CHAPTER XXXIII.

AN EVERLASTING INDICTMENT-MCCLELLAN

REINSTATED.

Although not personally participating in the great battle of telegrams* between Washington and Alexandria, Stanton was acting on its disclosures. On August 28, he asked Halleck for an official report upon the disobedience of "the general commanding the Army of the Potomac." While this record was being compiled and while Pope was being pounded back by Lee's desperate assaults for want of the support which was near at hand, Stanton himself was etching into history a terrible indictment.

On appearing at the War Office in the morning of the 30th, he drew the subjoined protest, written in his own hand, in large outline on both sides of the sheet, with several erasures and interlineations, from an inner pocket of his coat. A fair copy was made by Assistant-Secretary Watson to be signed by the members of the cabinet and submitted to Lincoln, as follows:

Mr. President:

Washington City, August 30th, 1862.

The undersigned feel compelled by a profound sense of duty to the Government and people of the United States and to yourself as your constitutional advisers, respectfully to recommend the immediate removal of George B. McClellan from the command of any army in the United States. We are constrained to urge this by the conviction that after a sad and humiliating trial of twelve months and by the frightful and useless sacrifice of the lives of many thousands of brave men and the waste of many millions of national means, he has proved to be incompetent for any important military command. And also because by recent disobedience to superior orders and inactivity he has twice imperiled the army commanded by General Pope, and while he continues to command will daily hazard the fate of our armies and our national existence, exhibiting no sign of a disposition or capacity to restore the national honor that has been so deeply tarnished in the eyes of the world by his military failures.

*McClellan received ten telegrams on one subject-ordering him to send General Franklin to the aid of Pope-and disobeyed all of them.

We are unwilling to be accessory to the waste of national resources, the protraction of the war, the destruction of our armies, and the imperiling of the Union which we believe must result from the continuance of George B. McClellan in command, and seek therefore by his prompt removal to afford an opportunity to capable officers, under God's providence, to protect our national existence.

Stanton and Chase having signed, the latter took the document for further circulation among the cabinet officers. Secretary Smith signed readily, but Attorney-General Bates, objecting to the form in which the matter was presented, prepared (adopting the sentiments and conclusion of Stanton's paper) a shorter and more quiet petition, which was also signed by Stanton, Chase, Smith, and Bates. The line left for Welles is blank, although he had, Chase says, promised to affix his signature, and probably would have done so if a sudden change in the course of events had not intervened.

The partly-signed protest, together with Halleck's report of even date showing that McClellan had been in a state of insubordination for a month, were read by Lincoln on the high desk in Stanton's private office. He hung over the documents almost a full day, toward the close of which he wrote and several times re-wrote a paper which has never been made public. He did not think it wise technically and in writing to relieve McClellan, but that simply to leave him at Alexandria without anything to do, with no men or orders, there to gnaw a file, would prove the more judicious course.

Although being terribly punished, Pope was nevertheless expected to win, and it was Stanton's purpose to relieve McClellan and announce the fact to the country at the moment of victory.

On this point Major A. E. H. Johnson, who witnessed all of the conferences, says:

The President thought that to give out Mr. Stanton's original indictment, which recited exact and terrible reasons for relieving McClellan, would set ten thousand McClellanite tongues to wagging and an hundred thousand copperhead teeth to biting, and he had enough of those things already. So, after consulting a long, long time with Mr. Stanton, he concluded to say to the people merely, if he said anything: "You come to me and I will tell you all about McClellan"-a plan to which, of course, Mr. Stanton felt compelled to assent, although against his judgment.

McClellan arrived at Washington on the morning of September 1, to see Halleck "alone." In the meantime Colonel J. C. Kelton, who had been despatched to learn Pope's condition and predict future movements of the enemy, had returned and reported the Federal rout complete, the surrounding country filled with stragglers, and Lee's way to Washington practically unobstructed. This depressing information having been communicated to Lincoln by Stanton, the former, before sunrise of the morning of September 2, visited McClellan at his house in company with Halleck and, instead of dismissing him as had been agreed, expressed great fear that Washington was lost and told him to take command of local and incoming forces and to do the best he could to protect the capital.

Although in his "Own Story," written over twenty years. later, McClellan alleges that he disagreed with Lincoln and Halleck as to the peril of the capital, he wrote to his wife from Alexandria at 11:30 P. M. of August 31: "I do not regard Washington as safe against the rebels. If I can slip quietly over there I will send your silver off." Knowing that his failure to support Pope meant the probable loss of the capital, he proposed to "slip" over secretly, contrary to orders, and send the family silver away, so that it should not fall, with Lincoln and Stanton and the other "hounds," into the hands of Lee! He was anxious to save his tableware but not the capital and head officers of the nation!

