital 
 from Vicksburg, and everybody wanted to hear the 
 story and to ask questions. I was anxious to get home 
 and see my family, however, and left for New York as 
 soon as I could get away. A few days after I arrived 
 in New York I received an invitation to go into busi 
 ness there with Mr. Ketchum, a banker, and with 
 George Opdyke, the merchant. I wrote Mr. Stanton 
 of the opening, but he urged me to remain in the War 
 Department as one of his assistants, which I consented 
 to do.* 
 
 The first commission with which Mr. Stanton 
 charged me after my appointment as his assistant was 
 one similar to that which I had just finished to go to 
 
 * Although appointed some months before, Mr. Dana was not nomi 
 nated in the Senate as Second Assistant Secretary of War until January 
 20, 1864; the nomination was confirmed on January 26. 
 
 103 
 
Recollections of the Civil 
 
 Tennessee to observe and report the movements of 
 Rosecrans against Bragg. General Rosecrans, who, 
 after the battle of Stone s River, or Murfreesboro, on 
 December 3ist to January 2, 1863, had lain for nearly 
 six months at Murfreesboro, obstructing on various 
 excuses all the efforts Lincoln and Stanton and Hal- 
 leek put forth to make him move against Bragg, who 
 occupied what was known as the Tullahoma line, had 
 toward the end of June moved on Bragg and driven 
 him across the Tennessee River. He had then settled 
 down to rest again, while Bragg had taken possession 
 of his new line in and about Chattanooga. 
 
 Burnside, who was in Kentucky, had been ordered 
 to unite with Rosecrans by way of East Tennessee, in 
 order that the combined force should attack Bragg, 
 but, despite the urgency of the administration, no move 
 ment was made by Rosecrans until the middle of Au 
 gust. As soon as it was evident that he was really 
 going out against the Confederates, Mr. Stanton asked 
 me to join the Army of the Cumberland. My orders 
 were to report directly to Rosecrans s headquarters. I 
 carried the following letter of introduction to that gen 
 eral: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, 
 WASHINGTON CITY, August jo, 1863. \ 
 
 Maj.-Gen. ROSECRANS, Commanding, etc. 
 
 GENERAL : This will introduce to you Charles A. 
 Dana, Esq., one of my assistants, who visits your com 
 mand for the purpose of conferring with you upon any 
 subject which you may desire to have brought to the 
 notice of the department. Mr. Dana is a gentleman of 
 distinguished character, patriotism, and ability, and pos 
 sesses the entire confidence of the department. You 
 
 104 
 
With the Army of the Cumberland. 
 
 will please afford to him the courtesy and consideration 
 which he merits, and explain to him fully any matters 
 which you may desire through him to bring to the no 
 tice of the department. 
 
 Yours truly, EDWIN M. STANTON. 
 
 As soon as my papers arrived I left for my post. I 
 was much delayed on railroads and steamboats, and 
 when I reached Cincinnati found it was impossible to 
 join Burnside by his line of march to Knoxville and 
 from him go to Rosecrans, as I had intended. Accord 
 ingly I went on to Louisville, where I arrived on Sep 
 tember 5th. I found there that Burnside had just occu 
 pied Knoxville; that the Ninth Corps, which two 
 months before I had left near Vicksburg, was now 
 about to go to him from near Louisville; and that Rose 
 crans had queerly enough telegraphed to the clergy 
 all over the country that he expected a great battle that 
 day and desired their prayers. 
 
 I went directly from Louisville to Nashville, where 
 I found General Gordon Granger in command. As he 
 and Governor Johnson were going to the front in a 
 day or two, I waited to go with them. The morning 
 after my arrival at Nashville I went to call on Johnson. 
 I had never met him before. 
 
 Andrew Johnson was short and stocky, of dark 
 complexion, smooth face, dark hair, dark eyes, and 
 of great determination of appearance. When I went 
 to see him in his office, the first thing he said was: 
 
 "Will you have a drink?" 
 
 " Yes, I will," I answered. So he brought out a 
 jug of whisky and poured out as much as he wanted in 
 
 105 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 a tumbler, and then made it about half and half water. 
 The theoretical, philosophical drinker pours out a little 
 whisky and puts in almost no water at all drinks it 
 pretty nearly pure but when a man gets to taking a 
 good deal of water in his whisky, it shows he is in the 
 habit of drinking a good deal. I noticed that the Gov 
 ernor took more whisky than most gentlemen would 
 have done, and I concluded that he took it pretty 
 often. 
 
 I had a prolonged conversation that morning with 
 Governor Johnson, who expressed himself in cheering 
 terms in regard to the general condition of Tennessee. 
 He regarded the occupation of Knoxville by Burnside 
 as completing the permanent expulsion of Confederate 
 power, and said he should order a general election for 
 the first week in October. He declared that slavery 
 was destroyed in fact, but must be abolished legally. 
 Johnson was thoroughly in favor of immediate emanci 
 pation both as a matter of moral right and as an indis 
 pensable condition of the large immigration of indus 
 trious freemen which he thought necessary to repeople 
 and regenerate the State. 
 
 On the loth of September we started for the front, 
 going by rail to Bridgeport, on the Tennessee River. 
 This town at that date was the terminus of the Nash 
 ville and Chattanooga Railroad. The bridge across the 
 river and part of the railroad beyond had been destroyed 
 by Bragg when he retreated in the preceding summer 
 from Tullahoma. It was by way of Bridgeport that 
 troops were joining Rosecrans at the far front, and all 
 supplies went to him that way. On reaching the town, 
 
 106 
 
With the Army of the Cumberland. 
 
 we heard that Chattanooga had been occupied by Crit- 
 tenden s corps of Rosecrans s army the day before, Sep 
 tember pth; so the next day, September nth, I pushed 
 on there by horseback past Shellmound and Wauhat- 
 chie. The country through which I passed is a mag 
 nificent region of rocks and valleys, and I don t be 
 lieve there is anywhere a finer view than that I had from 
 Lookout Mountain as I approached Chattanooga. 
 
 When I reached Chattanooga I went at once to 
 General Rosecrans s headquarters and presented my 
 letter. He read it, and then burst out in angry abuse 
 of the Government at Washington. He had not been 
 sustained, he said. His requests had been ignored, his 
 plans thwarted. Both Stanton and Halleck had done 
 all they could, he declared, to prevent his success. 
 
 " General Rosecrans," I said, " I have no authority 
 to listen to complaints against the Government. I was 
 sent here for the purpose of finding out what the Gov 
 ernment could do to aid you, and have no right to 
 confer with you on other matters." 
 
 He quieted down at once, and explained his situa 
 tion to me. He had reached Chattanooga, he said, on 
 the loth, with Crittenden s troops, the Twenty-first 
 Corps, the town having been evacuated the day before 
 by the Confederates. As all the reports brought in 
 seemed to indicate that Bragg was in full retreat toward 
 Rome, Ga., Crittenden had immediately started in pur 
 suit, and had gone as far as Ringgold. On the night 
 before (September nth) it had seemed evident that 
 Bragg had abandoned his retreat on Rome, and behind 
 the curtain of the woods and hills had returned with the 
 
 107 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 purpose of suddenly falling with his whole army upon 
 the different corps and divisions of our army, now 
 widely separated by the necessity of crossing the moun 
 tains at gaps far apart. 
 
 This was a serious matter for Rosecrans, if true, for 
 at that moment his army was scattered over a line more 
 than fifty miles long, extending from Chattanooga on 
 the north to Alpine on the south. Rosecrans pointed 
 out to me the positions on the map. Crittenden, he 
 explained, had been ordered immediately to leave Ring- 
 gold and move westward to the valley of the West 
 Chickamauga. He was near a place known as Lee and 
 Gordon s Mills. General Thomas, who commanded the 
 Fourteenth Corps, had marched across Lookout Moun 
 tain and now held Stevens s Gap, perhaps twenty-five 
 miles south of Chattanooga. McCook, with the Twen 
 tieth Corps, had been ordered, after crossing the Ten 
 nessee, to march southeast, and now was at Alpine, 
 fully thirty-five miles south of Crittenden. Orders had 
 been sent McCook, when it was found that Bragg had 
 made a stand, to rest his left flank on the southern base 
 of Mission Ridge, and, extending his line toward Sum- 
 merville, fall on the flank of the enemy should he follow 
 the valley that way. The reserve, under Gordon 
 Granger, was still north of the Tennessee, although one 
 division had reached Bridgeport and the rest were rap 
 idly approaching. Notwithstanding the signs that 
 Bragg might not be retreating so fast as he at first ap 
 peared to have been, Rosecrans was confident as late 
 as the 1 2th that the Confederate commander was merely 
 making a show of the offensive to check pursuit, and 
 
 108 
 
With the Army of the Cumberland. 
 
 that he would make his escape to Rome as soon as he 
 found our army concentrated for battle east of Lookout 
 Mountain. 
 
 The next day (the I3th) I left Chattanooga with 
 Rosecrans and his staff for Thomas s headquarters at 
 Stevens s Gap. We found everything progressing fa 
 vorably there. The movements for the concentration 
 of the three corps were going forward with energy. 
 Scouts were coming in constantly, who reported that 
 the enemy had withdrawn from the basin where our 
 army was assembling; that he was evacuating Lafayette 
 and moving toward Rome. It seemed as if at last the 
 Army of the Cumberland had practically gained a posi 
 tion from which it could effectually advance upon Rome 
 and Atlanta, and deliver there the finishing blow of 
 the war. The difficulties of gaining this position, of 
 crossing the Cumberland Mountains, passing the Ten 
 nessee, turning and occupying Chattanooga, traversing 
 the mountain ridges of northern Georgia, and seizing 
 the passes which led southward had been enormous. It 
 was only when I came personally to examine the region 
 that I appreciated what had been done. These diffi 
 culties were all substantially overcome. The army was 
 in the best possible condition, and was advancing with 
 all the rapidity which the nature of the country allowed. 
 Our left flank toward East Tennessee was secured by 
 Burnside, and the only disadvantage which I could see 
 was that a sudden movement of the enemy to our right 
 might endanger our long and precarious line of com 
 munications and compel us to retreat again beyond the 
 Tennessee. I felt this so keenly that I urged Mr. Stan- 
 
 109 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ton, in a dispatch sent to him on the I4th from Thomas s 
 headquarters, to push as strong a column as possible 
 eastward from Corinth, in northeastern Mississippi. It 
 seemed to me that it would be better to recall the troops 
 from the West rather than to risk a check here, where 
 the heart of rebellion was within reach and the final 
 blow all prepared. 
 
 But, after all, there was something of a mystery 
 about the real location of Bragg s army, its strength, 
 and the designs of its chief. At any rate it was soon 
 manifest that Bragg was not withdrawing to the south 
 ward, as at first supposed. Some queer developments 
 down the Chickamauga on the i6th and I7th caused 
 Rosecrans considerable anxiety for Chattanooga. The 
 impression began to grow, too, that Bragg had been 
 playing possum, and had not retreated at all. Rose 
 crans at once abandoned all idea of operations against 
 the Confederate line of retreat and supply, drew his 
 army in rapidly, and began to look sharply after his own 
 communications with Chattanooga, which had now be 
 come his base. 
 
 By noon of September i8th the concentration was 
 practically complete. Our army then lay up and down 
 the valley, with West Chickamauga Creek in front of 
 the greater part of the line. The left was held by Crit- 
 tenden, the center by Thomas, and the right by Mc- 
 Cook, whose troops were now all in the valley except 
 one brigade. The army had not concentrated any too 
 soon, for that very afternoon the enemy appeared on 
 our left, and a considerable engagement occurred. It 
 was said at headquarters that a battle was certain the 
 
 1 10 
 
With the Army of the Cumberland. 
 
 next day. The only point Rosecrans had not deter 
 mined at five o clock on the afternoon of the i8th was 
 whether to make a night march and fall on Bragg at 
 daylight or to await his onset. 
 
 But that night it became pretty clear to all that 
 Bragg s plan was to push by our left into Chattanooga. 
 This compelled another rapid movement by the left 
 down the Chickamauga. By a tiresome night march 
 Thomas moved down behind Crittenden and below Lee 
 and Gordon s Mills, taking position on our extreme 
 left. Crittenden followed, connecting with Thomas s 
 right, and thus taking position in the center. McCook s 
 corps also extended down stream to the left, but still 
 covered the creek as high up as Crawfish Spring, while 
 part of his troops acted as a reserve. These movements 
 were hurriedly made, and the troops, especially those of 
 Thomas, were very much exhausted by their efforts 
 to get into position. 
 
 Rosecrans had not been mistaken in Bragg s inten 
 tion. About nine o clock the next morning at Craw 
 fish Spring, where the general headquarters were, we 
 heard firing on our left, and reports at once came in 
 that the battle had begun there, Bragg being in com 
 mand of the enemy. Thomas had barely headed the 
 Confederates off from Chattanooga. We remained at 
 Crawfish Springs on this day until after one o clock, 
 waiting for the full proportions of the conflict to de 
 velop. When it became evident that the battle was 
 being fought entirely on our left, Rosecrans removed 
 his headquarters nearer to the scene, taking a little 
 house near Lee and Gordon s Mills, known as the 
 
 in 
 
Recollections of the Civil 
 
 Widow Glenn s. Although closer to the battle, we 
 could see no more of it here than at Crawfish Springs, 
 the conflict being fought altogether in a thick forest, 
 and being invisible to outsiders. The nature of the 
 firing and the reports from the commanders alone en 
 abled us to follow its progress. 
 
 That we were able to keep as well informed as we 
 were was due to our excellent telegraphic communica 
 tions. By this time the military telegraph had been so 
 thoroughly developed that it was one of the most useful 
 accessories of our army, even on a battlefield. For 
 instance, after Rosecrans had taken Crawfish Springs 
 as his headquarters, he had given orders, on September 
 1 7th, to connect the place with Chattanooga, thirteen 
 miles to the northwest. The line was completed after 
 the battle began on the I9th, and we were in communi 
 cation not only with Chattanooga, but with Granger at 
 Rossville and with Thomas at his headquarters. When 
 Rosecrans removed to the Widow Glenn s, the telegra 
 phers went along, and in an hour had connections made 
 and an instrument clicking away in Mrs. Glenn s house. 
 We thus had constant information of the way the battle 
 was going, not only from the orderlies, but also from the 
 wires. 
 
 This excellent arrangement enabled me also to keep 
 the Government at Washington informed of the prog 
 ress of the battle. I sent eleven dispatches that day to 
 Mr. Stanton. They were very brief, but they reported 
 all that I, near as I was to the scene, knew of the battle 
 of September iQth at Chickamauga. 
 
 It was not till after dark that firing ceased and final 
 
 112 
 
With the Army of the Cumberland. 
 
 reports began to come in. From these we found that 
 the enemy had been defeated in his attempt to turn 
 and crush our left flank and secure possession of the 
 Chattanooga roads, but that he was not wholly de 
 feated, for he still held his ground in several places, and 
 was preparing, it was believed, to renew the battle the 
 next day. 
 
 That evening Rosecrans decided that if Bragg did 
 not retreat he would renew the fight at daylight, and a 
 council of war was held at our headquarters at the 
 Widow Glenn s, to which all the corps and division 
 commanders were summoned. There must have been 
 ten or twelve general officers there. Rosecrans began 
 by asking each of the corps commanders for a report 
 of the condition of his troops and of the position they 
 occupied; also for his opinion of what was to be done. 
 Each proposition was discussed by the entire council as 
 it was made. General Thomas was so tired he had not 
 slept at all the night before, and he had been in battle 
 all day that he went to sleep every minute. Every 
 time Rosecrans spoke to him he would straighten up 
 and answer, but he always said the same thing, " I would 
 strengthen the left," and then he would be asleep, sit 
 ting up in his chair. General Rosecrans, to the proposi 
 tion to strengthen the left, made always the same reply, 
 " Where are we going to take it from? " 
 
 After the discussion was ended, Rosecrans gave his 
 orders for the disposition of the troops on the follow 
 ing day. Thomas s corps was to remain on the left 
 with his line somewhat drawn in, but substantially as 
 he was at the close of the day. McCook was to close 
 
 9 113 
 
 *& 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 on Thomas and cover the position at Widow Glenn s, 
 and Crittenden was to have two divisions in reserve 
 near the junction of McCook s and Thomas s lines, to 
 be able to succor either. These orders were written for 
 each corps commander. They were also read in the 
 presence of all, and the plans fully explained. Finally, 
 after everything had been said, hot coffee was brought 
 in, and then McCook was called upon to sing the He 
 brew Maiden. McCook sang the song, and then the 
 council broke up and the generals went away. 
 
 This was about midnight, and, as I was very tired, 
 I lay down on the floor to sleep, beside Captain Horace 
 Porter, who was at that time Rosecrans s chief of ord 
 nance. There were cracks in the floor of the Widow 
 Glenn s house, and the wind blew up under us. We 
 would go to sleep, and then the wind would come up 
 so cold through the cracks that it would wake us up, 
 and we would turn over together to keep warm. 
 
 At daybreak we at headquarters were all up and on 
 our horses ready to go with the commanding general 
 to inspect our lines. We rode past McCook, Crittenden, 
 and Thomas to the extreme left, Rosecrans giving as 
 he went the orders he thought necessary to strengthen 
 the several positions. The general intention of these 
 orders was to close up on the left, where it was evident 
 the attack would begin. We then rode back to the ex 
 treme right, Rosecrans stopping at each point to see 
 if his orders had been obeyed. In several cases they 
 had not been obeyed, and he made them more per 
 emptory. When we found that McCook s line had 
 been elongated so that it was a mere thread, Rosecrans 
 
 114 
 
With the Army of the Cumberland. 
 
 was very angry, and sent for the general, rebuking him 
 severely, although, as a matter of fact, General Mc- 
 Cook s position had been taken under the written orders 
 of the commander in chief, given the night before. 
 
 About half past eight or nine o clock the battle 
 began on the left, where Thomas was. At that time 
 Rosecrans, with whom I always remained, was on the 
 right, directing the movements of the troops there. Just 
 after the cannon began I remember that a ten-pound 
 shell came crashing through our staff, but hurting no 
 body. I had not slept much for two nights, and, as it 
 was warm, I dismounted about noon and, giving my 
 horse to my orderly, lay down on the grass and went to 
 sleep. I was awakened by the most infernal noise I ever 
 heard. Never in any battle I had witnessed was there 
 such a discharge of cannon and musketry. I sat up on 
 the grass, and the first thing I saw was General Rose 
 crans crossing himself he was a very devout Catholic. 
 " Hello! " I said to myself, " if the general is crossing 
 himself, we are in a desperate situation." 
 
 I was on my horse in a moment. I had no sooner 
 collected my thoughts and looked around toward the 
 front, where all this din came from, than I saw our lines 
 break and melt away like leaves before the wind. Then 
 the headquarters around me disappeared. The gray- 
 backs came through with a rush, and soon the musket 
 balls and the cannon shot began to reach the place where 
 we stood. The whole right of the army had apparently 
 been routed. My orderly stuck to me like a veteran, 
 and we drew back for greater safety into the woods a 
 little way. There I came upon General Porter Captain 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Porter he was then and Captain Drouillard, an aide- 
 de-camp infantry officer attached to General Rose- 
 crans s staff, halting fugitives. They would halt a few 
 of them, get them into some sort of a line, and make a 
 beginning of order among them, and then there would 
 come a few rounds of cannon shot through the tree-tops 
 over their heads and the men would break and run. I 
 saw Porter and Drouillard plant themselves in front of 
 a body of these stampeding men and command them to 
 halt. One man charged with his bayonet, menacing 
 Porter; but Porter held his ground, and the man gave 
 in. That was the only case of real mutiny that I ever 
 saw in the army, and that was under such circumstances 
 that the man was excusable. The cause of all this dis 
 aster was the charge of the Confederates through the 
 hiatus in the line caused by the withdrawal of Wood s 
 division, under a misapprehension of orders, before its 
 place could be filled. 
 
 I attempted to make my way from this point in the 
 woods to Sheridan s division, but when I reached the 
 place where I knew it had been a little time before, 
 I found it had been swept from the field. Not far 
 away, however, I stumbled on a body of organized 
 troops. This was a brigade of mounted riflemen under 
 Colonel John T. Wilder, of Indiana. "Mr. Dana," 
 asked Colonel Wilder, " what is the situation? " 
 
 " I do not know," I said, " except that this end of 
 the army has been routed. There is still heavy fighting 
 at the left front, and our troops seem to be holding 
 their ground there yet." 
 
 " Will you give me any orders? " he asked. 
 116 
 
With the Army of the Cumberland. 
 
 " I have no authority to give orders," I replied; 
 " but if I were in your situation I should go to the left, 
 where Thomas is." 
 
 Then I turned my horse, and, making my way over 
 Missionary Ridge, struck the Chattanooga Valley and 
 rode to Chattanooga, twelve or fifteen miles away. The 
 whole road was filled with flying soldiers; here and there 
 were pieces of artillery, caissons, and baggage wagons. 
 Everything was in the greatest disorder. When I 
 reached Chattanooga, a little before four o clock, I 
 found Rosecrans there. In the helter-skelter to the 
 rear he had escaped by the Rossville road. He was ex 
 pecting every moment that the enemy would arrive 
 before the town, and was doing all he could to prepare 
 to resist his entrance. Soon after I arrived the two 
 corps commanders, McCook and Crittenden, both came 
 into Chattanooga. 
 
 The first thing I did on reaching town was to tele 
 graph Mr. Stanton. I had not sent him any telegrams 
 in the morning, for I had been in the field with Rose 
 crans, and part of the time at some distance from the 
 Widow Glenn s, where the operators were at work. The 
 boys kept at their post there until the Confederates swept 
 them out of the house. When they had to run, they 
 went instruments and tools in hand, and as soon as out 
 of reach of the enemy set up shop on a stump. It was 
 not long before they were driven out of this. They 
 next attempted to establish an office on the Rossville 
 road, but before they had succeeded in making connec 
 tions a battle was raging around them, and they had to 
 retreat to Granger s headquarters at Rossville. 
 
 117 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Having been swept bodily off the battlefield, and 
 having made my way into Chattanooga through a panic- 
 stricken rabble, the first telegram which I sent to Mr. 
 Stanton was naturally colored by what I had seen and 
 experienced. I remember that I began the dispatch 
 by saying: " My report to-day is of deplorable impor 
 tance. Chickamauga is as fatal a name in our history 
 as Bull Run." By eight o clock that evening, how 
 ever, I found that I had given too dark a view of the 
 disaster. 
 
 Early the next morning things looked still better. 
 Rosecrans received a telegram from Thomas at Ross- 
 ville, to which point he had withdrawn after the night 
 fall, saying that his troops were in high spirits, and that 
 he had brought off all his wounded. A little while 
 before noon General James A. Garfield, who was chief 
 of Rosecrans s staff, arrived in Chattanooga and gave 
 us the first connected account we had of the battle on 
 the left after the rout. Garfield said that he had become 
 separated from Rosecrans in the rout of our right wing 
 and had made his way to the left, and spent the after 
 noon and night with General Thomas. There he wit 
 nessed the sequel of the battle in that part of the field. 
 Thomas, finding himself cut off from Rosecrans and 
 the right, at once marshalled the remaining divisions for 
 independent fighting. Refusing both his right and left, 
 his line assumed the form of a horseshoe, posted along 
 the slope and crest of a partly wooded ridge. He was 
 soon joined by Granger from Rossville, with Steedman 
 and most of the reserve; and with these forces, more 
 than two thirds of the army, he firmly maintained the 
 
 118 
 
With the Army of the Cumberland. 
 
 fight till after dark. Our troops were as immovable 
 as the rocks they stood on. Longstreet hurled against 
 them repeatedly the dense columns which had routed 
 Davis and Sheridan in the early afternoon, but every 
 onset was repulsed with dreadful slaughter. Falling 
 first on one and then another point of our lines, for 
 hours the rebels vainly sought to break them. Thomas 
 seemed to have filled every soldier with his own uncon 
 querable firmness, and Granger, his hat torn by bullets, 
 raged like a lion wherever the combat was hottest with 
 the electrical courage of a Ney. When night fell, this 
 body of heroes stood on the same ground they had oc 
 cupied in the morning, their spirit unbroken, but their 
 numbers greatly diminished. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE REMOVAL OF ROSECRANS. 
 
 Preparing to defend Chattanooga Effect on the army of the day of 
 disaster and glory Mr. Dana suggests Grant or Thomas as Rose- 
 crans s successor Portrait of Thomas The dignity and loyalty 
 of his character illustrated The army reorganized It is threat 
 ened with starvation An estimate of Rosecrans He is relieved 
 of the command of the Army of the Cumberland. 
 
 ALL the news we could get the next day of the ene 
 my s movements seemed to show that the Confederate 
 forces were concentrating on Chattanooga. Accord 
 ingly, Rosecrans gave orders for all our troops to gather 
 in the town at once and prepare for the attack which 
 would probably take place within a day or two. By 
 midnight the army was in Chattanooga. The troops 
 were in wonderful spirits, considering their excessive 
 fatigues and heavy losses, and the next morning went 
 to work with energy on the fortifications. All the morn 
 ing of the 22d the enemy were approaching, resisted 
 by our advance parties, and by the middle of the after 
 noon the artillery firing was so near that it seemed cer 
 tain that the battle would be fought before dark. No 
 attack was made that day, however, nor the next, and 
 by the morning of the 24th the Herculean labors of the 
 army had so fortified the place that it was certain that 
 it could be taken only by a regular siege or by a turn- 
 
 I2O 
 
The Removal of Rosecrans. 
 
 ing movement. The strength of our forces was about 
 forty-five thousand effective men, and we had ten days 
 full rations on hand. Chattanooga could hold out, but 
 it was apparent that no offensive operations were pos 
 sible until re-enforcements came. These we knew had 
 been hurried toward us as soon as the news of the dis 
 aster of the 2Oth reached Washington. Burnside was 
 coming from Knoxville, we supposed, Hooker had 
 been ordered from Washington by rail, Sherman from 
 Vicksburg by steamer, and some of Hurlbut s troops 
 from Memphis. 
 
 The enemy by the 24th were massed in Chattanooga 
 Valley, and held Missionary Ridge and Lookout Moun 
 tain. The summit of Lookout Mountain, almost the 
 key to Chattanooga, was not given up by Rosecrans 
 until the morning of the 24th ; then he ordered the 
 withdrawal of the brigade which held the heights, and 
 the destruction of the wagon road which winds along 
 its side at about one third of its height and connects the 
 valleys of Chattanooga and Lookout. Both Granger 
 and Garfield earnestly protested against this order, con 
 tending that the mountain and the road could be held 
 by not more than seven regiments against the whole 
 power of the enemy. They were obviously right, but 
 Rosecrans was sometimes as obstinate and inaccessible 
 to reason as at others he was irresolute, vacillating, and 
 inconclusive, and he pettishly rejected all their argu 
 ments. The mountain was given up. 
 
 As soon as we felt reasonably sure that Chatta 
 nooga could hold out until re-enforcements came, the 
 disaster of the 2Oth of September became the absorb- 
 
 121 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ing topic of conversation in the Army of the Cumber 
 land. At headquarters, in camp, in the street, on the 
 fortifications, officers and soldiers and citizens wrangled 
 over the reasons for the loss of the day. By the end 
 of the first week after the disaster a serious fermenta 
 tion reigned in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Army 
 Corps, and, indeed, throughout the whole army, grow 
 ing out of events connected with the battle. 
 
 There was at once a manifest disposition to hold 
 McCook and Crittenden, the commanders of the two 
 corps, responsible, because they had left the field of 
 battle amid the rout of the right wing and made their 
 way to Chattanooga.* It was not generally understood 
 or appreciated at that time that, because of Thomas s 
 repeated calls for aid and Rosecrans s consequent alarm 
 for his left, Crittenden had been stripped of all his troops 
 and had no infantry whatever left to command, and that 
 McCook s lines also had been reduced to a fragment 
 by similar orders from Rosecrans and by fighting. A 
 strong opposition to both sprang up, which my tele 
 grams to Mr. Stanton immediately after the battle fully 
 reflect. The generals of division and of brigade felt the 
 
 * The feeling of the army toward McCook and Crittenden was after 
 ward greatly modified. A court of inquiry examined their cases, and 
 in February, 1864, gave its final finding and opinion. McCook it re 
 lieved entirely from responsibility for the reverse of September 2Oth, 
 declaring that the small force at his disposal was inadequate to defend, 
 against greatly superior numbers, the long line he had taken under 
 instructions, and adding that, after the line was broken, he had done 
 everything he could to rally and hold his troops, giving the necessary 
 orders to his subordinates. General Crittenden s conduct, the court 
 likewise declared, showed no cause for censure, and he was in no way 
 responsible for the disaster to the right wing. 
 
 122 
 
Removal of Rosecrans. 
 
 situation deeply, and said that they could no longer 
 serve under such superiors, and that, if this was re 
 quired of them, they must resign. This feeling was 
 universal among them, including men like Major-Gen 
 erals Palmer and Sheridan and Brigadier-Generals 
 Wood, Johnson, and Hazen. 
 
 The feeling of these officers did not seem in the least 
 to partake of a mutinous or disorderly character; it was 
 rather conscientious unwillingness to risk their men and 
 the country s cause in hands which they thought to be 
 unsafe. No formal representation of this unwillingness 
 was made to Rosecrans, but he was made aware of the 
 state of things by private conversations with several of 
 the parties. The defects of his character complicated 
 the difficulty. He abounded in friendliness and appro- 
 bativeness, and was greatly lacking in firmness and 
 steadiness of will. In short, he was a temporizing man; 
 he dreaded so heavy an alternative as was now pre 
 sented, and hated to break with McCook and Crit- 
 tenden. 
 
 Besides, there was a more serious obstacle to Rose- 
 crans s acting decisively in the fact that if Crittenden 
 and McCook had gone to Chattanooga, with the sound 
 of artillery in their ears, from that glorious field where 
 Thomas and Granger were saving their army and their 
 country s honor, he had gone to Chattanooga also. It 
 might be said in his excuse that, under the circumstances 
 of the sudden rout, it was perfectly proper for the com 
 manding general to go to the rear to prepare the next 
 line of defense. Still, Rosecrans felt that that excuse 
 could not entirely clear him either in his own eyes or 
 
 123 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 in those of the army. In fact, it was perfectly plain 
 that, while the subordinate commanders would not 
 resign if he was retained in the chief command, as I 
 believe they certainly would have done if McCook and 
 Crittenden had not been relieved, their respect for 
 Rosecrans as a general had received an irreparable 
 blow. 
 
 The dissatisfaction with Rosecrans seemed to me to 
 put the army into a very dangerous condition, and, in 
 writing to Mr. Stanton on September 27th, I said that 
 if it was decided to change the chief commander I would 
 suggest that some Western commander of high rank 
 and great prestige, like Grant, would be preferable as 
 Rosecrans s successor to one who had hitherto com 
 manded in the East alone. 
 
 The army, however, had its own candidate for Rose 
 crans s post. General Thomas had risen to the high 
 est point in their esteem, as he had in that of every one 
 who witnessed his conduct on that unfortunate and 
 glorious day, and I saw that, should there be a change 
 in the chief command, there was no other man whose 
 appointment would be so welcome. I earnestly recom 
 mended Mr. Stanton that in event of a change in the 
 chief command Thomas s merits be considered. He 
 was certainly an officer of the very highest qualities, 
 soldierly and personally. He was a man of the greatest 
 dignity of character. He had more the character of 
 George Washington than any other man I ever knew. 
 At the same time he was a delightful man to be with; 
 there was no artificial dignity about Thomas. He was 
 a West Point graduate, and very well educated. He 
 
 124 
 
Removal of Rosecrans. 
 
 was very set in his opinions, yet he was not impatient 
 with anybody a noble character. 
 
 In reply to my recommendation of Thomas, I re 
 ceived a telegram from the Secretary of War, saying: 
 " I wish you to go directly to see General Thomas, and 
 say to him that his services, his abilities, his character, 
 his unselfishness, have always been most cordially appre 
 ciated by me, and that it is not my fault that he has not 
 long since had command of an independent army." 
 
 Accordingly, I went at once over to General Thom 
 as s headquarters. I remember that I got there just 
 after they had finished dinner; the table was not cleared 
 off, but there was nobody in the dining room. When 
 General Thomas came in, I read to him the telegram 
 from the Secretary. He was too much affected by it 
 to reply immediately. After a moment he said: 
 
 " Mr. Dana, I wish you would say to the Secretary 
 of War that I am greatly affected by this expression 
 of his confidence; that I should have long since liked 
 to have had an independent command, but what I 
 should have desired would have been the command of 
 an army that I could myself have organized, disciplined, 
 distributed, and combined. I wish you would add also 
 that I would not like to take the command of an army 
 where I should be exposed to the imputation of having 
 intrigued or of having exercised any effort to supplant 
 my previous commander." 
 
 This was on October 4th. Four days later General 
 Thomas sent a confidential friend to me, saying rumors 
 had come to him that he was to be put in Rosecrans s 
 place; that, while he would gladly accept any other 
 
 125 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 command to which Mr. Stanton should see fit to assign 
 him, he could not consent to become the successor of 
 General Rosecrans. He would not do anything to give 
 countenance to the suspicion that he had intrigued 
 against his commander s interest. He declared that he 
 had perfect confidence in the fidelity and capacity of 
 General Rosecrans. 
 
 The first change in the Army of the Cumberland was 
 an order from Washington consolidating the Twentieth 
 and Twenty-first Corps. The news reached Chatta 
 nooga on October 5th in a Nashville newspaper, and, 
 not having been previously promulgated, it caused a 
 sensation. Crittenden was much excited, and said that, 
 as the Government no longer required his services, he 
 would resign; at any rate, he would not hibernate like 
 others, drawing pay and doing no work. McCook took 
 it easily. The consolidation of the two corps was gen 
 erally well received, and, as it was to be followed by a 
 general reorganization of the army, it seemed as if the 
 most happy consequences would be produced. The 
 only serious difficulty which followed the change was 
 that the men in the consolidated corps were troubled 
 by letters from home, showing that their friends re 
 garded a consolidation as a token of disgrace and pun 
 ishment. 
 
