Brigadier-General James A. Garfield to Burke A. Hinsdale, February 16, 1863

Murfreesborough, Tenn., Feb. 16, 1863.

My horses and part of my staff were delayed on the Cumberland by the attack on Fort Donelson, and did not reach here until a few days ago. I have been the guest of Gen. Rosecrans since my arrival, and I have never been more acquainted with the interior life of any man in the same length of time in my life. He wants me to stay with him as chief of staff instead of taking command of a division. I am greatly in doubt which to choose. He is one of the few men in this war who enters upon all his duties with a deeply devout religious feeling, and looks to God us the disposer of the victory. His very able report of the late battle here ends with this fine sentence from the Catholic Church service, which he does not quote with any cant or affectation: "Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed tuo nomine da gloriam."

SOURCE: Jonas Mills Bundy, The Life of Gen. James A. Garfield, p. 63

Col. James. A. Garfield . . .

. . .by whom Humphrey Marshall was defeated in Kentucky, is a native of Ohio, and graduated at Williams college in 1856.  He was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859 and was appointed colonel of an Ohio [remainder of article missing].

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 1.  The bottom of the article was cut off when it was microfilmed.

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, September 3, 1862

MEMPHIS, Sept. 3, 1862.

Dear Brother:

It is easy to say “thou shalt not steal,” but to stop stealing puzzles the brains of hundreds of men and employs thousands of bailiffs, sheriffs, &c., &c. So you or Congress may command “slaves shall be free,” but to make them free and see that they are not converted into thieves, idlers or worse is a difficult problem and will require much machinery to carry out. Our commissaries must be ordered to feed them and some provision must be made for the women and children. My order gives employment to say two thousand, all men. Now that is about 1/8 of a command. Extend that population to the whole army of 80,000 gives 10,000 slaves, and if we pay 10 dollars a month the estimate can be made. If the women and children are to be provided for, we must allow for their support of, say, one million. Where are they to get work? Who is to feed them, clothe them, and house them?

We cannot now give tents to our soldiers and our wagon trains are a horrible impediment, and if we are to take along and feed the negroes who flee to us for refuge it will be an impossible task. You cannot solve this negro question in a day.

Your brigade is not here. I think it is with Buell near Chattanooga. The last I saw of them they were in Garfield's brigade at Shiloh. Still I should be glad if you would come to Memphis on a visit. Provided the southern army do not reach Kentucky or get into Maryland. In either of those events the people of the North must rise en masse with such weapons as they can get and repair to the frontier. . . .

The people are always right. Of course, in the long run, because this year they are one thing, next year another. Do you say the people were right last year in saying, acting and believing that 30,000 were enough to hold Kentucky and carry on an offensive war against the South? “The People” is a vague expression.

Here the people are not right because you are warring against them. People in the aggregate may be wrong. There is such a thing as absolute right and absolute wrong. And people may do wrong as well as right. Our people are always right, but another people may be and always are wrong.

Affectionately your brother,

W. T. SHERMAN

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 160-1

Presidents of the United States who were Veterans of the Civil War

Andrew Johnson	Brigadier General of Volunteers
Ulysses S. Grant	General-in-Chief of the United States Army
Rutherford B. Hayes	Brigadier General, Brevet Major General
James A. Garfield	Major General of Volunteers
Chester A. Arthur	Major General
Benjamin Harrison	Colonel 70th Indiana Infantry, Brevet Brigadier General
William McKinley	Captain, Co. E, 23rd Ohio Infantry, Brevet Major

Another Victory in Eastern Kentucky

The Rebels under Marshall Routed at Pound Gap – Camp Equipage and Arms Captured.

(Correspondence of the Cincinnati Gazette.)

CAMP BROWNLOW, PIKETON, KY.,

March 18th, 1862.

