H.Q. Cav'y Escort,
A. of P.
Before Petersburg,
August 27, 1864
* * * * * * * * * *
I got back from Washington last evening, but have nothing
later from London than the letters which I acknowledged a week ago today. In my
mission to Washington I was quite successful in spite of the authorities of
that place, for, most fortunately for me I went there strongly armed. Before
going up I went to General Meade and stated to him my errand and scheme, and
the General not only approved it himself but gave me a letter of introduction
to General Grant, with which I next day went down and presented myself to the
Lieutenant General. I found him sitting in front of his tent under a large fly
talking with a couple of his staff. I stated my business and presented my
letter. He told me to be seated, read my letter, thought an instant puffing at
his eternal cigar and stroking his beard as he listened to what I had to say
and then replied in a short decided way: "I will approve your plan and
request the Secretary to issue you the horses and have an order made out for
you to go to Washington to attend to it yourself.” This was three times what I
had expected to get from him, as I had no idea he would send me to Washington
or request the issue of the horses, and accordingly I at once became a violent
Grant man. He immediately went into his tent and wrote the order on the back of
Meade's letter and then came out and talked about matters in general, the
weather, Colonel Buchanan and the campaign, past, present and future, while my
order to go to Washington was being made out. I had never talked with Grant
before and was glad of this small chance. He certainly has all the simplicity
of a very great man, of one whose head has in no way been turned by a rapid
rise. A very approachable man, with easy, unaffected manners, neither stern nor
vulgar, he talked to me much as he would had he been another Captain of Cavalry
whom I was visiting on business. Just at that time Hancock was operating up the
James, towards Richmond, and he gave me the last reports of what was doing
there, and then discussed the campaign and the failure of Burnside's mine,
unequivocally attributing the last to the bad behavior of the men who
constituted the storming party. He said that he ought to have routed Lee at
Spottsylvania and would have done so but for his own misapprehension as to the
enemy's weak place, and when he found it out his reserve Corps (the 5th and
6th) were too deeply engaged to be available. So he went on discussing the
enemy and their tenacity, talking in his calm, open, cheerful but dignified way,
until my order came, when I got up and went off very well pleased with my
interview. I have long known that Grant was a man of wonderful courage and
composure – self-poise - but he must also be a man of remarkably kindly
disposition and cheerful temper. He can't, however, I imagine, be on very good
terms with the authorities at Washington, for he spoke with the greatest
contempt of the whole manner in which the Maryland invasion had been managed
there.
The next morning I started for Washington and got there
Thursday, finding John, as I told you. Then, and for the next week, I went
through all the disgusting routine of one who waits upon those in power,
dangling my heels in ante-rooms, on the walls of which I patiently studied maps
and photographs, and those in high places shoved me from one to another as is
their wont in such cases. All my success and good treatment was over. My
business in Washington was to try and get the government, as they would not
mount the 5th Cavalry on new horses, to give them enough old horses unfit for
present service, owing to severe work in the present campaign, and to let them
build them up while doing their present work at Point Lookout. The officials by
no means approved of me or my scheme, or, I thought, of General Grant. To Major
Williams I went first, he suggested Colonel Hardie; Colonel Hardie suggested
Dana, Assistant Secretary of War; Dana suggested Colonel This or General That,
but distinctly disapproved of my scheme. So, somewhat discouraged, I drifted
back to Colonel Hardie and froze to his office until I could get admission to
Mr. Stanton's presence — the holy of holies. Seeing me resolved and getting
weary of seeing me always there, Hardie suggested to me that General Halleck
was my man, he being the chief of cavalry; and, in an evil moment, I allowed
myself to be beguiled into stating my business to General Halleck. Here I
caught fits. Halleck is certainly “a crusty cuss” and one, I should say, after
Stanton's own heart. In about one minute he signified an emphatic disapproval
of me and of my plan, and of General Grant and of everything else, and
concluded an emphatic statement that he would n't give me a horse, if he had
his own way, or without a positive order, by slamming his door in my face. I
returned to Colonel Hardie somewhat depressed in spirit, but resolved now to
grapple with old Stanton and have it over. As for my prospects, they had
suddenly fallen in my own eyes and I would have sold out very cheap; and yet I
was by no means disgusted with old Halleck individually. It isn't pleasant to
be roughed out of a man's office and it's decidedly unpleasant to have one's
pet scheme trampled under foot before one's eyes, and then kicked out of doors;
but I do like to see a man who can say “no” and say it with an emphasis, and
for old Halleck's capacity in this respect I can vouch. I have seen so much
rascality round our departments and such bloody rascals innocently prosecuting
their little pet schemes and grinding their harmless little axes, that I long
ago came to the conclusion that the suaviter in modo would by no means
always do in public officers, and that it was generally necessary with the men
such have to deal with to knock them down so that they can't get up.
Accordingly I derived a grim satisfaction from the reflection that if such was
my reception by General Halleck, what must be the fate of the harpies and
vultures who flock round the War Department. Anyhow I went back and resumed my
dreary watch and ward in Hardie's office.
Now Hardie is Stanton's Chief of Staff and a nervous,
gentlemanly man withal, and soon my silent, reproachful presence, even though
but one of a silent, reproachful throng which crowded his office and from which
one individual disappeared only that two more might struggle to enter, my
presence began to haunt him, so he dashed at me, possessed himself of my papers
and flung himself into the Secretary's rooms. I grimly waited, hopeless and well-nigh indifferent.
Presently Stanton himself scuffed into the office and after him came Hardie.
Now for it, said I to myself; but the American Carnot took no notice of me, but
scuffed off through the room and Hardie gave me my paper with an endorsement
from the Secretary upon it. Well, I had succeeded. Grant's endorsement was too
strong to be overlooked and I had gotten my horses, so, after being duly
bandied through a score more officials, and this time being lucky enough to hit
on a polite streak of these cattle, I finished my business in Washington and,
Thursday noon, took boat for City Point.
This, of course, settled my fate as to what regiment I was
to belong to, and I came back only to leave my old regiment and company. ... I
can't say that I leave my old regiment with any feeling of regret. In it, as a
whole, there are few who know or care for me and my whole life in the regiment
was embittered and poisoned. ... As for my squadron, however, my feelings are
very different. Here all my association has been pleasant. We have never had
any family quarrels or bickerings and with them, at least, my career has been a
success. Still it's high time I went. Here I have done my work as well as I
know how to do it, and I am getting nervous and restless and discontented. For
a time the 5th will serve me as a new object of interest and in working over
that I shall hope for a time to keep myself contented and quiet in the service
and when that plays out, I must look for something new; but I am very tired of
the war.
The brilliant military criticisms in my recent letters have
come ludicrously to nought. Here we are, in spite of my announcement that
military operations had evidently come to a close in these parts until autumn,
pounding again fiercely away at each other. Grant certainly deceives friends as
well as foes in regard to his movements. So far we seem this time to have the inside
track, and Lee has spilt a good deal of blood, which he could ill spare, in
trying to get it away from us. It is a great point gained for us when he is
forced to take the offensive, and if this kind of thing goes on, this steady
fighting all summer long, Lee won't have much left to winter in Richmond....
SOURCE: Charles Francis Adams, A Cycle of Adams Letters, 1861-1865, Volume 2, 184-9