 Although the reorganization of the army was going 
 on, there was no real change in our situation, and by 
 the middle of October it began to look as if we were 
 in a helpless and precarious position. No re-enforce 
 ments had yet reached us, the enemy was growing 
 stronger every day, and, worse still, we were threatened 
 
 126 
 
The Removal of Rosecrans. 
 
 with starvation. Rosecrans s error in abandoning Look 
 out Mountain to the enemy on September 24th was 
 now apparent. Our supplies came by rail from Nash 
 ville to Bridgeport; but the enemy controlled the south 
 shore of the Tennessee between us and Bridgeport, and 
 thus prevented our rebuilding the railroad from Bridge 
 port to Chattanooga; with their shore batteries they 
 stopped the use of our steamboats. They even made 
 the road on the north shore impassable, the sharp 
 shooters on the south bank being able to pick off our 
 men on the north. The forage and supplies which we 
 had drawn from the country within our reach were now 
 exhausted, and we were dependent upon what could 
 be got to us over the roads north of the river. These 
 were not only disturbed by the enemy, but were so bad 
 in places that the mud was up to the horses bellies. 
 The animals themselves had become too weak to haul 
 the empty train up the mountain, while many had died 
 of starvation. On October I5th the troops were on half 
 rations, and officers as they went about where the men 
 were working on the fortifications frequently heard the 
 cry of " Crackers! " 
 
 In the midst of these difficulties General Rosecrans 
 seemed to be insensible to the impending danger; he 
 dawdled with trifles in a manner which scarcely can be 
 imagined. With plenty of zealous and energetic of 
 ficers ready to do whatever needed to be done, precious 
 time was lost because our dazed and mazy commander 
 could not perceive the catastrophe that was close upon 
 us, nor fix his mind upon the means of preventing it. 
 I never saw anything which seemed so lamentable and 
 
 127 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 hopeless. Our animals were starving, the men had 
 starvation before them, and the enemy was bound soon 
 to make desperate efforts to dislodge us. Yet the com 
 manding general devoted that part of the time which 
 was not employed in pleasant gossip to the composition 
 of a long report to prove that the Government was to 
 blame for his failure on the 2Oth. 
 
 While few persons exhibited more estimable social 
 qualities, I have never seen a public man possessing 
 talent with less administrative power, less clearness and 
 steadiness in difficulty, and greater practical incapacity 
 than General Rosecrans. He had inventive fertility and 
 knowledge, but he had no strength of will and no con 
 centration of purpose. His mind scattered; there was 
 no system in the use of his busy days and restless nights, 
 no courage against individuals in his composition, and, 
 with great love of command, he was a feeble commander. 
 He was conscientious and honest, just as he was im 
 perious and disputatious; always with a stray vein of 
 caprice and an overweening passion for the approbation 
 of his personal friends and the public outside. 
 
 Although the army had been reorganized as a result 
 of the consolidation of the Twentieth and Twenty-first 
 Corps, it was still inefficient and its discipline defective. 
 The former condition proceeded from the fact that Gen 
 eral Rosecrans insisted on directing personally every 
 department, and kept every one waiting and uncertain 
 till he himself could directly supervise every operation. 
 The latter proceeded from his utter lack of firmness, his 
 passion for universal applause, and his incapacity to 
 hurt any man s feelings by just severity. 
 
 128 
 
The Removal of Rosecrans. 
 
 My opinion of Rosecrans and my fears that the army 
 would soon be driven from Chattanooga by starvation, 
 if not by the Confederates, I had reiterated in my letters 
 to Mr. Stanton. On the morning of October igth I 
 received a dispatch from Mr. Stanton, sent from Wash 
 ington on October i6th, asking me to meet him that 
 day at the Gait House in Louisville. I wired him that, 
 unless he ordered to the contrary, Rosecrans would re 
 treat at once from Chattanooga, and then I started for 
 Louisville. It was a hard trip by horseback over 
 Walden s Ridge and through Jasper to Bridgeport, and 
 the roads were not altogether safe. Ten days before 
 this, in riding along the edge of a bank near the river 
 shore, the earth had given way under my horse s hind 
 feet, and he and I had been tumbled together down a 
 bank, about fourteen feet high; we rolled over each 
 other in the sand at the bottom. I got off with no worse 
 injury than a bruise of my left shoulder and a slight 
 crack on the back of my head from the horse s hind 
 foot, which made the blood run a little. The roads 
 over Walden Ridge and along the river were even worse 
 now than when I got my tumble, and, besides, they 
 were filled with wagons trying to get supplies to Chat 
 tanooga. It took at that time ten days for wagon teams 
 to go from Stevenson, where we had a depot, to Chat 
 tanooga. Though subsistence stores were so nearly ex 
 hausted, the wagons were compelled to throw over 
 board portions of their precious cargo in order to get 
 through. The returning trains were blockaded. On the 
 1 7th of October five hundred teams were halted be 
 tween the mountain and the river without forage for 
 10 129 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 the animals, and unable to move in any direction; the 
 whole road was strewn with dead animals. 
 
 The railway from Bridgeport to Nashville was not 
 much more comfortable or safer than the road. Early 
 in the month I had gone to Nashville on business, and 
 had come back in a tremendous storm in a train of 
 eighteen cars crowded with soldiers, and was twenty- 
 six hours on the road instead of ten. On the present 
 trip, however, I got along very well until within about 
 eight miles from Nashville, when our train narrowly 
 escaped destruction. A tie had been inserted in a 
 cattle guard to throw the train down an embankment, 
 but it had been calculated for a train going south, so 
 that ours simply broke it off. From what we learned 
 afterward, we thought it was intended for a train on 
 which it was supposed General Grant was going to 
 Bridgeport. 
 
 My train was bound through to Louisville. Indeed, 
 I think there was no one with me except the train hands 
 and the engineer. We reached Nashville about ten 
 o clock on the night of October 2Oth, and there were 
 halted. Directly there came in an officer I think it 
 was Lieutenant-Colonel Bowers, of General Grant s staff 
 who said: 
 
 " General Grant wants to see you." 
 
 This was the first that I knew Grant was in Ten 
 nessee. I got out of my train and went over to his. I 
 hadn t seen him since we parted at Vicksburg. 
 
 " I am going to interfere with your journey, Mr. 
 Dana," he said as soon as I came in. " I have got the 
 Secretary s permission to take you back with me to 
 
 130 
 
The Removal of Rosecrans. 
 
 Chattanooga. I want you to dismiss your train and 
 get in mine; we will give you comfortable quarters." 
 
 " General," I said, " did you ask the Secretary to 
 let me go back with you? " 
 
 " I did," he said; " I wanted to have you." 
 So, of course, I went. On the way down he told 
 me that he had been appointed to the command of the 
 " Military Division of the Mississippi," with permission 
 to leave Rosecrans in command of the Department of 
 the Cumberland or to assign Thomas in his place. He 
 had done the latter, he said, and had telegraphed 
 Thomas to take charge of the army the night after Stan- 
 ton, at Louisville, had received my dispatch of the I9th 
 saying Rosecrans would retreat from Chattanooga un 
 less ordered to remain. Rosecrans was assigned to the 
 Department of the Missouri, with headquarters at St. 
 Louis. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CHATTANOOGA AND MISSIONARY RIDGE. 
 
 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 sec 
 ond 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. 
 
 WITH Grant I left Nashville for the front on the 
 morning of the 2ist. We arrived safe in Bridgeport in 
 the evening. The next morning, October 22d, we left 
 on horseback for Chattanooga by way of Jasper and 
 Walden s Ridge. The roads were in such a condition 
 that it was impossible for Grant, who was on crutches 
 from an injury to his leg received by the fall of a horse 
 in New Orleans some time before, to make the whole 
 distance of fifty-five miles in one day, so I pushed on 
 ahead, running the rebel picket lines, and reaching 
 Chattanooga in the evening in company with Colonel 
 Wilson, Grant s inspector general. 
 
 The next morning I went to see General Thomas; it 
 was not an official visit, but a friendly one, such a visit 
 as I very often made on the generals. When we had 
 shaken hands, he said: 
 
 " Mr. Dana, you have got me this time; but there 
 
 132 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 is nothing for a man to do in such a case as this but to 
 obey orders." 
 
 This was in allusion to his assignment to the com 
 mand of the Army of the Cumberland. The change in 
 command was received with satisfaction by all intelli 
 gent officers, so far as I could ascertain, though, of 
 course, Rosecrans had many friends who were unable 
 to conceive why he was relieved. They reported that 
 he was to be put in command of the Army of the Poto 
 mac. The change at headquarters was already strik 
 ingly perceptible, order prevailing instead of universal 
 chaos. 
 
 On the evening of the 23d Grant arrived, as I stated 
 in my dispatch to Mr. Stanton, " wet, dirty, and well." 
 The next morning he was out with Thomas and Smith 
 to reconnoiter a position which the latter general had 
 discovered at the mouth of Lookout Valley, which he 
 believed, if it could be taken possession of and at the 
 same time if Raccoon Mountain could be occupied, 
 would give us Lookout Valley, and so enable us again 
 to bring supplies up the river. In preparation for this 
 movement, Smith had been getting bridges ready to 
 throw across the river at the mouth of the valley, and 
 been fitting up a steamer to use for supplies when we 
 should control the river. 
 
 The Confederates at that time were massed in Chat 
 tanooga Valley, south of Chattanooga. They held Mis 
 sionary Ridge to the east, and Lookout Mountain to 
 the west. They had troops in Lookout Valley also, and 
 their pickets extended westward over Raccoon Moun 
 tain to the river. South of the river, at Brown s Ferry, 
 
 133 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 were several low mamelons. Smith s idea was to sur 
 prise the Confederate pickets here at night and seize 
 the position in time to unite with Hooker, who in the 
 meantime should be ordered up from Bridgeport by 
 way of Shellmound, Whiteside, and Wauhatchie. That 
 night Grant gave orders for the movement; in fact, he 
 began it by sending Palmer s division across Walden s 
 Ridge to Rankin s Ferry, where he was to cross and 
 occupy Shellmound, thus guarding Hooker s rear. 
 Hooker he ordered to march from Bridgeport on the 
 morning of the 26th. 
 
 I went to Bridgeport on the 25th to observe Hook 
 er s movement, but found he was not there, and would 
 not be ready to march the next morning as ordered. 
 Hooker came up from Stevenson to Bridgeport on the 
 evening of the 26th. He was in an unfortunate state of 
 mind for one who had to co-operate fault-finding and 
 criticising. No doubt it was true that the chaos of the 
 Rosecrans administration was as bad as he described 
 it to be, but he was quite as truculent toward the plan 
 that he was now to execute as toward the impotence and 
 confusion of the old regime. By the next morning he 
 was ready to start, and the troops moved out for Shell- 
 mound about half past six. By half past four in the 
 afternoon we arrived at Whiteside Valley; thence the 
 march was directly to Wauhatchie. Here there was an 
 insignificant skirmish, which did not stop us long. By 
 the afternoon of the 28th we were at the mouth of the 
 Lookout Valley, where we found that General Smith, 
 by an operation whose brilliancy can not be exag 
 gerated, had taken the mamelons south of the river. 
 
 134 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 The only serious opposition to our occupancy of the 
 position came that night, but the enemy was success 
 fully repulsed. 
 
 Our forces now held Lookout Valley and controlled 
 the river from Brown s Ferry to Bridgeport. The next 
 day supplies were started up the river. At first they 
 came no farther than Kelley s Ferry, which was about 
 ten miles from Chattanooga. This was because the 
 steamer at Bridgeport could not get through the Suck, 
 an ugly pass in the mountains through which the river 
 runs; but on the night of the 3Oth we succeeded in 
 getting our steamer at Chattanooga past the pickets 
 on Lookout Mountain and down to Brown s Ferry. 
 She could pass the Suck, and after that supplies came 
 by water to Brown s Ferry. 
 
 Within a week after Grant s arrival we were receiv 
 ing supplies daily. There was no further danger of the 
 Army of the Cumberland being starved out of Chatta 
 nooga. The Confederates themselves at once recog 
 nized this, for a copy of the Atlanta Appeal of Novem 
 ber 3d which reached me said that if we were not 
 dislodged from Lookout Valley our possession of Chat 
 tanooga was secure for the winter. 
 
 It was now certain that we could hold Chattanooga; 
 but until Sherman reached us we could do nothing 
 against the enemy and nothing to relieve Burnside, who 
 had been ordered to unite with Rosecrans in August, 
 but had never got beyond Knoxville. He was shut up 
 there much in the same way as we were in Chattanooga, 
 and it was certain that the Confederates were sending 
 forces against him. 
 
 135 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 The day after Grant arrived we had good evidence 
 that the Confederates were moving in large force to 
 the northeastward of Chattanooga, for heavy railroad 
 trains went out in that direction and light ones returned. 
 Deserters to us on the morning of the 25th reported 
 that a large force was at Charleston, Tenn., and that 
 fully five thousand mounted infantry had crossed the 
 Tennessee River above Washington. That night it was 
 noticed that the pickets on Lookout Mountain, and 
 even down into the valley on the Chattanooga side, 
 were much diminished. We judged from this that the 
 enemy had withdrawn both from the top of the moun 
 tain and from the valley. There were other rumors of 
 their movements toward Burnside during the next few 
 days, and on November 6th some definite information 
 came through a deserter, a Northern man who had 
 lived in Georgia before the war and had been forced 
 into the service. He reported that two divisions had 
 moved up the Tennessee some time ago, and confirmed 
 our suspicion that the troops had been withdrawn 
 from Lookout Mountain. He said it was well under 
 stood among the Confederates that these forces 
 were going by way of Loudon to join those which 
 had already gone up the river, to co-operate with a 
 force of Lee s army in driving Burnside out of East 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Grant s first move to meet this plan of the enemy 
 was to direct Sherman, who had been trying to rebuild 
 and hold the railroad from Memphis as he marched 
 forward, to abandon this work and hasten up to Ste 
 venson. Grant then considered what movement could 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 be made which would compel the enemy to recall the 
 troops sent against Burnside. 
 
 Grant was so anxious to know the real condition of 
 Burnside that he asked me to go to Knoxville and 
 find out. So on November Qth I started, accompanied 
 by Colonel Wilson of Grant s staff. The way in which 
 such a trip as this of Wilson and mine was managed 
 in those days is told in this letter to a child, written just 
 before we left Chattanooga for Knoxville: 
 
 I expect to go all the way on horseback, and it will 
 take about five days. About seventy horsemen will go 
 along with their sabers and carbines to keep off the 
 guerillas. Our baggage we shall have carried on pack 
 mules. These are funny little rats of creatures, with the 
 big panniers fastened to their sides to carry their bur 
 dens in. I shall put my bed in one pannier and my 
 carpet bag and India-rubber things in the other. Colo 
 nel Wilson, who is to go with me, will have another 
 mule for his traps, and a third will carry the bread and 
 meat and coffee that we are to live on. At night we 
 shall halt in some nice shady nook where there is a 
 spring, build a big roaring fire, cook our supper, spread 
 our blankets on the ground, and sleep with our feet 
 toward the fire, while half a dozen of the soldiers, with 
 their guns ready loaded, watch all about to keep the 
 rebels at a safe distance. Then in the morning we shall 
 first wake up, then wash our faces, get our breakfasts, 
 and march on, like John Brown s soul, toward our 
 destination. How long I shall stay at Knoxville is un 
 certain, but I hope not very long though it must be 
 very charming in that country of mountains and rivers 
 and then I shall pray for orders that will take me 
 home again. 
 
 We were not obliged to camp out every night on this 
 trip. One evening, just about supper time, we reached 
 
 137 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 a large stone house, the home of a farmer. The man, 
 we found, was a strong Unionist, and he gave us a 
 hearty invitation to occupy his premises. Our escort 
 took possession of the barn for sleeping, and we cooked 
 our supper in the yard, the family lending us a table and 
 sending us out fresh bread. After supper Wilson and I 
 were invited into the house, where the farmer listened 
 eagerly to the news of the Union army. There were 
 two or three young and very pretty girls in the farmer s 
 family, and while we talked they dipped snuff, a peculiar 
 custom that I had seen but once or twice before. 
 
 We reached Knoxville on the I3th, and I at once 
 went to headquarters to talk over the situation with 
 Burnside. This was the first time I had met that gen 
 eral. He was rather a large man physically, about six 
 feet tall, with a large face and a small head, and heavy 
 side whiskers. He was an energetic, decided man, frank, 
 manly, and well educated. He was a very showy officer 
 not that he made any show; he was naturally that. 
 When he first talked with you, you would think he had 
 a great deal more intelligence than he really possessed. 
 You had to know him some time before you really took 
 his measure. 
 
 I found that Burnside s forces, something like thirty- 
 three thousand men of all arms, were scattered all the 
 way from Kentucky, by Cumberland Gap, down to 
 Knoxville. In and about Knoxville he had not con 
 centrated more than twelve thousand to fourteen thou 
 sand men. The town was fortified, though unable to 
 resist an attack by a large force. Up to this time Burn- 
 side and his army had really been very well off, for he 
 
 138 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 had commanded a rich region behind Knoxville, and 
 thence had drawn food and forage. He even had about 
 one hundred miles of railroad in active operation for 
 foraging, and he had plenty of mills and workshops in 
 the town which he could use. 
 
 After a detailed conversation with Burnside, I con 
 cluded that there was no reason to believe that any 
 force had been sent from Lee s army to attack him on 
 the northeast, as we had heard in Chattanooga, but that 
 it was certain that Longstreet was approaching from 
 Chattanooga with thirty thousand troops. Burnside 
 said that he would be unable long to resist such an at 
 tack, and that if Grant did not succeed in making a 
 demonstration which would compel Longstreet to re 
 turn he must retreat. 
 
 If compelled to retreat, he proposed, he said, to fol 
 low the line of Cumberland Gap, and to hold Morris- 
 town and Bean s Station. At these points he would be 
 secure against any force the enemy could bring against 
 him; he would still be able to forage over a large ex 
 tent of country on the south and east, he could prevent 
 the repair of the railroads by the rebels, and he would 
 still have an effective hold on East Tennessee. 
 
 A few hours after this talk with Burnside, about one 
 o clock in the morning of the I4th, a report reached 
 Knoxville that completely upset his plan for retreating 
 by Cumberland Gap. This was the news that the ene 
 my had commenced building bridges across the Ten 
 nessee near Loudon, only about twenty-five miles south 
 of Knoxville. Burnside immediately decided that he 
 must retreat; and he actually dictated orders for draw- 
 
 139 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ing his whole army south of the Holston into Blount 
 County, where all his communications would have been 
 cut off, and where on his own estimate he could not 
 have subsisted more than three weeks. General Parke 
 argued against this in vain, but finally Colonel Wilson 
 overcame it by representing that Grant did not wish 
 Burnside to include the capture of his entire army 
 among the plans of his operations. He then deter 
 mined to retreat toward the gaps, after destroying the 
 workshops and mills in Knoxville and on the line of 
 his march. 
 
 Before we left, however, which was about six o clock 
 in the morning of the I4th, General Burnside had begun 
 to feel that perhaps he might not be obliged to pass 
 the mountains and abandon East Tennessee entirely. 
 He had even decided to send out a force to attack the 
 enemy s advance. When Wilson and I reached Le- 
 noir s Station that morning on our way to Chatta 
 nooga, we discovered that the enemy s attack was not 
 as imminent as Burnside feared. Their bridges were 
 not complete, and no artillery or cavalry had crossed. 
 From everything I could learn of their strength, in fact, 
 it seemed to me that there was a reasonable probability 
 that Burnside would be able to hold Knoxville until re 
 lieved by operations at Chattanooga. 
 
 We found that our departure from Knoxville had 
 been none too soon. So completely were the Confed 
 erates taking possession of the country between Knox 
 ville and Chattanooga that had we delayed a single 
 day we could have got out only through Cumberland 
 Gap or that of Big Creek. We were four days in return- 
 
 140 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 ing, and Mr. Stanton became very uneasy, as I learned 
 from this dispatch received soon after my return: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., November 19, 1863. 
 
 Hon. C. A. DANA, Chattanooga. 
 
 Your dispatches of yesterday are received. I am 
 rejoiced that you have got safely back. My anxiety 
 about you for several days had been very great. Make 
 your arrangements to remain in the field during the 
 winter. Continue your reports as frequently as pos 
 sible, always noting the hour. 
 
 EDWIN M. STANTON. 
 
 Colonel Wilson and I reached Chattanooga on No 
 vember 1 7th. As soon as I arrived I went to Grant s 
 and Thomas s headquarters to find out the news. There 
 was the greatest hopefulness everywhere. Sherman, 
 they told me, had reached Bridgeport, and a plan for 
 attacking Bragg s position was complete and its exe 
 cution begun by moving a division of Sherman s army 
 from Bridgeport to Trenton, where it ought to arrive 
 that day, threatening the enemy by Stevens s Gap. The 
 remainder of that army was to move into Lookout 
 Valley by way of Whiteside, extending its lines up 
 the valley toward Trenton, as if to repeat the flanking 
 movement of Rosecrans when he followed Bragg across 
 the Tennessee. Having drawn the enemy s attention to 
 that quarter, Sherman was to disappear on the night 
 of the 1 8th and encamp his forces behind the ridge of 
 hills north of the Tennessee, opposite to Chattanooga, 
 and keep them there out of sight of the enemy during 
 the i Qth. That same night a bridge was to be thrown 
 across the river just below the mouth of Chickamauga 
 
 141 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Creek, so that on Saturday morning, November 2Oth, 
 Sherman s command would be across before daylight, if 
 possible. As soon as over he was to push for the head 
 of Missionary Ridge, and there engage the enemy. 
 
 At the same time that Sherman s wing advanced, 
 Granger, with about eighteen thousand men, was to 
 move up on the left of the Chattanooga lines and en 
 gage the Confederate right with all possible vigor. 
 Hooker, who had been in the Lookout Valley ever since 
 he joined the army in November, was to attack the 
 head of Lookout Mountain simultaneously with Sher 
 man s attack at the head of Missionary Ridge, and, if 
 practicable, to carry the mountain. 
 
 It is almost never possible to execute a campaign 
 as laid out, especially when it requires so many con 
 certed movements as this one. Thus, instead of all of 
 Sherman s army crossing the Tennessee on the night 
 of the 1 8th, and getting out of sight as expected be 
 hind the hills that night, a whole corps was left behind 
 at daylight, and one division had to march down the 
 valley on the morning of the 2Oth in full view of the 
 enemy, who now understood, of course, that he was to 
 be attacked. Bragg evidently did not care to risk a 
 battle, for he tried to alarm Grant that afternoon by 
 sending a flag over, and with it a letter, saying, " As 
 there may still be some non-combatants in Chattanooga, 
 I deem it proper to notify you that prudence would 
 dictate their early withdrawal." Of course, we all knew 
 this was a bluff. 
 
 On the morning of the 2Oth a heavy rain began, 
 which lasted two days and made the roads so bad that 
 
 142 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 Sherman s advance was almost stopped. His march 
 was still further retarded by a singular blunder which had 
 been committed in moving his forces from Bridgeport. 
 Instead of moving all the troops and artillery first, 
 the numerous trains which had been brought from West 
 Tennessee were sent in front rather than in rear of each 
 division. Grant said the blunder was his; that he should 
 have given Sherman explicit orders to leave his wagons 
 behind; but no one was so much astonished as Grant 
 on learning that they had not been left, even without 
 such orders. 
 
 Owing to these unforeseen circumstances, Sher 
 man s rear was so far behind on the morning of the 
 23d, three days after Grant had planned for the attack, 
 that it was doubtful whether he could be ready to join 
 the movement the next day, November 24th. It was 
 also feared that the enemy, who had seen the troops 
 march through Lookout Valley and then disappear, 
 might have discovered where they were concealed, and 
 thus surmise our movements. 
 
 On account of these hitches in carrying out the 
 operations as speedily as Grant had hoped, it was not 
 until November 23d that the first encounter in the bat 
 tle of Chattanooga occurred. It was the beginning of 
 the most spectacular military operations I ever saw 
 operations extending over three days and full of the 
 most exciting incidents. 
 
 Our army lay to the south and east of the town of 
 Chattanooga, the river being at our back. Facing us, in 
 a great half circle, and high above us on Lookout Moun 
 tain and Missionary Ridge, were the Confederates. Our 
 
 143 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 problem was to drive them from these heights. We 
 had got our men well together, all the re-enforcements 
 were up, and now we were to strike. 
 
 The first thing Grant tried to do was to clear out 
 the Confederate lines which were nearest to ours on the 
 plain south of Chattanooga, and to get hold of two bald 
 knobs, or low hills, where Bragg s forces had their ad 
 vance guard. As the entire field where this attack was 
 to be made was distinctly visible from one of our forts, 
 I went there on the 23d with the generals to watch the 
 operations. The troops employed for the attack were 
 under the immediate orders of Gordon Granger. There 
 were some capital officers under Granger, among them 
 Sheridan, Hazen, and T. J. Wood. Just before one 
 o clock the men moved out of their intrenchments, and 
 remained in line for three quarters of an hour in full view 
 of the enemy. The spectacle was one of singular mag 
 nificence. 
 
 Our point of view was Fort Wood. Usually in a 
 battle one sees only a little corner of what is going on, 
 the movements near where you happen to be; but in 
 the battle of Chattanooga we had the whole scene be 
 fore us. At last, everything being ready, Granger gave 
 the order to advance, and three brigades of men pushed 
 out simultaneously. The troops advanced rapidly, with 
 all the precision of a review, the flags flying and the 
 bands playing. The first sign of a battle one noticed 
 was the fire spitting out of the rifles of the skirmishers. 
 The lines moved steadily along, not halting at all, the 
 skirmishers all the time advancing in front, firing and 
 receiving fire. 
 
 144 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 The first shot was fired at two o clock, and in five 
 minutes Hazen s skirmishers were briskly engaged, while 
 the artillery of Forts Wood and Thomas was opening 
 upon the rebel rifle-pits and camps behind the line of 
 fighting. The practice of our gunners was splendid, but 
 it elicited no reply from the camps and batteries of the 
 enemy, about a mile and three quarters distant; and it 
 was soon evident that the Confederates had no heavy 
 artillery, in that part of their lines at least. Our troops, 
 rapidly advancing toward the knobs upon which they 
 were directed, occupied them at twenty minutes past 
 two. Ten minutes later Samuel Beatty, who com 
 manded a brigade, driving forward across an open 
 field, carried the rifle-pits in his front, the occupants 
 fleeing as they fired their last volley; and Sheridan, 
 moving through the forest which stretched before him, 
 drove in the enemy s pickets. Sheridan halted his ad 
 vance, in obedience to orders, on reaching the rifle-pits, 
 where the rebel force was waiting for his attack. No 
 such attack was made, however, the design being to 
 secure only the height. The entire movement was 
 carried out in such an incredibly short time that at half 
 past three I was able to send a telegram to Mr. Stan- 
 ton describing the victory. 
 
 We took about two hundred prisoners, mostly Ala 
 bama troops, and had gained a position which would 
 be of great importance should the enemy still attempt 
 to hold the Chattanooga Valley. With these heights 
 in our possession, a column marching to turn Mission 
 ary Ridge was secure from flank attack. The Confed 
 erates fired three small guns only during the affair, and 
 ii 145 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 that tended to confirm the impression that they had 
 withdrawn their main force. About four o clock in the 
 afternoon the enemy opened fire from the top of Mis 
 sionary Ridge, the total number of cannon they dis 
 played being about twelve, but nothing was developed 
 to show decisively whether they would fight or flee. 
 Grant thought the latter; other judicious officers the 
 former. 
 
 That evening I left Chattanooga to join General 
 Sherman, who had his troops north of the river con 
 cealed behind the hills, and ready to attempt to cross 
 the Tennessee that very night, so as to be able to at 
 tack the east head of Missionary Ridge on the night of 
 the 24th or the morning of the 25th. 
 
 Sherman had some twenty-five thousand men, and 
 crossing them over a river as wide and rapid as the Ten 
 nessee was above Chattanooga seemed to me a serious 
 task, and I watched the operations of the night with 
 great curiosity. The first point was to get a sufficient 
 body of troops on the south bank to hold a position 
 against the enemy (the Confederates had pickets for a 
 long distance up and down the Tennessee, above Chat 
 tanooga), and then from there commence building the 
 pontoon bridge by which the bulk of the men were to 
 be got over. 
 
 About one o clock in the morning the pontoon boats, 
 which had been sent up the river some distance, were 
 filled with men and allowed to drop down to the point 
 General Sherman had chosen for the south end of his 
 bridge. They landed about 2.30 in the morning, seized 
 the pickets, and immediately began to fortify their posi- 
 
 146 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 tion. The boats in the meantime were sent across the 
 river to bring over fresh loads of men. They kept this 
 up until morning. Then a small steamer which Sher 
 man had got hold of came up and began to bring over 
 troops. At daybreak some of the boats were taken 
 from the ferrying and a bridge was begun. It was mar 
 velous with what vigor the work went on. Sherman 
 told me he had never seen anything done so quietly 
 and so well, and he declared later in his report that he 
 did not believe the history of war could show a bridge 
 of that length about thirteen hundred and fifty feet 
 laid down so noiselessly and in so short a time. By 
 one o clock in the afternoon (November 24th) the bridge 
 was done, and the balance of his forces were soon 
 marching briskly across. As soon as Sherman saw that 
 the crossing was insured, he set the foremost of his 
 column in motion for the head of Missionary Ridge. 
 By four o clock he had gained the crest of the ridge 
 and was preparing for the next day s battle. 
 
 As soon as I saw Sherman in position, I hurried back 
 to Chattanooga. I reached there just in time to see the 
 famous moonlight battle on Lookout Mountain. The 
 way this night battle happened to be fought was that 
 Hooker, who had been holding Lookout Valley, had 
 been ordered to gain a foothold on Lookout Mountain 
 if possible, and that day, while I was with Sherman, had 
 really succeeded in scaling the side of the mountain. 
 But his possession of the point he had reached had been 
 so hotly disputed that a brigade had been sent from 
 Chattanooga to aid him. These troops attacked the 
 Confederate lines on the eastern slope of the mountain 
 
 147 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 about eight o clock that evening. A full moon made 
 the battlefield as plain to us in the valley as if it were 
 day, the blaze of their camp fires and the flashes of their 
 guns displaying brilliantly their position and the prog 
 ress of their advance. No report of the result was re 
 ceived that night, but the next morning we knew that 
 Bragg had evacuated Lookout Mountain the night be 
 fore, and that our troops occupied it. 
 
 After the successes of the two days a decisive battle 
 seemed inevitable, and orders were given that night 
 for a vigorous attack the next morning. I was up early, 
 sending my first dispatch to Mr. Stanton at half past 
 seven o clock. As the result of the operations of the 
 day before, Grant held the point of Lookout Mountain 
 on the southwest and the crest of the east end of Mis 
 sionary Ridge, and his line was continuous between 
 these points. As the result of the movement on Novem 
 ber 23d, our lines in front had been advanced to Or 
 chard Knob. The bulk of the Confederate force was 
 intrenched along Missionary Ridge, five to six hundred 
 feet above us, and facing our center and left. From 
 Chattanooga we could see the full length of our own 
 and the enemy s lines spread out like a scene in a 
 theater. 
 
 About nine o clock the battle was commenced on 
 Sherman s line on our left, and it raged furiously all 
 that forenoon both east of Missionary Ridge and along 
 its crest, the enemy making vigorous efforts to crush 
 Sherman and dislodge him from his position on the 
 ridge. All day, while this battle was going on, I was at 
 Orchard Knob, where Grant, Thomas, Granger, and 
 
 148 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 several other officers were observing the operations. 
 The enemy kept firing shells at us, I remember, from the 
 ridge opposite. They had got the range so well that 
 the shells burst pretty near the top of the elevation 
 where we were, and when we saw them coming we 
 would duck that is, everybody did except Generals 
 Grant and Thomas and Gordon Granger. It was not 
 according to their dignity to go down on their mar 
 row bones. While we were there Granger got a can 
 non how he got it I do not know and he would 
 load it with the help of one soldier and fire it himself 
 over at the ridge. I recollect that Rawlins was very 
 much disgusted at the guerilla operations of Granger, 
 and induced Grant to order him to join his troops 
 elsewhere. 
 
 As we thought we perceived, soon after noon, that 
 the enemy had sent a great mass of their troops to crush 
 Sherman, Grant gave orders at two o clock for an as 
 sault upon the left of their lines; but owing to the fault 
 of Granger, who was boyishly intent upon firing his 
 gun instead of commanding his corps, Grant s order was 
 not transmitted to the division commanders until he 
 repeated it an hour later. 
 
 It was fully four o clock before the line moved out 
 to the attack. It was a bright, sunny afternoon, and, 
 as the forces marched across the valley in front of us as 
 regularly as if on parade, it was a great spectacle. They 
 took with ease the first rifle-pits at the foot of the ridge 
 as they had been ordered, and then, to the amazement 
 of all of us who watched on Orchard Knob, they moved 
 out and up the steep ahead of them, and before we real- 
 
 149 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ized it they were at the top of Missionary Ridge. It 
 was just half past four when I wired to Mr. Stanton: 
 
 Glory to God! the day is decisively ours. Mission 
 ary Ridge has just been carried by the magnificent 
 charge of Thomas s troops, and the rebels routed. 
 
 As soon as Grant saw the ridge was ours, he started 
 for the front. As he rode the length of the lines, the 
 men, who were frantic with joy and enthusiasm over the 
 victory, received him with tumultuous shouts. The 
 storming of the ridge by our troops was one of the 
 greatest miracles in military history. No man who 
 climbs the ascent by any of the roads that wind along 
 its front can believe that eighteen thousand men were 
 moved in tolerably good order up its broken and crumb 
 ling face unless it was his fortune to witness the deed. 
 It seemed as awful as a visible interposition of God. 
 Neither Grant nor Thomas intended it. Their orders 
 were to carry the rifle-pits along the base of the ridge 
 and capture their occupants; but when this was accom 
 plished, the unaccountable spirit of the troops bore them 
 bodily up those impracticable steeps, in spite of the 
 bristling rifle-pits on the crest, and the thirty cannons 
 enfilading every gully. The order to storm appears to 
 have been given simultaneously by Generals Sheridan 
 and Wood because the men were not to be held back, 
 dangerous as the attempt appeared to military pru 
 dence. Besides, the generals had caught the inspira 
 tion of the men, and were ready themselves to under 
 take impossibilities. 
 
 The first time I saw Sheridan after the battle I said 
 to him, " Why did you go up there? " 
 
 150 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 " When I saw the men were going up," he replied, 
 " I had no idea of stopping them; the rebel pits had 
 been taken and nobody had been hurt, and after they 
 had started I commanded them to go right on. I 
 looked up at the head of the ridge as I was going up, 
 and there I saw a Confederate general on horseback. 
 I had a silver whisky flask in my pocket, and when I 
 saw this man on the top of the hill I took out my flask 
 and waved my hand toward him, holding up the shin 
 ing, glittering flask, and then I took a drink. He 
 waved back to me, and then the whole corps went up." 
 
 All the evening of the 25th the excitement of the 
 battle continued. Bragg had retreated down the Chicka- 
 mauga Valley and was burning what he could not carry 
 away, so that the east was lit by his fires, while Sheridan 
 continued his fight along the east slope of Missionary 
 Ridge until nine o clock in the evening. It was a bright 
 moonlight night, and we could see most of the opera 
 tions as plainly as by day. The next morning Bragg 
 was in full retreat. I went to Missionary Ridge in the 
 morning, and from there I could see along ten miles 
 of Chickamauga Valley the fires of the depots and 
 bridges he was burning as he fled. 
 
