CHAPTER XVI.

MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON IN THE MONTH OF JANUARY 1863.

HAVING, as stated in the Introduction, made the science of war a subject of careful study from my youth, and having fully acquainted myself with the characteristics of the leading campaigns of past ages, particularly those of the present century and of the preceding one, and having done so for the specific purpose of attaining to a clear understanding of the chief causes of the successes and failures of such campaigns, and having observed that the entire conduct of the war under consideration was, on our part, in palpable violation of all the known principles and examples of successful warfare, and in equally palpable accordance with the very worst principles and examples known to the science of war, or represented in history, or representable in thought, I felt it a sacred duty to present my views of the subject to the military authorities at Washington. I accordingly, immediately after the first disaster at Bull Run, entered into correspondence with such individuals as Secretary Chase, senators Sumner, King, and Chandler, and members of the Committee on the Conduct of the War. In these communications, special criticisms were made upon the general conduct of the war, developing its fundamental errors, and showing what ought to have been done. Similar criticisms were presented of the different particular campaigns as they occurred. These views were laid before the President particularly, and pressed upon his consideration. The following communication from Secretary Chase will interest the reader. It was sent in reply to a very long

communication containing the main criticisms found in the preceding pages. In this communication I made this general statement, that if it had been the fixed and deliberate aim of our military authorities to conduct this war in accordance with the worst principles condemned in military science, and the worst examples known in history, or representable in human thought, they could not have succeeded, in my honest judgment, better than they had done. To this communication the Secretary sent the following reply. The letter was, of course, confidential at the time, reasons for privacy being now removed :—

"MY DEAR SIR,

"TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Oct. 29th, 1862.

"I have attentively read your letter, and agree with you entirely in regard to the management of the war hitherto. In my judgment, no General has a right to be continued in service an hour after it becomes evident that success cannot be achieved under his lead. I have often expressed views substantially similar to yours to the President, but other counsels have better approved themselves to his judgment. I think that experience has wrought some change in his views, though not so complete a change as I could wish. The substitution of Rosecrans for Buell is a beginning. The appointment of Mitchell to the department of the south is also good. Other changes, I think, will be made, and a greater vigour in every direction may be expected. If disappointed in this, I shall almost despair; but I do not expect to be disappointed.

"I shall be glad to receive any practical suggestions you may make. They will be instructive to me, and may be useful to the country.

"Yours very truly,

"S. P. CHASE."

After receiving such communications, and after the terrible defeat at Fredericksburg, I determined to visit Washington, and through the influence of my friends there, lay my views before the President and Secretary of War.

I arrived there on the last day of December 1861, and spent most of the next forenoon with Secretary Chase. Through him a hearing was obtained with Secretary Stanton. In the opening of our communication with the latter, we commenced a criticism on the past conduct of the war. This the Secretary interrupted, saying that he had understood from Secretary Chase that I had developed a plan for the future conduct of the war and he wanted to hear that. We then gave him a full statement of the plan. "Where is your General," exclaimed the Secretary, "to carry out such a plan as that?" "I did not come here, Mr. Stanton, to furnish a General, but to develop a plan by which this war can be brought to a speedy and almost bloodless termination." "Well, give us a General," responded the Secretary; "the best plan that can be proposed is the worst, if you have not a General capable of carrying it out." "I should suppose, Mr. Stanton," I replied, "that if a definite and practicable plan were submitted, a General capable of carrying it out might be found." "Give us a General; name your man,' was the reply of our Secretary of War. So the interview ended, and with it all hope of any favourable results from that department. I then spent a full half day with senators Wade and Wilson, laying before them my criticisms on the conduct of the war thus far, and

my plan for the future. Both the criticism and plan were unqualifiedly endorsed by both, each saying that he now understood the whole subject as he had never done before. By agreement, we spent the next evening with the President, who, with great interest, listened to all I had to say. He then requested that I would reduce my views to writing, saying that he would give them a most careful investigation. After preparing the document, and reading it to the senators, they accompanied me a second time to the President's office. After an attentive hearing of the document, and a full discussion of its presentations, the President_addressed Messrs. Wade and Wilson in these words: " Gentlemen, I am in earnest in what I am now about to say to you. If you senators advise it, I will adopt this plan, and appoint a new Commander-in Chief to carry it out,"—

naming the same individual whom the senators had previously designated as the man to accomplish the result. It was understood that certain other senators were to be consulted before final measures were adopted. In the meantime, another paper was prepared and read before the President; a paper the object of which was to demonstrate the utter unwisdom of the measure which was then avowed as the next great movement of the war, namely, "the opening of the Mississippi and the plugging up of the southern ports." What was urged in this paper was that the next movement should have one supreme end, the wiping out of the armies of the Confederacy, the armies of Lee and Johnston particularly. At this meeting it was unanimously agreed to submit these papers to the careful scrutiny of some leading General; and General McDowell was as unanimously selected as the officer best qualified to give judgment in such a case. After hearing the papers read, and spending four or five hours in discussing the principles and facts presented, General McDowell gave a written endorsement of the plan developed, as being the best that he had heard suggested. All now felt sure of securing the arrangement desired. One ominous fact became known during the day prior to the evening for a final interview with the President, to the senators who were in consultation, a fact which, in their judgment, threw dark shadows over the future, the fact that the Secretary of War and General Halleck were closeted, during the day, with the President, he receiving no other company.

On meeting with the President and handing him the paper from General McDowell, we were all, the senators excepted, surprised at the change which had occurred in the views of our supreme executive. Of the plan under consideration, he assured us, his views were unchanged. It was, unquestionably, the best plan that had yet been submitted. It was attended, however, with one fundamental_difficulty-the utter impossibility, in the existing state of our railroads, to concentrate at Fortress Monroe the needful forces, and to do this in time to render the movement effective. "In the present state of these roads," he added, "it is impossible to transport over them an army

I reminded

of 10,000 men in the space of four weeks." him of the fact that Mr. Covode, the superintendent of the Pennsylvania Central, and the master of transportation on the same road, had each, but a few days before, submitted to the Committee on the Conduct of the War an independent opinion, based upon the most careful calculations, that by putting all their rolling stock in requisition they could convey over that single road an army of 50,000 men, with all their appointments, and that in the space of four days. Members of the Committee present fully confirmed the above statements. In the face of all this evidence, the President absolutely adhered to the opinion which he had before expressed, the opinion which Stanton and Halleck had fixed in his mind. At length, he said to us: "Gentlemen, I have pledged to you my word that if you advise it I will adopt this new plan. I hold myself still bound by this pledge. I assure you, however, that I have no confidence whatever in the practicability of the plan." Thus the meeting broke up, the senators deeming it unadvisable to recommend a plan to which the Secretary of War was avowedly opposed, and the practicability of which the President thus distrusted. On taking leave of the chairman of the Committee, he expressed himself, on account of the immobility of our military authorities, in almost blank despair of the Republic. One of the senators, after I left, went down to Falmouth, and in a council of war held by General Burnside with all his corps commanders, laid the plan before them. Every such commander strongly advised the adoption of the plan. General Burnside replied that he fully endorsed the plan. He had one of his own, however, which he desired first to try. If that failed, he would adopt the new one. He tried his own, failed, and was superseded; but afterwards expressed to the senator his regret that he had not followed the advice of his corps commanders. One year from the next July, a Major-General from the army of the Potomac, made, in the city of Rochester, New York, this statement to Mr. Lawrence, proprietor of our principal hotel, then on a visit to that city:-"A year ago last January, a gentleman from your State, I forget his name, came to Washington, and laid before our military autho