TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF A TRAITOR. 351 Mayor,' and the appointment of General G. F. Shepley, of Maine, as Military Governor of New Orleans, who at once organized an efficient police force and made the city a model of quiet and good order. This vigor was followed by the arrest of William B. Mumford, his trial and conviction. by a military court, and his execution as a traitor in the presence of a vast multitude, who quietly dispersed to their homes, with the salutary reflection that the Government had indeed "repossessed" its property, and was exercising its rightful authority in the city of New Orleans.' GEORGE F. SHEPLEY. Of the details of General Butler's administration in the Department of the Gulf, until he was superseded by General Banks, at the middle of December following-how he dealt with representatives of foreign governments; with banks and bankers; with the holders of Confederate money and other property; and with disloyal men of every kind, from the small offender in the street to the greater offender in public positions and in the pulpit-it is not our province here to consider. Suffice it to say, that it then seemed wise and salutary in the necessary assertion of the sovereign authority of his Government; and, to the candid student of events there, it yet seems to have been wise and salutary. Promptness and decision marked every step of his career. Measures for the 1 The terrified official hastened to explain his letter, when Butler agreed to release him from the penalty of imprisonment on condition that he should withdraw the letter and make an apology. This he did in the most humble manner. * Mumford was a professional gambler, and consequently an enemy of society. He was about forty-two years of age. He was in the crowd in front of the St. Charles on the occasion of the General's conference with the Mayor and his friends, already alluded to, boasting of his exploit with the flag, inciting them to riot, and daring the National officers to arrest him. He continued his attitude of defiance, and became so dangerous to good order, as a leader of the turbulent spirits of New Orleans, that his arrest and punishment was a necessity. His overt act of treason was clear, and his execution had a most salutary effect. Mumford is the only man who, up to this time (1867), has been tried, condemned, and executed for treason since the foundations of the National Government were laid. 3 In Mr. Parton's work, which has been so frequently referred to, and whose full title is, General Butler in New Orleans: History of the Administration of the Department of the Gulf in the Year 1862; with an Account of the Capture of New Orleans, may be found full details of that administration. Dec. 23, 1862. 4 So vigorous and efficient, so uncompromising with treason and rebellion, was Butler's administration of affairs in New Orleans, that the conspirators, and particularly the chief of the Confederacy, who had been his political associate a few years before, regarded him as an arch-enemy more to be dreaded than balls or bayonets. Their fears of him and personal hatred led them to the perpetration of the most foolish acts. At about the time when Butler left New Orleans, Jefferson Davis issued a notable proclamation, for the purpose of "firing the Southern heart," in which he professed to review Butler's administration of affairs there. In connection with a recitation of Butler's alleged crimes, he pronounced him "to be a felon, deserving of capital punishinent," and ordered that he should not be "treated simply as a public enemy of the Confederate States of America, but as an outlaw and common enemy of mankind; and that, in the event of his capture, the officer in command of the capturing force do cause him to be immediately executed by hanging." He also ordered that the same treatment should be awarded to all commissioned officers serving under Butler. In addition to these instructions, he ordered that all negro slaves captured in arms against the Confederacy, and all commissioned officers of the United States serving in company with them, who should be captured, should be delivered to the executive authorities of the respective States to which the negroes belonged, "to be dealt with according to the laws of said States." There is not, probably, any intelligent and candid man in the Union to-day, and especially among the residents of New Orleans at that time, who does not agree, in honest opinion, with the verdict of a competent 352 THE LOUISIANA NATIVE GUARD. public good were continually planned and executed, and toward the close of summer he took the first step in the employment of negroes as soldiers, which the enemies of the Government had practised there. When General Banks arrived to take command of the Department, there were three regiments of these soldiers, with two batteries manned by them, well drilled for his use, under the common name of the Louisiana Native Guard. LOUISIANA NATIVE GUARD. The loss of New Orleans was the heaviest blow the Confederacy had yet received, and for a while it stag gered under its infliction. "It annihilated us in Louisi ana," said the Confederate historian of the war; "diminished our resources and supplies, by the loss of one of the greatest grain and cattle countries within the limits of the Confederacy; gave to the enemy the Mississippi River, with all its means of navigation, for a base of operations, and finally led, by plain and irresistible