 At intervals throughout the day I sent dispatches to 
 Washington, where they were eagerly read, as the fol 
 lowing telegram sent me on the 27th shows: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, 
 WASHINGTON CITY, November .27, 1863. 
 
 Hon. C. A. DANA, Chattanooga, Tenn.: 
 
 The Secretary of War is absent and the President 
 is sick, but both receive your dispatches regularly and 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 esteem them highly, not merely because they are re 
 liable, but for their clearness of narrative and their 
 graphic pictures of the stirring events they describe. 
 
 The patient endurance and spirited valor exhibited 
 by commanders and men in the last great feat of arms, 
 which has crowned our cause with such a glorious suc 
 cess, is making all of us hero worshipers. 
 
 P. H. WATSON, 
 Acting Secretary of War. 
 
 The enemy was now divided. Bragg was flying 
 toward Rome and Atlanta, and Longstreet was in East 
 Tennessee besieging Burnside. Our victorious army 
 was between them. The first thought was, of course, to 
 relieve Burnside, and Grant ordered Granger with the 
 Fourth Corps instantly forward to his aid, taking pains 
 to write Granger a personal letter, explaining the ex 
 igencies of the case and the imperative need of energy. 
 It had no effect, however, in hastening the movement, 
 and a day or two later Grant ordered Sherman to as 
 sume command of all the forces operating from the 
 south to save Knoxville. Grant became imbued with a 
 strong prejudice against Granger from this circum 
 stance. 
 
 As any movement against Bragg was impracticable 
 at that season, the only operations possible to Grant, 
 beyond the relief of Burnside, were to hold Chattanooga 
 and the line of the Hiwassee, to complete and protect 
 the railroads and the steamboats upon the Tennessee, 
 and to amass food, forage, and ordnance stores for the 
 future. But all this would require only a portion of 
 the forces under his command; and, instead of holding 
 the remainder in winter quarters, he evolved a plan to 
 
 152 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 employ them in an offensive winter campaign against 
 Mobile and the interior of Alabama. He asked me to 
 lay his plan before Mr. Stanton, and urge its approval 
 by the Government, which, of course, I did at once by 
 telegraph. 
 
 I did not wait at Chattanooga to learn the decision 
 of the Government on Grant s plan, but left on Novem 
 ber 29th, again with Colonel Wilson, to join Sherman, 
 now well on his way to Knoxville, and to observe his 
 campaign. 
 
 I fell in with Sherman on November 3Oth at Charles 
 ton, on the Hiwassee. The Confederate guard there 
 fled at his approach, after half destroying the bridges, 
 and we had to stay there until one was repaired. When 
 we reached Loudon, on December 3d, the bridge over 
 the Tennessee was gone, so that the main body of the 
 army marched to a point where it was believed a prac 
 ticable ford might be found. The ford, however, proved 
 too deep for the men, the river being two hundred yards 
 wide, and the water almost at freezing point. We had 
 a great deal of fun getting across. I remember my 
 horse went through swam through, where his feet 
 could not strike the ground and I got across without 
 any difficulty. I think Wilson got across, too; but 
 when the lieutenant of our squad of cavalrymen got in 
 the middle of the river, where it was so deep that as he 
 sat in the saddle the water came up to his knees almost, 
 and a little above the breast of the mule he rode, the 
 animal turned his head upward toward the current, 
 at that place very strong, and would not stir. This 
 poor fellow sat there in the middle of the stream, and, 
 
 153 
 
Recollections of the Civil War, 
 
 do his best, he could not move his beast. Finally, they 
 drove in a big wagon, or truck, with two horses, and 
 tied that to the bits of the mule, and dragged him out. 
 
 Colonel Wilson at once set about the construction of 
 a trestle bridge, and by working all night had it so ad 
 vanced that the troops could begin to cross by daylight 
 the next morning. 
 
 While the crossing was going on, we captured a 
 Confederate mail, and first learned something authentic 
 about Burnside. He had been assailed by Longstreet 
 on the 2Qth of November, but had repulsed him. He 
 was still besieged, and all the letter writers spoke of the 
 condition in the town with great despondency, evidently 
 regarding their chance of extrication as very poor. 
 Longstreet, we gathered from the mail, thought that 
 Sherman was bringing up only a small force. 
 
 By noon of December 5th we had our army over, 
 and, as we were now only thirty-five miles from Knox- 
 ville, we pushed ahead rapidly, the enemy making but 
 little resistance. When Longstreet discovered the 
 strength of our force he retreated, and we entered Knox- 
 ville at noon on the 6th. We found to our surprise 
 that General Burnside had fully twenty days provi 
 sions much more, in fact, than at the beginning of 
 the siege. These supplies had been drawn from the 
 French Broad by boats, and by the Sevierville road. 
 The loyal people of East Tennessee had done their 
 utmost through the whole time to send in provisions 
 and forage, and Longstreet left open the very avenues 
 which Burnside most desired. We found ammunition 
 very short, and projectiles for our rifle guns had been 
 
 154 
 
Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 made in the town. The utmost constancy and unanim 
 ity had prevailed during the whole siege, from Burn- 
 side down to the last private; no man thought of re 
 treat or surrender. 
 
 The next morning after our arrival, December Jrth, 
 Sherman started back to Chattanooga with all his force 
 not needed there. Colonel Wilson and I returned with 
 him, reaching Chattanooga on December loth. 
 
 Everything in the army was now so safe, quiet, and 
 regular that I felt I could be more useful anywhere else, 
 so the day I got back I asked leave of Mr. Stanton to 
 go North. I did not wait for his reply, however. The 
 morning of the I2th Grant sent for me to come to his 
 headquarters, and asked me to go to Washington to 
 represent more fully to Stanton and Halleck his wishes 
 with regard to the winter campaign. As the matter was 
 important, I started at once, telegraphing Mr. Stanton 
 that, if he thought it unnecessary for me to go, orders 
 would reach me at any point on the railroad. 
 
 155 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE WAR DEPARTMENT IN WAR TIMES. 
 
 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 Secre 
 tary s functions Contract supplies and contract frauds Lincoln s 
 intercession for dishonest contractors with political influence A 
 characteristic letter from Sherman. 
 
 I REACHED Washington about the middle of Decem 
 ber, and immediately gave to Mr. Stanton an outline 
 of Grant s plan and reasons for a winter campaign. 
 The President, Mr. Stanton, and General Halleck all 
 agreed that the proposed operations were the most 
 promising in sight; indeed, Mr. Stanton was enthusi 
 astic in favor of the scheme as I presented it to him. 
 He said that the success of Grant s campaign would 
 end the war in the Mississippi Valley, and practically 
 make prisoners of all the rebel forces in the interior of 
 Mississippi and Alabama, without our being at the di 
 rect necessity of guarding and feeding them. But 
 Halleck, as a sine qua non, insisted that East Tennessee 
 should first be cleared out and Longstreet driven off 
 permanently and things up to date secured, before new 
 campaigns were entered upon. 
 
 The result was that no winter campaign was made in 
 
fhe War Department in War 
 
 i863- 64 toward the Alabama River towns and Mobile. 
 Its success, in my opinion, was certain, and I so repre 
 sented to Mr. Stanton. Without jeoparding our in 
 terests in any other quarter, Grant would have opened 
 the Alabama River and captured Mobile a full year be 
 fore it finally fell. Its success meant permanent secur 
 ity for everything we had already laid hold of, at once 
 freeing many thousands of garrison troops for serv 
 ice elsewhere. As long as the rebels held Alabama, 
 they had a base from which to strike Tennessee. I had 
 unbounded confidence in Grant s skill and energy to 
 conduct such a campaign into the interior, cutting loose 
 entirely from his base and subsisting off the enemy s 
 country. At the time he had the troops, and could 
 have finished the job in three months. 
 
 After I had explained fully my mission from Grant, 
 I asked the Secretary what he wanted me to do. Mr. 
 Stanton told me he would like to have me remain in 
 the department until I was needed again at the front. 
 Accordingly, an office in the War Department was pro 
 vided for me, and I began to do the regular work of 
 an assistant to the Secretary of War. This was the 
 first time since my relations with the War Department 
 began that I had been thrown much with the Secretary, 
 and I was very glad to have an opportunity to observe 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Stanton was a short, thick, dark man, with a 
 very large head and a mass of black hair. His nature 
 was intense, and he was one of the most eloquent men 
 that I ever met. Stanton was entirely absorbed in his 
 duties, and his energy in prosecuting them was some- 
 
 157 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 thing almost superhuman. When he took hold of the 
 War Department the armies seemed to grow, and they 
 certainly gained in force and vim and thoroughness. 
 
 One of the first things which struck me in Mr. Stan- 
 ton was his deep religious feeling and his familiarity 
 with the Bible. He must have studied the Bible a great 
 deal when he was a boy. He had the firmest conviction 
 that the Lord directed our armies. Over and over 
 again have I heard him express the same opinion which 
 he wrote to the Tribune after Donelson: " Much has 
 recently been said of military combinations and organ 
 izing victory. I hear such phrases with apprehension. 
 They commenced in infidel France with the Italian 
 campaign, and resulted in Waterloo. Who can organ 
 ize victory? Who can combine the elements of suc 
 cess 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 hearts 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." There was never any cant in Stanton s 
 religious feeling. It was the straightforward expression 
 of what he believed and lived, and was as simple and 
 genuine and real to him as the principles of his busi 
 ness. 
 
 Stanton was a serious student of history. He had 
 read many books on the subject more than on any 
 other, I should say and he was fond of discussing his 
 torical characters with his associates; not that he made 
 a show of his learning. He was fond, too, of discussing 
 
 158 
 
War Department in Wa 
 
 legal questions, and would listen with eagerness to the 
 statement of cases in which friends had been interested. 
 He was a man who was devoted to his friends, and he 
 had a good many with whom he liked to sit down and 
 talk. In conversation he was witty and satirical; he 
 told a story well, and was very companionable. 
 
 There is a popular impression that Mr. Stanton took 
 a malevolent delight in browbeating his subordinates, 
 and every now and then making a spectacle of some 
 poor officer or soldier, who unfortunately fell into his 
 clutches in the Secretary s reception room, for the edi 
 fication of bystanders. This idea, like many other false 
 notions concerning great men, is largely a mistaken 
 one. The stories which are told of Mr. Stanton s im 
 patience and violence are exaggerated. He could speak 
 in a very peremptory tone, but I never heard him say 
 anything that could be called vituperative. 
 
 There \vere certain men in whom he had little faith, 
 and I have heard him speak to some of these in a tone 
 of severity. He was a man of the quickest intelligence, 
 and understood a thing before half of it was told him. 
 His judgment was just as swift, and when he got hold 
 of a man who did not understand, who did not state 
 his case clearly, he was very impatient. 
 
 If Stanton liked a man, he was always pleasant. I 
 was with him for several years in the most confidential 
 relations, and I can now recall only one instance of his 
 speaking to me in a harsh tone. It was a curious case. 
 Among the members of Congress at that period was a 
 Jew named Strouse. One of Strouse s race, who lived 
 in Virginia, had gone down to the mouth of the James 
 
 159 
 
Recollections of the Civil 
 
 River when General Butler was at Fortress Monroe, 
 and had announced his wish to leave the Confederacy. 
 Now, the orders were that when a man came to a com 
 manding officer with a request to go through the lines, 
 he was to be examined and all the money he had was 
 to be taken from him. General Butler had taken from 
 this Virginian friend of Strouse between fifty thousand 
 and seventy-five thousand dollars. When a general 
 took money in this way he had to deposit it at once in 
 the Treasury; there a strict account was kept of the 
 amount, whom it was taken by, and whom it was taken 
 from. Butler gave a receipt to this man, and he after 
 ward came to Washington to get his money. He and 
 Strouse came to the War Department, where they 
 bothered Mr. Stanton a good deal. Finally, Mr. Stan- 
 ton sent for me. 
 
 " Strouse is after me," he said ; " he wants that 
 money, and I want you to settle the matter." 
 
 " What shall I do? " I asked ; " what are the or 
 ders? " He took the papers in the case and wrote on 
 the back of them: 
 
 Referred to Mr. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, 
 to be settled as in his judgment shall be best. 
 
 E. M. STANTON. 
 
 The man then turned his attention from the Secre 
 tary to me. I looked into the matter, and gave him 
 back the money. The next day Mr. Stanton sent for 
 me. I saw he was angry. 
 
 " Did you give that Jew back his money? " he asked 
 in a harsh tone. 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 160 
 
War Department in War ^imes. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I should like to know by what 
 authority you did it." 
 
 " If you will excuse me while I go to my room, I 
 will show my authority to you," I replied. 
 
 So I went up and brought down the paper he had 
 indorsed, and read to him: 
 
 " Referred to Mr. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, 
 to be settled as in his judgment shall be best." Then I 
 handed it over to him. He looked at it, and then he 
 laughed. 
 
 "You are right," he said; "you have got me this 
 time." That was the only time he spoke to me in a 
 really harsh tone. 
 
 At the time that I entered the War Department for 
 regular duty, it was a very busy place. Mr. Stanton 
 frequently worked late at night, keeping his carriage 
 waiting for him. I never worked at night, as my eyes 
 would not allow it. I got to my office about nine 
 o clock in the morning, and I stayed there nearly the 
 whole day, for I made it a rule never to go away until 
 my desk was cleared. When I arrived I usually found 
 on my table a big pile of papers which were to be acted 
 on, papers of every sort that had come to me from the 
 different departments of the office. 
 
 The business of the War Department during the 
 first winter that I spent in Washington was something 
 enormous. Nearly $285,000,000 was paid out that 
 year (from June, 1863, to June, 1864) by the quarter 
 master s office, and $221,000,000 stood in accounts at 
 the end of the year awaiting examination before pay 
 ment was made. We had to buy every conceivable 
 161 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 thing that an army of men could need. We bought fuel, 
 forage, furniture, coffins, medicine, horses, mules, tele 
 graph wire, sugar, coffee, flour, cloth, caps, guns, pow 
 der, and thousands of other things. Sometimes our 
 supplies came by contract; again by direct purchase; 
 again by manufacture. Of course, by the fall of 1863 
 the army was pretty well supplied; still, that year we 
 bought over 3,000,000 pairs of trousers, nearly 5,000,- 
 
 000 flannel shirts and drawers, some 7,000,000 pairs of 
 stockings, 325,000 mess pans, 207,000 camp kettles, 
 over 13,000 drums, and 14,830 fifes. It was my duty 
 to make contracts for many of these supplies. 
 
 In making contracts for supplies of all kinds, we 
 were obliged to take careful precautions against frauds. 
 
 1 had a colleague in the department, the Hon. Peter 
 H. Watson, the distinguished patent lawyer, who had 
 a great knack at detecting army frauds. One which 
 Watson had spent much time in trying to ferret out 
 came to light soon after I went into office. This was 
 an extensive fraud in forage furnished to the Army of 
 the Potomac. The trick of the fraud consisted in a dis 
 honest mixture of oats and Indian corn for the horses 
 and mules of the army. By changing the proportions 
 of the two sorts of grain, the contractors were able to 
 make a considerable difference in the cost of the bushel, 
 on account of the difference in the weight and price 
 of the grain, and it was difficult to detect the cheat. 
 However, Watson found it out, and at once arrested 
 the men who were most directly involved. 
 
 Soon after the arrest Watson went to New York. 
 While he was gone, certain parties from Philadelphia 
 
 162 
 
The War Department in War Times. 
 
 interested in the swindle came to me at the War De 
 partment. Among them was the president of the Corn 
 Exchange. They paid me thirty-three thousand dollars 
 to cover the sum which one of the men confessed he 
 had appropriated; thirty-two thousand dollars was the 
 amount restored by another individual. The morning 
 after this transaction the Philadelphians returned to me, 
 demanding both that the villains should be released, and 
 that the papers and funds belonging to them, taken 
 at the time of their arrest, should be restored. It was 
 my judgment that, instead of being released, they should 
 be remanded to solitary confinement until they could 
 clear up all the forage frauds and make complete justice 
 possible. Then I should have released them, but not 
 before. So I telegraphed to Watson what had hap 
 pened, and asked him to return to prevent any false 
 step. 
 
 Now, it happened that the men arrested were of 
 some political importance in Pennsylvania, and emi 
 nent politicians took a hand in getting them out of 
 the scrape. Among others, the Hon. David Wilmot, 
 then Senator of the United States and author of the 
 famous Wilmot proviso, was very active. He went to 
 Mr. Lincoln and made such representations and appeals 
 that finally the President consented to go with him 
 over to the War Department and see Watson in his 
 office. Wilmot remained outside, and Mr. Lincoln 
 went in to labor with the Assistant Secretary. Wat 
 son eloquently described the nature of the fraud, and 
 the extent to which it had already been developed 
 by his partial investigation. The President, in reply, 
 
 163 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 dwelt upon the fact that a large amount of money had 
 been refunded by the guilty men, and urged the greater 
 question of the safety of the cause and the necessity 
 of preserving united the powerful support which Penn 
 sylvania was giving to the administration in suppress 
 ing the rebellion. Watson answered: 
 
 lt Very well, Mr. President, if you wish to have these 
 men released, all that is necessary is to give the order; 
 but I shall ask to have it in writing. In such a case as 
 this it would not be safe for me to obey a verbal order; 
 and let me add that if you do release them the fact and 
 the reason will necessarily become known to the 
 people." 
 
 Finally Mr. Lincoln took up his hat and went out. 
 Wilmot was waiting in the corridor, and came to meet 
 him. 
 
 " Wilmot," he said, " I can t do anything with Wat 
 son; he won t release them." 
 
 The reply which the Senator made to this remark 
 can not be printed here, but it did not affect the judg 
 ment or the action of the President. 
 
 The men were retained for a long time afterward. 
 The fraud was fully investigated, and future swindles 
 of the kind were rendered impossible. If Watson could 
 have had his way, the guilty parties and there were 
 some whose names never got to the public would 
 have been tried by military commission and sternly 
 dealt with. But my own reflections upon the subject 
 led me to the conclusion that the moderation of the 
 President was wiser than the unrelenting justice of the 
 Assistant Secretary would have been. 
 
 164 
 
The War Department in War Times. 
 
 Not a little of my time at the department was taken 
 up with people who had missions of some kind within 
 the lines of the army. I remember one of these par 
 ticularly, because it brought me a characteristic letter 
 from General Sherman. There was much suffering 
 among the loyal citizens and the Quakers of East Ten 
 nessee in the winter of 1863- 64, and many relief com 
 mittees came to us seeking transportation and safe con 
 duct for themselves and their supplies into that coun 
 try. Some of these were granted, to the annoyance of 
 General Sherman, then in command of the Military 
 Division of the Mississippi. The reasons for his objec 
 tions he gave in this letter to me: 
 
 HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 
 
 NASHVILLE, TENN., April 21, 1864. 
 
 C. A. DANA, Esq., Ass t Sec. of War, Washington. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND: It may be parliamentary, but is 
 not military, for me to write you; but I feel assured 
 anything I may write will only have the force of a casual 
 conversation, such as we have indulged in by the camp 
 fire or as we jogged along by the road. The text of 
 my letter is one you gave a Philadelphia gentleman who 
 is going up to East Tennessee to hunt up his brother 
 Quakers and administer the bounties of his own and his 
 fellow-citizens charity. Now who would stand in the 
 way of one so kindly and charitably disposed? Surely 
 not I. But other questions present themselves. We 
 have been working hard with tens of thousands of men, 
 and at a cost of millions of dollars, to make railroads to 
 carry to the line of the Tennessee enough provisions 
 and material of war to enable us to push in our physical 
 force to the next stop in the war. I have found on 
 personal inspection that hitherto the railroads have 
 barely been able to feed our men, that mules have died 
 by the thousand, that arms and ammunition had [have] 
 
 165 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 laid in the depot for two weeks for want of cars, that no 
 accumulation at all of clothing and stores had been 
 or could be moved at Chattanooga, and that it took 
 four sets of cars and locomotives to accommodate the 
 passes given by military commanders; that gradually 
 the wants of citizens and charities were actually con 
 suming the real resources of a road designed exclusively 
 for army purposes. You have been on the spot and 
 can understand my argument. At least one hundred 
 citizens daily presented good claims to go forward 
 women to attend sick children, parents in search of the 
 bodies of some slain in battle, sanitary committees sent 
 by States and corporations to look after the personal 
 wants of their constituents, ministers and friends to min 
 ister to the Christian wants of their flocks; men who 
 had fled, anxious to go back to look after lost families, 
 etc.; and, more still, the tons of goods which they all 
 bore on their merciful errands. None but such as you, 
 who have been present and seen the tens, hundreds, 
 and thousands of such cases, can measure them in the 
 aggregate and segregate the exceptions. 
 
 I had no time to hesitate, for but a short month was 
 left me to prepare, and I must be ready to put in motion 
 near one hundred thousand men to move when naught 
 remains to save life. I figured up the mathematics, and 
 saw that I must have daily one hundred and forty-five 
 car loads of essentials for thirty days to enable me to 
 fill the requirement. Only seventy-five daily was all 
 the roads were doing. Now I have got it up to one 
 hundred and thirty-five. Troops march, cattle go by 
 the road, sanitary and sutler s stores limited, and all is 
 done that human energy can accomplish. Yet come 
 these pressing claims of charity, by men and women 
 who can not grasp the great problem. My usual answer 
 is, " Show me that your presence at the front is more 
 valuable than two hundred pounds of powder, bread, 
 or oats "; and it is generally conclusive. I have given 
 Mr. Savery a pass on your letter, and it takes two hun 
 dred pounds of bread from our soldiers, or the same 
 
 166 
 
The War Department in War Times. 
 
 of oats from our patient mules; but I could not promise 
 to feed the suffering Quakers at the expense of our 
 army. I have ordered all who can not provide food 
 at the front to be allowed transportation back in our 
 empty cars; but I can not undertake to transport the 
 food needed by the worthy East Tennesseeans or any 
 of them. In peace there is a beautiful harmony in all 
 the departments of life they all fit together like the 
 Chinese puzzle; but in war all is ajar. Nothing fits, 
 and it is the struggle between the stronger and weaker; 
 and the latter, however it may appeal to the better feel 
 ings of our nature, must kick the beam. To make war 
 we must and will harden our hearts. 
 
 Therefore, when preachers clamor and the sanitaries 
 wail, don t join in, but know that war, like the thun 
 derbolt, follows its laws, and turns not aside even if the 
 beautiful, the virtuous, and charitable stand in its path. 
 
 When the day and the hour comes, I ll strike Joe 
 Johnston, be the result what it may; but in the time al 
 lotted to me for preparation I must and will be selfish 
 in making those preparations which I know to be neces 
 sary. Your friend, 
 
 W. T. SHERMAN, Major General. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND HIS CABINET. 
 
 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 intel 
 lect His genius for military judgment Stanton s comment on 
 the Gettysburg speech The kindness of Abraham Lincoln s heart. 
 
 DURING the first winter I spent in Washington in 
 the War Department I had constant opportunities of 
 seeing Mr. Lincoln, and of conversing with him in the 
 cordial and unofficial manner which he always preferred. 
 Not that there was ever any lack of dignity in the man. 
 Even in his freest moments one always felt the presence 
 of a will and of an intellectual power which maintained 
 the ascendancy of his position. He never posed, or put 
 on airs, or attempted to make any particular impression; 
 but he was always conscious of his own ideas and pur 
 poses, even in his most unreserved moments. 
 
 I knew, too, and saw frequently, all the members 
 of his Cabinet. When Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated as 
 President, his first act was to name his Cabinet; and 
 it was a common remark at the time that he had put 
 into it every man who had competed with him for the 
 nomination. The first in importance was William H. 
 Seward, of New York, Mr. Lincoln s most prominent 
 
 168 
 
Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet. 
 
 competitor. Mr. Seward was made Secretary of State. 
 He was an interesting man, of an optimistic tempera 
 ment, and he probably had the most cultivated and 
 comprehensive intellect in the administration. He was 
 a man who was all his life in controversies, yet he was 
 singular in this, that, though forever in fights, he had 
 almost no personal enemies. Seward had great abil 
 ity as a writer, and he had what is very rare in a lawyer, 
 a politician, or a statesman imagination. A fine illus 
 tration of his genius was the acquisition of Alaska. That 
 was one of the last things that he did before he went 
 out of office, and it demonstrated more than anything 
 else his fixed and never-changing idea that all North 
 America should be united under one government. 
 
 Mr. Seward was an admirable writer and an impres 
 sive though entirely unpretentious speaker. He stood 
 up and talked as though he were engaged in conversa 
 tion, and the effect was always great. It gave the im 
 pression of a man deliberating " out loud " with him 
 self. 
 
 The second man in importance and ability to be put 
 into the Cabinet was Mr. Chase, of Ohio. He was an 
 able, noble, spotless statesman, a man who would have 
 been worthy of the best days of the old Roman repub 
 lic. He had been a candidate for the presidency, though 
 a less conspicuous one than Seward. Mr. Chase was a 
 portly man; tall, and of an impressive appearance, with 
 a very handsome, large head. He was genial, though 
 very decided, and occasionally he would criticise the 
 President, a thing I never heard Mr. Seward do. Chase 
 had been successful in Ohio politics, and in the Treasury 
 
 169 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Department his administration was satisfactory to the 
 public. He was the author of the national banking law. 
 I remember going to dine with him one day I did 
 that pretty often, as I had known him well when I was 
 on the Tribune and he said to me: " I have completed 
 to-day a very great thing. I have finished the National 
 Bank Act. It will be a blessing to the country long after 
 I am dead/ 
 
 The Secretary of the Navy throughout the war was 
 Gideon Welles, of Connecticut. Welles was a curious- 
 looking man: he wore a wig which was parted in the 
 middle, the hair falling down on each side; and it was 
 from his peculiar appearance, I have always thought, 
 that the idea that he was an old fogy originated. I re 
 member Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, coming 
 into my office at the War Department one day and ask 
 ing where he could find " that old Mormon deacon, the 
 Secretary of the Navy." In spite of his peculiarities, I 
 think Mr. Welles was a very wise, strong man. There 
 was nothing decorative about him; there was no noise 
 in the street when he went along; but he understood 
 his duty, and did it efficiently, continually, and unvary 
 ingly. There was a good deal of opposition to him, for 
 we had no navy when the war began, and he had to 
 create one without much deliberation; but he was pa 
 tient, laborious, and intelligent at his task. 
 
 Montgomery Blair was Postmaster-General in Mr. 
 Lincoln s Cabinet. He was a capable man, sharp, keen, 
 perhaps a little cranky, and not friendly with everybody; 
 but I always found him pleasant to deal with, and I saw 
 a great deal of him. He and Mr. Stanton were not very 
 
 170 
 
Abraham Lincoln and Ms Cabinet. 
 
 good friends, and when he wanted anything in the War 
 Department he was more likely to come to an old friend 
 like me than to go to the Secretary. Stanton, too, 
 rather preferred that. 
 
 The Attorney-General of the Cabinet was Edward 
 Bates, of Missouri. Bates had been Mr. Greeley s fa 
 vorite candidate for the presidency. He was put into 
 the Cabinet partly, I suppose, because his reputation 
 was good as a lawyer, but principally because he had 
 been advocated for President by such powerful influ 
 ences. Bates must have been about sixty-eight years 
 old when he was appointed Attorney-General. He was 
 a very eloquent speaker. Give him a patriotic subject, 
 where his feelings could expand, and he would make 
 a beautiful speech. He was a man of very gentle, cor 
 dial nature, but not one of extraordinary brilliancy. 
 
 The relations between Mr. Lincoln and the mem 
 bers of his Cabinet were always friendly and sincere on 
 his part. He treated every one of them with unvarying 
 candor, respect, and kindness; but, though several of 
 them were men of extraordinary force and self-asser 
 tion this was true especially of Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, 
 and Mr. Stanton and though there was nothing of self- 
 > hood or domination in his manner toward them, it was 
 always plain that he was the master and they the sub 
 ordinates. They constantly had to yield to his will in 
 questions where responsibility fell upon him. If he ever 
 yielded to theirs, it was because they convinced him 
 that the course they advised was judicious and appro 
 priate. I fancied during the whole time of my intimate 
 intercourse with him and with them that he was always 
 
 171 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 prepared to receive the resignation of any one of them. 
 At the same time I do not recollect a single occasion 
 when any member of the Cabinet had got his mind 
 ready to quit his post from any feeling of dissatisfaction 
 with the policy or conduct of the President. Not that 
 they were always satisfied with his actions; the mem 
 bers of the Cabinet, like human beings in general, were 
 not pleased with everything. In their judgment much 
 was imperfect in the administration; much, they felt, 
 would have been done better if their views had been 
 adopted and they individually had had charge of it. 
 Not so with the President. He was calm, equable, un 
 complaining. In the discussion of important questions, 
 whatever he said showed the profoundest thought, even 
 when he was joking. He seemed to see every side of 
 every question. He never was impatient, he never was 
 in a hurry, and he never tried to hurry anybody else. To 
 every one he was pleasant and cordial. Yet they all 
 felt it was his word that went at last; that every case 
 was open until he gave his decision. 
 
 This impression of authority, of reserve force, Mr. 
 Lincoln always gave to those about him. Even phys 
 ically he was impressive. According to the record meas 
 urements, he was six feet four inches in height. That 
 is, he was at least four inches taller than the tall, ordi 
 nary man. When he rode out on horseback to review 
 an army, as I have frequently seen him do, he wore usu 
 ally a high hat, and then he looked like a giant. There 
 was no waste or excess of material about his frame; 
 nevertheless, he was very strong and muscular. I re 
 member that the last time I went to see him at the White 
 
 172 
 
Abraham Lincoln and Ms Cabinet. 
 
 House the afternoon before he was killed I found 
 him in a side room with coat off and sleeves rolled up, 
 washing his hands. He had finished his work for the 
 day, arid was going away. I noticed then the thinness 
 of his arms, and how well developed, strong, and active 
 his muscles seemed to be. In fact, there was nothing 
 flabby or feeble about Mr. Lincoln physically. He was 
 a very quick man in his movements when he chose to 
 be, and he had immense physical endurance. Night 
 after night he would work late and hard without being 
 wilted by it, and he always seemed as ready for the next 
 day s work as though he had done nothing the day 
 before. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln s face was thin, and his features were 
 large. His hair was black, his eyebrows heavy, his fore 
 head square and well developed. His complexion was 
 dark and quite sallow. His smile was something most 
 lovely. I have never seen a woman s smile that ap 
 proached it in its engaging quality; nor have I ever seen 
 another face which would light up as Mr. Lincoln s 
 did when something touched his heart or amused him. 
 I have heard it said that he was ungainly, that his step 
 was awkward. He never impressed me as being awk 
 ward. In the first place, there was such a charm and 
 beauty about his expression, such good humor and 
 friendly spirit looking from his eyes, that when you were 
 near him you never thought whether he was awkward 
 or graceful; you thought of nothing except, What a 
 kindly character this man has! Then, too, there was 
 such shrewdness in his kindly features that one did not 
 care to criticise him. His manner was always dignified, 
 
 173 
 
Recollections of the Civil PFar. 
 
 and even if he had done an awkward thing the dignity 
 of his character and manner would have made it seem 
 graceful and becoming. 
 
 The great quality of his appearance was benevolence 
 and benignity: the wish to do somebody some good if 
 he could ; and yet there was no flabby philanthropy 
 about Abraham Lincoln. He was all solid, hard, keen 
 intelligence combined with goodness. Indeed, the ex 
 pression of his face and of his bearing which impressed 
 one most, after his benevolence and benignity, was his 
 intelligent understanding. You felt that here was a 
 man who saw through things, who understood, and 
 you respected him accordingly. 
 
 Lincoln was a supreme politician. He understood 
 politics because he understood human nature. I had 
 an illustration of this in the spring of 1864. The admin 
 istration had decided that the Constitution of the United 
 States should be amended so that slavery should be pro 
 hibited. This was not only a change in our national 
 policy, it was also a most important military measure. 
 It was intended not merely as a means of abolishing 
 slavery forever, but as a means of affecting the judg 
 ment and the feelings and the anticipations of those in 
 rebellion. It was believed that such an amendment to 
 the Constitution would be equivalent to new armies in 
 the field, that it would be worth at least a million men, 
 that it would be an intellectual army that would tend to 
 paralyze the enemy and break the continuity of his 
 ideas. 
 
 In order thus to amend the Constitution, it was 
 necessary first to have the proposed amendment ap- 
 
 174 
 
Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet. 
 
 proved by three fourths of the States. When that ques 
 tion came to be considered, the issue was seen to be so 
 close that one State more was necessary. The State of 
 Nevada was organized and admitted into the Union 
 to answer that purpose. I have sometimes heard people 
 complain of Nevada as superfluous and petty, not big 
 enough to be a State; but when I hear that complaint, 
 I always hear Abraham Lincoln saying, " It is easier 
 to admit Nevada than to raise another million of sol 
 diers." 
 
 In March, 1864, the question of allowing Nevada 
 to form a State government finally came up in the 
 House of Representatives. There was strong opposi 
 tion to it. For a long time beforehand the question 
 had been canvassed anxiously. At last, late one after 
 noon, the President came into my office, in the third 
 story of the War Department. He used to come there 
 sometimes rather than send for me, because he was fond 
 of walking and liked to get away from the crowds in 
 the White House. He came in and shut the door. 
 
 " Dana, * he said, " I am very anxious about this 
 vote. It has got to be taken next week. The time is 
 very short. It is going to be a great deal closer than I 
 wish it was." 
 
 There are plenty of Democrats who will vote for 
 it," I replied. "There is James E. English, of Con 
 necticut; I think he is sure, isn t he? " 
 
 " Oh, yes; he is sure on the merits of the question." 
 
 " Then," said I, " there s Sunset Cox, of Ohio. 
 How is he? " 
 
 " He is sure and fearless. But there are some others 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 that I am not clear about. There are three that you can 
 deal with better than anybody else, perhaps, as you 
 know them all. I wish you would send for them." 
 
 He told me who they were; it isn t necessary to re 
 peat the names here. One man was from New Jersey 
 and two from New York. 
 
 " What will they be likely to want? " I asked. 
 
 " I don t know," said the President; " I don t know. 
 It makes no difference, though, what they want. Here 
 is the alternative: that we carry this vote, or be com 
 pelled to raise another million, and I don t know how 
 many more, men, and fight no one knows how long. 
 It is a question of three votes or new armies." 
 
 " Well, sir," said I, " what shall I say to these gen 
 tlemen? " 
 
 "I don t know," said he; "but whatever promise 
 you make to them I will perform." 
 
 I sent for the men and saw them one by one. I 
 found that they were afraid of their party. They said 
 that some fellows in the party would be down on them. 
 Two of them wanted internal revenue collector s ap 
 pointments. " You shall have it," I said. Another one 
 wanted a very important appointment about the custom 
 house of New York. I knew the man well whom he 
 wanted to have appointed. He was a Republican, 
 though the congressman was a Democrat. I had served 
 with him in the Republican county committee of New 
 York. The office was worth perhaps twenty thousand 
 dollars a year. When the congressman stated the case, 
 I asked him, " Do you want that? " 
 
 " Yes," said he. 
 
