Received Admiral Du Pont's detailed report with those of his
officers. The document is not such as I should have expected from him a short
time ago, but matters of late prevent me from feeling any real disappointment.
Fox went last night to New York in anticipation of such a report. The tone and
views of the sub-reports have the ring, or want of ring, of the Admiral in
command. Discouragement when there should be encouragement. A pall is thrown
over all. Nothing has been done, and it is the recommendation of all, from the
Admiral down, that no effort be made to do anything. [Du Pont] has got his
subordinates to sustain him in a proceeding that his sense of right tells him
is wrong.
I am by no means confident that we are acting wisely in
expending so much strength and effort on Charleston, a place of no strategic
importance, but it is lamentable to witness the tone, language, absence of
vitality and vigor, and want of zeal among so many of the best officers of the
service. I cannot be mistaken as to the source and cause. A magnetic power in
the head, which should have inspired and stimulated them, is wanting; they have
been discouraged instead of being encouraged, depressed not strengthened.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 276-7
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