NEWS FROM ALONG THE LINE.
The siege of Washington
on the Pamlico river continues, and heavy tiring is heard from there every day.
We learn they have got Gen. Foster shut up there and he is in danger of being
made prisoner. That may be, but I will bet ten to one he holds the keys and
will never take off his cap to any general in the Confederate service.
Work goes bravely on
at the fort; one gun mounted today and if we can have two or three days more we
shall be ready to receive company. Our little force here is being well handled,
and with the aid of the boats can make a stubborn resistance. We heard that
Gen. Spinola left Newbern with quite a force, going overland to the relief of
Gen. Foster, but when about half way there he got scared and turned back. Gen.
Foster will not compliment him very highly for that feat. I have heard a rumor
that we have had an invitation to surrender; that a flag of truce came to our
lines and requested an interview with the post commander. Col. Pickett went
out. They said something about his surrendering, when the colonel replied he
had not been in communication with his superior recently and had received no
orders to surrender, and that under the circumstances he thought it wouldn't
look hardly military to surrender without first burning a little powder over
it. He then dismissed the fag. Bravo, colonel, bravo!
EVACUATION.
The steamer Thomas Collyer
arrived last night, bringing dispatches of some kind, but just what we were
unable to find out. This morning, however, the mystery was cleared up. The 12th
New York battery was on the wharf, the 46th Massachusetts and the other
detached companies were breaking camp, preparatory to going aboard the boat.
This meant evacuation and going to the relief of Foster. The 25th of course is
to be the last to leave, and we cast the last sad, lingering look on Plymouth.
That is always our style; the first in and last out, and never lost a battle.
But just here, the uncertainty of all things human is again illustrated. Just
is the troops were aboard, the old Massasoit comes putting up the river,
bringing the welcome news that Foster has run the blockade and the order of
evacuation is countermanded. Cheer after cheer rends the air, smiles light up
every counterance and hope takes the place of despair. But won't there be larks
now, though? If there is anybody hanging around Washington who does not belong
there, they had better be getting away.
COLONEL SISSON.
It seems that after
Spinola's abortion and the troops' return to Newbern, the brave Col. Sisson of
the 5th Rhode Island was so disgusted with the whole thing that he proposer
going with his regiment alone to Foster's relief. He and his regiment went
aboard the steamer Escort, and on the evening of the 13th, under cover of a
heavy fire from the guboats on the batteries at Hill's Point, seven miles below
Washington, he successfully ran the blockade, arriving at Washington with his
troops and supplies. The next evening, with Gen. Foster aboard, he again ran
the gauntlet, landing the general safely in Newbern. But it is said the Escort
looked like a pepper-box from the shot holes made in her while running the
gauntlet. On this perilous trip only one man (the pilot) was killed. The little
garrison at Washington held out bravely. It consisted of only eight companies
of the 27th and the 4th Massachusetts regiments, two companies of the 1st North
Carolina, one company of the 3d New York cavalry and one New York battery, aided
by two or three gunboats on the river. Against this small force was opposed
some 12,000 of the enemy as near as we can learn. After Gen. Foster got away
they did not seem to care to wait for his return, but folded their tents and
silently stole away.
ALL QUIET ON THE
ROANOKE.
The noise of the
battle is over and we are longer harassed by war's dread alarms, but can now
sit down, eat our fresh shad and herring and drink our peach and honey in peace
and quiet.
A BROKER'S OFFICE.
Our provost marshal,
Major Bartholomew of the 27th Massachusetts, has opened a broker's office,
where he is exchanging salt and amnesty for allegiance oaths, and as this is
the fishing season, he is driving a right smart business. The natives for miles
around come in droves, take the oath, get their amnesty papers and an order for
salt, and after being cautioned not to be found breaking their allegiance they
go away happy. There are probably some honest men among them who would like to
do about right if they dared to, but the whole thing looks ludicrous, for there
is evidently not one in a hundred of them who would ever think of taking the
oath were it not for the hope of obtaining a little salt. The boys call it the
salt oath.
GOOD SENSIBLE TALK.