 176 
 
Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet. 
 
 " Well," I answered, " you shall have it." 
 
 " I understand, of course," said he, " that you 
 not saying this on your own authority? " 
 
 " Oh, no/ said I; " I am saying it on the authority 
 of the President." 
 
 Well, these men voted that Nevada be allowed to 
 form a State government, and thus they helped secure 
 the vote which was required. The next October the 
 President signed the proclamation admitting the State. 
 In the February following Nevada was one of the States 
 which ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, by which 
 slavery was abolished by constitutional prohibition in 
 all of the United States. I have always felt that this 
 little piece of side politics was one of the most judicious, 
 humane, and wise uses of executive authority that I 
 have ever assisted in or witnessed. 
 
 The appointment in the New York Custom House 
 was to wait until the term of the actual incumbent had 
 run out. My friend, the Democratic congressman, was 
 quite willing. "That s all right," he said; "I am in 
 no hurry." Before the time had expired, Mr. Lincoln 
 was murdered and Andrew Johnson became President. 
 I was in the West, when one day I got a telegram 
 from Roscoe Conkling: 
 
 " Come to Washington." So I went. 
 
 " I want you to go and see President Johnson," Mr. 
 Conkling said, " and tell him that the appointment of 
 this man to the custom house is a sacred promise of 
 Mr. Lincoln s, and that it must be kept." 
 
 Then I went to the White House, and saw President 
 Johnson. 
 
 13 177 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 " This is Mr. Lincoln s promise," I urged. " He 
 regarded it as saving the necessity of another call for 
 troops and raising, perhaps, a million more men to 
 continue the war. I trust, Mr. President, that you will 
 see your way clear to execute this promise." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Dana," he replied, " I don t say that I 
 won t; but I have observed in the course of my experi 
 ence that such bargains tend to immorality." 
 
 The appointment was not made. I am happy to say, 
 however, that the gentleman to whom the promise was 
 given never found any fault either with President Lin 
 coln or with the Assistant Secretary who had been the 
 means of making the promise to him. 
 
 One of the cleverest minor political moves which 
 Mr. Lincoln ever made was an appointment he once 
 gave Horace Greeley. Mr. Greeley never approved of 
 Mr. Lincoln s manner of conducting the war, and he 
 sometimes abused the President roundly for his delib 
 eration. As the war went on, Greeley grew more and 
 more irritable, because the administration did not make 
 peace on some terms. Finally, in July, 1864, he received 
 a letter from a pretended agent of the Confederate au 
 thorities in Canada, saying: 
 
 I am authorized to state to you for our use only, not 
 the public, that two ambassadors of Davis and Company 
 are now in Canada with full and complete powers for a 
 peace, and Mr. Sanders requests that you come on im 
 mediately to me at Cataract House to have a private 
 interview; or, if you will send the President s protection 
 for him and two friends, they will come on and meet 
 you. He says the whole matter can be consummated 
 by me, them, and President Lincoln. 
 
 178 
 
Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet. 
 
 This letter was followed the next day by a telegram, 
 saying : " Will you come here? Parties have full 
 power." 
 
 Upon receiving this letter, Mr. Greeley wrote to 
 President Lincoln, more or less in the strain of the arti 
 cles that he had published in the Tribune. He com 
 plained bitterly of the way the business of the Govern 
 ment was managed in the great crisis, and told the Presi 
 dent that now there w r as a way open to peace. He ex 
 plained that the Confederates wanted a conference, and 
 he told Mr. Lincoln that he thought that he ought to 
 appoint an ambassador, or a diplomatic agent, of the 
 United States Government, to meet the Confederate 
 agents at Niagara and hear what they had to say. Mr. 
 Lincoln immediately responded by asking Mr. Greeley 
 to be himself the representative and to go to Niagara 
 Falls. 
 
 " If you can find any person anywhere," the Presi 
 dent wrote, " professing to have any proposition of Jef 
 ferson Davis, in writing, for peace, embracing the 
 restoration of the Union, and abandonment of slavery, 
 whatever else it embraces, say to him he may come to 
 me with you, and that if he really brings such proposi 
 tion he shall at the least have safe conduct with the 
 paper (and without publicity, if he chooses) to the point 
 where you shall have met him. The same, if there be 
 two or more persons." 
 
 Mr. Greeley went to Niagara, but his mission ended 
 in nothing, except that the poor man, led astray by too 
 great confidence, failed in his undertaking, and was 
 almost universally laughed at. I saw the President not 
 
 179 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 long after that, and he said, with a funny twinkle in his 
 eye: "I sent Brother Greeley a commission. I guess 
 I am about even with him now." 
 
 Lincoln had the most comprehensive, the most ju 
 dicious mind; he was the least faulty in his conclusions 
 of any man I have ever known. He never stepped too 
 soon, and he never stepped too late. When the whole 
 Northern country seemed to be clamoring for him to 
 issue a proclamation abolishing slavery, he didn t do 
 it. Deputation after deputation went to Washington. 
 I remember once a hundred gentlemen, dressed in black 
 coats, mostly clergymen, from Massachusetts, came to 
 Washington to appeal to him to proclaim the abolition 
 of slavery. But he did not do it. He allowed Mr. 
 Cameron and General Butler to execute their great idea 
 of treating slaves as contraband of war and protecting 
 those who had got into our lines against being recap 
 tured by their Southern owners; but he would not pre 
 maturely make the proclamation that was so much de 
 sired. Finally the time came, and of that he was the 
 judge. Nobody else decided it; nobody commanded 
 it; the proclamation was issued as he thought best, and 
 it was efficacious. The people of the North, who dur 
 ing the long contest over slavery had always stood 
 strenuously by the compromises of the Constitution, 
 might themselves have become half rebels if this proc 
 lamation had been issued too soon. At last they were 
 tired of waiting, tired of endeavoring to preserve even 
 a show of regard for what was called " the compromises 
 of the Constitution " when they believed the Constitu 
 tion itself was in danger. Thus public opinion was ripe 
 
 1 80 
 
Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet. 
 
 when the proclamation came, and that was the begin 
 ning of the end. He could have issued this proclama 
 tion two years before, perhaps, and the consequence of 
 it might have been our entire defeat; but when it came 
 it did its work, and it did us no harm whatever. No 
 body protested against it, not even the Confederates 
 themselves. 
 
 This unerring judgment, this patience which waited 
 and which knew when the right time had arrived, is an 
 intellectual quality that I do not find exercised upon 
 any such scale and with such absolute precision by any 
 other man in history. It proves Abraham Lincoln to 
 have been intellectually one of the greatest of rulers. If 
 we look through the record of great men, where is 
 there one to be placed beside him? I do not know. 
 
 Another interesting fact about Abraham Lincoln 
 is that he developed into a great military man; that is 
 to say, a man of supreme military judgment. I do not 
 risk anything in saying that if one will study the records 
 of the war and study the writings relating to it, he will 
 agree with me that the greatest general we had, greater 
 than Grant or Thomas, was Abraham Lincoln. It was 
 not so at the beginning; but after three or four years 
 of constant practice in the science and art of war, he 
 arrived at this extraordinary knowledge of it, so that 
 Von Moltke was not a better general, or an abler plan 
 ner or expounder of a campaign, than was President 
 Lincoln. To sum it up, he was a born leader of men. 
 He knew human nature; he knew what chord to strike, 
 and was never afraid to strike it when he believed that 
 the time had arrived. 
 
 181 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was not what is called an educated man. 
 In the college that he attended a man gets up at day 
 light to hoe corn, and sits up at night by the side of a 
 burning pine-knot to read the best book he can find. 
 What education he had, he had picked up. He had read 
 a great many books, and all the books that he had 
 read he knew. He had a tenacious memory, just as he 
 had the ability to see the essential thing. He never 
 took an unimportant point and went off upon that; but 
 he always laid hold of the real question, and attended 
 to that, giving no more thought to other points than 
 was indispensably necessary. 
 
 Thus, while we say that Mr. Lincoln was an unedu 
 cated man in the college sense, he had a singularly per 
 fect education in regard to everything that concerns the 
 practical affairs of life. His judgment was excellent, and 
 his information was always accurate. He knew what 
 the thing was. He was a man of genius, and contrasted 
 with men of education the man of genius will always 
 carry the day. Many of his speeches illustrate this. 
 
 I remember very well Mr. Stanton s comment on the 
 Gettysburg speeches of Edward Everett and Mr. Lin 
 coln. " Edward Everett has made a speech," he said, 
 " that will make three columns in the newspapers, and 
 Mr. Lincoln has made a speech of perhaps forty or fifty 
 lines. Everett s is the speech of a scholar, polished to 
 the last possibility. It is elegant, and it is learned; but 
 Lincoln s speech will be read by a thousand men where 
 one reads Everett s, and will be remembered as long 
 as anybody s speeches are remembered who speaks in 
 the English language." 
 
 182 
 
Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet. 
 
 That was the truth. Who ever thinks of or reads 
 Everett s Gettysburg speech now? If one will com 
 pare those two speeches he will get an idea how superior 
 genius is to education; how superior that intellectual 
 faculty is which sees the vitality of a question and knows 
 how to state it; how superior that intellectual faculty 
 is which regards everything with the fire of earnestness 
 in the soul, with the relentless purpose of a heart de 
 voted to objects beyond literature. 
 
 Another remarkable peculiarity of Mr. Lincoln s 
 was that he seemed to have no illusions. He had no 
 freakish notions that things were so, or might be so, 
 when they were not so. All his thinking and reason 
 ing, all his mind, in short, was based continually upon 
 actual facts, and upon facts of which, as I said, he saw 
 the essence. I never heard him say anything that was 
 not so. I never heard him foretell things; he told what 
 they were, but I never heard him intimate that such 
 and such consequences were likely to happen without 
 the consequences following. I should say, perhaps, that 
 his greatest quality was wisdom. And that is some 
 thing superior to talent, superior to education. It is 
 again genius; I do not think it can be acquired. All 
 the advice that he gave was wise, and it was always 
 timely. This wisdom, it is scarcely necessary to add, 
 had its animating philosophy in his own famous words, 
 " With malice toward none, with charity for all." 
 
 Another remarkable quality of Mr. Lincoln was his 
 great mercifulness. A thing it seemed as if he could 
 not do was to sign a death warrant. One day General 
 Augur, who was the major general commanding the 
 
 183 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 forces in and around Washington, came to my office and 
 said: 
 
 " Here is So-and-So, a spy. He has been tried by 
 court-martial; the facts are perfectly established, he has 
 been sentenced to death, and here is the warrant for his 
 execution, which is fixed for to-morrow morning at six 
 o clock. The President is away. If he were here, the 
 man certainly wouldn t be executed. He isn t here. I 
 think it very essential to the safety of the service and 
 the safety of everything that an example should be 
 made of this spy. They do us great mischief; and it is 
 very important that the law which all nations recognize 
 in dealing with spies, and the punishment which every 
 nation assigns to them, should be inflicted upon at least 
 one of these wretches who haunt us around Washing 
 ton. Do you know whether the President will be back 
 before morning? " 
 
 " I understand that he won t be back until to-mor 
 row afternoon," I replied. 
 
 " Well, as the President is not here, will you sign 
 the warrant? " 
 
 " Go to Mr. Stanton," I said; " he is the authority/ 
 
 " I have been to him, and he said I should come to 
 you." 
 
 Well, I signed the order; I agreed with General 
 Augur in his view of the question. At about eleven 
 o clock the next day I met the general. " The President 
 got home at two o clock this morning," he said, " and 
 he stopped it all." 
 
 But it was not only in matters of life and death that 
 Mr. Lincoln was merciful. He was kind at heart to- 
 
 184 
 
Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet. 
 
 ward all the world. I never heard him say an unkind 
 thing about anybody. Now and then he would laugh 
 at something jocose or satirical that somebody had done 
 or said, but it was always pleasant humor. He would 
 never allow the wants of any man or woman to go unat 
 tended to if he could help it. I noticed his sweetness 
 of nature particularly with his little son, a child at that 
 time perhaps seven or nine years old, who used to roam 
 the departments and whom everybody called " Tad." 
 He had a defective palate, and couldn t speak very 
 plainly. Often I have sat by his father, reporting to him 
 some important matter that I had been ordered to in 
 quire into, and he would have this boy on his knee. 
 While he would perfectly understand the report, the 
 striking thing about him was his affection for the child. 
 He was good to everybody. Once there was a great 
 gathering at the White House on New Year s Day, and 
 all the diplomats came in their uniforms, and all the 
 officers of the army and navy in Washington were in 
 full costume. A little girl of mine said, " Papa, couldn t 
 you take me over to see that? " I said, " Yes "; so I 
 took her over and put her in a corner, where she be 
 held this gorgeous show. When it was finished, I went 
 up to Mr. Lincoln and said, " I have a little girl here 
 who wants to shake hands with you." He went over 
 to her, and took her up and kissed her and talked to 
 her. She will never forget it if she lives to be a thou 
 sand years old. 
 
 185 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC IN 64. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln sends Mr. Dana again to the front General Halleck s char 
 acter First visit to the Army of the Potomac General Meade s 
 good qualities and bad Winfield Scott Hancock Early acquaint 
 ance 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." 
 
 I REMAINED in Washington the entire winter of 
 1 863- 64, occupied mainly with the routine business of 
 the department. Meantime the Chattanooga victory 
 had made Grant the great military figure of the coun 
 try, and deservedly so. The grade of lieutenant gen 
 eral had been immediately revived by act of Congress, 
 and the President had promptly promoted him to the 
 new rank, and made him general in chief of all the 
 armies of the United States. His military prestige was 
 such that everything was put into his hands, everything 
 yielded to his wishes. The coming of Grant was a great 
 relief to the President and the Secretary. Halleck, the 
 late general in chief, consented to serve as Grant s chief 
 of staff in Washington, practically continuing his old 
 service of chief military adviser to the President and the 
 Secretary of War, while Grant took the field in active 
 direction of operations against Richmond. 
 
 186 
 
The Army of the Potomac in 1864. 
 
 Halleck was not thought to be a great man in the 
 field, but he was nevertheless a man of military ability, 
 and by reason of his great accomplishments in the tech 
 nics of armies and of war was almost invaluable as an 
 adviser to the civilians Lincoln and Stanton. He was 
 an honest man, perhaps somewhat lacking in moral 
 courage, yet earnest and energetic in his efforts to sus 
 tain the national government. I have heard Halleck 
 accused of being unjust to his inferiors in rank, espe 
 cially to Grant. I believe this wrong. I never thought 
 him unjust to anybody. He always had his own ideas, 
 and insisted strenuously on following his own course, 
 but I never detected a sign of injustice in his conduct 
 toward others. I think this false impression came from 
 the fact that he was a very critical man. The first im 
 pulse of his mind toward a new plan was not enthusiasm; 
 it was analysis, criticism. His habit of picking men 
 and manners to pieces to see what they were worth gave 
 the idea that he was unjust and malicious toward cer 
 tain of his subordinates. 
 
 It was March when Grant came to Washington to 
 receive his new grade of lieutenant general. Soon after 
 ward he joined the Army of the Potomac. On the 4th 
 of May he had moved out from Culpeper, where the 
 army had been in winter quarters since the previous 
 December, and crossed the Rapidan with an effective 
 force of one hundred and twenty thousand men. Gen 
 eral Lee, his opponent, had about seventy thousand. 
 
 For two days after Grant moved we had no authentic 
 reports from the army, although it was known that great 
 events were occurring. Mr. Stanton and Mr. Lincoln 
 
 187 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 had begun to get uneasy. The evening of May 6th 
 I was at a reception when a messenger came with sum 
 mons to the War Department. I hurried over to the 
 office in evening dress. The President was there, talk 
 ing very soberly with Stanton. 
 
 " Dana," said Mr. Lincoln, " you know we have 
 been in the dark for two days since Grant moved. We 
 are very much troubled, and have concluded to send 
 you down there. How soon can you start? " 
 
 " In half an hour," I replied. 
 
 In about that time I had an engine fired up at Alex 
 andria, and a cavalry escort of a hundred men awaiting 
 me there. I had got into my camp clothes, had bor 
 rowed a pistol, and with my own horse was aboard the 
 train at Maryland Avenue that was to take me to Alex 
 andria. My only baggage was a tooth-brush. I was 
 just starting when an orderly galloped up with word 
 that the President wished to see me. I rode back to 
 the department in hot haste. Mr. Lincoln was sitting 
 in the same place. 
 
 " Well, Dana," said he, looking up, " since you went 
 away I ve been thinking about it. I don t like to send 
 you down there." 
 
 " But why not, Mr. President? " I asked, a little sur 
 prised. 
 
 "You can t tell," continued the President, "just 
 where Lee is or what he is doing, and Jeb Stuart is ram 
 paging around pretty lively in between the Rappahan- 
 nock and the Rapidan. It s a considerable risk, and I 
 don t like to expose you to it." 
 
 " Mr. President," I said, " I have a cavalry guard 
 188 
 
The Army of the Potomac in 1864. 
 
 ready and a good horse myself. If we are attacked, we 
 probably will be strong enough to fight. If we are not 
 strong enough to fight, and it comes to the worst, we 
 are equipped to run. It s getting late, and I want to 
 get down to the Rappahannock by daylight. I think 
 I ll start." 
 
 " Well, now, Dana/ said the President, with a little 
 twinkle in his eyes, " if you feel that way, I rather wish 
 you would. Good night, and God bless you." 
 
 By seven o clock on the morning of May ?th I was 
 at the Rappahannock, where I found a rear guard of the 
 army. I stopped there for breakfast, and then hurried 
 on to Grant s headquarters, which were at Piney Branch 
 Meeting House. There I learned of the crossing of the 
 Rapidan by our army, and of the desperate battle of 
 the Wilderness on May 5th and 6th. 
 
 The Army of the Potomac was then composed of 
 the Second, Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Army Corps, and 
 of one cavalry corps. In command of the army was 
 Major-General George C. Meade. He was a tall, thin 
 man, rather dyspeptic, I should suppose from the fits 
 of nervous irritation to which he was subject. He was 
 totally lacking in cordiality toward those with whom he 
 had business, and in consequence was generally disliked 
 by his subordinates. With General Grant Meade got 
 along always perfectly, because he had the first virtue 
 of a soldier that is, obedience to orders. He was an 
 intellectual man, and agreeable to talk with when his 
 mind was free, but silent and indifferent to everybody 
 when he was occupied with that which interested him. 
 
 As a commander, Meade seemed to me to lack the 
 189 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 boldness that was necessary to bring the war to a close. 
 He lacked self-confidence and tenacity of purpose, and 
 he had not the moral authority that Grant had attained 
 from his grand successes in other fields. As soon as 
 Meade had a commander over him he was all right, but 
 when he himself was the commander he began to hesi 
 tate. Meade had entirely separate headquarters and a 
 separate staff, and Grant sent his orders to him. 
 
 In command of the Second Army Corps was Major- 
 General W. S. Hancock. He was a splendid fellow, 
 a brilliant man, as brave as Julius Caesar, and always 
 ready to obey orders, especially if they were fighting 
 orders. He had more of the aggressive spirit than al 
 most anybody else in that army. Major- General G. K. 
 Warren, who commanded the Fifth Army Corps, was 
 an accomplished engineer. Major-General John Sedg- 
 wick commanded the Sixth Army Corps. I had known 
 him for over twenty years. Sedgwick graduated at 
 West Point in 1837, an d was appointed a second lieu 
 tenant in the Second Artillery. At the time of the Mc- 
 Kenzie rebellion in Canada Sedgwick s company was 
 stationed at Buffalo during a considerable time. I was 
 living in Buffalo then, and in this rebellion the young 
 men of the town organized a regiment of city guards, 
 and I was a sergeant in one of those companies, so that 
 I became quite familiar with all the military movements 
 then going on. Then it was that I got acquainted with 
 Sedgwick. He was a very solid man; no flummery 
 about him. You could always tell where Sedgwick 
 was to be found, and in a battle he was apt to be found 
 where the hardest fighting was. He was not an ardent, 
 
 190 
 
The Army of the Potomac in 1864. 
 
 impetuous soldier like Hancock, but was steady and 
 sure. 
 
 Two days after I reached the army, on May pth, 
 not far from Spottsylvania Courthouse, my old friend 
 Sedgwick was killed. He had gone out in the morning 
 to inspect his lines, and, getting beyond the point of 
 safety, was struck in the forehead by a sharpshooter and 
 instantly killed. The command of the Sixth Army Corps 
 was given to General H. G. Wright. Wright was an 
 other engineer officer, well educated, of good, solid in 
 tellect, with capacity for command, but no special 
 predilection for fighting. From the moment Meade 
 assumed command of the army, two days before Gettys 
 burg, the engineers rapidly came to the front, for Meade 
 had the pride of corps strongly implanted in his heart. 
 
 Major-General Burnside, whom I had last seen at 
 Knoxville in December, was in command of the Ninth 
 Army Corps. Immediately after the siege of Knox 
 ville, at his own request, Burnside had been relieved 
 of the command in East Tennessee by Major-General 
 John G. Foster. The President somehow always showed 
 for Burnside great respect and good will. After Grant s 
 plans for the spring campaign were made known, the 
 Ninth Corps was moved by rail to Annapolis, where it 
 was recruited up to about twenty-five thousand men. 
 As the time for action neared it was set in motion, and 
 by easy marches reached and re-enforced the Army of 
 the Potomac on the morning of the 6th of May, in the 
 midst of the battle of the Wilderness. It was not for 
 mally incorporated with that army until later, but, by 
 a sort of fiction, it was held to be a distinct army, Burn- 
 
 191 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 side acting in concert with Meade, and receiving his 
 orders directly from Grant, as did Meade. These two 
 armies were the excuse for Grant s personal presence, 
 without actually superseding Meade. 
 
 In my opinion, the great soldier of the Army of 
 the Potomac at this time was General Humphreys. He 
 was the chief of staff to General Meade, and was a strate 
 gist, a tactician, and an engineer. Humphreys was a 
 fighter, too, and in this an exception to most engineers. 
 He was a very interesting figure. He used to ride about 
 in a black felt hat, the brim of which was turned down 
 all around, making him look like a Quaker. He was 
 very pleasant to deal with, unless you were fighting 
 against him, and then he was not so pleasant. He was 
 one of the loudest swearers that I ever knew. The men 
 of distinguished and brilliant profanity in the war were 
 General Sherman and General Humphreys I could not 
 mention any others that could be classed with them. 
 General Logan also was a strong swearer, but he was 
 not a West Pointer: he was a civilian. Sherman and 
 Humphreys would swear to make everything blue when 
 some dispatch had not been delivered correctly or they 
 were provoked. Humphreys was a very charming man, 
 quite destitute of vanity. I think he had consented to 
 go and serve with Meade as chief of staff out of pure 
 patriotism. He preferred an active command, and 
 eventually, on the eve of the end, succeeded to the com 
 mand of the Second Corps, and bore a conspicuous part 
 in the Appomattox campaign. 
 
 Meade was in command of the Army of the Poto 
 mac, but it was Grant, the lieutenant general of the 
 
 192 
 
The Army of the Potomac in 1864. 
 
 armies of the United States, who was really directing 
 the movements. The central idea of the campaign had 
 not developed to the army when I reached headquar 
 ters, but it was soon clear to everybody. Grant s great 
 operation was the endeavor to interpose the Federal 
 army between Lee s army and Richmond, so as to cut 
 Lee off from his base of supplies. He meant to get 
 considerably in advance of Lee between him and Rich 
 mond thus compelling Lee to leave his intrenchments 
 and hasten southward. If in the collision thus forced 
 Grant found that he could not smash Lee, he meant to 
 make another move to get behind his army. That was 
 to be the strategy of the campaign of 1864. That was 
 what Lee thwarted, though he had a narrow escape 
 more than once. 
 
 The first encounter with Lee had taken place in the 
 Wilderness on May 5th and 6th. The Confederates and 
 many Northern writers love to call the Wilderness a 
 drawn battle. It was not so; in every essential light 
 it was a Union victory. Grant had not intended to 
 fight a battle in those dense, brushy jungles, but Lee 
 precipitated it just as he had precipitated the battle of 
 Chancellorsville one year before, and not six miles to 
 the eastward of this very ground. In doing so he hoped 
 to neutralize the superior numbers of Grant as he had 
 Hooker s, and so to mystify and handle the Union leader 
 as to compel a retreat across the Rapidan. But he 
 failed. Some of the fighting in the brush was a draw, 
 but the Union army did not yield a rood of ground; 
 it held the roads southward, inflicted great losses on 
 its enemy, and then, instead of recrossing the river, re- 
 14 193 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 sumed its march toward Richmond as soon as Lee s 
 attacks had ceased. Lee had palpably failed in his ob 
 jects. His old-time tactics had made no impression on 
 Grant. He never offered general battle in the open 
 afterward. 
 
 The previous history of the Army of the Potomac 
 had been to advance and fight a battle, then either to 
 retreat or to lie still, and finally to go into winter quar 
 ters. Grant did not intend to proceed in that way. 
 As soon as he had fought a battle and had not routed 
 Lee, he meant to move nearer to Richmond and fight 
 another battle. But the men in the army had become 
 so accustomed to the old methods of campaigning that 
 few, if any, of them believed that the new commander 
 in chief would be able to do differently from his prede 
 cessors. I remember distinctly the sensation in the 
 ranks when the rumor first went around that our posi 
 tion was south of Lee s. It was the morning of May 
 8th. The night before the army had made a forced 
 march on Spottsylvania Courthouse. There was no in 
 dication the next morning that Lee had moved in any 
 direction. As the army began to realize that we were 
 really moving south, and at that moment were prob 
 ably much nearer Richmond than was our enemy, the 
 spirits of men and officers rose to the highest pitch of 
 animation. On every hand I heard the cry, " On to 
 Richmond!" 
 
 But there were to be a great many more obstacles 
 to our reaching Richmond than General Grant himself, 
 I presume, realized on May 8, 1864. We met one that 
 very morning; for when our advance reached Spottsyl- 
 
 194 
 
The Army of the Potomac in 1864. 
 
 vania Courthouse it found Lee s troops there, ready to 
 dispute the right of way with us, and two days later 
 Grant was obliged to fight the battle of Spottsylvania 
 before we could make another move south. 
 
 It is no part of my present plan to go into detailed 
 description of all the battles of this campaign, but rather 
 to dwell on the incidents and deeds which impressed me 
 most deeply at the moment. In the battle of Spottsyl 
 vania, a terrific struggle, with many dramatic features, 
 there is nothing I remember more distinctly than a little 
 scene in General Grant s tent between him and a cap 
 tured Confederate officer, General Edward Johnson. 
 The battle had begun on the morning of May loth, and 
 had continued all day. On the nth the armies had 
 rested, but at half past four on the morning of the I2th 
 fighting had been begun by an attack by Hancock on 
 a rebel salient. Hancock attacked with his accustomed 
 impetuosity, storming and capturing the enemy s forti 
 fied line, with some four thousand prisoners and twenty 
 cannon. The captures included nearly all of Major- 
 General Edward Johnson s division, together with John 
 son himself and General George H. Steuart. 
 
 I was at Grant s headquarters when General John 
 son was brought in a prisoner. He was a West Pointer, 
 and had been a captain in the old army before secession, 
 and was an important officer in the Confederate serv 
 ice, having distinguished himself in the Valley in 1863, 
 and at Gettysburg. Grant had not seen him since they 
 had been in Mexico together. The two men shook 
 hands cordially, and at once began a brisk conversa 
 tion, which was very interesting to me, because nothing 
 
 195 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 was said in it on the subject in which they were both 
 most interested just then that is, the fight that was 
 going on, and the surprise that Hancock had effected. 
 It was the past alone of which they talked. 
 
 It was quite early in the morning when Hancock s 
 prisoners were brought in. The battle raged without 
 cessation throughout the day, Wright and Hancock 
 bearing the brunt of it. Burnside made several attacks, 
 in which his troops generally bore themselves like good 
 soldiers. The results of the battle of Spottsylvania were 
 that we had crowded the enemy out of some of his 
 most important positions, had weakened him by losses 
 of between nine thousand and ten thousand men killed, 
 wounded, and captured, besides many battle flags and 
 much artillery, and that our troops rested victorious 
 upon the ground they had fought for. 
 
 After the battle was over and firing had nearly 
 ceased, Rawlins and I went out to ride over the field. 
 We went first to the salient which Hancock had attacked 
 in the morning. The two armies had struggled for 
 hours for this point, and the loss had been so terrific 
 that the place has always been known since as the 
 " Bloody Angle." The ground around the salient had 
 been trampled and cut in the struggle until it was al 
 most impassable for one on horseback, so Rawlins and 
 I dismounted and climbed up the bank over the outer 
 line of the rude breastworks. Within we saw a fence 
 over which earth evidently had been banked, but which 
 now was bare and half down. It was here the fighting 
 had been fiercest. We picked our way to this fence, and 
 stopped to look over the scene. The night was coming 
 
The Army of the Potomac in 1864. 
 
 on, and, after the horrible din of the day, the silence 
 was intense; nothing broke it but distant and occasional 
 firing or the low groans of the wounded. I remember 
 that as I stood there I was almost startled to hear a bird 
 twittering in a tree. All around us the underbrush and 
 trees, which were just beginning to be green, had been 
 riddled and burnt. The ground was thick with dead 
 and wounded men, among whom the relief corps was 
 at work. The earth, which was soft from the heavy 
 rains we had been having before and during the battle, 
 had been trampled by the fighting of the thousands of 
 men until it was soft, like thin hasty pudding. Over 
 the fence against which we leaned lay a great pool of 
 this mud, its surface as smooth as that of a pond. 
 
 As we stood there, looking silently down at it, of 
 a sudden the leg of a man was lifted up from the pool 
 and the mud dripped off his boot. It was so unex 
 pected, so horrible, that for a moment we were stunned. 
 Then we pulled ourselves together and called to some 
 soldiers near by to rescue the owner of the leg. They 
 pulled him out with but little trouble, and discovered 
 that he was not dead, only wounded. He was taken to 
 the hospital, where he got well, I believe. 
 
 The first news which passed through the ranks the 
 morning after the battle of Spottsylvania was that Lee 
 had abandoned his position during the night. Though 
 our army was greatly fatigued from the enormous ef 
 forts of the day before, the news of Lee s departure in 
 spired the men with fresh energy, and everybody was 
 eager to be in pursuit. Our skirmishers soon found the 
 enemy along the whole line, however, and the conclu- 
 
 197 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 sion was that their retrograde movement had been made 
 to correct their position after the loss of the key points 
 taken from them the day before, and that they were still 
 with us in a new line as strong as the old one. Of course, 
 we could not determine this point without a battle, and 
 nothing was done that day to provoke one. It was 
 necessary to rest the men. 
 
 In changing his lines Lee had left more uncovered 
 the roads leading southward along his right wing, and 
 Grant ordered Meade to throw the corps of Warren, 
 which held the right, and the corps of Wright, which 
 held the center of Meade s army, to the left of Burnside, 
 leaving Hancock upon our right. If not interrupted, 
 Grant thought by this maneuvre to turn Lee s flank and 
 compel him to move southward. 
 
 The movement of the two corps to our left was exe 
 cuted during the night of May I3th and I4th, but for 
 three days it had rained steadily, and the roads were 
 so bad that Wright and Warren did not get up to sur 
 prise the enemy at daylight as ordered. The only en 
 gagement brought on by this move was an active little 
 fight over a conspicuous hill, with a house and planta 
 tion buildings upon it. The hill, which was on our left 
 and the enemy s right, was valuable as a lookout rather 
 than for offensive operations. Upton took it in the 
 morning, and later the enemy retook it. General Meade, 
 who was there at that moment, narrowly escaped cap 
 ture. Our men very handsomely carried the hill again 
 that evening. 
 
 The two armies were then lying in a semicircle, the 
 Federal left well around toward the south. We were 
 
 198 
 
Army of the Potomac in 1864. 
 
 concentrated to the last degree, and, so far as we could 
 tell, Lee s forces were equally compact. On the I5th, 
 1 6th, and i/th, we lay in about the same position. This 
 inactivity was caused by the weather. A pouring rain 
 had begun on the nth, and it continued until the morn 
 ing of the 1 6th; the mud was so deep that any offensive 
 operation, however successful, could not be followed up. 
 There was nothing to do but lie still and wait for better 
 weather and drier roads. 
 
 While waiting for the rain to stop, we had time to 
 consider the field returns of losses as they were handed 
 in. The army had left winter quarters at Culpeper 
 Courthouse on May 4th, and on May i6th the total 
 of killed, wounded, and missing in both the Army of 
 the Potomac and the Ninth Corps amounted to a little 
 over thirty-three thousand men. The missing alone 
 amounted to forty-nine hundred, but some of these 
 were, in fact, killed or wounded. When Grant looked 
 over the returns, he expressed great regret at the loss 
 of so many men. Meade, who was with him, remarked, 
 as I remember, " Well, General, we can t do these little 
 tricks without losses." 
 
 199 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE GREAT GAME BETWEEN GRANT AND LEE. 
 
 Maneuvering and fighting in the rain, mud, and thickets Virginian 
 conditions of warfare Within eight miles of Richmond The bat 
 tle of Cold Harbor The tremendous losses of the campaign The 
 charge of butchery against Grant considered in the light of statis 
 tics What it cost in life and blood to take Richmond. 
 
 BY the afternoon of May i/th the weather was splen 
 did, and the roads were rapidly becoming dry, even 
 where the mud was worst. Grant determined to en 
 gage Lee, and orders for a decisive movement of the 
 army were issued, to be executed during the night. At 
 first he proposed an attack upon the enemy s right, 
 but changed the plan. Instead of attacking there, Han 
 cock and Wright made a night march back to our right 
 flank, and attacked at daylight upon the same lines 
 where Hancock made his successful assault on the I2th. 
 They succeeded in pressing close to the enemy s lines, 
 and for a time were confident that at last they had struck . 
 the lair of the enemy, but an impassable abatis stopped 
 them. One division of Hancock s corps attempted in 
 vain to charge through this obstacle, and held the 
 ground before it for an hour or more under a galling 
 fire of canister. The difficulty of storming the enemy s 
 intrenched camp on that side being evidently of the 
 most extreme character, and both corps having artfully 
 
 200 
 
The Great Game between Grant and Lee. 
 
 but unsuccessfully sought for a weak point where they 
 might break through, Grant, at nine o clock, ordered 
 the attack to cease. The attempt was a failure. Lee 
 was not to be ousted; and Grant, convinced of it, issued 
 orders for another movement which he had had in 
 contemplation for several days, but which he did not 
 wish to try till after a last attempt to get the enemy 
 out of his stronghold. This was nothing less than 
 to slip away from Lee and march on toward Richmond 
 again. 
 
