Since last date the weather has been and is remarkably fine.
Mr. Eads67 has been here, bringing his wife, Miss Genevieve and little
Mattie — He has returned, by way of N.[ew] Y.[ork] to St Louis (leaving Genevieve
with us, untill [sic] his return again in a few weeks)[.] He was sadly
disappointed about gitting [sic] money, and went away in no good humor with Q.[uarter]
M.[aster] G[eneral] Meigs.68 I hope it will be all right soon.
I think he has made a very favorable impression upon the Navy
Dept, especially with Mr. Fox,69 asst. Sect: He will probably contract
for the building of 4 of the 20 iron ships ordered for the Navy, at $500,000 a piece
— perhaps a little more.70
Mr. Gibson71 shewed me to day a letter from Gov Gamble72
in very low spirits — Genl Halleck73 rules out the malitia [sic]. The
goods sent from here—those clothes and blanketts [sic] —expressly for Gambles malitia
[sic] are taken and transfer[r]ed to other troops, this is too bad.
< [Note.] Jany 3 Mr. Gibson read me another letter from Gov
Gamble in much better spirits. He thinks, in the main that Halleck is doing very
well[.>]
Genl McClellan and his chief of staff, Genl Marcey [sic], are
both very sick — Said to be typhoid fever — and this is making much difficulty.
The Genl: it seems, is very reticent. Nobody knows his
plans. The Sec of war and the President himself are kept in ignorance of the
actual condition of the army and the intended movements of the General — if indeed
they intend to move at all — In fact the whole administration is lamentably deficient
in the lack of unity and coaction[.] There is no quarrell [sic] among us, but an
absalute [sic] want of community of intelligence, purpose and action.
In truth, it is not an administration but the separate and disjointed
action of seven independent officers, each one ignorant of what his colle[a]gues
are doing.
To day in council, Mr. Chase stated the condition of things in
sorrowful plainness; and then, as usual, we had a “bald, disjointed chat” about
it, coming to no conclusion.
It seemed as if all military operations were to stop, just because
Genl McClellan is sick! Some proposed that there should be a council of war composed
of Maj: Genls, in order that somebody besides the Genl in chief, may know something
about the army; and be able to take command in case Genl McC[lellan] should die
or continue sick.
I differed, and told the President that he was commander in
chief, and that it was not his privilege but his duty to command; and that implied
the necessity to know the true condition of things.
That if I was in his place, I would know; and if things were
not done to my liking, I would order them otherwise. That I believed he could get
along easier and much better by the free use of his power, than by this injurious
deference to his subordinates [.]
I said, the Sec of War is but the Adjutant Genl. and the Sec
of the Navy the Admiral of the commander in chief, and through them, he ought to
know all that is necessary to be known about the army and Navy. And I urged upon
him (as often heretofore) the propriety of detailing at least two active and skillful
officers to act as his aid[e]s, to write and carry his orders, collect his information,
keep his military books and papers, and do his bidding generally in military affairs.
But I fear that I spoke in vain. The Prest. is an excellent man,
and, in the main wise; but he lacks will and purpose, and, I greatly fear he, has
not the power to command.
__________
67 Supra, Jan. 28, 1860, note 38.
68 Montgomery C. Meigs : West Point graduate of 1836
; officer in the Artillery and Engineering Corps ever since; commander of the
expedition to Fort Pickens which had saved that fort; quartermaster-general
with the rank of brigadier-general, 1861-1882.
69 Supra, March 9, 1861, note 40.
70 He did actually contract for seven
armor-plated gunboats of 600 tons each to be finished in sixty-five days. He and
Mr. Bates had suggested these gunboats for the Mississippi, and, before the War
ended, he had built fourteen armored gunboats, seven “tin-clad” transports, and
four heavy mortar boats, and had added several new ordnance Inventions of his own
to them.
71 Supra, April 27, 1859, note 27.
72 Supra, July 23, 1859, note 39.
73 Supra, Nov. 13, 1861, note 37.
SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, The Diary of Edward
Bates, published in The Annual Report Of The American
Historical Association For The Year 1930 Volume 4, p. 219-20
