Washington, March 15. On the 7th I received a telegraph
despatch from the Secretary of War, saying that he would like a 'personal
conference' with me, if my health would permit me to come to Washington “immediately.”
I jumped into the next departing train, had a serious and violent hemorrhage at
Pittsburg, arrived here on Monday the 10th, and, weak and covered with dust as
I was, went directly to the War Department (at 11 A.M.). Secretary Stanton was
with the President, and the Assistant Secretary said he would mention my
arrival and send me word. I returned to my hotel, and there was seized with a
profuse bleeding at the nose — the sixth or seventh time in three weeks. Two
physicians finally stopped the bleeding by mechanical means and I was sent to
bed, very much exhausted.
After an hour or so an a. d. c. came with the Secretary's
compliments and a carriage. I could not go, and in the evening the Secretary
himself came to see me. He was very kind; asked me to allow myself to be taken
to his house, etc. He had wished to see me, he said, but would not talk with me
exhausted as he saw I was, but would call in the morning.
In the morning he called, finding me in bed. He told me that
he wanted me in the service. I replied that I was not fit for service, and
appealed to his own eyes. He remarked, “You must leave that to us,” and went on
to say that he and President Lincoln wanted the benefit of my experience — that
they wanted me here, close by, where they could have the opportunity of
consulting me. They did “not wish me in the field, but in Washington”; they “would
put no more upon me than I could bear,” and a multitude of other assurances of
the kind. He even offered to remove the Adjutant-General and put me at the head
of the staff.
I turned these compliments all aside, with thanks, and said
that I must go to New York to consult physicians — that if there was a return
of the hemorrhage I wished to be with my friends, and should be, at all events,
unfit for service.
He left me and returned to the White House, and there wrote
me a note in which he suggested that any legislation I might desire could be
had, if I would but mention it. I replied that special legislation begot
jealousies, and that if my experience was deemed of value it could be had by my
simply remaining within call.
I got up and started at 11 A.M. for New York.
At New York I finally determined to say by note to the
Secretary that if, with his knowledge of my broken health, I could be useful in
the way he had-pointed out, he might announce my acceptance of the commission
if not now too late, and order me to report to him. That was done and I reached
here this morning — March 15 [1862]. On reporting to the Secretary, almost
without a word of preface he asked me if I would take McClellan’s place in
command of the army of the Potomac!1 I was amazed, and told him at
once that I could not. He spoke of the pressure on the President, and said that
he and the President had had the greatest difficulty in standing out against
the demand that McClellan be removed.
He then asked me if I would allow him to put me at the head
of the Ordnance Department, and remove General R. This surprised me almost as
much as the other offer, and was entirely unlike anything I had anticipated,
and I declined.
He then took me to President Lincoln and introduced me. I
was civilly received. Secretary Seward was present and some despatches were
read — reports from the army, etc.
The President took a letter out of his pocket and read it as
a sample, he said, of what he was exposed to. It was anonymous, marked “urgent,”
and called on him to “remove the traitor McClellan” — using the most
extravagant language of condemnation. Judge Blair, Postmaster-General, came in
and asked for a brigadier-general's commission for a relation of his wife.
I offered to go, but Mr. Lincoln detained me till the others
went. He then expressed the wish to have the benefit of my experience: said he
was the depository of the power of the government and had no military
knowledge. I knew his time was important and shortly left him.
Now — what is to come of this? I want no command. I want no
department. I came to be at hand for “contingent service,” and must adhere to
my purpose. General Scott, whom I saw in New York, told me I could be very
useful here. He even said that I ought to be in command of the army, but that
that was now impossible.
I urged the Secretary to extend General Halleck's command
over the whole valley of the Mississippi, and this has been done at once,
putting Buell under his orders.
On the whole, I am uncomfortable. I am almost afraid that
Secretary Stanton hardly knows what he wants, himself.2
__________
1 The tardy engineer,
McClellan, had now marched upon Manassas.
2 During this week, an
army board, of which General Hitchcock was President, decided that the safety
of Washington required the retention in its front of one corps of the army. The
President thereupon kept McDowell's corps between the city and Richmond.
SOURCE: W. A. Croffut, editor, Fifty Years in Camp and Field: Diary of Major-General Ethan Allen
Hitchcock, U. S. A., p. 437-9
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