 The new order directed that Hancock s corps should 
 march by night from its present position southeast as 
 far toward Richmond on the line of the Fredericksburg 
 road as he could go, fighting his way if necessary. 
 Warren was to follow, and, if Lee did not come out and 
 attack when our army was thus weakened, Wright and 
 Burnside also were to march southward. 
 
 This movement was begun on the night of the 2Oth. 
 By the night of the 2ist Hancock was across the Mattap- 
 ony River at Milford. Warren had crossed the same 
 river at Guiney s Station, the point to which Grant had 
 moved his headquarters. By the morning of the 22d 
 Wright and Burnside were up in safety, and the forward 
 movement was continued. We were now in a fine, 
 clear country, good to move in and fight in, and the 
 advance of the 22d was most successful. By night our 
 army lay in an east and west line along the Mattapony 
 River, holding the crossings. On the right was Wright; 
 close to him at the left, Warren; in the center, Burn- 
 side; on the left, Hancock. Our headquarters were at 
 New Bethel Church. Our talk that night was that in 
 
 201 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 all probability we should meet the enemy on the North 
 Anna, a day s march to the south of our position. 
 
 The operations of the next day were much embar 
 rassed by our ignorance of the road and the entire in 
 correctness of our maps; nevertheless, by one o clock 
 in the afternoon our right wing, under Warren, reached 
 the North Anna. The stream there was about one hun 
 dred and fifty feet wide, with bluff banks from fifty to 
 seventy-five feet high. Wright followed after Warren. 
 As soon as Warren reached Jericho Mills he pushed his 
 sharpshooters across the stream, which was easily ford- 
 able at that place, following them with a compact body 
 of infantry. A Confederate regiment posted to watch 
 the crossing at once gave way, leaving a single prisoner 
 in our hands. From this man Warren learned that an 
 other of the enemy s divisions was drawn up to receive 
 him near by. Under the orders of General Grant, he 
 promptly threw across the pontoon bridge, over which 
 he rapidly moved his artillery, at the same time urg 
 ing forward his infantry by the ford as well as by the 
 bridge; and by five o clock he had transported his en 
 tire command, and had taken up a position of great 
 strength. Here he rapidly commenced intrenching 
 himself. 
 
 Grant had by this time moved his headquarters up 
 to Mount Carmel Church, some four miles from Jericho 
 Mills. About six o clock we knew from the firing that 
 Warren had been attacked. I never heard more rapid 
 or heavier firing, either of artillery or musketry. It 
 was not until about half past ten that evening that we 
 knew surely how the fight had gone; then a dispatch 
 
 202 
 
The Great Game between Grant and Lee. 
 
 from Warren announced that he had triumphantly re 
 pulsed the enemy, and made considerable captures of 
 prisoners. 
 
 About the same time that Warren was fighting for 
 his position at Jericho Mills, Hancock advanced on our 
 left. By a vigorous charge of two brigades of Birney s 
 division, the enemy was driven over the North Anna 
 River. The next morning Hancock crossed over. That 
 same morning, May 24th, we found that, as a result of 
 the operations of the previous day, we had about one 
 thousand prisoners. They were more discouraged 
 than any set of prisoners I ever saw before. Lee had 
 deceived them, they said, and they declared that his 
 army would not fight again except behind breast 
 works. 
 
 The general opinion of every prominent officer in 
 the army on the morning of the 24th was that the 
 enemy had fallen back, either to take up a position be 
 yond the South Anna or to go to Richmond, but by 
 noon the next day we knew this was a mistake. All 
 through the day of the 24th Lee blocked our south 
 ward march. The opinion prevailed that the enemy s 
 position was held by a rear guard only, but the ob 
 stinacy of their skirmishers was regarded as very re 
 markable. About dark Hancock made an attack, break 
 ing into the Confederate line of works, taking some 
 prisoners, and satisfying himself that a whole corps was 
 before him. Soon afterward the division of Gibbon 
 was attacked, but it beat back the assault handsomely 
 without any considerable loss. Just before dark Crit- 
 tenden the same Crittenden who was at Chickamauga 
 
 203 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 was also suddenly attacked, and one of his brigades 
 damaged. No fighting of any moment took place on 
 the morning of the 25th, but the enemy showed such 
 strength as to leave no doubt that Lee s whole army 
 was present. His intrenchments were in the form of 
 the letter V. He showed artillery on both faces. By 
 the morning of the 25th Grant was sure that Lee was 
 before him and strongly intrenched. He soon deter 
 mined on a new move. This was to withdraw his whole 
 army as quickly as possible, and, before Lee discovered 
 his intention, to move it southeast, across the Pamun- 
 key, and perhaps on across the Chickahominy and the 
 James, if he could not meanwhile get Lee out of his 
 earthworks. 
 
 The orders for the new move were received with the 
 best spirit by the army, in spite of the fact that the 
 men were much jaded. Indeed, one of the most impor 
 tant results of the campaign thus far was the entire 
 change which had taken place in the feelings of the 
 armies. The Confederates had lost all confidence, and 
 were already morally defeated. Our army had learned 
 to believe that it was sure of ultimate victory. Even 
 our officers had ceased to regard Lee as an invincible 
 military genius. On the part of the enemy this change 
 was evinced not only by their not attacking, even when 
 circumstances seemed to invite it, but by the unanimous 
 statements of prisoners taken from them. 
 
 The morning after we began to move from our posi 
 tion on the North Anna I was so confident that I wrote 
 Mr. Stanton, " Rely upon it, the end is near as well as 
 
 sure." 
 
 204 
 
The Great Game between Grant and Lee. 
 
 It was on the night of the 26th that our army was 
 withdrawn from the North Anna, without loss or dis 
 turbance, and by the evening of the 27th Grant had 
 his headquarters ten miles from Hanovertown, and his 
 whole army was well up toward the crossing. We had 
 no news of Lee s movements that day, though we heard 
 that there was a force of the enemy at Hanover Court 
 house. Grant himself was very doubtful that day of 
 our getting across the Hanover Ferry; he told me that 
 we might be obliged to go farther to the southeast to 
 get over. On the morning of the 27th Sheridan and 
 his cavalry seized the ferry, laying bridges, and, after 
 crossing, advancing well beyond. Everything went on 
 finely that night and during the 28th, the troops. pass 
 ing our headquarters in great numbers and very rapidly. 
 By noon of the 28th the movement of the army across 
 the Pamunkey was complete, with the exception of 
 Burnside, who did not arrive until midnight. The 
 movement had been executed with admirable celerity 
 and success. The new position was one of great 
 strength, our lines extending from the Pamunkey to 
 Totopotomoy Creek. Wright was on the Pamunkey, 
 Hancock on his left, and Warren on the Totopotomoy. 
 The orders for that day were to let the men rest, though 
 both officers and men were in high spirits at the suc 
 cessful execution of this long and. difficult flank move 
 ment. 
 
 We were now south of the Pamunkey, and occupy 
 ing a very strong position, but we did not know yet 
 where Lee was. A general reconnaissance was at 
 once ordered, and the enemy was found in force south 
 
 205 
 
Recollections of the Civil IPar. 
 
 of the Totopotomoy Creek; by the 3Oth there was no 
 doubt that Lee s whole army, now re-enforced by thir 
 teen thousand men, was close at hand and strongly 
 intrenched again. Grant said he would fight here if 
 there was a fair chance, but he declared emphatically 
 he would not run his head against heavy works. 
 
 Our line began to push forward on the 3Oth. All 
 the afternoon of that day at headquarters, which were 
 now at Hawes s Shop, we heard the noise of fighting. 
 First Warren on the left, who had reached a point only 
 about seven miles and a half from Richmond, had a 
 short, sharp, and decisive engagement with Early; and 
 later an active conflict raged for some time with our 
 right on the Totopotomoy. We were successful all 
 along the line. The next day, the 3ist, we pushed 
 ahead until our lines lay from Bethesda Church, on 
 the east, to the railroad, on the west. Desultory firing 
 was constantly heard, but there was no very active 
 fighting that day until about five o clock in the after 
 noon, when Sheridan s cavalry, by hard work, drove 
 out the enemy and secured Cold Harbor, which was 
 at that moment of vast importance to us strateg 
 ically. 
 
 It was determined to make a fight here before the 
 enemy could intrench. Wright was at once ordered to 
 have his whole force on the ground by daylight on the 
 ist of June, to support Sheridan and take the offensive. 
 " Baldy " Smith, of Butler s army, who had landed at 
 White House on the 3ist with twelve thousand five 
 hundred men, was ordered to the aid of Wright and 
 Sheridan. But there was an error in Smith s orders, 
 
 206 
 
The Great Game between Grant and Lee. 
 
 and Wright s march was so long that his corps did not 
 get up to Cold Harbor until the afternoon of the ist. 
 Meanwhile Sheridan s cavalry had repulsed two at 
 tacks by two brigades of Kershaw s infantry. 
 
 It was not until six o clock in the afternoon that we 
 at headquarters at Bethesda Church heard the cannon 
 which indicated that an attack had at last been made 
 by Wright and Smith. From the sounds of artillery 
 and musketry, we judged the fight was furious. Rick- 
 ett s division broke through the rebel lines between 
 Hoke and Kershaw, capturing five hundred prisoners, 
 and forcing the enemy to take up a new position farther 
 back. Smith s troops effected lodgments close up to 
 the Confederate intrenchments. Our losses this day 
 were twenty-two hundred men in these two corps. War 
 ren was slightly engaged. Altogether they had done 
 very well, but meanwhile Lee was again concentrated 
 and intrenched in our front. 
 
 Hancock was ordered to move during the night, 
 and his advance arrived at Cold Harbor about daylight. 
 When I got up in the morning I was then at Bethesda 
 Church his rear was marching past our headquarters. 
 In conjunction with Wright and Smith, he was to fall 
 upon Lee s right that day. Warren and Burnside were 
 also ordered in as soon as they heard that the three 
 corps on our left had begun battle. There was no battle 
 that day, however. Hancock s men were so tired with 
 their forced march of nearly twelve miles, and the heat 
 and dust were so oppressive, that General Grant or 
 dered the attack to be postponed until half past four 
 o clock the next morning. 
 
 207 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 So the battle Grant sought did not come until June 
 3d that of Cold Harbor. On the morning of the 3d 
 our line lay with the right at Bethesda Church, the left 
 extending to the Chickahominy. Hancock commanded 
 the left; next to him was Wright, with his corps drawn 
 up in three lines; next, Smith, with the Eighteenth 
 Corps in two lines; next, Warren, who had his whole 
 command in a single line, the distance he covered being 
 fully three miles. With this thin order of battle he was 
 necessarily unable to make any effective assault. Burn- 
 side held the extreme right. Hancock, Wright, and 
 Smith were to make the main attacks at daybreak. 
 Promptly at the hour they dashed out toward the rebel 
 lines, under a fearful fire of musketry and a cross fire of 
 artillery. The losses were great, but we gained advan 
 tages here and there. The entire charge consumed 
 hardly more than an hour. Barlow, of Hancock s corps, 
 drove through a very strong line, and at five o clock 
 reported that he had taken intrenchments with guns 
 and colors, but he could not stay there. An interior 
 breastwork commanded the one he had carried, and his 
 men had to withdraw, leaving behind them the captured 
 cannon, and bringing out a single Confederate standard 
 and two hundred and twenty prisoners as tokens of their 
 brief success. Wright and Smith succeeded in carry 
 ing the first line of rifle-pits, but could get no farther 
 to the front. All our forces held ground close up to 
 the enemy. At some points they were intrenched within 
 a hundred feet of the rebel breastworks. Burnside, on 
 the right, captured some rifle-pits. Later he was at 
 tacked by Early, who was roughly handled and repulsed. 
 
 208 
 
Great Game between Grant and Lee. 
 
 Warren was active, and repulsed a vigorous attack by 
 Gordon. 
 
 Thus by noon we had fully developed the Confed 
 erate lines, and Grant could see what was necessary in 
 order to get through them. Hancock reported that in 
 his front it could not be done. Wright was decidedly 
 of the opinion that a lodgment could be made in his 
 front, but it would be difficult to make much by it un 
 less Hancock and Smith could also advance. Smith 
 thought he could carry the works before him, but was 
 not sanguine. Burnside also thought he could get 
 through, but Warren, who was nearest him, did not 
 seem to share his opinion. In this state of things, at 
 half past one o clock, General Grant ordered the attack 
 to be suspended. He had told Meade as early as seven 
 in the morning to suspend the movement if it became 
 evident that success was impossible. 
 
 This was the battle of Cold Harbor, which has been 
 exaggerated into one of the bloodiest disasters of his 
 tory, a reckless, useless waste of human life. It was 
 nothing of the kind. The outlook warranted the effort. 
 The breaking of Lee s lines meant his destruction and 
 the collapse of the rebellion. Sheridan took the same 
 chances at Five Forks ten months later, and won; so 
 did Wright, Humphreys, Gibbon, and others at Peters 
 burg. They broke through far stronger lines than those 
 at Cold Harbor, and Lee fled in the night toward Ap- 
 pomattox. So it would have been at Cold Harbor if 
 Grant had won, and who would have thought of the 
 losses? 
 
 While we lay at Cold Harbor, as when we had been 
 J 5 209 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 at Spottsylvania, the principal topic of conversation was 
 the losses of the army. The discussion has never ceased. 
 There are still many persons who bitterly accuse Grant 
 of butchery in this campaign. As a matter of fact, Grant 
 lost fewer men in his successful effort to take Richmond 
 and end the war than his predecessors lost in making 
 the same attempt and failing. An official table, showing 
 the aggregate of the losses sustained by the armies of 
 McDowell, McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, 
 Butler, and Ord, in the effort to capture the Confederate 
 capital, is appended: 
 
 Comparative Statement of the Losses sustained in Action by the 
 Army of Northeastern Virginia, the Army of the Potomac, and 
 the Army of Virginia, under Command of Generals McDowell, 
 McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, and Meade, from May 24, 
 1 86 1, to May 4, 1864, and the Army of the Potomac (Meade) and 
 the Army of the James (Butler and Ord), constituting the 
 Armies operating against Richmond under General Grant, from 
 May 5, 1864, to April 9, 1865 : 
 
 
 Killed. 
 
 Wounded. 
 
 Captured 
 or missing. 
 
 Aggre 
 gate. 
 
 Losses from May 24, 1861, to May 
 4, 1864 : 
 McDowell, May 24 to August 
 19 1861 
 
 4.Q-1 
 
 1,176 
 
 1,342 
 
 3, on 
 
 McClellan, August 20, 1861, to 
 April 4, 1862 
 
 80 
 
 268 
 
 815 
 
 1,163 
 
 McClellan, April 5 to August 8, 
 1862 
 
 o 26^ 
 
 13,868 
 
 7,317 
 
 24,448 
 
 Pope, June 26 to September 2, 
 1862 
 
 2 065 
 
 Q,QO8 
 
 4,982 
 
 16,955 
 
 McClellan, September 3 to No- 
 
 2 7l6 
 
 11,979 
 
 13,882 
 
 28,577 
 
 Burnside, November 15, 1862, 
 to January 25, 1863 
 
 I 2o6 
 
 0,642 
 
 2,276 
 
 13,214 
 
 Hooker, January 26 to June 27, 
 1863 
 
 I Q*? 1 ? 
 
 11,160 
 
 11,912 
 
 25,027 
 
 Meade, June 28, 1863, to May 4, 
 1864 . , 
 
 i 877 
 
 18,078 
 
 0,575 
 
 31,530 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 15,745 
 
 76,079 
 
 52,101 
 
 143,925 
 
 2 
 
 IO 
 
 
 
 
The Great Game between Grant and Lee. 
 
 Comparative Statement (continued") . 
 
 
 Killed. 
 
 Wounded. 
 
 Captured 
 or missing. 
 
 Aggre 
 gate. 
 
 Grant s losses from May 5, 1864, 
 to April 9, 1865 : 
 May 5 to June 24, 1864 Army 
 of the Potomac, from the Rapi- 
 dan to the James 
 
 7,621 
 
 38,339 
 
 8,966 
 
 54.026 
 
 May 5 to June 14 Army of the 
 James, south of James River. 
 June 15 to July 31 Army of the 
 Potomac and Army of the 
 Tames . 
 
 634 
 2 028 
 
 3,903 
 13,743 
 
 1,678 
 6,265 
 
 6,215 
 22.036 
 
 August i to December 31 Army 
 of the Potomac and Army of 
 the James . . . . 
 
 2 172 
 
 11,138 
 
 11,311 
 
 24 621 
 
 January i to April 9, 1865 Army 
 of the Potomac and Army of 
 the James and Sheridan s cav- 
 
 I 78d 
 
 IO,625 
 
 3,283 
 
 ie 6o2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 1C iqo 
 
 77,748 
 
 ii w\ 
 
 124,390 
 
 SUMMARY : 
 Armies of McDowell, McClellan, 
 Pope, Burnside, Hooker, and 
 Meade 
 
 TC 74 K 
 
 76 O7Q 
 
 52 101 
 
 14-3 Q2< 
 
 
 je i an 
 
 77 748 
 
 oj Co*} 
 
 124, 3QO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 30.884 
 
 IS3.827 
 
 83 604 
 
 268 315 
 
 Aggregate of losses from May 24, 
 1861, to May 4, 1864 
 
 
 
 
 143 Q2S 
 
 Aggregate of losses from May 4, 
 
 
 
 
 124 3QO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Difference in Grant s favor 
 
 
 
 
 19,535 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This table shows exactly what Richmond cost us 
 from May 24, 1861, when McDowell crossed the Po 
 tomac into Virginia, to Lee s surrender at Appomattox; 
 and it proves that Grant in eleven months secured the 
 prize with less loss than his predecessors suffered in fail 
 ing to win it during a struggle of three years. 
 
 211 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE MARCH ON PETERSBURG. 
 
 In camp at Cold Harbor Grant s opinion of Lee Trouble with news 
 paper 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. 
 
 THE affair of June 3d at Cold Harbor showed that 
 Lee was not to be driven from his position without a 
 great sacrifice of life. A left flank movement south of 
 the James River was accordingly decided upon by 
 Grant. This was no new idea; that eventuality had 
 been part of the original plan of campaign, and prep 
 arations for bridging the James had been ordered as 
 early as the I5th of April, three weeks before the battle 
 of the Wilderness. One object of the movement across 
 the James was to cut off Richmond s line of supplies 
 from the south. But before this could be done an 
 other matter had to be attended to. 
 
 In General Grant s plan of campaign the effectual 
 destruction of the Virginia Central Railroad was an in 
 dispensable feature. In moving from Culpeper he had 
 expected that before reaching the Chickahominy he 
 would have a chance to crush Lee s army by fighting. 
 This would have allowed him an undisturbed oppor 
 tunity to destroy that road, as well as the Fredericks- 
 
 212 
 
The March on Petersburg. 
 
 burg road from the Chickahominy to the North Anna. 
 The expectation had been disappointed by Lee s suc 
 cess in avoiding a decisive battle. Before moving far 
 ther in accomplishing the great object of the campaign, 
 these roads must be so thoroughly destroyed that when 
 Richmond was cut off from other lines of communica 
 tion with the south the attempt to repair and use the 
 line through Gordonsville and Lynchburg would be 
 hopeless. The work was first to be attempted by Sheri 
 dan with cavalry. If he was not able to complete it, 
 the whole army was to be swung around for the pur 
 pose, even should it be necessary to abandon tempor 
 arily our communications with White House. 
 
 This necessity, as well as that of making thorough 
 preparations for the difficult march south of the James 
 and for the perfect co-operation of Butler at Bermuda 
 Hundred, detained Grant at Cold Harbor until June 
 1 2th. Two officers of his staff, Colonel Comstock and 
 Colonel Porter, had been sent to General Butler to ar 
 range for co-operation in the movement of the army to 
 Bermuda Hundred, and to look over the ground to be 
 traversed and the means of crossing the river. Grant 
 would not order the movement until they^ returned. 
 They did not get back until the I2th. 
 
 During this time the opposing lines of Grant and 
 Lee were very close together, and on our side the troops 
 made regular siege approaches to the Confederate 
 works. The days passed quietly, with no fighting ex 
 cept an occasional rattle of musketry and now and then 
 a cannon shot. There was occasionally a scare on the 
 line. On the evening of June 5th Wright s and Han- 
 
 213 
 
Recollections of the Civil War 
 
 cock s line responded to a stiff assault; the firing lasted 
 for twenty minutes, and it was very loud, but it was 
 all about nothing and no harm was done. The enemy 
 were so near that in the dark our men thought they 
 were coming out to attack. On June 6th there was an 
 onslaught on Burnside just after midnight, which was 
 successfully repulsed, and in the afternoon a rush was 
 made by a party of a hundred picked men of the enemy, 
 who came to find out what was the meaning of Han 
 cock s advancing siege lines. As a rule, everything was 
 quiet except the picket firing, which could not be pre 
 vented when the men were so close together. The 
 picket firing ceased only during the occasional truces 
 to bury the dead. 
 
 The operations around Cold Harbor, the close prox 
 imity of the two lines, the unceasing firing, with no hour 
 in the day or night when one could not hear the sound 
 of musketry and cannon, were precisely like the condi 
 tions at Spottsylvania and those on the North Anna. 
 It was a constant feeling for the weak spot in Lee s 
 armor. There was far less maneuvering at Cold Har 
 bor after the first efforts than during the long struggle 
 at Spottsylvania. We were merely waiting for the 
 proper moment to withdraw toward the James. Grant, 
 Meade, and all the leading officers were certain of ulti 
 mate success; although the fighting had been more se 
 vere and continuous than anything in the previous his 
 tory of the army, I must say a cheerful, confident tone 
 generally prevailed. All acted as if they were at a job 
 which required only time to finish. 
 
 Grant was disappointed, and talked to me a good 
 214 
 
March on Petersburg. 
 
 deal about the failure to get at Lee in an open battle 
 which would wind up the Confederacy. The general 
 was constantly revolving plans to turn Lee out of his 
 intrenchments. The old-time fear of Lee s superior 
 ability that was rife among the officers of the Army of 
 the Potomac had entirely disappeared. They had begun 
 to look upon him as an ordinary mortal, making a fairly 
 good effort to ward off fate, and nothing more. I think 
 Grant respected Lee s military ability and character, yet 
 the boldness with which he maneuvered in Lee s pres 
 ence is proof that he was not overawed by Lee s pres 
 tige as a strategist and tactician. He thought Lee s 
 great forte was as a defensive fighter, a quality displayed 
 at Antietam and Fredericksburg; but held no high 
 opinion of his Chancellorsville operations, where he had 
 recklessly laid himself open to ruin. To me the views 
 of the military men at the different headquarters were 
 interesting and instructive. 
 
 While we were encamped at Cold Harbor, General 
 Meade was very much disturbed by a letter published 
 in a Cincinnati paper, saying that after the battle of 
 the Wilderness he counselled retreat a course which 
 would have destroyed the nation, but which Grant pro 
 hibited. This was entirely untrue. Meade had not 
 shown any weakness since moving from Culpeper, nor 
 once intimated doubt as to the successful issue of the 
 campaign. Nor had he intimated that any other plan 
 or line would be more likely to win. The newspaper 
 correspondent who was responsible for the misstate- 
 ment was with us, and Meade ordered that, as a pun 
 ishment, he should be paraded through the lines and 
 
 215 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 afterward expelled from the army. This was done on 
 June 8th, the correspondent being led through the army 
 on horseback by the provost-marshal guard. On his 
 back and breast were tacked placards inscribed, " Li 
 beller of the Press." 
 
 It was not often, considering the conditions, that 
 correspondents got into trouble in the army. As a rule, 
 they were discreet. Besides this case of Meade, I re 
 member now only one other in which I was actively 
 interested; that was a few months later, after I had re 
 turned to the department. Mr. Stanton had been 
 annoyed by a telegram which had been published about 
 Sherman s movements, and he ordered me to send it 
 to the general, so that we might know how much truth 
 there was in it. I wired him as follows: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, November 9, 1864. 
 Major-General SHERMAN, Kingston, Ga. : 
 
 Following, copied from evening papers, is sent for 
 your information: 
 
 CINCINNATI, November q, 1864. 
 
 " Yesterday s Indianapolis Journal says : Officers 
 from Chattanooga report that Sherman returned to At 
 lanta early last week with five corps of his army, leav 
 ing two corps in Tennessee to watch Hood. He de 
 stroyed the railroad from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and 
 is sending the iron into the former place. Atlanta was 
 burned, and Sherman is now marching for Charleston, 
 S. C. 
 
 Sherman sent back two characteristic dispatches. 
 The first ran: 
 
 KINGSTON, GA., November to, 1864. 
 Hon. C. A. DANA: 
 
 Dispatch of Qth read. Can t you send to Indian- 
 216 
 
^Ihe March on Petersburg. 
 
 apolis and catch that fool and have him sent to me to 
 work on the forts? All well. 
 
 W. T. SHERMAN, Major General. 
 
 The second: 
 
 KINGSTON, GA., November 10, 1864. 
 Hon. C. A. DANA, Assistant Secretary of War : 
 
 If indiscreet newspaper men publish information too 
 near the truth, counteract its effect by publishing other 
 paragraphs calculated to mislead the enemy, such as 
 " Sherman s army has been re-enforced, especially in 
 the cavalry, and he will soon move several columns in 
 circuit, so as to catch Hood s army "; " Sherman s des 
 tination is not Charleston, but Selma, where he will 
 meet an army from the Gulf," etc. 
 
 W. T. SHERMAN, Major General. 
 
 So I telegraphed to Indianapolis to General A. P. 
 Hovey, who was stationed there: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, November io t 1864, 
 Major-General A. P. HOVEY, Indianapolis : 
 
 In compliance with the request of Major-General 
 Sherman, the Secretary of War directs that you ascer 
 tain what persons furnished the information respecting 
 Sherman s alleged movement published in the Indian 
 apolis Journal of the 8th inst. You will arrest them 
 and send them under guard to such point in the Depart 
 ment of the Cumberland as Major-General Thomas may 
 prefer, where they will be employed in hard labor upon 
 the fortifications until General Sherman shall otherwise 
 order. 
 
 General Hovey never found the man, however. 
 
 By the morning of the I2th of June Grant was ready 
 for his last flank movement of the campaign. Our 
 army at that time, including Sheridan s cavalry, con- 
 
 217 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 sisted of approximately one hundred and fifteen thou 
 sand fighting men. The plan for moving this great 
 body was as follows : The Eighteenth Corps was to 
 move to White House without baggage or artillery, 
 and there embark for City Point. The Fifth Corps was 
 to cross the Chickahominy at Long Bridge, and take a 
 position to secure the passage of the remainder of the 
 army, after which it was to cover the rear. The Second, 
 Sixth, and Ninth Corps were to cross in two columns at 
 Long Bridge and Jones s Bridge. At first it had been 
 hoped, if not opposed by the enemy in force, to strike 
 James River immediately opposite Bermuda Hundred; 
 if resisted, then lower down, where General Butler had 
 been ordered to throw a bridge across and to corduroy 
 the approaches. 
 
 The Fifth Corps having prepared the way, the whole 
 army left the lines about Cold Harbor on schedule time, 
 just as soon after nightfall on the I2th as its movements 
 could be concealed from the observation of the enemy. 
 It was in drawing orders for such complicated move 
 ments as these, along different roads and by different 
 crossings, that the ability of General Humphreys, the 
 chief of staff, was displayed. Everything went perfectly 
 from the start. That evening at seven o clock, when I 
 reached Moody s, four miles from Long Bridge, the 
 Fifth Corps (Warren s) was moving rapidly past us. 
 Our cavalry advance, under General Wilson, who had 
 also been transferred to the East, had previously taken 
 Long Bridge and laid a pontoon bridge in readiness for 
 the crossing, so that by nine o clock that evening the 
 Fifth Corps was south of the Chickahominy, well out 
 
 218 
 
The March on Petersburg. 
 
 toward the approaches from Richmond, and covering 
 them. All day, the I3th, the army was hurrying toward 
 the James. By night the Sixth Corps had reached the 
 river, and the rest of the troops were on the march 
 between there and the Chickahominy, which was our 
 rear. 
 
 When I reached the James early the next day, the 
 1 4th, large numbers of men were hard at work on the 
 pontoon bridge and its approaches, by which it was 
 intended that the artillery and trains should cross. It 
 was a pretty heavy job to corduroy the marsh, which 
 was fully half a mile wide and quite deep. The bridge 
 itself was unprecedented in military annals, except, 
 perhaps, by that of Xerxes, being nearly seven hun 
 dred yards long. 
 
 All day on the I4th everything went like a miracle. 
 The pontoon bridge was finished at two o clock the next 
 morning, and the cavalry of Wilson s leading brigade, 
 followed by the artillery trains, instantly began cross 
 ing. By ten o clock on the I5th Hancock s corps had 
 been ferried over, and he was off toward Petersburg to 
 support Smith, who had taken the Eighteenth Corps 
 around by water from the White House, and had been 
 ordered to attack Petersburg that morning. All the 
 news we had that night at City Point, where headquar 
 ters had been set up, was that Smith had assaulted and 
 carried the principal line of the enemy before Peters 
 burg. 
 
 The next morning early I was off for the heights 
 southeast of the town. Smith s success appeared to be 
 of the most important kind. He had carried heights 
 
 219 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 which were defended by very formidable works. He 
 thought and, indeed, we all thought for the moment 
 that his success gave us perfect command of the city 
 and railroad. I went over the conquered lines with 
 General Grant and the engineer officers, and they all 
 agreed that the works were of the very strongest kind, 
 more difficult even to take than Missionary Ridge at 
 Chattanooga. 
 
 General Smith told us that the negro troops fought 
 magnificently, the hardest fighting being done by them. 
 The forts they stormed were, I think, the worst of all. 
 After the affair was over, General Smith went to thank 
 them, and tell them he was proud of their courage and 
 dash. He said they had no superiors as soldiers, and 
 that hereafter he should send them into a difficult place 
 as readily as the best white troops. They captured six 
 out of the sixteen cannons which he took. 
 
 It soon appeared, however, that Smith was far from 
 having captured points which commanded Petersburg. 
 His success had but little effect in determining the final 
 result. He had stopped his advance a few minutes and 
 a considerable space too soon, because, as he subse 
 quently alleged, it was too dark and his men were too 
 much fatigued for further operations; and he feared Lee 
 had already re-enforced the town. This turned out not 
 to be so; Lee did not know until the I7th that Grant 
 had crossed the James. And up to that date Lee s posi 
 tion was a mystery to us; we could hardly suppose he 
 had remained at Cold Harbor. 
 
 When Grant discovered exactly how much had been 
 gained and lost, he was very much dissatisfied. There 
 
 220 
 
^he March on Petersburg. 
 
 was a controversy between Hancock and Smith subse 
 quently about the responsibility for this failure. 
 
 On Tune i6th, the day after Smith s attack, more of 
 the troops arrived before Petersburg. General Meade 
 also arrived on the ground, and the job of capturing 
 Petersburg was now taken up in earnest by the whole 
 Army of the Potomac. It was no longer a mere matter 
 of advancing eighty or one hundred rods, as on the 
 night previous, for meanwhile the enemy had been 
 largely and rapidly re-enforced. Much time and 
 many thousands of valuable lives were to be expended 
 in getting possession of this vital point, which had 
 really been in our grasp on the evening of the I5th. 
 That afternoon there began a series of assaults 
 on the works of the enemy. The fighting lasted all 
 night, the moonlight being very clear. Our loss was 
 heavy. 
 
 The next day, the I7th, another attack was made 
 at Petersburg. It was persistent, but Meade found that 
 his men were so worn out with marching, righting, and 
 digging that they must have rest, and so laid off until 
 noon of the i8th, when, all of the army being up, a gen 
 eral assault was ordered. Nothing important was 
 gained, and General Grant directed that no more as 
 saults should be made. He said that after this he should 
 maneuver to get possession of Petersburg. 
 
 I saw nothing of the fighting of June i6th and i/th, 
 being ill in camp, but the members of Grant s staff told 
 me that our operations were unsatisfactory, owing to 
 our previous heavy loss in superior officers. The men 
 fought as well as ever, Colonel Comstock told me, but 
 
 221 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 they were not directed with the same skill and enthu 
 siasm. 
 
 While these operations were going on, I made two 
 or three trips to the river to watch the crossing of the 
 troops. It was an animated and inspiring sight, for 
 the great mass of men, animals, and baggage was 
 handled with the greatest intelligence. By the I7th our 
 entire army was south of the James, and the bridge 
 over the river by which the trains had crossed was 
 taken up. 
 
 During all this period, from Cold Harbor to Peters 
 burg, we knew nothing of Lee. In making the disposi 
 tion for this great and successful movement a far more 
 brilliant evolution than McClellan s " change of base " 
 two years before over almost the same roads the pur 
 pose was, of course, to deceive Lee as to the ultimate 
 direction of the army. The design succeeded far be 
 yond Grant s most sanguine hopes. As soon, on the 
 morning of the I3th, as the Confederate chieftain dis 
 covered our withdrawal, he moved his army across the 
 Chickahominy in hot haste, flinging it between his capi 
 tal and the foe, supposed to be advancing on a new line 
 between the James and the Chickahominy. He held 
 and fortified a line from White Oak swamp to Malvern 
 Hill, and here he remained stock still for four days, won 
 dering what had become of Grant. 
 
 Lee had been completely deceived, and could not 
 be made to believe by Beauregard, on the I5th, i6th, 
 and 1 7th, that Grant s whole army had turned up be 
 fore Petersburg. His troops, as we know now, did not 
 cross the James, to go to the relief of Beauregard until 
 
 222 
 
March on Petersburg. 
 
 the 1 7th. He was caught napping, and, but for mistakes 
 by subordinates in carrying out Grant s plans, Lee s 
 cause would have been lost. In the operations from the 
 night of the I2th, when Grant changed his line and base 
 with an army of one hundred and fifteen thousand men, 
 and all its vast trains of artillery, crossing a wide and 
 deep river on a temporary bridge, until June i8th, when 
 at last Lee awoke to the situation, General Beauregard 
 shines out on the Confederate side far more brilliantly 
 than the general in chief. He unquestionably saved 
 Petersburg, and for the time the Confederacy; but for 
 him Lee had at that time lost the game. 
 
 223 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 EARLY S RAID AND THE WASHINGTON PANIC. 
 
 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 with 
 drawing A fine letter from Grant about Hunter. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Grant had decided against a further di 
 rect attack on the works of Petersburg, he was by no 
 means idle. He sent out expeditions to break up the 
 railroads leading into the town. He began extending 
 his lines around to the south and southwest, so as to 
 make the investment as complete as possible. Batteries 
 were put in place, weak spots in the fortifications were 
 felt for, and regular siege works were begun. Indeed, 
 by July 1st the general opinion seemed to be that the 
 only way we should ever gain Petersburg would be by 
 a systematic siege. 
 