I was out in the country
yesterday, doing picket duty, and fell in with an old gentleman with whom I had
a good sensible talk, He was an intelligent, well appearing man, who said he
was a farmer, or had been one until the breaking out of the war. He owns a
plantation just outside our lines, but is not permitted to go into town. He is
allowed to purchase in small quantities such articles as he may need by sending
in his negro man or getting the boys to bring them out. He said at the
commencement of the secession movement, he and all this part of the state, in
fact nearly all of the state, was opposed to it, and in two state conventions,
to both of which he was a delegate, the ordinance of secession was rejected, and
not until after South Carolina on one side and Virginia on the other had gone
out was the ordinance of secession passed.
He said: “Situated
as we were we could not remain neutral, and although opposed to it from the
beginning and all the time even after the war commenced and all our young men
had gone into the army, it was but natural that I should sympathize with my own
people.”
“Certainly," I
replied, “but have you any hopes of the ultimate success of the Confederacy?”
“None whatever, and
I told our people so at our conventions. We are a ruined people and the best
thing we can do is to make peace with the government on any terms we can.”
“Yes, but you know
the terms are very simple, merely to lay down your arms and return to your
loyalty to the government.”
“Yes, I know it is
simple enough now, but I reckon the government at Richmond is not wise enough
to accept it, and the longer they keep up the war the worse we are off, and in
the end we will have to accept such terms as are dictated to us.”
A sensible old
gentleman that, and I should have liked to go out to his place and sample his
peach and honey, scuppernong and things.
STOKES TAKES HIS
LEAVE OF US.
An order was
received here today from the war department discharging Stokes from the
service. When the order was read, it took him by surprise as it was his first
intimation of it. He seemed disappointed and said he should like well enough to
go home a few days, but did not like the idea of going to stay and thought he
should be back with us again in a few weeks.
He left for home
this afternoon. I am sorry to lose Stokes and shall miss him very much. He was
my chief of staff and I placed great reliance on him. He was one of our best
boys, possessed of excellent judgment, and was unsurpassed in the secret
service. I parted with him with many regrets and shall always retain pleasant
memories of our soldier life.
SOURCE: David L.
Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p.
90-1
Pleasant Hill, S.
C., February 21, 1865.
Fifteen miles
to-day. Yesterday we traveled the Camden road. To-day we turned northwest. Poor
country, quite rolling. Pine, scrub oak and sand.
SOURCE: Charles
Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 351
Page's Ferry, Wateree River, February 22, 1865.
It seems to be certain that we have Charleston. Made about ten miles to-day. Our regiment and the 6th Iowa were sent down to an old ferry to make a demonstration. Found no enemy.
The 2d and 3d are already across and we cross in the morning and take the advance. We now have eight days' rations which are to last 30—wish they'd burn them all to get rid of the wagons.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 351
Flat Rock P. O., February 23, 1865.
Fifteen miles. Traveled east or northeast. Very rough, hilly country, hills rock topped.
Passed through a village called “Liberty Hill,” some elegant houses. Forage plenty. No news and don't know anything.
No enemy.
SOURCE: Charles
Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 351
Made 14 miles a little south of east. We passed about a mile south of Gates' old battle ground. A dozen foragers of the 99th Indiana were captured to-day, but our foragers caught more Rebels than that, besides 50 wagons and 200 horses and mules belonging to refugees. Stringent orders from Howard, Logan and Wood about stealing. It has rained for 24 hours. No enemy in front to-day. Got out of the clay hills again on sand-pine flats.
SOURCE: Charles
Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 352
February 25, 1865.
Have not moved to-day. Rebels captured 15 men of the 29 Missouri to-day. Our foragers have been straggling for seven or eight miles in every direction; three of our regiment captured a refugee camp of seven men, ten guns, two revolvers, some pistols and 25 mules. Ordered to keep men well in hand this p. m., as Rebel cavalry is demonstrating on our front and flanks. I think it must be at a respectful distance. Rumor says Longstreet is somewhere around. Think we are waiting for the left of the army to get up with us. Our foragers have been to Camden, 13 miles; pretty tall straggling. Others have been out southeast 11 miles, and saw our 2d and 4th divisions moving on a big road, side by side, going east. Nobody can yet decide what our destination is. It is reported to-day that 13 of our ad division foragers were found by the roadside dead, with a card marked “Fate of foragers;” also four of the 3d division killed. Gen. J. E. Smith, commanding, shot four of his prisoners in retaliation. Colonel Catterson says as we were marching to this camp to-day he had pointed out to him the tree under which Baron DeKalb died at the battle of Camden. Have had 48 hours of rain with a prospect of continuance.
