Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, December 28, 1864

I received a dispatch last evening about midnight, from Lieutenant-Commander Preston on board the Santiago de Cuba at Fortress Monroe, having been sent off from Wilmington by Admiral Porter. The information is not altogether satisfactory. The powderboat was blown up about three hundred yards from Fort Fisher. No mention is made of results. I apprehend nothing serious. Have had no faith in this experiment at any time. I fear Porter relied too much upon it, and should not be surprised if the expedition would have done better without than with it. The troops are said to have disembarked above Fort Fisher, to have taken some earthworks and prisoners, and then to have reëmbarked. This reads of and like Butler. I will not prejudge the men or movements.

Mr. Seward sent me to-day a line from Thurlow Weed, who wanted the pardon or release of Stover. I sent Mr. Seward word how I had disposed of a similar application from the opposite party, viz. declining to furnish copies to outside parties who were in controversy. Mandates from the court must be respected. He made a second application with similar result, and directly after the second call I received an application from Mr. Brown, agent for the opposite parties, stating the court had granted a commission which would be here to-morrow with interrogatories to examine me and the Assistant Secretary. Calling on Mr. Seward in the afternoon, I showed him Brown's letter. He advised me not to testify nor to give any copies of any record. I told him there might be some difficulty or complaint. He said no, he always refused; told of their sending an officer on one occasion to arrest him, [and that] he applied to and got from the War Department a guard. It was all under the authority of the President, who would refuse to give copies of the record and restrain the heads of Department from acting as witnesses in such cases. I told him I had received no such authority from the President and should prefer to have it in writing from the President himself. I added that if he knew what was the President's order or position, he could put it in writing on the back of the paper of Brown, and I would stop and get the President's signature. He took up a pen, but dropped it and said it had better not be in his handwriting.

After being out a little time, he returned, followed soon after by Mr. Hunter with a paper a little longer than seemed to me necessary, and with an unfinished sentence. I remarked that the President might say if he thought proper the public interest required this testimony should be withheld. But this did not suit S., who directed how the paper should be finished.

Returning, I called on the President, who had a large crowd in attendance, chiefly females. I stated briefly the case and handed him the paper, which he carefully read, but said he should want to think of the subject some before putting his name to the paper. I told him I was glad of it, and would leave the paper with him and would call at ten to-morrow for an answer, provided he should then be ready to give one. This met his approval.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 210-2

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, December 29, 1864

I called at the Executive Mansion at precisely ten this A.M. The President was not in. Mr. Attorney-General Speed came in soon after, and, while waiting for the President I stated to him the case. He said he had heard something from Mr. Seward concerning it last evening. On the question of giving exemplified copies of public records and trial by court martial he was partly decided that copies should be furnished. The President came in while we were discussing the subject, and said he had not fully determined, but his opinion from the consideration he had given it coincided with that of Mr. Speed, but he proposed to send for Mr. Seward, who shortly came. On hearing that the President had hesitated in signing the paper prepared by him and doubted its correctness, he was very much surprised, not to say chagrined; but when Speed joined in those doubts, Seward was annoyed, indeed quite angry. He denied that the public papers of any Department were to be subjected to private examination, and most emphatically denounced any idea of furnishing copies on the claim or demand of any State court or any court in a private suit. If it was conceded in a single instance, it must be in all. “And,” said he, pointing to the private shelves of the President, which he keeps locked, “they will demand those papers.” “But those,” said the President, “are private and confidential, a very different affair.'' “Call them,” said Seward, “what you please, you cannot retain them from Congress or the court if you concede the principle in this case. You cannot discriminate on their call; they will not admit the rectitude of your judgment and discrimination, if you give up to them the right of the demand now made on the Secretary of the Navy. He must not furnish them copies nor must he testify."

Without being convinced, the President was an attentive listener, and I think his faith was somewhat shaken. “We will look at this matter fully and carefully,” said he. “If the Secretary of State is right, we shall all of us be of his opinion, for this is a big thing, and this question must have been up and passed upon before this day.”

He then decided he would have a legal opinion from the Attorney-General, and framed questions for him to answer. Some modifications were suggested, and the matter closed for the present by the President instructing me not to give my evidence or copies till this question was decided.

Lieutenants-Commander) Preston arrived this P.M. with dispatches from Rear-Admiral Porter off Wilmington. The expedition has proved a failure. The powder-ship was a mere puff of smoke, doing no damage so far as is known. In this I am not disappointed. The Navy silenced the batteries and did, so far as I can learn, all that we had a right to expect. From Lieutenants-Commander] Preston's oral account, as well as from the dispatches, the troops appear to have behaved well. It was a mistake that General Butler, a civilian without military knowledge or experience in matters of this kind, should have been selected for this command. He is not an engineer, or an artillerist. He did not land. General Weitzel is wholly under his influence, and the two did nothing. Had the military been well commanded the results would, in some respects, have been different, and, I think, a success. General Butler has won laurels under the smoke and fire and fight of the Navy, — as at Hatteras or at New Orleans, — and he flattered himself that he should in like manner be favored at Wilmington.

General Grant ought never to have given him this command. It is unfortunate that Butler is associated with Grant, for he has great mental power which gives him undue ascendancy over his official superior. Certainly General Grant must have known that Butler was not the proper officer for such an expedition. Why did he give B. this command?

Fox says Grant occasionally gets drunk. I have never mentioned the fact to any one, not even to my wife, who can be trusted with a secret. There were such rumors of him when in the West.

Went with Fox to the President with Admiral Porter's dispatches. He read them carefully through, and after a very brief conversation I asked what was now to be done. The President said he must refer me to General Grant so far as the military part was concerned. He did not know that we wanted any advice on naval matters.

I said we had a large squadron there which we could not retain on that station unless something was to be effected, for it was wasting our naval strength. He said he hoped we had at this time enough vessels to close the ports to blockade-runners, and again said, “I must refer you to General Grant."

We left the President about 3.30 P.M. I had then much of my mail to get off. Did not leave the Department until ten. After dinner, took my usual walk. Fox called at my house, and a dispatch was framed to Grant as the President had directed. I said to Fox that it ought to go through Stanton, or that he should see it. When he was leaving and after he had got the door open, Fox said Stanton might not be at the Department, and would be likely to oppose if he was, and he doubted if it was best to say anything to him. Inconsiderately I assented, or rather did not dissent.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 212-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, December 31, 1864

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