 A few days later we had an interesting visit from 
 President Lincoln, who arrived from Washington on 
 June 2 ist, and at once wanted to visit the lines before 
 Petersburg. General Grant, Admiral Lee, myself, and 
 several others went with him. I remember that, as we 
 passed along the lines, Mr. Lincoln s high hat was 
 brushed off by the branch of a tree. There were a dozen 
 
 224 
 
Early s Raid and the Washington Panic. 
 
 young officers whose duty it was to get it and give it 
 back to the President; but Admiral Lee was off his 
 horse before any of these young chaps, and recovered 
 the hat for the President. Admiral Lee must have been 
 forty-five or fifty years old. It was his agility that im 
 pressed me so much. 
 
 As we came back we passed through the division of 
 colored troops which had so greatly distinguished itself 
 under Smith on the I5th. They were drawn up in 
 double lines on each side of the road, and they wel 
 comed the President with hearty shouts. It was a mem 
 orable thing to behold him whose fortune it was to 
 represent the principle of emancipation passing bare 
 headed through the enthusiastic ranks of those negroes 
 armed to defend the integrity of the nation. 
 
 I went back to Washington with the presidential 
 party, but remained only a few days, as Mr. Lincoln 
 and Mr. Stanton were anxious for my daily reports of 
 the operations around Petersburg. On the return, I ar 
 rived at City Point on July ist. The army occupied 
 about the same positions as when I had left it a week 
 before. Two corps were engaged in siege work, their 
 effort being to get possession of a ridge before them, 
 supposed to command Petersburg; if they succeeded in 
 this, Grant thought that the enemy would have to aban 
 don the south side of the Appomattox, and, of course, 
 the town. On the left our line extended southward 
 and westward across what was known as the Jerusalem 
 road, but at so great a distance from the Confederate 
 fortifications as to have no immediate effect upon them. 
 Farther around to the west, toward the Appomattox 
 16 225 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 above Petersburg, the enemy s works extended, and 
 the idea of enveloping them for the whole distance 
 had been given up. The efforts to break up the rail 
 roads leading from Petersburg had been very suc 
 cessful, Grant told me. There were plans for assault 
 suggested, but Grant had not considered any of them 
 seriously. 
 
 Before the army had recovered from its long march 
 from Cold Harbor and the failure to capture the town, 
 there was an unusual amount of controversy going on 
 among the officers. Smith was berated generally for 
 failing to complete his attack of June I5th. Butler 
 and " Baldy " Smith were deep in a controversial cor 
 respondence; and Meade and Warren were so at log 
 gerheads that Meade notified Warren that he must 
 either ask to be relieved as corps commander or he 
 (Meade) would prefer charges against him. It seemed 
 as if Meade grew more unpopular every day. Finally 
 the difficulties between him and his subordinates be 
 came so serious that a change in the commander of the 
 Army of the Potomac seemed probable. Grant had 
 great confidence in Meade, and was much attached to 
 him personally; but the almost universal dislike of Meade 
 which prevailed among officers of every rank who came 
 in contact with him, and the difficulty of doing business 
 with him, felt by every one except Grant himself, so 
 greatly impaired his capacities for usefulness and ren 
 dered success under his command so doubtful that Grant 
 seemed to be coming to the conviction that he must be 
 relieved. 
 
 I had long known Meade to be a man of the worst 
 226 
 
Earlfs Raid and the Washington Panic. 
 
 possible temper, especially toward his subordinates. I 
 think he had not a friend in the whole army. No man, 
 no matter what his business or his service, approached 
 him without being insulted in one way or another, and 
 his own staff officers did not dare to speak to him un 
 less first spoken to, for fear of either sneers or curses. 
 The latter, however, I had never heard him indulge in 
 very violently, but he was said to apply them often 
 without occasion and without reason. At the same 
 time, as far as I was able to ascertain, his generals had 
 lost their confidence in him as a commander. His or 
 ders for the last series of assaults upon Petersburg, in 
 which we lost ten thousand men without gaining any 
 decisive advantage, were greatly criticised. They were, 
 in effect, that he had found it impracticable to secure 
 the co-operation of corps commanders, and that, there 
 fore, each one was to attack on his own account and 
 do the best he could by himself. The consequence was 
 that each gained some advantage of position, but each 
 exhausted his own strength in so doing; while, for the 
 want of a general purpose and a general commander to 
 direct and concentrate the whole, it all amounted to 
 nothing but heavy loss to ourselves. General Wright 
 remarked confidentially to a friend that all of Meade s 
 attacks had been made without brains and without gen 
 eralship. 
 
 The first week of July the subject came to pretty 
 full discussion at Grant s headquarters on account of an 
 extraordinary correspondence between Meade and Wil 
 son. The Richmond Examiner had charged Wilson s 
 command with stealing not only negroes and horses, 
 
 227 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 but silver plate and clothing on a raid he had just 
 made against the Danville and Southside Railroad, and 
 Meade, taking up the statement of the Examiner for 
 truth, read Wilson a lecture, and called on him for 
 explanations. Wilson denied the charge of robbing 
 women and churches, and said he hoped Meade would 
 not be ready to condemn his command because its 
 operations had excited the ire of the public enemy. 
 Meade replied that Wilson s explanation was satis 
 factory; but this correspondence started a conversa 
 tion in which Grant expressed himself quite frankly 
 as to the general trouble with Meade, and his fear 
 that it would become necessary to relieve him. In 
 that event, he said, it would be necessary to put Han 
 cock in command. 
 
 In the first days of July we began to get inquiries 
 at City Point from Washington concerning the where 
 abouts of the Confederate generals Early and Ewell. It 
 was reported in the capital, our dispatches said, that 
 they were moving down the Shenandoah Valley. We 
 seemed to have pretty good evidence that Early was 
 with Lee, defending Petersburg, and so I wired the 
 Secretary on July 3d. The next day we felt less posi 
 tive. A deserter came in on the morning of the 4th, 
 and said that it was reported in the enemy s camp that 
 Ewell had gone into Maryland with his entire corps. 
 Another twenty-four hours, and Meade told me that he 
 was at last convinced that Early and his troops had 
 gone down the valley. In fact, Early had been gone 
 three weeks. He left Lee s army near Cold Harbor on 
 the morning of the I3th of June, when we were on 
 
 228 
 
Earlfs Raid and the Washington Panic. 
 
 the march to the James. Hunter s defeat of Jones 
 near Staunton had forced Lee to divide his army in 
 order to stop Hunter s dangerous advance on Lynch- 
 burg. 
 
 On the 6th General Grant was convinced that Wash 
 ington was the objective. The raid threatened was suf- 
 ficiently serious to compel the sending of troops to the 
 defense of the capital, and a body of men immediately 
 embarked. Three days later I started myself to Wash 
 ington, in order to keep Grant informed of what was 
 going on. When I arrived, I found both Washing 
 ton and Baltimore in a state of great excitement; both 
 cities were filled with people who had fled from the 
 enemy. The damage to private property done by 
 the invaders was said to be almost beyond calcula 
 tion. Mills, workshops, and factories of every sort 
 were reported as destroyed, and from twenty-five 
 to fifty miles of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
 torn up. 
 
 During my first day in town, July nth, all sorts 
 of rumors came in. General Lew Wallace, then in com 
 mand at Baltimore, sent word that a large force of the 
 enemy had been seen that morning near that city. The 
 Confederate generals were said to have dined together 
 at Rockville a day or two before. The houses of Gov 
 ernor Bradford, Francis P. Blair, senior, and his son, 
 Montgomery, the Postmaster General, were reported 
 burned. We could see from Washington clouds of dust 
 in several quarters around the city, which we believed to 
 be raised by bodies of hostile cavalry. There was some 
 sharp skirmishing that day, too, on the Tennallytown 
 
 229 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 road, as well as later in front of Fort Stevens, and at 
 night the telegraph operators at the latter place reported 
 a considerable number of camp fires visible in front of 
 them. 
 
 I found that the Washington authorities had util 
 ized every man in town for defense. Some fifteen hun 
 dred employees of the quartermaster s department had 
 been armed and sent out; the veteran reserves about 
 Washington and Alexandria had likewise been sent to 
 the front. General Augur, commanding the defenses 
 of Washington, had also drawn from the fortifications 
 on the south side of the town all the men that in his 
 judgment could possibly be spared. To this impro 
 vised force were added that day some six boatloads of 
 troops which General Grant had sent from the Army 
 of the Potomac. These troops went at once to Fort 
 Stevens. 
 
 With the troops coming from Grant, there was force 
 enough to save the capital; but I soon saw that nothing 
 could possibly be done toward pursuing or cutting off 
 the enemy for want of a commander. General Hunter 
 and his forces had not yet returned from their swing 
 around the circle. General Augur commanded the de 
 fenses of Washington, with A. McD. McCook and a lot 
 of brigadier generals under him, but he was not allowed 
 to go outside. Wright commanded only his own corps. 
 General Gilmore had been assigned to the temporary 
 command of those troops of the Nineteenth Corps just 
 arrived from New Orleans, and all other troops in the 
 Middle Department, leaving Wallace to command Balti 
 more alone. But there was no head to the whole. Gen- 
 
 230 
 
Early* s Raid and the Washington Panic. 
 
 eral Halleck would not give orders, except as he re 
 ceived them from Grant; the President would give 
 none; and, until Grant directed positively and explicitly 
 what was to be done, everything was practically at a 
 standstill. Things, I saw, would go on in the deplorable 
 and fatal way in which they had been going for a week. 
 Of course, this want of a head was causing a great deal 
 of sharp comment on all sides. Postmaster-General 
 Blair was particularly incensed, and, indeed, with real 
 cause, for he had lost his house at Silver Springs. Some 
 of his remarks reached General Halleck, who immedi 
 ately wrote to Mr. Stanton the following letter: 
 
 HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, 
 
 WASHINGTON, July sj, 1864. 
 
 Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. 
 
 SIR: I deem it my duty to bring to your notice the 
 following facts: I am informed by an officer of rank 
 and standing in the military service that the Hon. M. 
 Blair, Postmaster General, in speaking of the burning 
 of his house in Maryland this morning, said, in effect, 
 that the officers in command about Washington are 
 poltroons; that there were not more that five hundred 
 rebels on the Silver Springs road, and we had one mil 
 lion of men in arms; that it was a disgrace; that Gen 
 eral Wallace was in comparison with them far better, 
 as he would at least fight. As there have been for the 
 last few days a large number of officers on duty in and 
 about Washington who have devoted their time and 
 energies, night and day, and have periled their lives in 
 the support of the Government, it is due to them, as 
 well as to the War Department, that it should be known 
 whether such wholesale denouncement and accusation 
 by a member of the Cabinet receives the sanction and 
 approbation of the President of the United States. If 
 so, the names of the officers accused should be stricken 
 
 231 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 from the rolls of the army; if not, it is due to the honor 
 of the accused that the slanderer should be dismissed 
 from the Cabinet. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 H. W. HALLECK, 
 Major General and Chief of Staff. 
 
 The very day on which Halleck wrote this letter we 
 had evidence that the enemy had taken fright at the 
 arrival in Washington of the troops sent by Grant, and 
 were moving off toward Edwards Ferry. It was pretty 
 certain that they were carrying off a large amount of 
 cattle and other plunder with them. By the end of an 
 other day there seemed no doubt that Early had got 
 the main body of his command across the river with his 
 captures. What they were, it was impossible to say 
 precisely. One herd of cattle was reported as contain 
 ing two thousand head, and the number of horses and 
 mules taken from Maryland was reported as about five 
 thousand. This, however, was probably somewhat ex 
 aggerated. 
 
 The veterans, of course, at once moved out to at 
 tempt to overtake the enemy. The irregulars were 
 withdrawn from the fortifications, General Meigs march 
 ing his division of quartermaster s clerks and employees 
 back to their desks; and Admiral Goldsborough, who 
 had marshalled the marines and sailors, returned to 
 smoke his pipe on his own doorstep. 
 
 The pursuit of Early proved, on the whole, an egre 
 gious blunder, relieved only by a small success at Win 
 chester in which four guns and some prisoners were 
 captured. Wright accomplished nothing, and drew 
 
 232 
 
Earlfs Raid and the Washington Panic. 
 
 back as soon as he got where he might have done some 
 thing worth while. As it was, Early escaped with the 
 whole of his plunder. 
 
 One of the best letters Grant sent me during the 
 war was at the time of this Early raid on Washington. 
 When the alarms of invasion first came, Grant ordered 
 Major-General David Hunter, then stationed at Park- 
 ersburg, W. Va., to take the direction of operations 
 against the enemy s forces in the valley. Hunter did 
 not come up to Mr. Stanton s expectations in this crisis, 
 and when I reached Washington the Secretary told me 
 to telegraph Grant that, in his opinion, Hunter ought 
 to be removed. Three days later I repeated in my dis 
 patch to Grant certain rumors about Hunter that had 
 reached the War Department. The substance of them 
 was that Hunter had been engaged in an active cam 
 paign against the newspapers in West Virginia, and 
 that he had horsewhipped a soldier with his own hand. 
 I received an immediate reply: 
 
 CITY POINT, VA., July 75-, 1864% P. M. 
 C. A. DANA, Assistant Secretary of War : 
 
 I am sorry to see such a disposition to condemn so 
 brave an old soldier as General Hunter is known to be 
 without a hearing. He is known to have advanced into 
 the enemy s country toward their main army, inflicting 
 a much greater damage upon them than they have in 
 flicted upon us with double his force, and moving di 
 rectly away from our main army. Hunter acted, too, 
 in a country where we had no friends, while the enemy 
 have only operated in territory where, to say the least, 
 many of the inhabitants are their friends. If General 
 Hunter has made war upon the newspapers in West 
 Virginia, probably he has done right. In horsewhip- 
 
 233 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ping a soldier he has laid himself subject to trial, but 
 nine chances out of ten he only acted on the spur of 
 the moment, under great provocation. I fail to see yet 
 that General Hunter has not acted with great prompt 
 ness and great success. Even the enemy give him 
 great credit for courage, and congratulate themselves 
 that he will give them a chance of getting even with him. 
 U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General. 
 
 234 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE SECRET SERVICE OF THE WAR. 
 
 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 let 
 ters 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. 
 
 AFTER Early s invaders had retired and quiet was 
 restored, I went to Mr. Stanton for new orders. As 
 there was no probability of an immediate change in the 
 situation before Petersburg, the Secretary did not think 
 it necessary for me to go back to Grant, but preferred 
 that I remain in the department, helping with the rou 
 tine work. 
 
 Much of my time at this period was spent in investi 
 gating charges against defaulting contractors and dis- 
 honest agents, and in ordering arrests of persons sus 
 pected of disloyalty to the Government. I assisted, 
 too, in supervising the spies who were going back and 
 forth between the lines. Among these I remember 
 one, a sort of peddler whose name I will call Morse 
 who traveled between Washington and Richmond. 
 When he went down it was in the character of a man 
 who had entirely hoodwinked the Washington authori- 
 
 235 
 
"Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ties, and who, in spite of them, or by some corruption 
 or other, always brought with him into the Confederate 
 lines something that the people wanted dresses for the 
 ladies or some little luxury that they couldn t get other 
 wise. The things that he took with him were always 
 supervised by our agents before he went away. When 
 he came back he brought us in exchange a lot of valu 
 able information. He was doubtless a spy on both 
 sides; but as we got a great deal of information, which 
 could be had in no other way, about the strength of the 
 Confederate armies, and the preparations and the move 
 ments of the enemy, we allowed the thing to go on. 
 The man really did good service for us that summer, 
 and, as we were frequently able to verify by other means 
 the important information he brought, we had a great 
 deal of confidence in him. 
 
 Early in October, 1864, he came back from Rich 
 mond, and, as usual, went to Baltimore to get his outfit 
 for the return trip. When he presented himself again 
 in Washington, the chief detective of the War Depart 
 ment, Colonel Baker, examined his goods carefully, but 
 this time he found that Morse had many things that 
 we could not allow him to take. Among his stuff were 
 uniforms and other military goods, and all this, of 
 course, was altogether too contraband to be passed. 
 We had all his bills, telling where he had bought these 
 things in Baltimore. They amounted to perhaps 
 twenty-five thousand dollars, or more. So we confis 
 cated the contraband goods, and put Morse in prison. 
 
 But the merchants in Baltimore were partners in 
 his guilt, and Secretary Stanton declared he would ar- 
 
 236 
 
The Secret Service of the War. 
 
 rest every one of them and put them in prison until the 
 affair could be straightened up. He turned the matter 
 over to me then, as he was going to Fort Monroe for 
 a few days. I immediately sent Assistant- Adjutant-Gen 
 eral Lawrence to Baltimore with orders to see that all 
 persons implicated were arrested. Lawrence tele 
 graphed me, on October i6th, that the case would in 
 volve the arrest of two hundred citizens. I reported 
 to the Secretary, but he was determined to go ahead. 
 The next morning ninety-seven of the leading citizens 
 of Baltimore were arrested, brought to Washington, 
 and confined in Old Capitol Prison, principally in soli 
 tary cells. There was great satisfaction among the 
 Union people of the town, but great indignation among 
 Southern sympathizers. Presently a deputation from 
 Baltimore came over to see President Lincoln. It was 
 an outrage, they said; the gentlemen arrested were 
 most respectable merchants and faultless citizens, and 
 they demanded that they all be set instantly at liberty 
 and damages paid them. Mr. Lincoln sent the deputa 
 tion over to the War Department, and Mr. Stanton, 
 who had returned by this time, sent for me. " All Balti 
 more is coming here," he said. " Sit down and hear 
 the discussion." 
 
 They came in, the bank presidents and boss mer 
 chants of Baltimore there must have been at least fifty 
 million dollars represented in the deputation and sat 
 down around the fire in the Secretary s office. Presently 
 they began to make their speeches, detailing the cir 
 cumstances and the wickedness of this outrage. There 
 was no ground for it, they said, no justification. After 
 
 237 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 half a dozen of them had spoken, Mr. Stanton asked one 
 after another if he had anything more to say, and they 
 all said no. Then Stanton began, and delivered one of 
 the most eloquent speeches that I ever heard. He de 
 scribed the beginning of the war, for which, he said, 
 there was no justification; being beaten in an election 
 was no reason for destroying the Government. Then 
 he went on to the fact that half a million of our young 
 men had been laid in untimely graves by this conspiracy 
 of the slave interest. He outlined the whole conspiracy 
 in the most solemn and impressive terms, and then he 
 depicted the offense that this man Morse, aided by these 
 several merchants, had committed. " Gentlemen," he 
 said, " if you would like to examine the bills of what 
 he was taking to the enemy, here they are." 
 
 When Stanton had finished, these gentlemen, with 
 out answering a word, got up and one by one went 
 away. That was the only speech I ever listened to that 
 cleared out the entire audience. 
 
 Early in the winter of 1863- 64 a curious thing hap 
 pened in the secret service of the War Department. 
 Some time in the February or March before, a slender 
 and prepossessing young fellow, between twenty-two 
 and twenty-six apparently, had applied at the War De 
 partment for employment as a spy within the Confed 
 erate lines. 
 
 The main body of the Army of Northern Virginia 
 was then lying at Gordonsville, and the headquarters of 
 the Army of the Potomac were at Culpeper Courthouse. 
 General Grant had not yet come from the West to take 
 command of the momentous campaign which afterward 
 
 238 
 
Secret Service of the 
 
 opened with his movement into the Wilderness on the 
 5th of May. 
 
 The young man who sought this terrible service 
 was well dressed and intelligent, and professed to be 
 animated by motives purely patriotic. He was a clerk 
 in one of the departments. All that he asked was that 
 he should have a horse and an order which would carry 
 him safely through the Federal lines, and, in return, he 
 undertook to bring information from General Lee s 
 army and from the Government of the Confederacy in 
 Richmond. He understood perfectly the perilous na 
 ture of the enterprise he proposed. 
 
 Finding that the applicant bore a good character 
 in the office where he was employed, it was determined 
 to accept his proposal. He was furnished with a horse, 
 an order that would pass him through the Union lines, 
 and also, I believe, with a moderate sum of money, and 
 then he departed. Two or three weeks later he reported 
 at the War Department. He had been in Gordonsville 
 and Richmond, had obtained the confidence of the Con 
 federate authorities, and was the bearer of a letter from 
 Mr. Jefferson Davis to Mr. Clement C. Clay, the agent 
 of the Confederate Government in Canada, then known 
 to be stationed at St. Catherine s, not far from Niagara 
 Falls. Mr. Clay had as his official associate Jacob 
 Thompson, of Mississippi, who had been Secretary of 
 the Interior in the Cabinet of President Buchanan, and, 
 like Mr. Clay, had been serving the Confederate Gov 
 ernment ever since its organization. 
 
 The letter from Mr. Davis the young man exhibited, 
 but only the outside of the envelope was examined. 
 
 239 
 
Recollections of the Civil War, 
 
 The address was in the handwriting of the Confederate 
 chief, and the statement of our young adventurer that 
 it was merely a letter of recommendation advising 
 Messrs. Clay and Thompson that they might repose 
 confidence in the bearer, since he was ardently de 
 voted to the Confederate cause and anxious to serve 
 the great purpose that it had in view, appeared en 
 tirely probable; so the young man was allowed to 
 proceed to Niagara Falls and Canada. He made some 
 general report upon the condition of the rebel army at 
 Gordonsville, but it was of no particular value, except 
 that in its more interesting features it agreed with 
 our information from other sources. 
 
 Our spy was not long in returning from St. Cath 
 erine s with a dispatch which was also allowed to pass 
 unopened, upon his assurance that it contained nothing 
 of importance. In this way he went back and forward 
 from Richmond to St. Catherine s once or twice. We 
 supplied him with money to a limited extent, and also 
 with one or two more horses. He said that he got 
 some money from the Confederates, but had not 
 thought it prudent to accept from them anything more 
 than very small sums, since his professed zeal for the 
 Confederate cause forbade his receiving anything for 
 his traveling expenses beyond what was absolutely 
 necessary. 
 
 During the summer of 1864 the activity of Grant s 
 campaign, and the fighting which prevailed all along 
 the line, somewhat impeded our young man s expedi 
 tions, but did not stop them. All his subsequent dis 
 patches, however, whether coming from Richmond or 
 
 240 
 
<fke Secret Service of the War. 
 
 from Canada, were regularly brought to the War De 
 partment, and were opened, and in every case a copy 
 of them was kept. As it was necessary to break the 
 seals and destroy the envelopes in opening them, there 
 was some difficulty in sending them forward in what 
 should appear to be the original wrappers. Coming 
 from Canada, the paper employed was English, and 
 there was a good deal of trouble in procuring paper 
 of the same appearance. I remember also that one im 
 portant dispatch, which was sealed with Mr. Clay s seal, 
 had to be delayed somewhat while we had an imitation 
 seal engraved. But these delays were easily accounted 
 for at Richmond by the pretense that they had been 
 caused by accidents upon the road and by the neces 
 sity of avoiding the Federal pickets. At any rate, the 
 confidence of the Confederates in our agent and in 
 theirs never seemed to be shaken by any of these 
 occurrences. 
 
 Finally our dispatch bearer reported one day at the 
 War Department with a document which, he said, was 
 of extraordinary consequence. It was found to contain 
 an account of a scheme for setting fire to New York 
 and Chicago by means of clock-work machines that were 
 to be placed in several of the large hotels and places of 
 amusement particularly in Barnum s Museum in New 
 York and to be set off simultaneously, so that the fire 
 department in each place would be unable to attend 
 to the great number of calls that would be made upon 
 it on account of these Confederate conflagrations in 
 so many different quarters, and thus these cities might 
 be greatly damaged, or even destroyed. 
 17 241 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 This dispatch was duly sealed up again and was 
 taken to Richmond, and a confidential officer was at 
 once sent to New York to warn General Dix, who was 
 in command there, of the Confederate project. The 
 general was very unwilling to believe that any such 
 design could be seriously entertained, and Mr. John A. 
 Kennedy, then superintendent of police, was equally in 
 credulous. But the Secretary of War was peremptory 
 in his orders, and when the day of the incendiary at 
 tempt arrived both the military and the police made 
 every preparation to prevent the threatened catastro 
 phe. The officer who went from Washington was 
 lodged in the St. Nicholas Hotel, one of the large estab 
 lishments that were to be set on fire, and while he was 
 washing his hands in the evening, preparatory to going 
 to dinner, a fire began burning in the room next to his. 
 It was promptly put out, and was found to be caused 
 by a clock-work apparatus which had been left in that 
 room by a lodger who had departed some hours before. 
 Other fires likewise occurred. In every instance these 
 fires were extinguished without much damage and with 
 out exciting any considerable public attention, thanks 
 to the precautions that had been taken in consequence 
 of the warning derived from Mr. Clay s dispatch to Mr. 
 Benjamin in Richmond. The plan of setting fire to 
 Chicago proved even more abortive; I do not remem 
 ber that any report of actual burning was received from 
 there. 
 
 Later in the fall, after the military operations had 
 substantially terminated for the season, a dispatch was 
 brought from Canada, signed by Mr. Clay, and addressed 
 
 242 
 
Secret Service of the War. 
 
 to Mr. Benjamin, as Secretary of State in the Confed 
 erate Government, conveying the information that a 
 new and really formidable military expedition against 
 northern Vermont particularly against Burlington, if 
 I am not mistaken had been organized and fitted out 
 in Canada, and would make its attack as soon as prac 
 ticable. This was after the well-known attempt upon 
 St. Albans and Lake Champlain, on October 19, 1864, 
 and promised to be much more injurious. The dispatch 
 reached Washington one Sunday morning, and was 
 brought to the War Department as usual, but its im 
 portance in the eyes of the Confederate agents had led 
 to its being prepared for transportation with uncommon 
 care. It was placed between two thicknesses of the pair 
 of re-enforced cavalry trousers which the messenger 
 wore, and sewed up so that when he was mounted it was 
 held between his thigh and the saddle. 
 
 Having been carefully ripped out and opened, it was 
 immediately carried to Mr. Stanton, who was confined 
 to his house by a cold. He read it. " This is serious/ 
 he said. " Go over to the White House and ask the 
 President to come here." Mr. Lincoln was found dress 
 ing to go to church, and he was soon driven to Mr. 
 Stanton s house. After discussing the subject in every 
 aspect, and considering thoroughly the probability that 
 to keep the dispatch would put an end to communica 
 tions by this channel, they determined that it must be 
 kept. The conclusive reason for this step was that it 
 established beyond question the fact that the Confed 
 erates, while sheltering themselves behind the British 
 Government in Canada, had organized and fitted out a 
 
 243 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 military expedition against the United States. But 
 while the dispatch afforded evidence that could not be 
 gainsaid, the mere possession of it was not sufficient. 
 It must be found in the possession of the Confederate 
 dispatch bearer, and the circumstances attending its 
 capture must be established in such a manner that the 
 British Foreign Office would not be able to dispute the 
 genuineness of the document. " We must have this 
 paper for Seward," said Mr. Lincoln. "As for the 
 young man, get him out of the scrape if you can/ 
 
 Accordingly, the paper was taken back to the War 
 Department and sewed up again in the trousers whence 
 it had been taken three hours before. The bearer was 
 instructed to start at dusk on the road which he usually 
 took in passing through the lines, to be at a certain 
 tavern outside of Alexandria at nine o clock in the 
 evening, and to stop there to water his horse. Then 
 information was sent through Major-General Augur, 
 commandant of Washington and the surrounding re 
 gion, to Colonel Henry H. Wells, then provost marshal 
 general of the defenses south of the Potomac, stationed 
 at Alexandria, directing him to be at this tavern at 
 nine o clock in the evening, and to arrest a Confederate 
 dispatch bearer, concerning whom authentic informa 
 tion had been received at the War Department, and 
 whose description was furnished for his (Wells s) guid 
 ance. He was to do the messenger no injury, but to 
 make sure of his person and of all papers that he might 
 have upon him, and to bring him under a sufficient 
 guard directly to the War Department. And Genera* 
 Augur was directed to be present there, in order to as- 
 
 244 
 
The Secret Service of the War. 
 
 sist in the examination of the prisoner, and to verify 
 any dispatches that might be found. 
 
 Just before midnight a carriage drove up to the 
 door of the War Department with a soldier on the box 
 and two soldiers on the front seat within, while the back 
 seat was occupied by Colonel Wells and the prisoner. 
 Of course, no one but the two or three who had been 
 in the secret was aware that this gentleman had walked 
 quietly out of the War Department only a few hours 
 previously, and that the paper which was the cause of 
 the entire ceremony had been sewed up in his clothes 
 just before his departure. Colonel Wells reported that, 
 while the prisoner had offered no resistance, he was very 
 violent and outrageous in his language, and that he 
 boasted fiercely of his devotion to the Confederacy and 
 his detestation of the Union. During the examination 
 \vhich now followed he said nothing except to answer 
 a few questions, but his bearing patient, scornful, un 
 daunted was that of an incomparable actor. If Mr. 
 Clay and Mr. Benjamin had been present, they would 
 have been more than ever certain that he was one of 
 their noblest young men. His hat, boots, and other 
 articles of his clothing were taken off one by one. The 
 hat and boots were first searched, and finally the dis 
 patch was found in his trousers and taken out. Its na 
 ture and the method of its capture were stated in a 
 memorandum which was drawn up on the spot and 
 signed by General Augur and Colonel Wells and one 
 or two other officers who were there for the purpose, 
 and then the dispatch bearer himself was sent off to the 
 Old Capitol Prison. 
 
 245 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 The dispatch, with the documents of verification, 
 was handed over to Mr. Seward for use in London, 
 and a day or two afterward the warden of the Old 
 Capitol Prison was directed to give the dispatch 
 bearer an opportunity of escaping, with a proper 
 show of attempted prevention. One afternoon the 
 spy walked into my office. " Ah! " said I, " you have 
 run away." 
 
 " Yes, sir," he answered. 
 
 " Did they shoot at you? " 
 
 "They did, and didn t hit me; but I didn t think 
 that would answer the purpose. So I shot myself 
 through the arm." 
 
 He showed me the wound. It was through the fleshy 
 part of the forearm, and due care had been taken not 
 to break any bones. A more deliberate and less dan 
 gerous wound could not be, and yet it did not look 
 trivial. 
 
 He was ordered to get away to Canada as promptly 
 as possible, so that he might explain the loss of his 
 dispatch before it should become known there by any 
 other means. An advertisement offering two thousand 
 dollars for his recapture was at once inserted in the 
 New York Herald, the Pittsburgh Journal, and the 
 Chicago Tribune. No one ever appeared to claim the 
 reward, but in about a week the escaped prisoner re 
 turned from Canada with new dispatches that had been 
 intrusted to him. They contained nothing of impor 
 tance, however. The wound in his arm had borne testi 
 mony in his favor, and the fact that he had hurried 
 through to St. Catherine s without having it dressed 
 
 246 
 
c The Secret Service of the War. 
 
 was thought to afford conclusive evidence of his fidelity 
 to the Confederate cause. 
 
 The war was ended soon after this adventure, and, 
 as his services had been of very great value, a new place, 
 with the assurance of lasting employment, was found 
 for the young man in one of the bureaus of the War 
 Department. He did not remain there very long, how 
 ever, and I don t know what became of him. He was 
 one of the cleverest creatures I ever saw. His style of 
 patriotic lying was sublime; it amounted to genius. 
 
 247 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A VISIT TO SHERIDAN IN THE VALLEY. 
 
 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 Pe 
 troleum V. Nasby while the returns from the States come in. 
 
 IT was just after the arrest of the Baltimore mer 
 chants, in October, 1864, that I visited Sheridan at his 
 headquarters in the Shenandoah Valley. He had fin 
 ished the work of clearing out the valley by the battle 
 of Cedar Creek on October iQth, and the Government 
 wanted to recognize the victory by promoting him to 
 the rank of major general in the regular army. There 
 were numerous volunteer officers who were also officers 
 in the regular army, and it was regarded as a consider 
 able distinction. The appointment was made, and then, 
 as an additional compliment to General Sheridan, in 
 stead of sending him the commission by an ordinary 
 officer from, the department, Mr. Stanton decided that 
 I would better deliver it. I started on October 22d, 
 going by special train to Harper s Ferry, whither I tele 
 graphed for an escort to be ready for me. I was de 
 layed so that I did not get started from Harper s Ferry 
 until about five o clock on the morning of October 23d. 
 It was a distance of about fifty miles to Sheridan, and 
 
 248 
 
A Visit to Sheridan in the Valley. 
 
 by riding all day I got there about eleven o clock at 
 night. Sheridan had gone to bed, but in time of war 
 one never delays in carrying out orders, whatever their 
 nature. The general was awakened, and soon was out 
 of his tent; and there, by the flare of an army torch and 
 in the presence of a few sleepy aides-de-camp and of my 
 own tired escort, I presented to Sheridan his commis 
 sion as major general in the regular army. 
 
 Sheridan did not say much in reply to my little 
 speech, nor could he have been expected to under the 
 circumstances, though he showed lively satisfaction in 
 the Government s appreciation of his services, and spoke 
 most heartily, I remember, of the manner in which the 
 administration had always supported him. 
 
 The morning after this little ceremony, when we 
 had finished our breakfast, the general asked me if I 
 would not like to ride through the army with him. It 
 was exactly what I did want to do, and we were soon 
 on horseback and off, accompanied by four of his of 
 ficers. We rode through the entire army that morning, 
 dismounting now and then to give me an opportunity 
 to pay my respects to several officers whom I knew. 
 I was struck, in riding through the lines, by the uni 
 versal demonstration of personal affection for Sheridan. 
 Everybody seemed personally to be attached to him. 
 He was like the most popular man after an election 
 the whole force everywhere honored him. Finally I 
 said to the general: "I wish you would explain one 
 thing to me. Here I find all these people of every rank 
 generals, sergeants, corporals, and private soldiers; in 
 fact, everybody manifesting a personal affection for 
 
 249 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 you that I have never seen in any other army, not even 
 in the Army of the Tennessee for Grant. I have never 
 seen anything like it. Tell me what is the reason? " 
 
 " Mr. Dana," said he, " I long ago made up my mind 
 that it was not a good plan to fight battles with paper 
 orders that is, for the commander to stand on a hill 
 in the rear and send his aides-de-camp with written or 
 ders to the different commanders. My practice has 
 always been to fight in the front rank." 
 
 " Well," said I, " General, that is dangerous; in the 
 front rank a man is much more liable to be killed than 
 he is in the rear." 
 
 " Well," said he, " I know that there is a certain 
 risk in it; but, in my judgment, the advantage is much 
 greater than the risk, and I have come to the conclu 
 sion that that is the right thing to do. That is the rea 
 son the men like me. They know that when the hard 
 pinch comes I am exposed just as much as any of 
 them." 
 
 " But are you never afraid? " I asked. 
 
 " If I was I should not be ashamed of it," he said. 
 " If I should follow my natural impulse, I should run 
 away always at the beginning of the danger; the men 
 who say they are never afraid in a battle do not tell the 
 truth." 
 