SOURCE: Charles
Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 352
Fullersville, S. C., Sunday, February 26, 1865.
Sixty hours of rain terminated at daylight this morning, but it has not hurt the sandy roads a particle. We made 11 miles in four and one quarter hours, and are now waiting for a bridge to be completed over this creek, “Lynch's.” We think now we are on the road to Wilmington. The map shows a good deal of railroad to be destroyed on the way, but I think we will get through by the 15th of March. Expect “you uns” are getting anxious about “we uns” again. This is, I think, a much longer thing than the Savannah campaign. Our 4th division took 103 prisoners here last night and our ad took 200 more to-day. They are State Line Troops and muchly demoralized. It is a fact about that murdering yesterday. Sherman is out in a big retaliation order to-day. Wilmington is reported ours. Thunder and lightning last evening. Hear that the rain has raised the creek until it is three-quarters of a mile wide, and we won't get across to-morrow. I think I'll put down our principal campaigns:
|
1st. |
Dec., 1862, The Tallahatchie River Campaign |
120 miles. |
|
2nd. |
April, 1863, The Panola, Miss., 9 day's march |
180 miles. |
|
3rd. |
July, 1863, Jackson, Miss., Campaign |
100 miles. |
|
4th. |
Oct. & Nov., '63, Memphis to Chattanooga, and in |
|
|
5th. |
Dec. to Maryville, Tenn., and back to Scottsboro, Ala. |
800 miles. |
|
6th. |
Jan., '64, Wills Valley Campaign. |
100 miles. |
|
7th. |
Feb. & March, '64, Dalton, Ga., Campaign |
300 miles. |
|
8th. |
May until Sept., Atlanta Campaign. |
400 miles. |
|
9th. |
Oct., 1864, Atlanta to Gadsden, Ala., and return |
300 miles. |
|
10th. |
Nov. & Dec., Atlanta to Savannah. |
300 miles. |
|
|
Jan., Feb. & March, '65, The Carolina Campaign. |
400 miles. |
|
Total |
|
3,000 miles. |
A captain and seven men who went foraging yesterday are still missing, supposed to be captured or killed. And 20 men of the 97th Indiana who went out this morning are reported all killed by a 46th Ohio man, who was wounded and left for dead by the Rebels. He says the 97th boys paid for themselves in dead Rebels before they were overpowered. Our corps has now 500 prisoners, three times as many as we have lost.
Tillersville, February 27, 1865.
We have half a mile of bridging to build before we can get across this Lynch's creek, the rains have swollen it so much. Our 6th Iowa foragers we thought captured are all right. They got across this creek before the freshet and it cut them off. The 97th Indiana men are gone up. All of the 20 killed or captured but 3; 11 dead Rebels were found on their little battle field, so the report comes from General Corse, I understand. The Rebels are losing, I should think, about 3 or 4 men to our one, but they are showing more manhood than those who opposed our march in Georgia. It isn't the “militia,” for the 360 prisoners our corps have taken within four days surrendered without firing a shot. They were S. C. chivalry, proper. The men who are most active on their side, I think, belong to Butler's or Hampton's command from the Potomac. They are cavalry and don't amount to anything as far as infantry is concerned, but only think they venture a little closer than Wheeler does. (You are expected to emit a sarcastic ha! ha!! and remark: “They don't know Sherman's army as well as Wheeler does.”) They say we can't cross here until the water falls, and as there is an excellent prospect for more rain, we are thinking of building cabins in which to pass the rainy season.
All our wounded are doing excellently. The surgeons say that the wounded do much better being transported in ambulances than in stationary hospitals. They escape the foul air is the main reason.
