Berlin, Maryland, Oct. 30, 1862.
My Dear Mr. Forbes,
— I hardly know what to say to your plan: if the question were simply, Will you
take the Colonelcy of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, a regiment to be raised
on same terms and in same way as the First Massachusetts? — I should have no
hesitation in saying yes: but Mr. Lawrence's offer I hardly see my way clear to
accept.
1st. The Battalion, as an independent organization,
is not recognized by the War Department: if I get permission to take command of
such an organization, it can be only through improper influence and in defiance
of General Orders, and I do not care to attempt it: — leave of absence to take
command of a regiment is authorized, and I should not hesitate to apply for it.
2d. I have always thought I was more useful on General McClellan's staff than I
should be serving with my own regiment1 — but with my own regiment
as captain, I should now almost always have command of a battalion: were
I then to accept Mr. Lawrence's offer, I should merely be exchanging active
service for at least a temporary inaction, for the sake of getting rank and pay
of Major. I want to keep my military record clearer than that. 3d. [A Boston
gentleman] speaks of Mr. L.'s battalion as “a battalion for home use — i. e.
in the militia.” Does he really mean for home use when we are so
short of cavalry in this Army — or does he merely mean that it is composed of
nine months' men? My honest opinion is, that it is an injustice to the
Government to raise any cavalry for so short a period; still, if it is decided
to do so, that would not make me decline a command. Two months' drill and two
months in the field under a good commanding officer will make a regiment of
some account — but I would not take any command which was meant for home use.
4th. Mr. L. has the principal voice in naming officers — would any influence
afterwards be used to keep in position officers proved incompetent, and for
whose removal all proper military steps had been taken ? 2
You will see from the above that while I should like very
much to take command of a Second Massachusetts Cavalry, — I am unwilling
to say “yes” to the present offer, unless (or until) the affair assumes such
shape that the Governor can ask for me, from the War Department, leave of
absence to take command of a regiment.
I have been very much obliged to you for several letters,
but I have never answered your questions. Only, if General McClellan silently
shoulders all the errors of his subordinate generals, is it not fair to give
him credit for their successes? I have never been more annoyed than, when in
Washington a month ago, to see the avidity with which people gathered up and
believed Hooker's criticisms on the General. I did not care to open my lips
against them: personally I like Hooker very much, but I fear he will do us a
mischief if he ever gets a large command. He has got his head in the clouds.
_______________
1 This was but eight days before General
McClellan was removed from the command of the Army of the Potomac.
2
Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, whose name has been given to a city where he promoted
successful manufacturing interests, was not only a leading citizen of Boston,
but brave, generous, and active in measures tending to resist the encroachments
of the slave power before the war, and, when the strife began, in efforts to
carry it on to a righteous and successful end. He was associated with Mr.
Forbes in founding the Union Club in Boston, the Loyal Publication Society, and
especially in the business of recruiting soldiers for the Volunteer Regiments
of Massachusetts, as wisely and economically as possible, at a time when it was
exceedingly hard to secure men. This difficulty it was which probably gave rise
to the proposition to raise a battalion instead of a regiment. Colonel Lowell's
other Boston correspondent must have misunderstood the proposition, for it
certainly was not proposed to raise “home-guard” cavalry.
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 229-31, 412
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