LOSS OF DISTINGUISHED OFFICERS. been employed as Assistant Secretary of State at Washington while his father held that office, and had subsequently accompanied Caleb Cushing to China as secretary of Legation. At the first call for volunteers, in Boston, he raised a regiment and, proceeding to the Potomac, was in honorable service till his death on the field. Colonel George W. Pratt, of the 20th New York State volunteers, fell on the 30th of August, at the battle near Gainesville. The son of Zadock Pratt, an eminent public-spirited citizen of New York, he brought to the service the finest qualifications of the gentleman and scholar. A good linguist, accomplished by foreign travel in early manhood, he left the luxuries of wealth and literature at his home on the Hudson river at the call of his country, and honorably fell, at the head of his men, in a charge upon the enemy. Colonel John A, Koltes, acting brigadier in General Steinwehr's division, a native of Prussia, a gentleman of liberal education, who had shown his devotion to the Union by raising a regiment of his countrymen in Pennsylvania, also fell in this engagement much regretted. Yet another victim of these disastrous days was Colonel Thornton F. Brodhead, a native of New Hampshire, an officer of the regular army, at the time of his death on the field at Manassas, on the 30th of August, in command of the 1st Michigan Cavalry regiment. Colonel Brodhead distinguished himself in the Mexican war. Returning to civil life, he resumed his profession of the law. He was also known as a politician, having served in the Legislature of Michigan, and held an office at Detroit under the administration of President Pierce. The Confederate General Lee, on the night of the 30th, thus announced to President Jefferson Davis the engagement of that and the previous days: "The army of Northern Virginia achieved to-day, on the plains of Manassas, a signal victory over the combined forces of Generals McClellan and Pope. On the 553 28th and 29th each wing, under Generals Longstreet and Jackson, repulsed with valor attacks made on them separately. We mourn the loss of our gallant dead in every conflict, yet our gratitude to Almighty God for his mercies rises higher each day. To Him and to the valor of our troops a nation's gratitude is due." This dispatch was communicated to the Confederate Congress, then sitting at Richmond, with the following message: "I have the gratification of presenting to Congress two dispatches from General Robert E. Lee, commanding the army of Northern Virginia, communicating the result of the operations north of the Rappahannock. From these despatches it will be seen that God has again extended his shield over our patriotic army, and has blessed the cause of the Confederacy with a second signal victory on the field already memorable by the gallant achievement of our troops. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on the skill and daring of the commandinggeneral who conceived, or the valor and hardihood of the troops who executed, the brilliant movement whose result is now communicated. After having driven from their intrenchments an enemy superior in numbers, and relieved from siege the city of Richmond, as heretofore communicated, our toil-worn troops advanced to meet another invading army, reinforced, not only by the defeated army of General McClellan, but by the fresh corps of Generals Burnside and Hunter. After forced marches with inadequate transportation, and across streams swollen to unusual height, by repeated combats they turned the position of the enemy, and forming a junction of their columns in the face of greatly superior forces, they fought the decisive battle of the 30th, the crowning triumph of their toil and valor." General Pope, having brought this difficult campaign to a conclusion, urgently applied to the Government to be relieved, and was, On the lieved, and was, in consequence, transfer red to the department of the North-West, for which he left Washington on the 7th of September. The charges against MajorGen. Fitz John Porter, indicated in his report of misconduct before the enemy, were formally brought by Gen. Pope before a court martial, which, after 45 days session in Washington, ending in January, 1863, pronounced a verdict of guilty on the main points, with the sentence that the accused be "cashiered, and be forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit under the government of the United States." At the request of President Lincoln, the "Proceedings, Findings, and Sentence" were reviewed by the Hon. Joseph Holt, who now held the office of Judge Advocate General. On the delivery of his written opinion, an an elaborate paper which was at once given to the press the sentence was approved by the President. Whilst this court-martial was held at the capital, another, at the same place, was sitting in judgment on the conduct of General McDowell in the campaign. A letter from that officer to President Lincoln, dated September 6, 1862, sets forth the motive of this investigation, which was made purely at the request of General McDowell: "I have been informed by a Senator," he writes, that he has seen a note in pencil, written by a colonel of cavalry, mortally wounded in the recent battle, stating, among other causes, that 'he was dying, a victim to McDowell's treachery,' and that his last request was that this note might be shown to you. That the colonel believed this charge, and felt that his last act on earth was a great public service, there can be, I think, no question. This solemn accusation, from the grave of a gallant officer who died for his country, is entitled to great consideration, and I feel called upon to endeavor to meet it as well as so general a charge, from one now no longer able to support it, can be met. I therefore beg you to please cause a court to be instituted for its investigation; and, in the absence of any knowledge whatever as to the particular act or acts, time or place, or general conduct, the deceased may have had in view, I have to ask that the inquiry be without limitation, and be upon any point and every subject which may, in any way, be supposed to have led to this belief; that it may be directed to my whole conduct as a general officer, either