 I talked a great deal with Sheridan and his officers 
 while at Cedar Creek on the condition of the valley, 
 and as to what should be done to hold it. The active 
 campaign seemed to be over in this region for that 
 year. The enemy were so decidedly beaten and scat 
 tered, and driven so far to the south, that they could 
 
 250 
 
A Visit to Sheridan in the Valley. 
 
 scarcely be expected to collect their forces for another 
 attempt during the season. Besides, the devastation 
 of the valley, extending as it did for a distance of about 
 one hundred miles, rendered it almost impossible that 
 either the Confederates or our own forces should make 
 a new campaign in that territory. It looked to me as 
 if, when Sheridan had completed the same process down 
 the valley to the vicinity of the Potomac, and when 
 the stores of forage which were yet to be found were 
 all destroyed or removed, the difficulty of any new 
 offensive operations on either side would be greatly 
 increased. 
 
 The key to the Shenandoah Valley was, in Sheri 
 dan s judgment, the line of the Opequan Creek, which 
 was rather a deep canon that an ordinary watercourse. 
 Sheridan s idea I understood to be to fall back to the 
 proper defensive point upon that creek, and there to 
 construct fortifications which would effectually cover 
 the approach to the Potomac. 
 
 I left Sheridan at Cedar Creek, and went back to 
 Washington by way of Manassas Gap. 
 
 All through the fall of 1864 and the following win 
 ter I remained in Washington, very much occupied with 
 the regular routine business of the department and vari 
 ous matters of incidental interest. Some of these in 
 cidents I shall group together here, without strict regard 
 to sequence. 
 
 An important part of the work of the department 
 was in relation to the railroads and to railroad trans 
 portation. Sometimes it was a whole army corps to 
 be moved. At another time the demand would be 
 
 251 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 equally sudden and urgent, if less vital to the Union 
 cause. I remember particularly the great turkey move 
 ment in November of that year. The presidential elec 
 tion was hardly over before the people of the North 
 began to prepare Thanksgiving boxes for the army. 
 George Bliss, Jr., of New York, telegraphed me, on 
 November i6th, that they had twenty thousand turkeys 
 ready in that city to send to the front; and the next day, 
 fearing, I suppose, that that wasn t enough, he wired: 
 " It would be a very great convenience in our turkey 
 business if I could know definitely the approximate 
 number of men in each of armies of Potomac, James, 
 and Shenandoah, respectively." 
 
 From Philadelphia I received a message asking for 
 transportation to Sheridan s army for " boxes contain 
 ing four thousand turkeys, and Heaven knows what 
 else, as a Thanksgiving dinner for the brave fellows." 
 And so it was from all over the country. The North 
 not only poured out food and clothing generously for 
 our own men, but, when Savannah was entered by Sher 
 man, great quantities of provisions were sent there for 
 gratuitous distribution, and when Charleston fell every 
 effort was made to relieve destitution. 
 
 A couple of months later, in January, 1865, a piece 
 of work not so different from the " turkey business," 
 but on a rather larger scale, fell to me. This was the 
 transfer of the Twenty-third Army Corps, commanded 
 by Major-General John M. Schofield, from its position 
 on the Tennessee River to Chesapeake Bay. There 
 being no prospect of a winter campaign under Thomas, 
 Grant had ordered the corps transferred as quickly as 
 
 252 
 
A Visit to Sheridan in the F alley. 
 
 possible, and Mr. Stanton turned over the direction 
 to me. On January loth I telegraphed to Grant at 
 City Point the plan to be followed. This, briefly, was 
 to send Colonel Lewis B. Parsons, chief of railroad and 
 river transportation, to the West to take charge of the 
 corps. I proposed to move the whole body by boats to 
 Parkersburg if navigation allowed, and thence by the 
 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to Annapolis, for I re 
 membered well with what promptness and success 
 Hooker s forces, the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps, were 
 moved into Tennessee in 1863 by that road. A capital 
 advantage of that line was that it avoided all large towns 
 and the temptations of large towns were bad for the 
 soldiers in transit. If the Ohio River should be frozen, 
 I proposed to move the corps by rail from Cairo, Evans- 
 ville, and Jeffersonville to Parkersburg or Bellaire, ac 
 cording to circumstances. 
 
 Commanders in the vicinity of the corps were ad 
 vised of the change, and ordered to prepare steamboats 
 and transports. Loyal officers of railroads were re 
 quested to meet Colonel Parsons at given points to 
 arrange for the concentration of rolling stock in case 
 the river could not be used. Liquor shops were ordered 
 closed along the route, and arrangements were made 
 for the comfort of the troops by supplying to them, . 
 as often as once in every hundred miles of travel, an 
 abundance of hot coffee in addition to their rations. 
 
 Colonel Parsons proceeded at once to Louisville, 
 where he arrived on the I3th. By the morning of the 
 1 8th he had started the first division from the mouth 
 of the Tennessee up the Ohio, and had transportation 
 
 253 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ready for the rest of the corps. He then hurried to 
 Cincinnati, where, as the river was too full of ice to 
 permit a further transfer by water, he loaded about 
 three thousand men on the cars waiting there and started 
 them eastward. The rest of the corps rapidly followed. 
 In spite of fogs and ice on the river, and broken rails 
 and machinery on the railroads, the entire army corps 
 was encamped on the banks of the Potomac on Febru 
 ary 2d. 
 
 The distance over which the corps was transported 
 was nearly fourteen hundred miles, about equally di 
 vided between land and water. The average time of 
 transportation, from the embarkment on the Tennessee 
 to the arrival on the banks of the Potomac, did not 
 exceed eleven days; and what was still more important 
 was the fact that during the whole movement not a 
 single accident happened causing loss of life, limb, or 
 property, except in a single instance where a soldier 
 improperly jumped from the car, under apprehension 
 of danger, and thus lost his life. Had he remained quiet, 
 he would have been as safe as were his comrades of the 
 same car. 
 
 Much of the success of the movement was due to 
 the hearty co-operation of J. W. Garrett, president of 
 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Colonel Parsons 
 did not say too much when he wrote, in his report of 
 the transfer of Schofield s troops: 
 
 The circumstances, I think, render it not invidious 
 that I should especially refer to the management of 
 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, where indomitable 
 will, energy, and superior ability have been so often 
 
 254 
 
A Visit to Sheridan in the Valley. 
 
 and so conspicuously manifested, and where such in 
 valuable service has been rendered to the Govern 
 ment; a road nearly four hundred miles in length, so 
 often broken and apparently destroyed, so constantly 
 subjected to rebel incursions, that, had it been under 
 ordinary management, it would long since have ceased 
 operation; yet, notwithstanding all the difficulties of 
 the severe winter season, the great disorganization of 
 employees necessarily incident to a road thus situated, 
 its most extraordinary curves, grades, bridges, tunnels, 
 and the mountain heights it scales, it has moved this 
 large force in the shortest possible time, with almost 
 the exactness and regularity of ordinary passenger 
 trains, and with a freedom from accident that, I think, 
 has seldom, if ever, been paralleled. 
 
 At the end of the war, when the department s en 
 ergies were devoted to getting itself as quickly and as 
 thoroughly as possible upon a peace footing, it fell to 
 me to examine the condition of the numerous railroads 
 which the Government had seized and used in the time 
 of active military operations, and to recommend what 
 was to be done with them. This readjustment was not 
 the least difficult of the complicated questions of dis 
 armament. The Government had spent millions of dol 
 lars on improvements to some of these military rail 
 roads while operating them. My report was not fin 
 ished till late in May, 1865, and as it contains much 
 out-of-the-way information on the subject, and has 
 never been published, I introduce it here in full: 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY, May 29, 1865. 
 Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. 
 
 SIR: I have the honor to report that I have exam 
 ined the subject of the disposition to be made of the 
 railroads in the States lately in rebellion, referred to me 
 
 255 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 in connection with the report of the quartermaster gen 
 eral, and the rules which he has recommended to be 
 established. The second rule proposed by the quarter 
 master general provides that no charge shall be made 
 against a railroad for expense of materials or expense 
 of operation while it has been in the hands of the mili 
 tary authorities of the United States. In other words, 
 he proposes to restore every railroad to its claimants 
 without any special consideration from them for any 
 improvements which the United States may have made 
 upon it. 
 
 It is true in his fourth rule he includes past ex 
 penditures of defense and repair as an equivalent for the 
 use of the road while it has been in the public service, 
 but in many cases this does not appear to me to be suf 
 ficient. Our expenditures upon some of these roads 
 have been very heavy. For instance, we have added to 
 the value of the road from Nashville to Chattanooga 
 at least a million and a half dollars. When that road 
 was recaptured from the public enemy it was in a very 
 bad state of repair. Its embankments were in many 
 places partially washed away, its iron was what is known 
 as the U rail, and was laid in the defective old-fashioned 
 manner, upon longitudinal sleepers, without cross ties. 
 These sleepers were also in a state of partial decay, so 
 that trains could not be run with speed or safety. All 
 these defects have now been remedied. The roadbed 
 has been placed in first-rate condition. The iron is now 
 a heavy T rail, laid in new iron the entire length of the 
 line. Extensive repair shops have also been erected, 
 well furnished with the necessary tools and machinery. 
 I do not conceive that it would be just or advisable to 
 restore this road, with its improved tracks and these 
 costly shops, without any equivalent for the great value 
 of these improvements other than the use we have made 
 of it since its recapture. The fact that we have replaced 
 the heavy and expensive bridges over Elk, Duck, and 
 Tennessee Rivers, and over Running Water Creek, 
 should also not be forgotten in deciding this question. 
 
 256 
 
A Visit to Sheridan in the Valley. 
 
 The above general remarks are also applicable to 
 that portion of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad 
 between the Potomac and the Rapidan. Very exten 
 sive repair shops have been erected at Alexandria, and 
 furnished with costly machinery for the use of the road, 
 and I understand that the iron and the roadbed are 
 now much better than when the Government began to 
 use it. 
 
 The same is still more the case with the road be 
 tween City Point and Petersburg. When that road was 
 recaptured from the public enemy not only was the 
 roadbed a good deal washed away and damaged, but 
 neither rails nor sound ties were left upon it. Now 
 it is in the best possible condition. Can any one con 
 tend that it ought to be restored to its claimants with 
 out charge for the new ties and iron? 
 
 The case of the railroad from Harper s Ferry to 
 Winchester is no less striking. It was a very poor 
 road before the war, and was early demolished by the 
 rebels. Not a pound of iron, not a sound tie, was to 
 be found upon the line when we began its reconstruc 
 tion in December last. We have spent about five hun 
 dred thousand dollars in bringing it to its present con 
 dition, and I have no doubt our improvements could be 
 sold for that sum to the Baltimore and Ohio Company 
 should they obtain the title to the roadbed from the 
 proper authorities of Virginia. Why, then, should we 
 give them up for nothing? 
 
 On the Morehead City and Goldsboro Railroad we 
 have rebuilt twenty-seven miles of the track, and fur 
 nished it with new iron and laid new ties on many miles 
 more since February last. These views also hold good, 
 unless I am misinformed, with regard to the railroad 
 leading into New Orleans, the Memphis and Little 
 Rock Railroad, the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, 
 and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. They have all 
 been improved at great expense while in our hands. 
 
 In the third rule proposed by the quartermaster 
 general it is provided that all materials for permanent 
 is 257 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 way used in the repair and construction of any road, 
 and all damaged material of this class which may be 
 left along its route, having been thrown there during 
 operation of destruction and repair, shall be considered 
 as part of the road, and given up with it also without 
 compensation. If this means to give up any new iron 
 that we have on the line of any road, it seems to me 
 to concede to the parties to whom the roads are to be 
 surrendered more than they have a right to claim. For 
 instance, there is now lying at Alexandria, on the line 
 of the Orange and Alexandria road, iron sufficient to 
 lay thirty miles of track. It seems manifest to me that 
 this iron should not be surrendered to the road without 
 being paid for. In my judgment it is also advisable to 
 establish the principle that the Government will not 
 pay for the damages done any road in the prosecution 
 of hostilities, any more than it will pay for similar dam 
 ages done by the enemy. With these exceptions, the 
 principles proposed by the quartermaster general ap 
 pear to be correct. 
 
 In accordance with these observations, I would 
 recommend that the following rules be determined upon 
 to govern the settlement of these matters: 
 
 1. The United States will, as soon as it can dis 
 pense with military occupation and control of any road 
 of which the Quartermaster s Department is in charge, 
 turn it over to the parties asking to receive it who may 
 appear to have the best claim, and be able to operate 
 it in such a manner as to secure the speedy movement 
 of all military stores and troops, the quartermaster gen 
 eral, upon the advice of the commander of the depart 
 ment, to determine when this can be done, subject to 
 the approval of the Secretary of War. 
 
 2. Where any State has a loyal board of works, or 
 other executive officers charged with the supervision 
 of railroads, such road shall be turned over to such 
 board of officers rather than to any corporations or pri 
 vate parties. 
 
 3. When any railroad shall be so turned over, a 
 
 258 
 
A Visit to Sheridan in the Valley. 
 
 board of appraisers shall be appointed, who shall esti 
 mate and determine the value of any improvements 
 which may have been made by the United States, either 
 in the road itself or in its repair shop and permanent 
 machinery, and the amount of such improvements shall 
 be a lien upon the road. 
 
 4. The parties to whom the road is turned over shall 
 have the option of purchasing at their value any tools, 
 iron, or any other materials for permanent way which 
 have been provided by the United States for the im 
 provement of the road and have not been used. 
 
 5. All other movable property, including rolling 
 stock of all kinds, the property of the United States, to 
 be sold at auction, after full public notice, to the high 
 est bidder. 
 
 6. All rolling stock and materials of railroads cap 
 tured by the forces of the United States, and not con 
 sumed, destroyed, or permanently fixed elsewhere as, 
 for instance, when captured iron has been laid upon 
 other roads shall be placed at the disposal of the roads 
 which originally owned them, and shall be given up to 
 these roads as soon as it can be spared and they appear 
 by proper agents authorized to receive it. 
 
 7. No payment or credit shall be given to any rail 
 road recaptured from the enemy for its occupation or 
 use by the United States to take possession of it, but 
 its capture and restoration shall be considered a suf 
 ficient consideration for all such use; nor shall any in 
 demnity be paid for injuries done to the property of 
 any road by the forces of the United States during the 
 continuance of the war. 
 
 8. Roads which have not been operated by the 
 United States Quartermaster s Department not to be 
 interfered with unless under military necessity ; such 
 roads to be left in the possession of such persons as 
 may now have possession, subject only to the removal 
 of every agent, director, president, superintendent, or 
 operative who has not taken the oath of allegiance to 
 the United States. 
 
 259 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 9. When superintendents in actual possession de 
 cline to take the oath, some competent person shall be 
 appointed as receiver of the road, who will administer 
 its affairs and account for its receipts to the board of 
 directors, who may be formally recognized as the legal 
 and formal board of managers, the receiver to be ap 
 pointed by the Treasury Department, as in the case of 
 abandoned property. 
 
 I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 C. A. DANA, 
 Assistant Secretary of War. 
 
 These recommendations were carried out partly in 
 the transfer, which was practically complete by the end 
 of 1865. The department decided upon a somewhat 
 more liberal policy than I had thought justifiable. The 
 roads and bridges were transferred practically in the 
 same condition as they were in at the time of transfer. 
 It was believed that this generosity would react favor 
 ably upon the revenue and credit of the nation, and 
 there is no doubt that it did have a good influence. 
 
 During the presidential campaign of 1864, which 
 resulted in Lincoln s re-election and in the further prose 
 cution of the war upon the lines of Lincoln s policy, 
 we were busy in the department arranging for soldiers 
 to go home to vote, and also for the taking of ballots 
 in the army. There was a constant succession of tele 
 grams from all parts of the country requesting that leave 
 of absence be extended to this or that officer, in order 
 that his district at home might have the benefit of his 
 vote and political influence. Furloughs were asked for 
 private soldiers whose presence in close districts was 
 deemed of especial importance, and there was a wide- 
 
 260 
 
A Fisit to Sheridan in the Valley. 
 
 spread demand that men on detached service and con 
 valescents in hospitals be sent home. 
 
 All the power and influence of the War Department, 
 then something enormous from the vast expenditure 
 and extensive relations of the war, was employed to se 
 cure the re-election of Mr. Lincoln. The political strug 
 gle was most intense, and the interest taken in it, both 
 in the White House and in the War Department, was 
 almost painful. After the arduous toil of the canvass, 
 there was naturally a great suspense of feeling until 
 the result of the voting should be ascertained. On 
 November 8th, election day, I went over to the War 
 Department about half past eight o clock in the even 
 ing, and found the President and Mr. Stanton together 
 in the Secretary s office. General Eckert, who then had 
 charge of the telegraph department of the War Office, 
 was coming in constantly with telegrams containing 
 election returns. Mr. Stanton would read them, and 
 the President would look at them and comment upon 
 them. Presently there came a lull in the returns, and 
 Mr. Lincoln called me to a place by his side. 
 
 " Dana," said he, " have you ever read any of the 
 writings of Petroleum V. Nasby? " 
 
 " No, sir," I said; " I have only looked at some of 
 them, and they seemed to be quite funny." 
 
 "Well," said he, "let me read you a specimen"; 
 and, pulling out a thin yellow-covered pamphlet from 
 his breast pocket, he began to read aloud. Mr. Stanton 
 viewed these proceedings with great impatience, as I 
 could see, but Mr. Lincoln paid no attention to that. 
 He would read a page or a story, pause to consider a 
 
 261 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 new election telegram, and then open the book again 
 and go ahead with a new passage. Finally, Mr. Chase 
 came in, and presently somebody else, and then the 
 reading was interrupted. 
 
 Mr. Stanton went to the door and beckoned me into 
 the next room. I shall never forget the fire of his in 
 dignation at what seemed to him to be mere nonsense. 
 The idea that when the safety of the republic was thus 
 at issue, when the control of an empire was to be de 
 termined by a few figures brought in by the telegraph, 
 the leader, the man most deeply concerned, not merely 
 for himself but for his country, could turn aside to read 
 such balderdash and to laugh at such frivolous jests was, 
 to his mind, repugnant, even damnable. He could not 
 understand, apparently, that it was by the relief which 
 these jests afforded to the strain of mind under which 
 Lincoln had so long been living, and to the natural 
 gloom of a melancholy and desponding temperament 
 this was Mr. Lincoln s prevailing characteristic that 
 the safety and sanity of his intelligence were maintained 
 and preserved. 
 
 262 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 " ON TO RICHMOND " AT LAST! 
 
 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. 
 
 IT was evident to all of us, as the spring of 1865 
 came on, that the war was drawing to a close. Sher 
 man was coming northward from his triumphant march 
 to the sea, and would soon be in communication with 
 Grant, who, ever since I left him in July, 1864, had 
 been watching Petersburg and Richmond, where Lee s 
 army was shut up. At the end of March Grant ad 
 vanced. On April ist Sheridan won the battle of Five 
 Forks; then on April 2d came the successful assaults 
 which drove Lee from Petersburg. 
 
 On the morning of April 3d, before I had left my 
 house, Mr. Stanton sent for me to come immediately 
 to the War Department. When I reached his office, 
 he told me that Richmond had surrendered, and that 
 he wanted me to go down at once to report the con 
 dition of affairs. I started as soon as I could get a 
 steamboat, Roscoe Conkling and my son Paul accom 
 panying me. We arrived at City Point early on April 
 
 263 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 5th. Little was known there of the condition of things 
 in Richmond. There were but a few officers left at the 
 place, and those were overwhelmed with work. I had 
 expected to find the President at City Point, he having 
 been in the vicinity for several days, but Mr. Lincoln 
 had gone up to Richmond the day before. 
 
 I started up the river immediately, and reached the 
 town early in the afternoon. I went at once to find 
 Major-General Godfrey Weitzel, who was in command 
 of the United States forces. He was at his headquarters, 
 which were in Jefferson Davis s former residence. I had 
 heard down the river that Davis had sold his furniture 
 at auction some days before the evacuation, but I found 
 when I reached the house that this was a mistake the 
 furniture was all there. 
 
 Weitzel told me that he had learned at three o clock 
 in the morning of Monday, April 3d, that Richmond 
 was being evacuated. He had moved forward at day 
 light, first taking care to give his men breakfast, in the 
 expectation that they might have to fight. He met 
 no opposition, and on entering the city was greeted with 
 a hearty welcome from the mass of people. The mayor 
 went out to meet him to surrender the city, but missed 
 him on the road. 
 
 I took a walk around Richmond that day to see 
 how much the city was injured. The Confederates in 
 retreating had set it on fire, and the damage done in 
 that way was enormous; nearly everything between 
 Main Street and the river, for about three quarters of a 
 mile, was burned. The custom house and the Spots- 
 wood Hotel were the only important buildings remain- 
 
 264 
 
" On to Richmond" at Last! 
 
 ing in the burned district. The block opposite the 
 Spotswood, including the Confederate War Depart 
 ment building, was entirely consumed. The Peters 
 burg Railroad bridge, and that of the Danville road, 
 were destroyed. All the enemy s vessels, excepting an 
 unfinished ram which had her machinery in perfect 
 order, were burned. The Tredegar Iron Works were 
 unharmed. Libby Prison and Castle Thunder had also 
 escaped the fire. 
 
 Immediately upon arriving I began to make in 
 quiries about official papers. I found that the records 
 and documents of the departments and of Congress 
 had generally been removed before the evacuation, and 
 that during the fire the Capitol had been ransacked and 
 the documents there scattered. In the rooms of the 
 Secretary of the Senate and of the Military Committee 
 of the House of Representatives in the State House we 
 found some papers of importance. They were in various 
 cases in drawers, and all in great confusion. They were 
 more or less imperfect and fragmentary. In the State 
 Engineer s office also there were some boxes of papers 
 relating to the Confederate works on the Potomac, 
 around Norfolk, and on the Peninsula. I had all of 
 these packed for shipment, without attempting to put 
 them in order, and forwarded at once to Washington. 
 
 General Weitzel told me that he had found about 
 twenty thousand people in Richmond, half of them of 
 African descent. He said that when President Lincoln 
 entered the town on the 4th he received a most enthu 
 siastic reception from the mass of the inhabitants. All 
 the members of Congress had escaped, and only the 
 
 265 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 Assistant Secretary of War, Judge John Archibald 
 Campbell, remained in the fallen capital of the Con 
 federacy. Most of the newspaper editors had fled, but 
 the Whig appeared on the 4th as a Union paper, with 
 the name of its former proprietor at its head. The 
 night after I arrived the theater opened. 
 
 There was much suffering and poverty among the 
 population, the rich as well as the poor being destitute 
 of food. Weitzel had decided to issue supplies to all 
 who would take the oath. In my first message to Mr. 
 Stanton I spoke of this. He immediately answered: 
 " Please ascertain from General Weitzel under what au 
 thority he is distributing rations to the people of Rich 
 mond, as I suppose he would not do it without author 
 ity; and direct him to report daily the amount of ra 
 tions distributed by his order to persons not belonging 
 to the military service, and not authorized by law to 
 receive rations, designating the color of the persons, 
 their occupation, and sex." Mr. Stanton seemed to be 
 satisfied when I wired him that Weitzel was working 
 under General Ord s orders, approved by General Grant, 
 and that he was paying for the rations by selling cap 
 tured property. 
 
 The important question which the President had on 
 his mind when I reached Richmond was how Virginia 
 could be brought back to the Union. He had already 
 had an interview with Judge Campbell and other promi 
 nent representatives of the Confederate Government. 
 All they asked, they said, was an amnesty and a mili 
 tary convention to cover appearances. Slavery they 
 admitted to be defunct. The President did not promise 
 
 266 
 
" On to Richmond" at Last! 
 
 the amnesty, but he told them he had the pardoning 
 power, and would save any repentant sinner from hang 
 ing. They assured him that, if amnesty could be of 
 fered, the rebel army would be dissolved and all the 
 States return. 
 
 On the morning of the 7th, five members of the so- 
 called Virginia Legislature held a meeting to consider 
 written propositions which the President had handed 
 to Judge Campbell. The President showed these papers 
 to me confidentially. They were two in number. One 
 stated reunion as a sine qua non; the second authorized 
 General Weitzel to allow members of the body claiming 
 to be the Legislature of Virginia to meet in Richmond 
 for the purpose of recalling Virginia s soldiers from the 
 rebel armies, with safe conduct to them so long as they 
 did and said nothing hostile to the United States. In 
 discussing with me these documents, the President re 
 marked that Sheridan seemed to be getting rebel sol 
 diers out of the war faster than the Legislature could 
 think. 
 
 The next morning, on April 8th, I was present at 
 an interesting interview between General Weitzel and 
 General Shepley, who had been appointed as Military 
 Governor of Richmond, and a committee of prominent 
 citizens and members of the Legislature. Various 
 papers were read by the Virginian representatives, but 
 they were told plainly that no propositions could be 
 entertained that involved a recognition of the Confed 
 erate authorities. The committee were also informed 
 that if they desired to prepare an address to the people, 
 advising them to abandon hostility to the Government 
 
 267 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 at once, and begin to obey the laws of the United States, 
 they should have every facility for its circulation through 
 the State, provided, of course, that it met the approval 
 of the military authorities. The two Union generals 
 said that if the committee desired to call a convention 
 of the prominent citizens of the State, with a view to 
 the restoration of the authority of the United States 
 Government, they would be allowed to go outside the 
 lines of Richmond for the purpose of visiting citizens 
 in different parts of the State and inducing them to take 
 part in a convention. Safe conduct was promised to 
 them for themselves and such citizens as they could 
 persuade to attend the convention. They were also told 
 that if they were not able to find conveyances for them 
 selves for the journey into the country, horses would be 
 loaned to them for that purpose. All this, they were 
 informed, was not to be considered as in any manner 
 condoning any offense of which any individual among 
 them might have been guilty. 
 
 Judge Campbell said that he had no wish to take 
 a prominent part in the proceedings, but that he had 
 long since made up his mind that the cause of the South 
 was hopeless. He had written a formal memorial to 
 Jefferson Davis, immediately after the Hampton Roads 
 conference, urging him and the Confederate Congress 
 to take immediate steps to stop the war and restore the 
 Union. He had deliberately remained in Richmond to 
 meet the consequences of his acts. He said that if he 
 could be used in the restoration of peace and order, he 
 would gladly undertake any labor that might be de 
 sired of him. 
 
 268 
 
" On to Richmond" at Last! 
 
 The spirit of the committee seemed to be generally 
 the same as Judge Campbell s, though none of them 
 equalled him in ability and clearness of thought and 
 statement. They were thoroughly conscious that they 
 were beaten, and sincerely anxious to stop all further 
 bloodshed and restore peace, law, and order. This 
 mental condition seemed to me to be very hopeful and 
 encouraging. 
 
 One day, after the meeting of this committee, I was 
 in the large room downstairs of the Spotswood Hotel 
 when my name was called, and I turned around to see 
 Andrew Johnson, the new Vice-President of the United 
 States. He took me aside and spoke with great ear 
 nestness about the necessity of not taking the Confed 
 erates back without some conditions or without some 
 punishment. He insisted that their sins had been enor 
 mous, and that if they were let back into the Union 
 without any punishment the effect would be very bad. 
 He said they might be very dangerous in the future. 
 The Vice-President talked to me in this strain for fully 
 twenty minutes, I should think. It was an impassioned, 
 earnest speech that he made to me on the subject of 
 punishing rebels. Finally, when he paused and I got 
 a chance to reply, I said: 
 
 " Why, Mr. Johnson, I have no power in this case. 
 Your remarks are very striking, very impressive, and 
 certainly worthy of the most serious consideration, but 
 it does not seem to me necessary that they should 
 be addressed to me. They ought to be addressed 
 to the President and to the members of Congress, 
 to those who have authority in the case, and who 
 
 269 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 will finally have to decide this question which you 
 
 raise." 
 
 " Mr. Dana/ said he, " I feel it to be my duty to 
 say these things to every man whom I meet, whom I 
 know to have any influence. Any man whose thoughts 
 are considered by others, or whose judgment is going 
 to weigh in the case, I must speak to, so that the weight 
 of opinion in favor of the view of this question which I 
 offer may possibly become preponderating and de 
 
 cisive." 
 
 That was in April. When Mr. Johnson became 
 President, not long after, he soon came to take entirely 
 the view which he condemned so earnestly in this con 
 versation with me. 
 
 Toward the end of the first week after we entered 
 Richmond the question about opening the churches on 
 Sunday came up. I asked General Weitzel what he was 
 going to do. He answered that all the places of worship 
 were to be allowed to open on condition that no dis 
 loyalty should be uttered, and that the Episcopal clergy 
 men should read the prayer for the President of the 
 United States. But the next day General Shepley, the 
 military governor, came to me to ask that the order 
 might be relaxed so that the clergy should be required 
 only not to pray for Davis. I declined giving any 
 orders, having received none from Washington, and said 
 that Weitzel must act in the matter entirely on his own 
 judgment. Judge Campbell used all his influence with 
 Weitzel and Shepley to get them to consent that a loyal 
 prayer should not be exacted. Weitzel concluded not 
 to give a positive order; his decision was influenced by 
 
 270 
 
" On to Richmond" at Last! 
 
 the examples of New Orleans, Norfolk, and Savannah, 
 where, he said, the requirement had not been at first 
 enforced. In a greater measure, however, his decision 
 was the result of the President s verbal direction to him 
 to " let the people down easy." The churches were all 
 well filled on Sunday, the ladies especially attending in 
 great numbers. The sermons were devout and not po 
 litical, the city was perfectly quiet, and there was more 
 security for persons and property than had existed in 
 Richmond for many months. 
 
 On Monday morning the news of Lee s surrender 
 reached us in Richmond. It produced a deep impres 
 sion. Even the most intensely partisan women now 
 felt that the defeat was perfect and the rebellion fin 
 ished, while among the men there was no sentiment 
 but submission to the power of the nation, and a re 
 turning hope that their individual property might 
 escape confiscation. They all seemed most keenly alive 
 to this consideration, and men like General Anderson, 
 the proprietor of the Tredegar works, were zealous 
 in their efforts to produce a thorough pacification and 
 save their possessions. 
 
 The next morning I received from Mr. Stanton an 
 order to proceed to General Grant s headquarters and 
 furnish from there such details as might be of interest. 
 It was at this time that I had an interesting talk with 
 Grant on the condition of Lee s army and about the 
 men and arms surrendered. He told me that, in the 
 long private interview which he had with Lee at 
 Appomattox, the latter said that he should devote 
 his whole efforts to pacifying the country and bring- 
 
 271 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 ing the people back to the Union. Lee declared that 
 he had always been for the Union in his own heart, 
 and could find no justification for the politicians who 
 had brought on the war, the origin of which he believed 
 to have been in the folly of extremists on both sides. 
 The war, Lee declared, had left him a poor man, with 
 nothing but what he had upon his person, and his wife 
 would have to provide for herself until he could find 
 some employment. 
 
 The officers of Lee s army, Grant said, all seemed to 
 be glad that it was over, and the men still more so than 
 the orficers. All were greatly impressed by the gen 
 erosity of the terms finally granted to them, for at the 
 time of the surrender they were surrounded and escape 
 was impossible. General Grant thought that these terms 
 were of great importance toward securing a thorough 
 peace and undisturbed submission to the Government. 
 
 I returned to Washington with General Grant, 
 reaching there the I3th, and taking up my work in 
 the department at once. 
 
 272 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE CLOSING SCENES AT WASHINGTON. 
 
 Last interview with Mr. Lincoln Why Jacob Thompson escaped At 
 the deathbed of the murdered President Searching for the assas 
 sins The letters which Mr. Lincoln had docketed " Assassiriation " 
 At the conspiracy trial The Confederate secret cipher Jeffer 
 son 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. 
 
 IT was one of my duties at this time to receive the 
 reports of the officers of the secret service in every part 
 of the country. On the afternoon of the I4th of April 
 it, was Good Friday I got a telegram from the provost 
 marshal in Portland, Me., saying: " I have positive in 
 formation that Jacob Thompson will pass through Port 
 land to-night, in order to take a steamer for England. 
 What are your orders? " 
 
 Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, had been Secretary 
 of the Interior in President Buchanan s administration. 
 He was a conspicuous secessionist, and for some time 
 had been employed in Canada as a semi-diplomatic 
 agent of the Confederate Government. He had been 
 organizing all sorts of trouble and getting up raids, 
 of which the notorious attack on St. Albans, Vt., was 
 a specimen. I took the telegram and went down and 
 read it to Mr. Stanton. His order was prompt: "Ar 
 rest him!" But as I was going out of the door he 
 19 273 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 called to me and said: " No, wait; better go over and 
 see the President." 
 
 At the White House all the work of the day was 
 over, and I went into the President s business room 
 without meeting any one. Opening the door, there 
 seemed to be no one there, but, as I was turning to go 
 out, Mr. Lincoln called to me from a little side room, 
 where he was washing his hands: 
 
 " Halloo, Dana! " said he. " What is it? What s 
 up?" 
 
 Then I read him the telegram from Portland. 
 
 " What does Stanton say? " he asked. 
 
 " He says arrest him, but that I should refer the 
 question to you." 
 
 " Well," said the President slowly, wiping his hands, 
 " no, I rather think not. When you have got an ele 
 phant by the hind leg, and he s trying to run away, it s 
 best to let him run." 
 
 With this direction, I returned to the War Depart 
 ment. 
 
 " Well, what says he? " asked Mr. Stanton. 
 
 " He says that when you have got an elephant by 
 the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it s best to 
 let him run." 
 
 " Oh, stuff! " said Stanton. 
 
 That night I was awakened from a sound sleep by 
 a messenger with the news that Mr. Lincoln had been 
 shot, and that the Secretary wanted me at a house in 
 Tenth Street. I found the President with a bullet 
 wound in the head, lying unconscious, though breathing 
 heavily, on a bed in a small side room, while all the 
 
 274 
 
The Closing Scenes at Washington. 
 
 members of the Cabinet, and the Chief Justice with 
 them, were gathered in the adjoining parlor. They 
 seemed to be almost as much paralyzed as the uncon 
 scious sufferer within the little chamber. The sur 
 geons said there was no hope. Mr. Stanton alone was 
 in full activity. 
 
 " Sit down here," said he; "I want you." 
 Then he began and dictated orders, one after an 
 other, which I wrote out and sent swiftly to the tele 
 graph. All these orders were designed to keep the busi 
 ness of the Government in full motion until the crisis 
 should be over. It seemed as if Mr. Stanton thought of 
 everything, and there was a great deal to be thought 
 of that night. The extent of the conspiracy was, of 
 course, unknown, and the horrible beginning which had 
 been made naturally led us to suspect the worst. The 
 safety of Washington must be looked after. Com 
 manders all over the country had to be ordered to take 
 extra precautions. The people must be notified of the 
 tragedy. The assassins must be captured. The cool 
 ness and clearheadedness of Mr. Stanton under these 
 circumstances were most remarkable. I remember that 
 one of his first telegrams was to General Dix, the mili 
 tary commander of New York, notifying him of what 
 had happened. No clearer brief account of the tragedy 
 exists to-day than this, written scarcely three hours 
 after the scene in Ford s Theater, on a little stand in the 
 room where, a few feet away, Mr. Lincoln lay dying. 
 