February 28, 1865.
High water still keeps us here. We will probably get off to-morrow. It is thought we will cross the Great Peedee at Cheraw; there is so much swamp lower down that might trouble us.
A thousand rumors afloat to-day. The citizens have it that Grant has whipped Lee since the Hatcher Run affair. It rained some last night and is now—8 p. m. —sprinkling again. If it rains hard to-night we will have to give up crossing here and go higher up. The 17th is across. The left wing is reported near Charlotte, N. C., but don't know that it is so. We have heard that Davis' commissioners have returned to Washington.
We are having a time sure. They say now that we will not get across to-morrow. I heard some outrageous jokes to-day about a Golden Christ which was stolen by some of our thieves in Columbia, and in an inspection on the 26th it was found in a department headquarter's wagon. They are too wicked to tell. This army has done some awful stealing. Inspectors pounce down on the trains every day or two now and search them. Everything imaginable is found in the wagons. The stuff is given to citizens or destroyed. Our last winter campaign ends to-day. Only five and one-half months more to serve.
At the Cabinet nothing of interest. Seward and Fessenden were early there and left. Judge Otto,1 who was present in the place of Usher, presented a paper for the removal of Charles L. Lines, a land officer in Kansas, stating he was a troublesome man and an opponent of the Administration. It is not usual for me to volunteer remarks touching the appointments of another Department, but I could not forbear saying this statement if correct was extraordinary, — that Lines was an old Whig, we had been old opponents in Connecticut, — that he, in earnest zeal, went early to Kansas, had made sacrifices of domestic comfort, had lost one or two sons there, and I should be surprised if he was not a friend of the President. Otto said he knew nothing on the subject. It was a question in which Senator Jim Lane took an interest and had been submitted by Mr. Edmunds.2 The President said he was sorry Lane had come here just at this time, for he would want him (the President) to adopt all his personal quarrels. For the present, and until he knew more, he declined to interfere.
1 William T. Otto, Assistant Secretary of the Interior.
2 James M. Edmunds, Commissioner of the General Land Office.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 147-8
Talked over the subject of Wilmington, examined its localities, and considered the position of things fully with Porter and Fox. I had intended Blair should have been present, for the meeting was at his house, but he was compelled to leave for Baltimore.
Porter has preferred retaining the Mississippi Squadron, but repeated what he has heretofore said, - that he had been treated kindly by the Department, and if I ordered him to go over Niagara Falls in an iron pot he should obey the order. In other words, he and every naval officer must submit and give up their own wishes to the orders of the Department without a murmur of dissent.
There was a special Cabinet-meeting to-day on the subject of the abandoned plantations. A person of the name of Wright wishes the President to put him in possession of what he claims to be his plantation, now in the occupancy of Mr. Flanders, the Treasury agent. It seems that F. has fifty-two of these plantations, or had some time since, perhaps he has more now.
The President said serious questions were rising in regard to this description of property; appeals were made to him, and he could not undertake to investigate and adjust them. Quite a discussion took place in which the President, Mr. Bates, and Mr. Stanton took the principal part. It was not made distinctly to appear how these plantations came into the hands of Mr. Flanders, the Treasury agent. All who were present, except Mr. Bates and myself, seemed to take it for granted that it was legitimate and proper. They said the law had prescribed how abandoned plantations became forfeit. Mr. Stanton said he had given the subject great attention and most thorough investigation, and he made a somewhat emphatic and labored argument, telling the President (very properly I think) he could not, and ought not to, take upon himself the details of these embarrassing questions; that when Admiral Farragut and General Butler took possession of New Orleans, many of the inhabitants fled, leaving their plantations, and kept themselves within the Rebel lines; thousands of negroes were left unprovided for. It became necessary for the government to provide for them; the military authorities had taken up their deserted plantations and seized others, and let them out for the negroes to work. When Mr. Chase got his Treasury agents at work, it was thought best to turn these plantations over to him. After a little time, Chase became sick of his bargain, and desired the War Department to retake possession and responsibility but he (S.) had, declined.