Gen. Garfield left this camp on the 14th inst., at the head of six hundred men, detailed in about equal numbers from the 42d and 40th Ohio and 22d Kentucky regiments and McLaughlin’s Cavalry, destined for Pound Gap. – That point was reached on Sunday morning last, after a march of thirty-seven miles, performed in something less than two days.  The enemy were taken by surprise, dislodged from their stronghold, and driven routed and discomfited from the field.  The entire camp, with its equipage, consisting of numerous log huts, canvas tents, subsistence stores, wagons, and all the trappings of camp life, together with some three hundred squirrel rifles, fell into our possession.  In the absence of means of transportation, all but what the boys could carry on their backs, was submitted to the flames.  It was a brilliant victory, and the entire detachment returned this morning, without loss or damage to a man.  With many hearty congratulations for recent brilliant victories everywhere and all around the land.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 29, 1862, p. 1

Gen. Rosecrans On The Mountain Department

Gen. Rosecrans has published the following in reference to the President’s Order No. 3:

All reports, returns and communications heretofore required to be sent to these headquarters, be addressed to the proper staff officers of “The Mountain Department, Wheeling, Virginia.”  Brigadier General Garfield, and other commanders of troops in the Department of Ohio, now included in the “Mountain Department,” will hereafter address their reports, returns, and letters to the proper Headquarters.

As senior officer on duty, the undersigned retains command of the Mountain Department until further orders.

(Signed.)

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Brigadier General. U. S. A.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 29, 1862, p. 1

Washington News and Rumors

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19. – Col. Garfield, now in eastern Kentucky, has been nominated as Brigadier-General.

Secretary Stanton has prepared from official reports full lists of all privates who have distinguished themselves, that they may be promoted.

It is rumored that Stephens has resigned the rebel Vice Presidency.

Gen. Bishop Polk is said to have recently written a letter advising emancipation as a last resort of the South.

On Mr. Trumbull’s motion, Gen. Grant has just been unanimously confirmed Major-General.

This morning’s Republican says that the private soldier who told of Gen. Stone’s communicating with rebels, on one occasion, was, a few nights since, furiously attacked by a midnight assassin, who burglariously entered his room. – The assassin was obliged to yield to superior force.

The Capitol will be illuminated on Saturday with gas from basement to dome.

A bill will to-morrow be introduced into the Senate repealing the Black Code of the District, whether embraced in Maryland laws or city ordinances, and putting blacks on the same footing with whites as regards trial, punishment and giving of testimony.  It will be accompanied by a thorough analysis of the infamous code.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 22, 1862, p. 3

Specials to the New York Papers

(Tribune Correspondence.)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16. – Gen. Sanders resignation has not been received here, and people who know his impatience for a fight pray it may not come.

Little has been said of the prize money earned by the crews of our blockading vessels, but the amount cannot be small.  The share due to Commander Alden, of the South Carolina, which made so many captures in the Gulf, is one hundred thousand dollars.  Nineteen times that sum is to be divided among his officers and men.

Gen. Grant was nominated as a Major-General to-day.  The Senate, which has since had no Executive Session, will not confirm him until the official reports are received.

The House Committee on Territories will soon report a bill organizing Arizona as a free Territory.  The Wilmot Proviso will be a part of the bill.

Mr. S. A. Allen has been appointed an agent to accompany our forces into Tennessee to take charge of the cotton crop in behalf of the Government.

(Times’ dispatch.)

Andy Johnson will probably proceed to Nashville as soon as Gen. Buell’s army takes possession of that city, and assist in organizing a Provisional Government for Tennessee.  The people there are panting for freedom, and a resumption of their connection with the union.  They will probably send a full delegation of loyal men to Congress by the last of March.

The President to-day nominated Col. Garfield of Ohio, as Brigadier General in compliment for his thrashing Humphrey Marshall.

The War Department has proofs, which is considered conclusive, that young Walworth is a spy.

(World’s Correspondence.)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19. – The recent news from Europe touching the determination of the allied powers to put Hapsburg as a ruler over Mexico, would thus create a monarchy on our borders, is exciting profound emotion here.  The fact that some such scheme was on the table has been in the possession of the Department for some time past and it will be found that the dispatches have been already sent to our Ministers at London, Paris and Madrid protesting energetically against any such project.