conclusion, to our virtual abandonment of the great and fruitful valley of the Mississippi.” Let us now return to a consideration of the Army of the Potomac, which we left in a quiet condition after the little flurry at Drainsville, at near the close of the year. historian (Parton), that "each of the paragraphs of Jefferson Davis's proclamation which relates to General Butler's conduct is the distinct utterance of a lie." A few days after the proclamation was issued, Richard Yeadon, a prominent citizen of Charleston, publicly offered a reward of $10,000 for the capture and delivery of the said Benjamin F. Butler, dead or alive, to any proper Confederate authority." And "A Daughter of South Carolina," in a letter to the Charleston Courier, said, "I propose to spin the thread to make the cord to execute the order of our noble President, Davis, when old Butler is caught, and my daughter asks that she a Jan. 1, 1863. may be allowed to adjust it around his neck." 1 Pollard's First Year of the War, page 321. IMMOBILITY OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 353 CHAPTER XIV. MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.-THE MONITOR AND MERRIMACK. HE Grand Army of the Potomac had gained strength in numbers and discipline during the months it had been lying in comparatively quiet camps around the National Capital. The battles of Ball's Bluff and Drainsville, already mentioned, had kept it from rusting into absolute immobility; and the troops were made hopeful at times by promises of an immediate advance upon the Confederates at Manassas. But at the beginning of the year 1862, when that army numbered full two hundred thousand men, the prospect of an advance seemed more remote than ever, for the fine weather that had prevailed up to Christmas was succeeded by storms and frost, and the roads in many places soon became almost impassable. Very little preparation had been made for winter quarters, and much suffering and discontent was the consequence.' The people were exceedingly impatient, and were more disposed to censure the Secretary of War than the General-in-Chief, for they had faith in the latter. They were gratified when Mr. Cameron left the office, and they gave to the new incumbent, Mr. Stanton, their entire confidence. The President was much distressed by the inaction of the great army. He could get no satisfaction from the General-in-Chief, when he inquired why that army did not move. Finally, on the 10th of January, he summoned Generals McDowell and Franklin to a conference with himself and his Cabinet. Never, during the whole war, did he exhibit such despondency as at 1 Various efforts were made by many officers to break the monotony of the camp and keep the soldiers cheerful. With this view, the musical "Hutchinson Family" were permitted, by Secretary Cameron, to visit the camps and sing their simple and stirring songs. They were diffusing sunshine through the army by delighting crowds of soldiers who listened to their voices, when their career of usefulness was suddenly arrested by the following order: By direction of General McClellan, the permit given to the Hutchinson Family' to sing in the camp, and their pass to cross the Potomac, are revoked, and they will not be allowed to sing to the troops." Why not? The answer was in the fact, that they had sung Whittier's stirring song, lately written, to the tune of Luther's Hymn, "Ein feste burg ist unser Gott," in which, among eight similar verses, was the following: "What gives the wheat-field blades of steel? What points the rebel cannon? What sets the roaring rabble's heel Of th' men o' th' South? For the Union's life? Hark to the answer: SLAVERY!" 2 Edwin M. Stanton succeeded Simon Cameron, as Secretary of War, on the 13th of January, 1862. VOL. II-23 354 IMPATIENCE OF THE PRESIDENT AND PEOPLE. that conference. He spoke of the exhausted condition of the treasury; of the loss of public credit; of the delicate condition of our foreign relations; the critical situation of National affairs in Missouri and Kentucky since Fremont left the Western Department; the lack of co-operation between Generals Halleck and Buell, and the illness of the General-in-Chief, which then, it was said, confined him to his house. He said he was in great distress under the burden of responsibility laid upon him. He had been to the house of the General-in-Chief, who did not ask to see him. He must talk to somebody, and he had sent for McDowell and Franklin to obtain a military opinion as to the probability of an early movement of the army. "If something is not soon done," he said in his simple way, "the bottom will be out of the whole affair; and, if General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it, provided I can see how it could be made to do something." Jan., 1862. The President, supported by public opinion, had resolved that something must be done by the army of the Potomac immediately, under the direction of General McClellan, or some other officer, and arrangements were in progress to that effect, when the General-in-Chief, who had been too ill to see the President on the 10th," was out, and "looking quite well," on the following day. McDowell and Franklin, meanwhile, had been charged by the President with the duty of submitting a plan of a campaign. The former was decidedly in favor of an advance in heavy force upon the front and flanks of the Confederates at Manassas, whose numbers he was satisfied had been greatly exaggerated. Such movement, if successful, would end the disgraceful blockade of the Potomac, and drive the army that was really besieging the National Capital back upon Richmond. General Franklin, who had been somewhat informed by General McClellan of MONTGOMERY C. MEIGS. 