Burlington, October 20, 1862.
I found your very interesting letter of the 12th September
awaiting my return to my home last week, after a month's absence in the
interior of the State.
I judge, from what I see in the newspapers, that before this
reaches you, you will be making preparations to attack Charleston. May God
speed and protect you! I doubt not that an attack will be attended with great
risk to our vessels and men; still, with the complete and thorough preparation
that I know you will make, and the enterprise that I know you and your officers
will exhibit, I am prepared to prophesy success. And what a glorious triumph it
will be! It will thrill every loyal heart with delight. I wish it were possible
for the Navy to take it unaided by the Army; but that cannot be expected.
I am in no wise deserving of the kind compliments you lavish
upon me. I get credit for a great deal of knowledge upon naval subjects, from
the simple fact that I am surrounded by the most profound ignorance. A very
small light in such utter darkness attracts attention, and seems to excite
surprise, especially when the little ray proceeds from the region that this
does. For you know that up to my time it was supposed that all information in
relation to your branch of the public service was confined to a select
"guild" about the Atlantic cities, no man from the interior having
presumed to know anything about it. If I have been of any real service, it has
been in breaking down and eradicating that idea, and in assisting to
nationalize the Navy, in making the frontiersman as well as the longshoreman
feel that he was interested in it, and partook of its glory.
SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes,
p. 218
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