 I remained with Mr. Stanton until perhaps three 
 o clock in the morning. Then he said: " That s enough. 
 Now you may go home." 
 
 275 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 When I left, the President was still alive, breathing 
 heavily and regularly, though, of course, quite uncon 
 scious. About eight o clock I was awakened by a rap 
 ping on a lower window. It was Colonel Pelouze, of 
 the adjutant-general s office, and he said: 
 
 " Mr. Dana, the President is dead, and Mr. Stanton 
 directs you to arrest Jacob Thompson." 
 
 The order was sent to Portland, but Thompson 
 couldn t be found there. He had taken the Canadian 
 route to Halifax. 
 
 The whole machinery of the War Department was 
 now employed in the effort to secure the murderer of 
 the President and his accomplices. As soon as I had 
 recovered from the first shock of Mr. Lincoln s death, 
 I remembered that in the previous November I had 
 received from General Dix the following letter: 
 
 HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST, 
 
 NEW YORK CITY, November 77, 1864. 
 C. A. DANA, Esq. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR: The inclosed was picked up in a 
 Third Avenue railroad car. I should have thought the 
 whole thing got up for the Sunday Mercury but for the 
 genuine letter from St. Louis in a female hand. The 
 Charles Selby is obviously a manufacture. The party 
 who dropped the letter was heard to say he would start 
 for Washington Friday night. He is of medium size, 
 has black hair and whiskers, but the latter are believed 
 to be a disguise. He had disappeared before the letter 
 was picked up and examined. 
 
 Yours truly, JOHN A. Dix. 
 
 There were two inclosures, this being one of them: 
 
 DEAR Louis: The time has at last come that we 
 have all so wished for, and upon you everything de- 
 
 276 
 
The Closing Scenes at Washington. 
 
 pends. As it was decided before you left, we were to 
 cast lots. Accordingly we did so, and you are to be 
 the Charlotte Corday of the nineteenth century. When 
 you remember the fearful, solemn vow that was taken 
 by us, you will feel there is no drawback Abe must die, 
 and now. You can choose your weapons. The cup, 
 the knife, the bullet. The cup failed us once, and might 
 again. Johnson, who will give this, has been like an 
 enraged demon since the meeting, because it has not 
 fallen upon him to rid the world of the monster. He 
 says the blood of his gray-haired father and his noble 
 brother call upon him for revenge, and revenge he will 
 have; if he can not wreak it upon the fountain-head, 
 he will upon some of the bloodthirsty generals. Butler 
 would suit him. As our plans were all concocted and 
 well arranged, we separated, and as I am writing on 
 my way to Detroit I will only say that all rests upon 
 you. You know where to find your friends. Your dis 
 guises are so perfect and complete that without one 
 knew your face no police telegraphic dispatch would 
 catch you. The English gentleman " Harcourt " must 
 not act hastily. Remember he has ten days. Strike 
 for your home, strike for your country; bide your time, 
 but strike sure. Get introduced, congratulate him, 
 listen to his stories not many more will the brute tell 
 to earthly friends. Do anything but fail, and meet us 
 at the appointed place within the fortnight. Inclose 
 this note, together with one of poor Leenea. I will 
 give the reason for this when we meet. Return by 
 Johnson. I wish I could go to you, but duty calls me 
 to the West; you will probably hear from me in Wash 
 ington. Sanders is doing us no good in Canada. 
 Believe me, your brother in love, 
 
 CHARLES SELBY. 
 
 The other was in a woman s handwriting: 
 
 ST. Louis, October 21, 1864. 
 
 DEAREST HUSBAND: Why do you not come home? 
 You left me for ten days only, and you now have been 
 
 277 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 from home more than two weeks. In that long time 
 only sent me one short note a few cold words and a 
 check for money, which I did not require. What has 
 come over you? Have you forgotten your wife and 
 child? Baby calls for papa until my heart aches. We 
 are so lonely without you. I have written to you again 
 and again, and, as a last resource, yesterday wrote to 
 Charlie, begging him to see you and tell you to come 
 home. I am so ill, not able to leave my room; if I was, 
 I would go to you wherever you were, if in this world. 
 Mamma says I must not write any more, as I am too 
 weak. Louis, darling, do not stay away any longer 
 from your heart-broken wife. LEENEA. 
 
 On reading the letters, I had taken them at once to 
 President Lincoln. He looked at them, but made no 
 special remark, and, in fact, seemed to attach very little 
 importance to them. I left them with him. 
 
 I now reminded Mr. Stanton of this circumstance, 
 and he asked me to go immediately to the White House 
 and see if I could find the letters. I thought it rather 
 doubtful, for I knew the President received a great 
 many communications of a similar nature. However, 
 I went over, and made a thorough search through his 
 private desk. He seemed to have attached more im 
 portance to these papers than to others of the kind, for 
 I found them inclosed in an envelope marked in his own 
 handwriting, " Assassination." I kept the letters by 
 me for some time, and then delivered them to Judge 
 John A. Bingham, special judge advocate in the con 
 spiracy trial. Judge Bingham seemed to think them of 
 importance, and asked me to have General Dix send the 
 finder down to Washington. I wired at once to the 
 general. He replied that it was a woman who had found 
 
 273. 
 
Closing Scenes at Washington. 
 
 the letters; that she was keeping a small store in New 
 York, had several children, was a widow, and had no 
 servant; that she would have to find some one to take 
 care of her house, but would be in Washington in a day 
 or two. 
 
 A few days later she came. I was not in town when 
 Mrs. Hudspeth, as her name proved to be, arrived. I 
 had gone to Chicago, but from the woman s testimony 
 on May I2th, I learned that in November, 1864, just 
 after the presidential election, and on the day, she said, 
 on which General Butler left New York, she had over 
 heard a curious conversation between two men in a 
 Third Avenue car in New York city. She had observed, 
 when a jolt of the car pushed the hat of one of the men 
 forward, that he wore false whiskers. She had noticed 
 that his hand was very beautiful; that he carried a pistol 
 in his belt; that, judging from his conversation, he was 
 a young man of education; she heard him say that he 
 was going to Washington that day. The young men 
 left the car before she did, and after they had gone her 
 daughter, who was with her, had picked up a letter from 
 the floor. Mrs. Hudspeth, thinking it belonged to her, 
 had carried it from the car. She afterward discovered 
 the two letters printed above, and took them to General 
 Scott, who, upon reading them, said they were of great 
 importance, and sent her to General Dix. When a 
 photograph of Booth was shown to Mrs. Hudspeth, 
 she swore that it was the man in disguise whom she 
 had seen in the car. It was found that Booth was in 
 New York on the day that she indicated that is, the 
 day General Butler left New York, November nth 
 
 279 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 and likewise that Booth had gone from there to Wash 
 ington, as she had heard this man say he was going 
 to do. The inference was that the man v/ho had 
 dropped the letter was Booth. 
 
 I was afterward called to the stand, on June Qth, 
 to testify about the letters. Judge Bingham used these 
 documents as a link in his chain of evidence showing 
 that a conspiracy existed " to kill and murder Abra 
 ham Lincoln, William H. Seward, Andrew Johnson, 
 Ulysses S. Grant, Edwin M. Stanton, and others of his 
 advisers," and that Booth was a partner in this con 
 spiracy. 
 
 I have said that I was in Chicago when Mrs. Huds- 
 peth gave her testimony. Just after I reached there I 
 received from Major T. F. Eckert, the head of the mili 
 tary telegraph, a message saying that the court wanted 
 me immediately as a witness in the conspiracy trial. I 
 returned at once, and on the i8th of May appeared in 
 court. I was wanted that I might testify to the iden 
 tity of a key to a secret cipher which I had found on 
 the 6th of April in Richmond. On that day I had gone 
 into the office of Mr. Benjamin, the Confederate Secre 
 tary of State; on a shelf, among Mr. Benjamin s books 
 and other things, I had found a secret cipher key.* 
 I saw it was the key to the official Confederate cipher, 
 
 * The secret cipher key was a model consisting of a cylinder, six 
 inches in length and two and one half in diameter, fixed in a frame, 
 the cylinder having the printed key pasted over it. By shifting the 
 pointers fixed over the cylinder on the upper portion of the frame, 
 according to a certain arrangement previously agreed upon, the cipher 
 letter or dispatch could be deciphered readily. The model was put in 
 evidence at the trial. 
 
 280 
 
Closing Scenes at Washington. 
 
 and, as we had at times to decipher at the War Depart 
 ment a good many documents written in that cipher, 
 it seemed to me of interest, and I brought it away, with 
 several other interesting documents. When I returned 
 to Washington I gave it to Major Eckert, who had 
 charge of cipher dispatches in the War Department. 
 
 Now, on the night of Mr. Lincoln s assassination, 
 Lieutenant W. H. Terry had been sent to the National 
 Hotel to seize the trunk of J. Wilkes Booth. Among 
 other things, he had found a paper containing a secret 
 cipher. When this was given to Major Eckert, he 
 immediately saw that it was the same as the one which 
 I had found in Richmond. It was thought that pos 
 sibly by means of this evidence it could be shown that 
 Booth was in communication with the Confederate 
 Government. I was called back to identify the cipher 
 key. Major Eckert at the same time presented dis 
 patches written in the cipher found in Booth s trunk 
 and sent from Canada to the Confederates. They had 
 been captured and taken to the War Department, where 
 copies of them were made. By the key which I had 
 found these dispatches could be read. These dispatches 
 indicated plots against the leaders of our Government, 
 though whether Booth had sent them or not was, of 
 course, never known. 
 
 Throughout the period of the trial I was constantly 
 receiving and answering messages and letters relative 
 to the examination or arrest of persons suspected of 
 being connected with the affair. In most cases neither 
 the examinations nor arrests led to anything. The 
 persons had been acquaintances of the known conspira- 
 
 281 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 tors, or they had been heard to utter disloyal senti 
 ments and had been reported to the department by zeal 
 ous Unionists. It was necessary, however, under the 
 circumstances, to follow up every clew given us, and, 
 under Mr. Stanton s directions, I gave attention to all 
 cases reported. 
 
 While the trial was going on in Washington, Jeffer 
 son Davis was captured, on May loth, near Irwinsville, 
 Ga., by a detachment of General Wilson s cavalry. Mr. 
 Davis and his family, with Alexander H. Stephens, 
 lately Vice-President of the Confederacy, John H. 
 Reagan, Postmaster General, Clement C. Clay, and 
 other State prisoners, were sent to Fortress Monroe. 
 The propeller Clyde, with the party on board, reached 
 Hampton Roads on May iQth. The next day, May 
 2Oth, Mr. Stanton sent for me to come to his office. 
 He told me where Davis was, and said that he had or 
 dered General Nelson A. Miles to go to Hampton 
 Roads to take charge of the prisoners, transferring 
 them from the Clyde to the fortress. Mr. Stanton was 
 much concerned lest Davis should commit suicide; he 
 said that he himself would do so in like circumstances. 
 " I want you to go to Fortress Monroe," he said, " and 
 caution General Miles against leaving Davis any pos 
 sible method of suicide; tell him to put him in fetters, 
 if necessary. Davis must be brought to trial; he must 
 not be allowed to kill himself." Mr. Stanton also told 
 me that he wanted a representative of the War Depart 
 ment down there to see what the military was doing, 
 and to give suggestions and make criticisms and send 
 him full reports. 
 
 282 
 
The Closing Scenes at Washington. 
 
 The status of Jefferson Davis at the time explains 
 Mr. Stanton s anxiety. It should be remembered that 
 Davis had not surrendered when the capital of the Con 
 federacy, Richmond, was captured; neither had he sur 
 rendered with either of the two principal armies under 
 Lee and Johnston. At that time the whole Confederate 
 army west of the Mississippi was still at large. To 
 allow Davis to join this force was only to give the Con 
 federacy an opportunity to reassemble the forces still 
 unsurrendered and make another stand for life. Even 
 more important than this consideration was the fact 
 that Davis was charged, in President Johnson s proc 
 lamation of May 2, 1865, offering a reward for his cap 
 ture, with instigating the assassination of President 
 Lincoln: 
 
 Whereas, It appears, from evidence in the Bureau of 
 Military Justice, that the atrocious murder of the late 
 President, Abraham Lincoln, and the attempted assas 
 sination of the Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, 
 were incited, concerted, and procured by and between 
 Jefferson Davis, late of Richmond, Va., . . . and other 
 rebels and traitors against the Government of the 
 United States, harbored in Canada; 
 
 Now, therefore, to the end that justice may be done, 
 I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do 
 offer and promise for the arrest of said persons or either 
 of them, within the limits of the United States, so that 
 they can be brought to trial, the following rewards: 
 One hundred thousand dollars for the arrest of Jefferson 
 Davis . . . The provost marshal general of the United 
 States is directed to cause the descriptions of said per 
 sons, with notice of the above rewards, to be published. 
 
 It was with the above facts in mind that I started 
 for Hampton Roads on May 2Oth. On the 22d the 
 
 283 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 prisoners were transferred from the Clyde to the for 
 tress. The quarter selected for Davis s prison was a 
 casemate such as at that time, as well as at the present, 
 is occupied by officers and their families. In fact, an 
 officer with his family was moved out of the particu 
 lar casemate in which Davis was placed. Any one who 
 will take the trouble to visit Fortress Monroe can see 
 the place still, and it certainly has not to-day a gloomy 
 or forbidding appearance. The whole scene of the 
 transfer I described in a long telegram which I sent to 
 Mr. Stanton on the 22d. As it contains my fresh im 
 pressions, and has never before been published, I give 
 it here in full: 
 
 From FORTRESS MONROE, i p. M., May 22, 1863. 
 Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War : 
 
 The two prisoners have just been placed in their re 
 spective casemates. The sentries are stationed both 
 within and without their doors. The bars and locks are 
 fastened, and the regular routine of their imprisonment 
 has begun. At precisely one o clock General Miles left 
 with a tug and a guard from the garrison to go for 
 Davis and Clay. At half past one the tug left the Clyde 
 for the fortress. She landed at the engineers wharf, 
 and the procession, led by the cavalrymen of Colonel 
 Pritchard s command, moved through the water bat 
 tery on the east front of the fortress and entered by a 
 postern leading from that battery. The cavalrymen 
 were followed by General Miles, holding Davis by the 
 right arm. Next came half a dozen soldiers, and then 
 Colonel Pritchard with Clay, and last the guard which 
 Miles took out with him. The arrangements were ex 
 cellent and successful, and not a single curious spectator 
 was any where in sight. 
 
 Davis bore himself with a haughty attitude. His 
 face was somewhat flushed, but his features were com- 
 
 284 
 
The Closing Scenes at Washington. 
 
 posed and his step firm. In Clay s manner there was 
 less expression of bravado and dramatic determination. 
 Both were dressed in gray, with drab slouched hats. 
 Davis wore a thin dark overcoat. His hair and beard 
 are not so gray as has been reported, and he seems 
 very much less worn and broken by anxiety and labor 
 than Mr. Blair reported when he returned from Rich 
 mond last winter. The parties were not informed that 
 they were not to be removed to the fortress until Gen 
 eral Miles went on board the Clyde, but they had before 
 learned generally what was their destination. 
 
 From his staff officers Davis parted yesterday, shed 
 ding tears at the separation. The same scene has just 
 been renewed at his parting from Harrison, his private 
 secretary, who left at one o clock for Washington. In 
 leaving his wife and children he exhibited no great emo 
 tion, though she was violently affected. He told her 
 she would be allowed to see him in the course of the 
 day. Clay took leave of his wife in private, and he was 
 not seen by the officers. Both asked to see General 
 Halleck, but he will not see them. 
 
 The arrangements for the security of the prisoners 
 seem to me as complete as could be desired. Each one 
 occupies the inner room of a casemate; the window is 
 heavily barred. A sentry stands within, before each 
 of the doors leading into the outer room. These doors 
 are to be grated, but are now secured by bars fastened 
 on the outside. Two other sentries stand outside of 
 these doors. An officer is also constantly on duty in 
 the outer room, whose duty is to see his prisoners every 
 fifteen minutes. The outer door of all is locked on the 
 outside, and the key is kept exclusively by the general 
 officer of the guard. Two sentries are also stationed 
 without that door, and a strong line of sentries cuts 
 off all access to the vicinity of the casemates. Another 
 line is stationed on the top of the parapet overhead, and 
 a third line is posted across the moats on the counter 
 scarps opposite the places of confinement. The case 
 mates on each side and between these occupied by the 
 
 285 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 prisoners are used as guard rooms, and soldiers are al 
 ways there. A lamp is constantly kept burning in each 
 of the rooms. The furniture of each prisoner is a hos 
 pital bed, with iron bedstead, chair and table, and a 
 movable stool closet. A Bible is allowed to each. 1 
 have not given orders to have them placed in irons, as 
 General Halleck seemed opposed to it, but General 
 Miles is instructed to have fetters ready if he thinks 
 them necessary. The prisoners are to be supplied with 
 soldiers rations, cooked by the guard. Their linen will 
 be issued to them in the same way. I shall be back to 
 morrow morning. C. A. DANA. 
 
 Before leaving Fortress Monroe, on May 22d, I 
 made out for General Miles the order here printed in 
 facsimile: 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 286 
 
Closing Scenes at Washington. 
 
 This order was General Miles s authority for placing 
 fetters upon Davis a day or two later, when he found 
 it necessary to change the inner doors of the casemate, 
 which were light wooden ones, without locks. While 
 these doors were being changed for grated ones, an 
 klets were placed on Davis; they did not prevent his 
 walking, but did prevent any attempt to jump past 
 the guard, and they also prevented him from running. 
 As soon as the doors were changed (it required three 
 days, I think), the anklets were removed. I believe 
 that every care was taken during Mr. Davis s imprison 
 ment to remove cause for complaint. Medical officers 
 were directed to superintend his meals and give him 
 everything that would excite his appetite. As it was 
 complained that his quarters in the casemate were un 
 healthy and disagreeable, he was, after a few weeks, 
 transferred to Carroll Hall, a building still occupied 
 by officers and soldiers. That Davis s health was not 
 ruined by his imprisonment at Fortress Monroe is 
 proved by the fact that he came out of the prison in 
 better condition than when he went in, and that he 
 lived for twenty years afterward, and died of old age. 
 
 I hurried back to Washington from Fortress Mon 
 roe to be present at the grand review of the Armies of 
 the Potomac and Tennessee, which had been arranged 
 for May 23d and 24th. I reached the city early in the 
 morning. The streets were all alive with detachments 
 of soldiers marching toward Capitol Hill, for it was 
 there that the parade was to start. Thousands of visi 
 tors were also in the streets. 
 
 May 23d was given up to the review of the Army of 
 
 287 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 the Potomac, and by nine o clock General Meade and 
 his staff, at the head of the army, started from the Capi 
 tol. Soon after, I joined the company on the review 
 ing officers stand, in front of the White House, in just 
 the place which the reviewing stand now occupies on 
 inauguration days. President Johnson had the cen 
 tral position on the platform. Upon his right, a seat 
 was retained for the commander of the corps under 
 going review. As soon as the corps commander with 
 his staff had passed the grand stand at the head of his 
 troops, he rode into the grounds of the White House, 
 dismounted, and came to take his position at the right 
 of Mr. Johnson, while his troops continued their march. 
 When all his men had passed, he gave up his place 
 to the commander of the next corps in the column, 
 and so on. Next to the corps commanders were seated 
 Secretary Stanton and Lieutenant-General Grant. On 
 the left of the President was Postmaster-General Den- 
 nison and, on the first day of the parade, while the Army 
 of the Potomac passed, Major-General Meade; and on 
 the second day, while the Army of the Tennessee 
 passed, Major-General Sherman. The other members 
 of the Cabinet, many army officers, the assistant secre 
 taries in the different departments, and a number of 
 guests invited by the President and the secretaries, were 
 grouped around these central personages. 
 
 On the 24th, when Sherman s army was reviewed, 
 I sat directly behind Mr. Stanton at the moment when 
 General Sherman, after having passed the grand stand 
 at the head of his army, dismounted and came on to 
 the stand to take his position and review his soldiers. 
 
 288 
 
< The Closing Scenes at Washington. 
 
 As he had to pass immediately in front of Secretary 
 Stanton in order to reach the place assigned to him 
 on the President s right, I could see him perfectly. I 
 watched both men closely, for the difficulty between 
 Stanton and Sherman was at that moment known to 
 everybody. 
 
 The terms upon which Sherman in April had ac 
 cepted the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston s 
 army in North Carolina went beyond the authority of a 
 military commander, and touched upon political issues. 
 It is true that these terms were made conditional upon 
 the approval of the Government; nevertheless, Mr, 
 Stanton was deeply indignant at the general for med 
 dling with matters beyond his jurisdiction. No doubt 
 his indignation was intensified by his dislike of Sher 
 man. The two men were antagonistic by nature. Sher 
 man was an effervescent, mercurial, expansive man, 
 springing abruptly to an idea, expressing himself en 
 thusiastically on every subject, and often without re 
 flection. Stanton could not accommodate himself to 
 this temperament. 
 
 When the memorandum of the agreement between 
 Johnston and Sherman reached Stanton, he sent Grant 
 to the general in hot haste, and then published in the 
 newspapers, which need not have known anything of 
 the affair, a full account of the unwise compact, and an 
 indignant repudiation of it by the Government. Natu 
 rally this brought down a furious attack upon Sherman. 
 All his past services were forgotten for a time, and he 
 was even called a " traitor." The public quickly saw 
 the injustice of this attitude; so did most of the men 
 20 289 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 in the Government, and they hastened to appease Sher 
 man, who was violently incensed over what he called 
 Stanton s insult. I think he never forgave the Secre 
 tary. When, on May iQth, he reached Washington 
 with his army, which he had marched northward across 
 the battlefields of Virginia, he refused to have anything 
 to do with Stanton, although Grant tried his best to 
 bring about a reconciliation and the President and 
 several members of the Cabinet showed him every at 
 tention. 
 
 I was, of course, curious to see what General Sher 
 man would do in passing before Mr. Stanton to take 
 his place on the stand. The general says in his Memoirs 
 that, as he passed, Stanton offered his hand and he re 
 fused to take it. He is entirely mistaken. I was watch 
 ing narrowly. The Secretary made no motion to offer 
 his hand, or to exchange salutations in any manner. 
 As the general passed, Mr. Stanton gave him merely 
 a slight forward motion of his head, equivalent, perhaps, 
 to a quarter of a bow. 
 
 In May I had been asked to become the editor of 
 a new paper to be founded in Chicago, the Republican. 
 The active promoter was a Mr. Mack, and the concern 
 was organized with a nominal capital of five hundred 
 thousand dollars. Only a small part of this was ever 
 paid up; a large block of the stock was set aside as a 
 bonus to induce a proper man to become the editor. 
 Mr. Mack had offered the post to me, and, through the 
 influence of the Hon. Lyman Trumbull and other prom 
 inent men of Illinois, I was persuaded to accept it. In 
 deciding on the change, I had arranged to stay in 
 
 290 
 
The Closing Scenes at Washington. 
 
 Washington until I could finish the routine business 
 upon which I was then engaged, and until Mr. Stanton 
 could conveniently spare me. This was not until the 
 ist of July. On the first day of the month I sent to 
 the President my resignation as Assistant Secretary of 
 War, and a few days later I left the capital for Chicago. 
 
 291 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Army of the Cumberland reorgan 
 ized, 126. 
 
 Augur, General, and the spy, 183 ; 
 in command at Washington, 
 244. 
 
 Baltimore merchants arrested, 
 236. 
 
 Banks, General, besieges Port 
 Hudson, 80. 
 
 Bates, Edward, impressions of, 
 171. 
 
 Beauregard, General, 222. 
 
 Blair, Montgomery, character, 170, 
 231. 
 
 Booth, J. Wilkes, 281. 
 
 Bragg, General, driven across the 
 Tennessee, 104 ; maneuvers to 
 reach Chattanooga, 107-111 ; 
 evacuates Lookout Mountain, 
 148 ; retreats, 151. 
 
 Burnside, General, shut up in 
 Knoxville, 135 ; character, 138 ; 
 forces, 138 ; repulses Long- 
 street, 154 ; relieved by Sher 
 man, 154 ; transferred to com 
 mand of Ninth Army Corps, 
 191. 
 
 Cairo, the claims commission, 12. 
 
 Campbell, Judge, negotiations 
 with President Lincoln, 266, 270. 
 
 Canada, proposed Confederate ex 
 pedition from, 243. 
 
 Cedar Creek, 248. 
 
 Champion Hill, 53. 
 
 Chase, Salmon P., impressions of, 
 169. 
 
 Chattanooga, defense of, 120 ; bat 
 tle, 143. 
 
 Chickamauga, in. 
 
 Cipher dispatches, 22; Confeder 
 ate, 280. 
 
 Cold Harbor, 208. 
 
 Conkling, Roscoe, 17, 177, 263. 
 
 Cotton speculation, 17. 
 
 Crittenden, General, censured for 
 conduct at Chickamauga, 122; 
 relieved, 126. 
 
 Dana, Charles A., resigns from 
 the Tribune, i ; first meeting 
 with Lincoln, 2 ; early corre 
 spondence with Stanton, 4-11 ; 
 commissioner of War Depart 
 ment, 21 ; at the front with 
 Grant, 30 et seq. ; gets a horse, 
 45 ; assistant adjutant general, 
 82 ; Assistant Secretary of War, 
 103 ; with the Army of the Cum 
 berland, 105 et seq. ; at Chat 
 tanooga, 132 ; interview with 
 Burnside at Knoxville, 138 ; on 
 duty at Washington, 156 et seq. ; 
 relations with Stanton, 159 ; 
 with the Army of the Potomac, 
 189 et seq. ; with Sheridan in the 
 valley, 248 et seq. ; at Richmond, 
 
 293 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 263 ; last interview with Lincoln, 
 274 ; becomes editor of the Chi 
 cago Republican, 290. 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, capture, 282 ; 
 imprisonment, 284. 
 
 Drouillard, Captain, 116. 
 
 Early, General, menaces the capi 
 tal, 228 ; withdraws, 232. 
 Everett, Edward, 182. 
 
 Five Forks, 263. 
 
 Foster, General J. G., supersedes 
 
 Burnside, 191. 
 Fremont, General, 5, 6. 
 
 Garfield, General, 118. 
 
 Grand Gulf, attack on, 42. 
 
 Granger, General Gordon, in com 
 mand at Nashville, 105 ; at 
 Chickamauga, 119; at Mission 
 ary Ridge, 149 ; fails to relieve 
 Burnside, 152. 
 
 Grant, General, impressions of, 
 15, 61 ; conduct at Shiloh criti 
 cised, 15 ; plan for Vicksburg 
 campaign, 30 ; self-control, 43 ; 
 invests Vicksburg, 56 ; asks re- 
 enforcements, 80 ; enters Vicks 
 burg, 99 ; rapid mobilization of 
 his army, 101 ; at Chattanooga, 
 133 ; at Missionary Ridge, 148 ; 
 made general in chief of the 
 United States army, 186 ; crosses 
 the Rapidan, 187 ; maneuvers 
 against Lee, 200-207 ; at Cold 
 Harbor, 208 ; charges of butch 
 ery, 209 ; in camp at Cold Harbor, 
 213 ; marches on Petersburg, 217 
 et seq. ; prepares for siege, 224. 
 
 Halleck, General, obstructs Grant s 
 plans, 156 ; Grant s chief of 
 staff, 186 ; character, 187. 
 
 Hancock, General, his energy, 
 190 ; at Spottsylvania, 195 ; ad 
 vancing to Richmond, 201 ; at 
 Cold Harbor, 208. 
 
 Herron, General, 70, 87. 
 
 Hooker, General, ordered to Look 
 out Valley, 134 ; at Lookout 
 Mountain, 147. 
 
 Hovey, General, 63, 217. 
 
 Hudspeth, Mrs., gives evidence in 
 conspiracy trial, 279. 
 
 Humphreys, General, 192. 
 
 Hunter, General, defeats Jones, 
 229 ; Grant s defense of, 233. 
 
 Jackson, entered by United States 
 army, 52. 
 
 Johnson, Andrew, 105 ; urges pun 
 ishment of rebels, 269. 
 
 Johnston, General J. E., threatens 
 Grant during siege of Vicks 
 burg, 83, 84, 289. 
 
 Lee, General R. E., defeated in 
 the Wilderness, 193 ; maneuvers 
 against Grant, 201-207 ; Grant s 
 estimate of, 215 ; outwitted by 
 Grant, 222 ; driven from Peters 
 burg, 263 ; surrender, 271. 
 
 Lincoln, President, impressions 
 of, 171-185 ; relations with his 
 cabinet, 171 ; as a politician, 
 174-181 ; his mercifulness, 183 ; 
 visits the lines before Peters 
 burg, 224 ; re-election, 260 ; 
 seeming flippancy, 261 ; in Rich 
 mond after surrender, 266; 
 propositions to Confederates, 
 267 ; assassinated, 274. 
 
 Logan, General, 53, 67. 
 
 Longstreet, General, 119, 139. 
 
 Lookout Mountain, 147. 
 
 McClellan, dissatisfaction with, 8 ; 
 absurd claims for, 9. 
 
 294 
 
Index. 
 
 McClernand, General, commands 
 movement en Grand Gulf, 32; 
 his annoying delays and ineffi 
 ciency, 59, 89 ; removal, 90. 
 
 McCook, General, censured for 
 conduct at Chickamauga, 122; 
 relieved, 126. 
 
 McPherson, General, in move 
 ment on Grand Gulf, 41 ; at 
 Raymond, 51 ; ability, 58 ; 
 springs the mines before Vicks- 
 burg, 91. 
 
 Meade, General, commands army 
 of the Potomac, 189 ; character 
 and ability, 189 ; before Peters 
 burg, 221 ; difficulties with sub 
 ordinates, 226. 
 
 Milliken s Bend, 86. 
 
 Mississippi, reopening of, 30. 
 
 Missionary Ridge, 148. 
 
 "Morse," case of, 235. 
 
 Negro troops, their bravery, 86, 
 220. 
 
 Nevada, why admitted, 174, 175. 
 
 Newspaper correspondents, trou 
 ble with, 215. 
 
 New York and Chicago, plans for 
 burning, 241. 
 
 Ord, General, supersedes McCler 
 nand, 90. 
 
 Parsons, Colonel, 253. 
 
 Pemberton, General, defeated at 
 Champion s Hill, 53 ; retreat 
 and losses, 55 ; asks for terms, 
 95 ; humiliation, 96 ; surren 
 ders Vicksburg, 99. 
 
 Porter, Admiral, runs the Vicks 
 burg batteries, 36 ; character, 
 
 85- 
 
 Porter, General, halts fugitives at 
 Chickamauga, 116. 
 
 Port Gibson, 44. 
 
 Presidential campaign of 1864, 
 260. 
 
 Railroads seized by the Govern 
 ment, disposition of, 255. 
 
 Rawlins, Colonel J. A., and the 
 Confederate Mason, 54 ; charac 
 ter, 62, 72. 
 
 Raymond, engagement at, 51. 
 
 Richmond surrendered, 263 ; evac 
 uated, 264. 
 
 Rosecrans, General, his delays, 
 104 ; occupies Chattanooga, 107 ; 
 concentrates his army, no; at 
 Chickamauga, in ; prepares to 
 defend Chattanooga, 120 ; inde 
 cision and incapacity, 123, 127 ; 
 transferred to Department of 
 the Missouri, 131. 
 
 Schofield, General, troops trans 
 ferred, 252. 
 
 Secret service, 235 et seq. 
 
 Sedgwick, General John, 190. 
 
 "Selby" and "Leenea" letters, 
 276, 277. 
 
 Seward, Wm. H., impressions of, 
 168. 
 
 Shepley, General, military gov 
 ernor of Richmond, 267, 270. 
 
 Sheridan, General, at Chickamau 
 ga, 116; at Chattanooga, 145; 
 at Missionary Ridge, 150 ; ma 
 jor-general, 248 ; affection of 
 the army, 249 ; wins at Five 
 Forks, 263. 
 
 Sherman, General, impressions 
 of, 29; commands a corps in 
 Grant s army, 31 ; destroys pub 
 lic property in Jackson, 53 ; be 
 fore Vicksburg, 57 ; in pursuit 
 of Johnston, 84 ; ordered to join 
 the forces at Chattanooga, 136 ; 
 
 295 
 
Recollections of the Civil War. 
 
 bridges the Tennessee, 146 ; at 
 Missionary Ridge, 148 ; relieves 
 Burnside at Knoxville, 154; 
 letter on the relief passes, 165 ; 
 difficulties with Stanton, 289. 
 
 Smith, General A. J., 64, 95, 97. 
 
 Smith, General "Baldy,"2o6, 207, 
 208, 219. 
 
 Spottsylvania, 195. 
 
 Stanton, E. M., early correspond 
 ence with Dana, 4-11 ; forbids 
 army speculations in cotton, 20; 
 gives complete authority to 
 Grant, 52 ; appearance and 
 character, 157 ; relations with 
 his subordinates, 159 ; friction 
 with Blair, 170 ; arrests the Bal 
 timore merchants, 236. 
 
 Strouse, Congressman, case of, 
 159- 
 
 Table of Union losses, 210. 
 
 Thomas, General, heads off the 
 Confederates from Chattanooga, 
 in ; holds the field at Chicka- 
 mauga, 118 ; his high qualities 
 and Stanton s esteem, 124 ; su 
 persedes Rosecrans, 131 ; charge 
 
 of his troops at Missionary 
 
 Ridge, 150. 
 
 Thompson, Jacob, 239, 273. 
 "Turkey movement," 252. 
 
 Vicksburg, campaign plans, 25, 
 30 ; batteries run, 36 ; attack 
 on, 56; siege, 57, 78-99; sur 
 render, 99. 
 
 Virginia Legislature, negotiations 
 with President Lincoln, 267. 
 
 Wallace, General Lew, 229, 231. 
 
 War Department, immense busi 
 ness, 161. 
 
 Warren, General, 190, 202, 206, 
 209. 
 
 Washburn, General, 71. 
 
 Washington, panic at, 229. 
 
 Watson, P. H., and the forage 
 fraud, 162. 
 
 Weitzel, General, in command at 
 Richmond, 264, 266, 270. 
 
 Welles, Gideon, impressions of, 
 170. 
 
 Wilmot, David, 163. 
 
 Wilson, General J. H., 137, 227. 
 
 Wright, General, 191, 207, 208. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 296 
 
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