boats and abandoning their camp equipage and supplies. The spoils included more than twelve hundred horses and mules, as well as wagons, arms and ammunition.

At Washington the news of this victory gave occasion for an inspiring bulletin which auspiciously introduced to the people a new Secretary of War. Mr. Stanton's service in this capacity began January 20, 1862 - the day after the battle of Mill Springs, and before its results were known at Washington. His nomination had been sent to the Senate on the 13th and promptly confirmed.

The statements and counter-statements touching the causes and methods of Mr. Cameron's retirement from the War Department need not be rehearsed. His resignation followed the President's tender to him of the Russian mission, then held by Cassius M. Clay, who wished to return and enter the military service as a Major-General of Volunteers. Lincoln undoubtedly

desired a change in the head of the department, not on account of personal differences between himself and Mr. Cameron or any special misdoing, but from motives of public policy. Whether Cameron did or did not wish to leave a position already so burdensome, and promising to become much more so, is not a very essential question; yet it appears that he had for some time past been desirous of taking refuge in a diplomatic station. Secretary Chase, who had come to have a very good opinion of him, though certainly not inclined in his favor, like Mr. Seward, at the beginning, wrote to a Boston gentleman in the previous September: General Cameron, as I know, wishes to resign and go abroad."

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Simon Cameron, our earliest millionaire in politics, was deemed too dictatorial by some Republicans in his own State who did not scorn his aid as an organizer at election time, though they hinted that his pecuniary means had too direct a relation with his political ends. The hostility of the "War Governor" of his own State and opposition in financial circles tended to impair the Secretary's usefulness in a position for which, at the best, he was not specially fitted. At the time he became a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, he had not been accused of improperly using public funds, whatever he had done with his own; yet there were afterwards insinuations of this kind which led to an investigation by the House of Representatives, narrowed down to a single charge, and ending in a resolution of censure. In a special message the President (May 27, 1862), after detailing the circumstances under which the censured. action was taken when Washington was isolated directly after the fall of Fort Sumter, and some informalities occurred in reopening communication with New York said in conclusion:

It is due to Mr. Cameron to say that, although he fully approved the proceedings, they were not moved nor suggested by himself, and that not only the President but all the heads of departments were at least equally responsible with him for whatever error, wrong or fault was committed in the premises.

This vindication of the ex-Secretary could not be gainsaid, yet public attention was little occupied with the matter after the appointment of his successor.

Edwin M. Stanton was born in 1814. His father, a physician of Steubenville, O., was of Virginia birth

and slaveholding ancestry. The son was for a time. a student in Kenyon College, which he left in his nineteenth year, without graduation, and was soon admitted to the bar. He began his professional career at Steubenville and later had law-offices in Pittsburg and Washington. Always hitherto a Democrat in politics, in 1860 he was as positive a supporter of Breckinridge for the Presidency as Jeremiah S. Black, of whom he was in some measure a professional and political disciple. It was largely through Mr. Black's influence that Mr. Stanton became Attorney-General in December, 1860. His patriotic course during the remainder of Mr. Buchanan's administration has been already noticed. His private interviews or communications during this period with Mr. Seward, Mr. Sumner and other leading Republicans - improper though such intercourse seemed to his Cabinet colleague, Mr. Black, when afterward disclosed-proved his zealous loyalty to the Union, and helped to win the confidence of Republicans. When his nomination for Secretary of War was reported to the Senate in executive session, Mr. Sumner, as stated by himself long afterward, at once rose and vouched for the soundness of Mr. Stanton's political faith. Secretary Chase, who had known him personally for many years, gave explicit reasons to his friends for believing that Stanton and himself were politically in harmony. As to the vigor and capacity of the new appointee, no one doubted.

Lincoln's recollection of his first meeting with Mr. Stanton would naturally make against such a choice; and even a slight intimation of what Stanton had been writing and saying of the President since his

In

inauguration would have made matters still worse. several letters written to Mr. Buchanan after his retirement, and probably in many conversations with others, Stanton manifested violent dissatisfaction with the new Administration for not dealing more efficiently with the rebellion, compared it unfavorably with its predecessor in this respect, and indulged in dismal forebodings. His characteristic outbursts of unseemly impatience on these occasions certainly were neither restrained nor rare. He came to be on quite intimate terms with General McClellan, and in their talk Stanton continued his tirades during the autumn. The two were still on cordial terms when Stanton was tendered the Secretaryship of War, and his acceptance was agreeable to the General.

A few days after the stirring Mill Springs bulletin, appeared the President's noted "General War Order No. I":

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,

January 27, 1862.

Ordered, That the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day for a general movement of the land and the naval forces of the United States against the insurgent forces.

That especially the Army at and about Fortress Monroe, the Army of the Potomac, the Army of Western Virginia, the Army near Munfordsville, Kentucky, the Army and Flotilla at Cairo, and a Naval force in the Gulf of Mexico, be ready for a movement on that day.

That all other forces, both land and naval, with their respective commanders, obey existing orders for the time, and be ready to obey additional orders when duly given.

That the heads of departments, and especially the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, with all their subordinates, and the General-in-chief, with all other commanders and,

subordinates of land and naval forces, will severally be held to their strict and full responsibilities for the prompt execution of this order. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

We need not seek any covert purpose or obscure meaning in this peculiar order. Falling into the enemy's hands, however, it was as likely to do him harm as good. It did not arrest any work already going on; it notified Generals everywhere to prepare for early and united activity; and it had other virtues not dependent on its literal execution. There were operations already in hand, however, that had salutary results more definitely visible.

To make the "demonstration in force" which Halleck had ordered in aid of Buell, General Grant, before the middle of January, had put in motion six thousand men under General McClernand (whom he accompanied on this expedition), to menace Columbus, and a smaller force under General C. F. Smith to proceed up the west bank of the Tennessee River, menacing Fort Henry, to the vicinity of which a gunboat reconnoissance was to be made. After marching and countermarching in bad weather and over the worst of roads, for several days, Grant's men went into camp in positions convenient for embarking on river transports. The immediate object of preventing the enemy from reinforcing Bowling Green was effected, and the troops had the benefit of experience in movement. Other and more vital consequences followed.

The Confederates had much satisfaction in securing for the command in this quarter an officer so high in military repute and personal standing as Albert Sidney