Received a letter from Commodore W. D. Porter stating his
arrival in New York after many signal exploits, — capturing the ironclad
steamer Arkansas, running Bayou Sara, etc. Charges from Admirals Farragut and
Davis, accusing him of misrepresentation and worse, have preceded his arrival.
The War Department has sent me an inexcusable letter, abusive of the military,
which Porter has written, and which Stanton cannot notice. I have been
compelled to reprove him and to send him before the Retiring Board. Like all
the Porters, he is a courageous, daring, troublesome, reckless officer.
No news from the army. The Rebels appear to be moving back
into Virginia in their own time and way, to select their own resting-place, and
to do, in short, pretty much as they please. Am sad, sick, sorrowful over this
state of things, but see no remedy without change of officers.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864,
p. 145
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