2 his plans, was in favor of moving on Richmond by way of the Lower Chesapeake and the Virginia Peninsula. They consulted with QuartermasterGeneral Meigs (who agreed with McDowell), Colonel Kingsbury, the Chief of Ordnance of the Army of the Potomac, General Van Vliet, the Chief Quartermaster, and Major Shiras, the Commissary of Subsistence. The subject was discussed by these military officers and the President and his Cabinet on the same evening, when McDowell Jan. 11. and Franklin, being in general agreement as to the neces 1 Notes by General McDowell of a conference with the President and others, on the subject of the moveMr. ment of the Army, cited by Mr. Swinton, in his Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, page 79 Swinton says he submitted these notes to Mr. Lincoln, during the summer of 1864, who declared that they were substantially correct. 2 At the first meeting of the Cabinet to consider the subject, Mr. Seward stated, that from information which he had received from an Englishman, just from the Confederate lines, he was satisfied that they might HAUGHTINESS OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN. 355 sity now of moving directly upon Manassas, recommended such movement. But there was a difference of opinion in the Cabinet.' Two days afterward there was another meeting of those officers with the President and his Cabinet. General McClellan was present, but took no part in the discussion. He seemed offended; and in reply to some apologetic remarks from McDowell, in explanation of the position in which he and Franklin were placed, the General-in-Chief curtly remarked, "You are entitled to have any opinion you please." When the President asked McClellan "what and when any thing could be done, the latter replied, with more force than courtesy, that the case was so clear that a blind man could see it; and then spoke of the difficulty of ascertaining what force he could count upon; that he did not know whether he could let General Butler go to Ship Island, or whether he could re-enforce Burnside." To the direct question of the Secretary of the Treasury, to the effect as to what he intended doing with his army, and where he intended doing, McClellan answered, that the movements in Kentucky were to precede any from Washington. This part of the plan of the General-in-Chief (the movements in the West) was soon gloriously carried out, as we have already observed; and before the Army of the Potomac had fairly inaugurated its campaign, in the spring of 1862, the active little army under Grant, and the forces of Buell and Pope, in connection with Foote's gun-boats and mortars, had captured Forts Henry and Donelson, Nashville and Columbus; had driven the Confederates out of Kentucky; had seized the Gibraltar of the Mississippi (Island Number Ten); and had penetrated to Northern Alabama, and fought the great battles and won a victory at Shiloh." At that conference, McClellan expressed his unwillingness to develop his plans, "always believing," he said, "that in military matters the fewer persons knowing them the better." He would tell them if he was ordered to do so. The President then asked him if he counted upon any particular time; he did not ask what time that was, but had he in his own mind any particular time fixed when a movement could be commenced. The General replied he had. "Then," rejoined the President, "I will adjourn this meeting." It A few days after this conference, General McClellan, at the request of the President, laid before the latter a plan for moving against Richmond. was to abandon his present base, and proceed toward the Confederate capital by way of the Lower Chesapeake. The President disapproved of the plan, because of the long time it would take to prepare for the move concentrate in front of the National army, at short notice, 103,000 men. General Wool, who had excellent means for obtaining correct information, had satisfied himself. and had so reported, that not one-half that number of Confederate soldiers were in all Virginia. It was afterward clearly shown that General Wool's estimate was not too low, and "that from October to March, Johnston never had an effective force of more than 40,000 under his orders, and that his preparations for an evacuation were begun as early as October, 1861; and that, after that time, he lay simply in observation." So declared W. H. Hurlburt, a public writer, who had many and rare facilities for knowing the strength of the Confederates. 1 The Postmaster-General (Montgomery Blair) strongly urged McClellan's plans of moving at some future time by way of the Peninsula, because of the great obstacles of bad roads and immense forces to be encountered on the other route; to which the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Chase) replied that it was probable that, after losing much time and millions of money, there would be found as many obstacles to success on the newly pro posed route. The Secretary of State (Mr. Seward) thought that a victory by the Army of the Potomac sorne where was desirable, it mattered not where.-McDowell's Notes. 2 See page 824. 3 See page 315. 4 McDowell's Notes, McDowell's Notes. See Chapters VII., VIIL, IX, and X. |