Mr. Bates wanted a definition of “abandoned.” Was it “abandonment” for a man to leave his home with his family and go for a few months to the North, or to Cuba, or to Richmond? etc. Mr. Stanton said the statute made that clear, but Mr. Bates thought Congress, though they made law, did not make dictionaries. I put the question if a man had two plantations, one in Alabama and one in Louisiana, at the time of the capture of New Orleans, and he, being in Alabama, remained there, within the Rebel lines, attending to his private domestic affairs, whether that would be an abandonment of his Louisiana plantation so that Mr. Flanders could take and hold it. I also asked if there was not a preliminary question to all this, — would it not be necessary to ascertain by proper, legal inquiry whether the owner was a Rebel and traitor.
There is too much of a disposition to jump to a conclusion — to take for granted — on many occasions. The owner by legal title-deeds and records is entitled to his land unless he has forfeited it. If a Rebel and traitor, he may have forfeited it, but who is to decide that he is a traitor? Not the military commander or quartermaster, and yet no other officer or tribunal has passed over them.
Some difference appeared between Fessenden and Stanton as to which should have the custody of the plantations. F. thought the agent should report to S. and vice versa. If seized or taken possession of from military necessity, I have never been able to see why the Treasury agent should have them. If not a military necessity, how can he have possession, except under some legal decision? It is not sufficient that the law says the land of a traitor shall be forfeited. Who shall expound and carry the law into effect, transferring title? Not the Treasury agent, certainly.
The President said he wished some means devised to relieve him from these questions. He could not undertake to investigate them. Stanton said that was true, but that, having given the subject great consideration, he was prepared to say what in his opinion was best, – that was that the whole of the matters pertaining to abandoned plantations should be turned over to the War Department and he would organize a bureau or tribunal to make rightful disposition of each case presented.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 148-50
Grant has gone up to the Shenandoah to see Sheridan. I had advised Porter and Fox to visit Grant on James River, but this prevented, and yesterday it was said at the War Department he would be here to-day. We now learn he has already returned to the Army of the Potomac, so P. and F. left this P.M. to visit him and arrange particulars. Grant has not yet decided or made known what general he shall select for this service.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 150-1
Intelligence reaches us this morning that Sheridan has achieved a great victory over Early in the valley of the Shenandoah, after much hard fighting. This will do much to encourage and stimulate all Union-loving men, and will be ominous to Lee.
At Cabinet-meeting. Met Fessenden on my way, who said he had called in but the President told him there was “no business.” This is the announcement three out of four days of meeting. Sometimes matters are brought forward notwithstanding. I found the Postmaster-General and the Attorney-General with the President. In a few minutes Fessenden returned, and shortly after Stanton came in. It was easy to perceive that the latter was full, – that he had something on the brain, — and I concluded he had additional tidings from Sheridan. But, the President being called out just as he entered, Stanton went and seated himself by Fessenden and conversed in an undertone. He had remarked as he came in that he had sent for Mr. Seward. When Seward arrived, Stanton unfolded and read a telegram, stating two steamers had been captured on Lake Erie by Rebels from Canada. This he said was a matter that immediately concerned the State and Navy Departments. He inquired what naval force we had there. I told him I apprehended more than we were authorized to have by treaty stipulations. He inquired what the treaty was; said he knew nothing about that. Seward explained. Stanton wanted to know where the Michigan was. I told him she had lain at Johnson's Island most of the summer to aid the army and guard prisoners and my impression was that she was still there. As usual, he was excited, and, as usual, a little annoyed that I viewed the matter coolly. He soon left, and Seward also, each agreeing to let me know as soon as they had farther information. On my return to the Department I telegraphed to Commodore Rodgers in New York to hold himself in readiness to obey any orders, and also to Admiral Paulding to have one hundred picked men and officers ready to proceed on immediate service if required. I then called on Stanton, who agreed to furnish transportation for these men and four guns to Buffalo, if the occasion needed them, — and he was confident it would, thought they had better be sent at all events, officers, men, and guns. I thought it premature but that we would be prepared. Just before leaving the Department for the day, Stanton sent me a dispatch just received, that some Rebel refugees had come on board the packet-boat Parsons at Malden, the boat being on her way from Detroit to Sandusky; had risen on the officers and crew and seized the boat, had subsequently seized and sunk the (Island Queen), then run their own boat into a Canada port and disabled and then deserted her. I called on Stanton at the War Department on my way home and remarked the flurry was pretty well over, and the fuss ended. He did not, he said, consider it so by any means. One vessel was destroyed, and one was rushing over the lake and all our vast shipping on the Lakes was at its mercy. I requested him to reread the dispatch he had sent me. He did so, and was a little nonplussed; but said the pirate was there and would do the same thing over again. I thought not immediately. He thought they would at once, and we should be prepared by having two more naval vessels. The army had two, he said, which they would turn over to us. I remarked that we had best keep within the terms of the treaty, and call on the British authorities to do their duty. I remarked this was a piece of robbery and could not be considered in any other light; that the robbers had come from Canada and risen upon the vessel upon which they had embarked, and had fled into Canada with the stolen property. The State Department had, or should have, the question now in hand. This, I perceived, was letting off the affair in too quiet a way to suit the Secretary of War, and I left him. He is always in an excited panic, a sensational condition, at such times.