under another, or while in a separate command, whether on matters of administration or command-to my correspondence with any of the enemy's commanders, or with any one within the enemy's lines-to my conduct, and the policy pursued by me toward the inhabitants of the country occupied by our troops with reference to themselves or their property; and, further, to any imputations of indirect treachery or disloyalty toward the nation, or any individual having, like myself, an important trustwhether I have or have not been faithful as a subordinate to those placed over me, giving them heartily and to the best of my capacity, all the support in my power; and whether I have or have not failed, through unworthy personal motives, to go to the aid of, or send reinforcements to my brother commanders. That this subject of my alleged treachery or disloyalty may be fully inquired into. I beg that all officers, soldiers, or civilians, who know, or think they know, of any act of mine liable to the charge in question, be allowed and invited to make it known to the court. I also beg that the proceedings of the court may be open and free to the press from day to day." The dying officer alluded to in this frank and candid request, which expresses in every word the impulses of a man of honor-was Colonel Brodhead, whose death we have recorded among the victims of the second battle of Bull Run. The court examined a great number of witnesses, and passed in review the whole course of General McDowell's mil } EXCULPATION OF GENERAL MCDOWELL. itary administration from August, 1861, when he entered on the command of a division under General McClellan, through the period of his separation from that officer, and his independent command of the Department of the Rappahannock, to the last scenes of his campaign with General Pope. His correspondence with the enemy, and conduct towards the inhabitants of the country occupied by his forces, were duly investigated and found irreproachable. His loyalty and sound discipline being thus established, an old charge of drunkenness was, in like manner, but more summarily, disposed of. Indeed, nothing could be more ridiculous than this last instance of popular misrepresentation, the General, a man of singularly fine physique, and sound health, habitually carrying temperance to abstemiousness. In the military movements of the last days of 555 August his conduct was pronounced energetic, and free from any imputation of an unworthy motive. In regard to "the charge of disloyalty made by an officer of the rank of colonel, after being fatally wounded in battle: It was made in general terms, without defining any specific act. The accuser is dead, and the court does not feel at liberty to say more of it than that it is utterly destitute of any foundation in fact; that it is fully disproved by all the evidence bearing on the point, and that the dying officer who made it must have been the subject of deplorable misapprehension, like many others who have formed opinions from calumnious rumors and presumptions." Indeed, the exculpation of General McDowell was thorough and complete.* * Findings and Opinions of the Court of Inquiry in the case of General McDowell. Washington, D. C., February 14, 1863. CHAPTER LXXIV. GEN. BUTLER'S DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF. NAVAL AND MILITARY EVENTS ON THE MISSISSIPPI, AT VICKSBURG, BATON ROUGE AND ELSEWHERE. MAY-OCTOBER, 1862. THE military administration of Gen- ants, and their real welfare. The city eral Butler in New Orleans, narrated had long been the scene of mob violence, with all its appropriate details, would and this insulting action of the authorifurnish one of the most curious and ties, seeking to connect the rebellion with instructive lessons of the character, a sentiment of honor, was well calculated "the natural history" of the rebellion, to encourage the prevalent spirit of lawand its cost to the insurgents in the lessness. The army which had been exnecessities imposed upon the officers pelled had taken refuge in the neighborof the government for its suppression. ing country, and was ready, at any moThe attitude taken by the mayor and ment, on the first sign of weakness common council at the time of Com- within, to attempt the recapture of the modore Farragut's capture of the city city. The situation required a military acknowledging their inability to defend, ruler of sagacity and determination; a and yet refusing to surrender, and thus man of expedients, who would meet, on maintaining a contemptuous spirit of in- the instant, novel circumstances; one dependence, was most unfriendly to the who could and would contest faction, and pacific overtures made to the inhabit-suppress revolt in the bud; whose per sonal energy and resources would supplement the small numbers of the limited army left for the occupation of the conquered region. Such a man was found in General Butler. His proclamation on entering upon the administration, dated the 1st of May, announced the objects of the occupation'to restore order, maintain public tranquillity, enforce peace and quiet under the laws and Constitution of the United States." For this purpose, at the outset, the city was declared under martial law. "Thrice before," was the language of the proclamation, "has the city of New Orleans been rescued from the hands of a foreign government and still more calamitous domestic insurrection, by the money and arms of the United States. It has, of late, been under the military control of the rebel forces, and at each time, in the judgment of the commanders of the military forces holding it, it has been found necessary to preserve order and maintain quiet by an administration of martial law. Even during the interim from its evacuation by the rebel soldiers and its actual possession by the soldiers of the United States, the civil authorities have found it necessary to call for the intervention of an armed body known as the 'European Legion,' to preserve the public tranquillity. The commanding general, therefore, will cause the city to be governed, until the restoration of the United States authority and his further orders, by martial law." All persons in arms were required to surrender themselves with their equipments; all flags or devices