(Tribune Correspondence.)

The Navy Department will issue proposals to-morrow for building a number of steam men-of-war of various kinds.  The Department will withhold for the present the proposals for iron-clad steamers.  The construction of gunboats will be urgently pressed.

(World’s Dispatch)

Among other things presented to the House yesterday was the memorial of the American Geographical and Statistical Society asking the intercession of Congress in reference to the ship canal connected the river St. Lawrence and all the great Lakes on the boundary with the Atlantic ocean in the Bay of New York., and any future adjustment of the commercial relations between the United states and Great Britain.

(Tribune’s Dispatch.)

In well informed circles here it is positively asserted that Gen. Fremont has been completely vindicated of all the charges brought against his conduct of the war in Missouri, by the vote of the joint Committee of Investigation.  A highly important command is indicated for him in the far West.

(Herald’s Dispatch.)

A disposition has been manifested in the Senate to pass over most of the nominations for Brigadier Generals for the present and let the nominees win their stars by gallantry and efficiency in the field before they are confirmed.

A broad line of distinction has been drawn in the Senate between officers who lounge about the hotels or dawdle in drawing rooms, and those who devote their attention to the improvement of the efficiency of their command or are in active duties in the field.  Whenever these come up, the nomination of one against whom or in whose favor there is nothing particularly to be said by common consent, it is passed over to await the future conduct of the candidate and let him prove his merit by his deeds.

NEW YORK. Feb. 20. – A special states that Senator Wade and Andrew Johnson had an interview with Gen. McClellan yesterday and urged the necessity of action with the army on the Potomac as well as in the West.

The Senate will take up the Mexican treaty in Executive Session.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 22, 1862, p. 3

Gen. Garfield After The Rebels

A correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial thus narrates the manner in which this brave General recently routed the enemy from their fastness in the Cumberland mountain:

“There were five hundred rebels intrenched on the summit of the Cumberland Mountain, at Pound Gap. – The General ascended the mountain with his infantry by an unfrequented path, three miles below the Gap, and while his cavalry, by advancing along the main road, and making a vigorous attack in front, drew the rebels a short distance down from the summit, the infantry advanced along the ridge and completely routed them, after a fight of less than twenty minutes.  They abandoned everything.  After chasing the flying fugitives six miles into Virginia, and quartering his men over night in their captured camp, the General burned their barracks, consisting of sixty log huts, together with a large quantity of stores.  The rebels lost seven killed and wounded.  Nobody hurt on our side.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 1, 1862, p. 2

From Washington

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18.

A very large number of army and volunteer appointments were confirmed, including captains, lieutenants, adjutants, surgeons, assistant surgeons, etc.

The promotion of Gen. Grant to the Major-Generalship gives him a superior command to Brig.-Gen. Buell in the same department.

The Secretary of State says he sees indications of satisfactory reaction in favor of the United States in Great Britain as well as on the continent.

World’s Correspondence.

The recent news from Europe, touching the determination of the allied powers to put Hapsburg as ruler over Mexico, and thus create a monarchy on our borders, is exciting profound emotion here.  The fact that some such [scheme] was on the tapis [sic], has been in possession of the department for some time past, and it will be found that dispatches have already been sent to our ministers at London, Paris, and Madrid, protesting energetically against any such project.

Tribune’s Correspondence.

The Navy Department will issue proposals to-morrow, for the building of a number of steam men-of-war of various kinds.  The department will withhold, for the present, the proposals for iron clad steamers.  The construction of gunboats will be urgently pressed.

(World’s Dispatch.)

Among other things presented to the House yesterday was the memorial of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, asking the intercession of Congress in reference to the ship canal connecting the river St. Lawrence and all the great lakes on the northern boundary with the Atlantic Ocean in the bay of New York, in any future adjustment of the commercial relations between the U. S. and Great Britain.