There was some conversation after the others left, between the President, Blair, and myself - chiefly by them in regard to men and things in Maryland. In the early days of the Administration, H. Winter Davis and his crew had been more regarded than they deserved.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 151-3
The victory of Sheridan has a party-political influence. It is not gratifying to the opponents of the Administration. Some who want to rejoice in it feel it difficult to do so, because they are conscious that it strengthens the Administration, to which they are opposed. The partisan feeling begins to show itself strongly among men of whom it was not expected. In New York there has been more of this than elsewhere. Robert C. Winthrop, once potent and powerful in Massachusetts, a man of position and of talent, not a great man, but a scholar of taste and pretension, a gentleman and statesman, made his appearance in New York, with Fernando and Ben Wood, Rynders,1 and others, whom in other days he detested. Winthrop is a disappointed man. He had high aspirations and high expectations, and not without reason. Had he pursued a faithful, conscientious course, he would have won high official distinction and influence. But, confident of his strong position in New England and with the Whigs, he courted their enemies, repelled the Republicans and fell. As he swerved from the track, Sumner and others, who did not, perhaps, regret his error, stepped forward, and poor Winthrop in a very short time found that instead of gaining new friends he had lost old ones. For several years he felt very uncomfortable, and has now committed another great mistake. The National Intelligencer, which has endeavored to hold a position of dignified neutrality during this Administration, has finally given way and become strongly partisan. This I regret, for the editor has ability, and has made his paper respectable. His discussions of current and important questions have been highly creditable and often instructive, and I cannot but think it unfortunate that he should take an attitude which will injure him and his paper and do good to no one.
1 Isaiah Rynders, a local politician of New York.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 153-4
Senator Harris called on me. He is jubilant over Sheridan's success, but much disturbed by the miserable intrigues of Weed and Seward in the city of New York. Says he has told the President frankly of his error, that he has only given a little vitality to Weed, whose influence has dwindled to nothing, and would have entirely perished but for the help which the President has given him. This he is aware has been effected through Seward, who is a part of Weed. The removal of Andrews as Naval Officer, the appointment of Wakeman to his place, causing Wakeman to leave the post-office, into which they have thrust Kelly, an old fiddler for Seward in other years, is a Weed operation. Seward carried it out.
