I have
three telegrams from Dr. Whelan to-day, all of the same tenor. The last, at 4
p.m., says Admiral Foote continues much the same, — insensible and slowly
sinking. Dahlgren, who left New York yesterday, says the case is hopeless, that
Foote told him it was the last of this world and he was prepared for the event.
We have pretty authentic reports of a protracted fight at
Aldie. The War Department is not communicative, and I apprehend for the reason
that it is not better advised than the rest of us, as yet. A train of
ambulances passed this evening, going, I doubt not, for the wounded.
The Richmond papers speak of the capture of the steamer
Fingal by our ironclads. This is important, and I am inclined to credit it.
John Rodgers has written his family that he was in Nassau Sound, having been
ordered there to watch the Fingal. The Richmond report corresponds with this,
and states she was captured after a fight of thirty minutes with the monitors.
I had to-day a full and unreserved talk with Dahlgren. Told
him it was now evident Foote could not go on the service to which he was
ordered, — at all events, if he survived, not for the present; I should
therefore designate him to relieve Du Pont. This would, to some extent, involve
the selection of a new staff, for it was not likely that Foote's confidants
were his confidants. [I remarked] that not unlikely some of the elder officers
who had seen great sea service would feel disinclined to remain on the station
under him; that in giving him this command I was consulting the wishes of the
President; that to supersede Du Pont, under any circumstances, involved some
risk and responsibility to both the Department and the recipient; that he could
not be unaware his promotion had caused some discontent, and that it would not
be lessened by this command. If any of his seniors in past times desired to be
transferred, they must be permitted to do so, without prejudice.
I stated that this appointment was a specialty, imposed upon
the Department by Admiral Foote's affliction when on his way to assume these
duties; that this interruption made prompt action necessary; that he had sought
the privilege of leading in the assault on Sumter under Du Pont; that I had
proposed him as an assistant and second to Foote; that he was to go for a particular
purpose, and his absence from the Bureau would therefore be temporary. In the
mean time, Commander Wise, the assistant who had been associated with him,
could take charge of and go forward with the ordnance duties as well as, and
perhaps better than, any one else. To all this he assented, but expressed a
strong wish that a new appointment might be made, and he entirely relieved from
the Bureau. I replied that I could not for a moment think of relieving him of
charge of the ordnance, nor ought he to ask, or be willing, to relinquish it;
that was his place, to which he had been educated and for which he had
aptitude, and it was my wish he should retain his position as Chief of the
Ordnance Bureau during my connection with the Department.
As related to any demonstration on Charleston, should any be
made, he was to consider himself clothed with full powers, and to prescribe
details, communicating at all times and without reserve to the Department; to
let me have not only all the good news but any bad news, and to tell me frankly
at any time of embarrassments, change of views, or difficulties of any kind.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 336-8