Stanton appeared in the War Office much earlier than usual that morning, deeply absorbed and, going straight to the high desk. at which Lincoln and himself had stood in profound and painful earnestness for two days and nights, gathered up the McClellan protests and accompanying papers and suppressed them, and, Halleck's report excepted, not one of them ever saw the light until all of the chief actors in that tragic drama had passed from earth.

Pope was whipped, not victorious as had been hoped, and Stanton had learned that Lincoln, instead of dismissing McClellan, had, before daylight that morning, personally ordered him to take command of the forces about Washington.*

Thus himself and the remainder of the cabinet except Blair

*When the formal order was ready to issue, Stanton eliminated the usual words, "by order of the Secretary of War," and forbade their use therein, and "by order of General Halleck" was substituted by AdjutantGeneral Townsend.

(Seward having straddled) had been overridden. Lincoln appreciated the situation, for he did not visit Stanton again in the War Office for a month, Major Johnson says, and not as freely as formerly until shortly before he issued the order retiring McClellan permanently from the military service.

An instructive picture of that eventful day is thus given by General M. C. Meigs:

The contrast between Lincoln and Stanton at the time Pope was defeated and Lee appeared before Washington, was very great. Thè latter was steaming about with vigor, under great pressure, issuing volley after volley of orders to be executed "at once" for the safety of the city, for at first we all thought the capital was really going to be captured. Lincoln, on the other hand, dropped into my room on his weary way to see Stanton, drew himself way down into a big chair and, with a mingled groan and sigh, exclaimed: "Chase says we can't raise any more money; Pope is licked and McClellan has the diarrhoea. What shall I do? The bottom is out of the tub, the bottom is out of the tub!"

I told the President to meet his generals with Stanton, fix the bottom back in the tub, rally the army, and order another advance at once. This seemed to brace him up a little and he went on to the War Department; but for the moment he was completely discouraged and downhearted. Stanton, on the other hand, was more full of power and vehement energy than ever.

And thus another picture by Adjutant-General E. D. Townsend:

Secretary Stanton was thoroughly frightened when news came that Pope had been routed. I do not mean that he personally was scared, but he feared Washington would be captured by the Confederates.

There was a large and valuable depot of supplies and stores in the city for distribution to the Army of the Potomac. Mr. Stanton, determined that it should not fall into the hands of the enemy, ordered General Maynadier to prepare instantly to move everything out; and, if there should be anything he could not move, to destroy it before leaving. A few hours later more reassuring news came in and the order was recalled.

Several times I saw Mr. Stanton when he was very much in earnest, but at this time his anger and indignation with McClellan for refusing to cooperate with Pope were immeasurable.*

The situation, in view of the general lack of definite information, was indeed critical. Confederate scouts had arranged to have their army cross the Potomac near Georgetown, D. C.; the Treas

*Confidential Clerk A. E. H. Johnson says: "I believe that if McClellan had been present when the news of Pope's defeat came in, the Secretary would have assaulted him. I never saw him so enraged."

ury was barricaded with hundreds of barrels of cement; Stanton had gathered the more important papers of his office into such bundles as could be carried by men on foot or horseback, should the occasion arise; thousands of persons had fled the city; panic-stricken fragments of the broken Federal armies were pouring in, and confusion and incoherency were universal.

Later in the day (September 2) the cabinet met. The entire subject was gone over, during which Lincoln said that while McClellan's conduct had been "atrocious" and "shocking," he saw no course open except the one he had pursued.

In some form or other every member of the cabinet except Stanton has given an account of that spirited meeting. For months he had exerted himself in vain to prevent the perilous situation that was then upon the nation, and could well afford to let others do the talking.

That Stanton was not misinformed concerning McClellan's angry hostility to Pope, his attitude of rebellion against Lincoln, Halleck, and himself, and his general determination to disobey all orders from Washington, is amply proven by the shreds of correspondence with Mrs. McClellan and W. H. Aspinwall which were permitted to see light in McClellan's "Own Story":

*

*

July 17-You do not feel more bitterly towards those people [at Washington] than I do. * I fear they have done all that cowardice and folly can do to ruin our poor country.

makes my blood boil when I think of it.

July 19-[To W. H. Aspinwall, New York.]

* It

My main

object in writing to you is to ask you to be kind enough to cast your eyes about to see whether there is anything I can do in New York to earn a respectable support for my family.

July 20-I believe that it is now certain that Halleck is commanderin-chief. * I cannot remain permanently in the armyt after this slight

I have had enough of earthly honors

*A special committee appointed by the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts to report impartially upon McClellan's conduct, censured him with great severity, declaring that "owing to his profound contempt" for his superiors he did not "propose to obey orders" and, among several other indictments, declared that "simple obedience to the orders of the General-in-Chief [Halleck] would have saved the country from immense losses."

+In Volume IV. of "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," Ulysses S. Grant says: "The worst excuse a soldier can make for declining service is that of having once ranked the commander he is ordered to report to."