Admiral Lee sends me a confidential dispatch and also a
communication to him from General Butler. On the latter Fox has made a proper
indorsement. On the 26th inst. General_B. calls on the Admiral for naval
cooperation. Wants ironclads and gunboats to proceed to Richmond; is going to
move on the 30th inst.; the expedition or movement is to be secret; they are to
pass above City Point, etc., etc. Only four days to improvise a navy, and they
are to proceed up a river whose channel is not buoyed out. The scheme is not
practical, yet it has the sanction of General Grant. It must, however, be a
blind, intended to deceive the enemy, and to do this effectually he must first
deceive our own people. A somewhat formidable force has been gathered in
General Butler’s department, and there is no doubt but that General B. himself
fully believes he is to make a demonstration up James River. It may be that
this is General Grant’s intention also, but if it is, I shall be likely to have
my faith in him impaired. Certainly there have been no suflicient preparations
for such a demonstration and the call upon the Navy is unreasonable.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 —
December 31, 1866, p. 19
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