Tribune’s Dispatch.

In well informed circles here it is positively asserted that Gen. Fremont has completely vindicated himself of all charges brought against his conduct of the war in Missouri, by the vote of the joint committee of investigation.  A highly important command is indicated for him in the far west.

Herald’s Dispatch.

A disposition has been manifested in the Senate to pass over most of the nominations for Brigadier Generals for the present, and let the nominees win their stars by gallantry and efficiency on the field before they are confirmed.  A broad line of distinction has been drawn in the Senate between officers who lounge about the hotels or dawdle in drawing rooms, and those who devote their attention to the improvement of the efficiency of their commands or in active duties in the field.  Whenever their comes up the nomination of any one against whom or in whose favor there is nothing particular to be said, by common consent it is passed over to await the future conduct of the candidate, and let him prove his merits by his deeds.

WASHINTON, Feb. 19.

Col. Garfield, now in Eastern Ky., has been nominated a Brigadier General.

Secretary Stanton has prepared from official reports full lists of all privates who have distinguished themselves, that they may be promoted.

It is rumored that Stephens has resigned the rebel Vice Presidency.

Gen. Bishop Polk is said to have recently written letters advising emancipation as the last resort of the South.

On Trumbull’s motion, Gen. Grant has just been unanimously confirmed as Major General.

This morning’s Republican says that the private soldier who told of Gen. Stone’s communicating with the rebels on one occasion, was a few nights since furiously attacked by a midnight assassin, who had burglariously entered his room.  The assassin was obliged to yield to a superior force.

The Capitol will be illuminated on Saturday from basement to dome.

A bill will to-morrow be introduced into the Senate, repealing the black code of the district, whether embraced in the Maryland laws, or city ordinances, and putting the blacks on the same footing with whites as regards trial, punishment, and giving of testimony.  It will be accompanied by a thorough analysis of the infamous code.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.

Numerous applications continue to be made for permission to trade at the several captured points on the Southern coast. – None of them have been granted.

Information has been received here that the iron clad gunboat, on the Ericson plan, is thus far satisfactory to the official inspector.  A trial trip to Fort Monroe is contemplated.

The President’s son, William, aged eleven years, is so sunk as to preclude the possibility of recovery.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.

A dispatch boat from Gen. Burnside has just arrived at Baltimore.  The official report of Gen. Burnside is now in its way to Washington.  The Federal losses at the battle of Roanoke Island were 50 killed and 222 wounded.  The rebel loss was 13 killed and 39 wounded.  The enemy were protected by entrenchments, and poured a destructive fire upon or advance column, so that our loss is the heaviest.

NEW YORK, February 20.

Specials state that Senators Wade and Andrew Johnson had an interview with Gen. McClellan yesterday, and urged the necessity of action with the army of the Potomac, as well as in the West.

The Senate will take up the Mexican treaty in executive session.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 1

From Washington

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18.

The nomination of Gen. Grant as Major General was sent into the Senate to-day.  He will be confirmed.

President Lincoln’s boy, William, is still in a critical condition.

The bill which the territorial committees of both houses are maturing, will organize the rebel country into free territories, on the principle that by rebellion these States committed suicide, and that with them their local laws and peculiar institutions have died.

Congress has passed a joint resolution directing Commissioner French to illuminate the public buildings in honor of the recent victories.

Saturday evening an illumination of private dwellings will probably be requested as a means of distinguishing loyal from disloyal citizens.

In a speech in Stark’s case, Mr. Carlisle of Va., to-day foreshadowed a pro-slavery policy in the treatment of the rebel states saying that the Senate must receive persons duly accredited hereafter, by the Legislature of Missouri, even if they have been in arms against the government.  It is coming to be generally hoped that Carlisle will be obliged this to give his seat back to Mason.

Secretary Stanton has recently said that the victory of Fort Donelson is due to Gen. Halleck, who planned, to the President, who recognized, and to Gen. Grant, who executed the campaign.