Blair tells me that Weed is manÅ“uvring for a change of Cabinet, and Morgan so writes me. He has for that reason, B. says, set his curs and hounds barking at my heels and is trying to prejudice the President against me. Not unlikely, but I can go into no counter-intrigues. If the President were to surrender himself into such hands, which I do not believe, — he would be unworthy his position. He has yielded more than his own good sense would have prompted him already. For several months there has been a pretended difference between Seward and Weed; for a much longer period there has been an ostensible hostility between Weed and Sim Draper. I have never for a moment believed in the reality of these differences; but I am apprehensive the President is in a measure, or to some extent, deceived by them. He gives himself — too much, I sometimes think — into the keeping of Seward, who is not always truthful, not sensitively scrupulous, but a schemer, while Weed, his second part, and of vastly more vigor of mind, is reckless and direct, persistent and tortuous, avaricious of late, and always corrupt. We have never been intimate. I do not respect him, and he well knows it. Yet I have never treated him with disrespect, nor given him cause of enmity, except by avoiding intimacy and by declining to yield to improper schemes of himself and his friends. On one occasion, at an early period of the Administration, Mr. Seward volunteered to say that he always acted in concert with Weed, that “Seward's Weed and Weed's Seward.” If, as Blair supposes, Weed is operating against me, Seward probably is also, and yet I have seen no evidence of it, - certainly none recently.
 |
| Montgomery Blair |
I asked Blair what led to this step, for there must be a reason for it. He said he had no doubt he was a peace offering to Frémont and his friends. They wanted an offering, and he was the victim whose sacrifice would propitiate them. The resignation of Frémont and Cochrane was received yesterday, and the President, commenting on it, said F. had stated "the Administration was a failure, politically, militarily, and financially,” that this included the Secretaries of State, Treasury, War, and Postmaster-General, and he thought the Interior, but not the Navy or the Attorney-General. As Blair and myself walked away together toward the western gate, I told him the suggestion of pacifying the partisans of Frémont might have been brought into consideration, but it was not the moving cause; that the President would never have yielded to that, except under the pressing advisement, or deceptive appeals and representations of some one to whom he had given his confidence. “Oh,” said Blair, “there is no doubt Seward was accessory to this, instigated and stimulated by Weed.” This was the view that presented itself to my mind, the moment he informed me he was to leave, but on reflection I am not certain that Chase has not been more influential than Seward in this matter. In parting with Blair the President parts with a true friend, and he leaves no adviser so able, bold, sagacious. Honest, truthful, and sincere, he has been wise, discriminating, and correct. Governor Dennison, who is to succeed him, is, I think, a good man, and I know of no better one to have selected.
Blair has just left me. I was writing and just closing the preceding page as he called. He says he has written his resignation and sent it in or rather handed it to the President. The letter from the President which he received this morning was to him entirely unexpected. But, though a surprise, he thinks it right and will eventuate well. That Seward has advised it he does not doubt, though the President does not intimate it. But the President tells him that Washburne recommended it. Strange if the President is influenced by so untruthful, unreliable, and mean a man as Washburne. But Washburne thinks it will help the President among the Germans. The President thinks it is necessary to conciliate Weed (he might have said Chase also) who, with his friends, defeated Wadsworth for Governor two years ago. Such are Blair's conclusions and, I may add, my own. Yet I cannot but think there must be something ulterior, for it is unlike the President to dismiss an acknowledged and true friend, a public officer who has, he says, discharged his duties well and against whom there is no complaint. Why, then, is he dismissed or asked to resign, when there is no cause? My impression is that the President does not intend to part with Blair, and I shall be disappointed if he is not recalled, perhaps to some other position in the Cabinet, perhaps to act in an important capacity for the restoration of the Union. But this is all speculative.1
1 At a subsequent period the President informed me that Mr. Chase had many friends who felt wounded that he should have left the Cabinet, and left alone. The Blairs had been his assailants, but they remained and were a part of the Administration. This Mr. C. and his friends thought invidious, and the public would consider it a condemnation of himself and an approval of the Blairs. If Montgomery Blair left the Cabinet, Chase and his friends would be satisfied, and this he (the President) thought would reconcile all parties, and rid the Administration of irritating bickerings. He considered both of them his friends, and thought it was well, as Chase had left, that Blair should go also. They were both in his confidence still, and he had great regard for each of them.
The relations of Stanton with Blair were such that it was difficult for the two to remain and preserve the unity and freedom necessary for good administration and social intercourse. It was not Seward's policy to advise the dismissal of Blair, but he would strenuously urge that Stanton, between whom and Blair there was hostility, should be retained. At this time the President was greatly embarrassed by contentions among his friends, by nominal Republicans, by intense radicals, and the strong front of the Democrats. — G. W.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 156-8
