Mr. Stanton sent, informing me he had a private telegram from General Grant which he would submit. I had last night word from General G. informing me of the fact.
Stanton I found in a very pleasant mood, not at all disposed to defend or justify Butler, whose course he commented on and disapproved. In doing this, however, he censured Porter as being indiscreet and at fault; but when I dissented and asked wherein he was to blame, Stanton made no attempt to specify, but spoke of him as blatant, boisterous, bragging, etc. The dispatch of General Grant stated he had received my telegram, that he should immediately organize another expedition secretly, which he hoped to get off by Monday, would give sealed orders not to be opened until outside, and that no one but himself, the quartermaster, and telegraphic operator in cipher should have the contents. Stanton said no one but himself and the telegraph-operator knew the contents. I told him I should inform Fox, for I must have some one to assist and with whom alone I would consult.
Commodore Rodgers came up from the fleet and entered just after I returned from the War Department. He is very indignant that the military part of the expedition should have been such a total failure, and is indignant towards Butler, who, he says, has defeated the whole expedition, which, with a military commander of courage and skill, would have been a success. I went with the Commodore to the President, who read Admiral Porter's dispatch and listened calmly to the statements of Rodgers denouncing Butler and his failures, at Petersburg, at Richmond, and now at Wilmington.
Sent Fox to Stanton to detain the steamboat at Baltimore until a special messenger, Lieutenant-Commander Preston, could arrive and proceed in her to Hampton Roads and there take a boat for Wilmington. Telegraphed to Norfolk to have a boat ready for Preston to go immediately on board. The Newbern was ready, Barry telegraphs this evening. Preston bore dispatch to Porter to hold his own, for Grant promises to send a military force by Monday or at farthest by Tuesday.
Butler has a well-prepared article in the Norfolk Régime, written by Clark, the editor, a creature of his but a man of some ability. The general himself undoubtedly assisted in its concoction. But military as well as naval men, without a single exception that has come to my knowledge, censure the general and commend the admiral. My own convictions are decidedly with the Navy, and I believe I can judge impartially, notwithstanding my connection with the Navy. I do not think Grant entirely exempt from blame in having permitted such a man as Butler to have command of such an expedition. I so told Stanton this morning, and recommended to him that they should be dissociated,— that Butler should be sent to some distant position, where he might exercise his peculiar and extraordinary talent as a police officer or military governor, but not to trust him with any important military command. I am not certain we should have been able to engage the army in this expedition but for Butler, and we could not have enlisited Butler had we not assented to the powderboat. That was not regular military, and had it been a success, the civilian General would have had a triumph.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 215-7
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