N. L. Wilson, President of the Marietta and Cincinnati R. R., is here, and says that the Baltimore and Ohio R. R. will be open within thirty days.

Very few private flags have been displayed in Washington for our late victories.

An order was issued to-day, at the request of the entire Indiana delegation, terminating the furlough under which Capt. Hazzard, of the army, was allowed to serve as Col. Of the 37th Ind. Vols.  He is charged with tyranny to his troops.

Schuyler Colfax has sent $100 to Quartermaster Pierce, at Paducah, to be expended in the relief of soldiers wounded at the attack on Donelson.

Capt. Craven, in command of the Tuscarora, is not like the other captains who have pursued rebel privateers.  If he catches the Nashville, he will blow her out of water, avoiding capture if possible.

A subscription is on foot at Alexandria, among the women, for the purchase of a flag to be presented to Farnsworth’s Illinois Cavalry Regiment.

The bill reported from the naval committee of the House, framed after consultation with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Fox, provides for the grades of naval officers, viz: Five flag officers, eighteen commodores, thirty-six captains, seventy-two commanders, one hundred and forty-four lieutenants and masters.  Boards to recommend for promotion or retirement.  Flag officers to be appointed only if they shall have received the thanks of Congress, and upon the President’s recommendation for services in battle.

Senator Harris introduced a bill to-day, making rebels outlaws, so far as civil rights are concerned: the fact of plaintiff’s treason to be a complete defense in bar of any action.

Mr. Trumbull’s confiscation bill is the special order of the Senate to-morrow.

Gen. Grant will not be confirmed as Maj. Gen. until his official report of the battle has been received.

The Senate District of Columbia committee, to-day summoned a number of witnesses to investigate the truth of the allegations in deputy jailor Dupall’s letter, relative to barbarities practiced within the jail, on an alleged fugitive slave.

Col. McConnel, of the inchoate and considerably mythical Third Maryland regiment of Vols., has at last been mustered out of service.  Upon evidence that recruiting was going on in Philadelphia to fill up the ranks of the loyal Virginia brigade being raised by John C. Underwood, and order was issued to-day breaking up the organization.

Tribune’s Correspondence.

Gen. Lander’s resignation has not been received here, and people who know his impatience for a fight pray it may not come.

Little has been said of the prize money earned by the crews of our blockading squadron, but the amount cannot be small.  The share due to Commander Alden, of the North Carolina, which made so many captures in the gulf, is over $100,000.  Nineteen times that sum is to be divided among his officers and men.

Gen. Grant was nominated as Major General to-day.  The Senate, which has since had no executive session, will not confirm until the official reports are received.

The House committee on territories will soon report a bill organizing Arizona as a free territory.  The Wilmot Proviso will probably be part of the bill.

Mr. S. A. Allen has been appointed as an agent to accompany our forces into Tennessee to take charge of the cotton crop in behalf of the Government.

Times Dispatch.

Andy Johnson will probably proceed to Nashville, as soon as Gen. Buell’s army take possession of that city, and assist in organizing a provisional government for Tennessee.  The people there are panting for freedom and resumption of their connection with the Union.  They will probably send a full delegation of loyal men to Congress by the last of March.

The President to-day nominated Colonel Garfield, of Ohio, Brigadier General, in compliment for his thrashing Humphrey Marshall.

The war Department has proofs, which are considered conclusive, that young Walworth is a spy.

WASHINGTON, February 19.

Gen. U. S. Grant, the hero of Fort Donelson, has just been unanimously confirmed by the Senate as Major General, an honor conferred in testimony of his gallant conduct in battle.

The reading the Tax Bill will be commenced in the Ways and Means committee to-morrow.  The Bill will not be printed till ordered by the House of Representatives.

In the House of Representatives this afternoon Representative Wickliffe, of Ky., announced the capture of Gen. Price and his army.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, February 20, 1862, p. 1