in conflict with the authority of the United States were suppressed the American ensign, it was especially enjoined, "must be treated with the utmost respect by all persons under pain of severe punishment. A liberal amnesty was offered to former adherents to the Confederate government, or who had been in its service on laying down their arms and separating themselves from the enemies of the United States they were not to be "disturbed in person or property, except so far under orders of the commanding general as exigencies of the public service may render necessary"— à condition which held them in a measure as hostages for the good behavior of others whom they might naturally be supposed to have the power or influence to control. In view of the angry threats which prevailed, it was declared that "the killing of an American soldier by any disorderly persons or mob, is simply assassination and murder, and not war." The owner of the house where such murder shall be committed was to be held responsible, and the house to be liable to destruction. Civil causes were to be referred to the ordinary tribunals; all others, in any way affecting the forces or laws of the United States, were to be submitted to the military court. By a special provision Confederate bank notes were to be allowed for a time in circulation, the reason being given that their suppression would cause great distress among the poorer classes who had no other substitute for money; "such circulation will be permitted so long as any one will be inconsiderate enough to receive them, until further orders." This permission was formally withdrawn at the end of the month. No publication was to be allowed of a seditious influence; a censorship of the press was established for the examination of all war articles and correspondence. Local regulations for the preservation of the peace of the city were prescribed in detail. The proclamation, in fact, was an exceedingly business-like document, of a direct practical character, with few or no generalities. The closing sentence intimated, however, the writer's view of the situation: "While it is the desire of these authorities to exercise this government mildly, and after the usages of the past, it must not be supposed that it will not be vigorously and firmly administered as the occasion calls." Before the proclamation could be pub GENERAL BUTLER'S POLICY IN NEW ORLEANS. lished one of its provisions was required to be enforced--that regulating the press. The newspapers of the city refused to print it, when a guard was sent to the office of the True Delta, with a band of printers from the New England regiments, who speedily put the document in type for the next morning's issue of that journal. One of the earliest duties of General Butler, was making provision for the wants of the mechanics and working classes of the city who had been deprived of employment by the rebellion. Their necessities had to be supplied, and the General, while looking round for the means of meeting them, hailed the opportune capture of a large quantity of stores intended for the rebels in the field. This he promptly ordered to be distributed to the suffering classes, availing himself of the occasion to brand with scorching invective the authors of the destitution, in their work of disorganization of the national industry. "This hunger," said he, in a general order on the 9th of May, "does not pinch the wealthy and influential, the leaders of the rebellion, who have gotten up this war, and are now endeavoring to prosecute it, without regard to the starving poor, the working man, his wife and child. Unmindful of their suffering fellow-citizens at home, they have caused or suffered provisions to be carried out of the city for the Confederate service since the occupation by the United States forces. Lafayette square, their home of affluence, was made the depot of stores and munitions of war for the rebel armies, and not of provisions for their poor neighbors Striking hands with the vile, the gambler, the idler, and the ruffian, they have destroyed the sugar and cotton which might have been exchanged for food for the industrious and good, and regrated the price of that which is left, by discrediting the very currency they had furnished, while they eloped with the specie; as well that stolen from the United States, 551 as the banks, the property of the good people of New Orleans, thus leaving them to ruin and starvation. Fugitives from justice, many of them, and others, their associates, staying, because too puerile and insignificant to be objects of punishment by the clement government of the United States. They have betrayed their country, they have been false to every trust. They have shown themselves incapable of defending the State they have seized upon, although they have forced every poor man's child into their service as soldiers for that purpose, while they made their sons and nephews officers. They cannot protect those whom they have ruined, but have left them to the mercies and assassinations of a chronic mob. They will not feed those whom they are starving. Mostly without property themselves, they have plundered, stolen, and destroyed the means of those who had property, leaving children penniless and old age hopeless. Men of Louisiana, workingmen, property-holders, merchants, and citizens of the United States, of whatever nation you may have had birth, how long will you uphold these flagrant wrongs, and, by inaction, suffer yourselves to be made the serfs of these leaders? The United States have sent land and naval forces here to fight and subdue rebellious armies in array against her authority. We find, substantially, only fugitive masses, runaway property owners, a whiskey-drinking mob, and starving citizens, with their wives and children. It is our duty to call back the first, to punish the second, root out the third, feed and protect the last. Ready only for what we had not prepared ourselves, to feed the hungry, and relieve the distressed with provisions. But to the extent possible within the power of the commanding general it shall be done." It was the policy of General Butler, as he said on his return to the North, "to deal kindly with the workingmen ;" and he found a return in their support. |