zens. I hope, therefore, that you will not only throw no obstacle in the way of forwarding the engines to Louisville, but use your well-known energy in aid of the Department to hurry them forward.

Before the close of the war, Haupt returned to the Hoosac Tunnel and was succeeded by his assistant, Colonel D. C. McCallum, who, with the original corps and the same autocratic authority from Stanton, maintained the wonderful nerve and efficiency which had been created by his predecessor. The manner in which he transported, under Stanton's orders, twenty-three thousand troops from the Army of the Potomac in Virginia over the mountains to Chattanooga, stands without counterpart in military movements. He was successful because Stanton had the wisdom to centralize supreme authority in him. In carrying out instructions in this case McCallum arrested General Carl Schurz and forcibly sent several high officers to the rear to remain until their commands were ready to leave, Stanton, without question or inquiry, upholding every act by telegraph.

The Bureau of Military Railroads covered the entire field of military activity, and its achievements were frequently as astounding as they were decisive and valuable.* The basis of its organization and the method of its administration are monuments to Stanton's executive resources. Like the Military Telegraph, it was absolutely independent of all control outside of his own will, including even that of the President. Hardly a commander failed to attempt some usurpation of authority over it or put on record. some childish complaint of "dictation" and "interference from Washington"-as if subalterns in the field could be greater than the executive heads of the nation!

Had not the very autocracy of which they complained been assumed and held by a single master-hand at Washington, thus unifying the purposes and synchronizing the movements of that

*Besides the feats mentioned, the Rappahannock bridge in Virginia, 625 feet in length and 35 feet in height, was rebuilt in 19 working hours and the Chattahoochie bridge, 740 feet in length and 95 feet in altitude, in 41⁄2 days! Before a meeting of the British military and other engineers in London, General Haupt explained by request how these achievements were accomplished. The Englishmen were so much impressed by the address that a grand banquet in his honor was tendered by the royal engineers.

vital branch of the military service, tossing armies like shuttlecocks here and there to checkmate the enemy, the chaos which Stanton found on entering the cabinet would have continued and the defeat instead of the victory of more than one army would have been recorded.

CHAPTER XLI.

PRISONERS OF WAR-A HEART-BREAKING DUTY.

On entering office Stanton found no provision for exchanging captives or the relief of those whose deplorable condition in confinement was appealing to the conscience of the nation. Therefore, on January 20, 1862, he appointed Hamilton Fish and Bishop E. R. Ames, by telegraph, placing fifty thousand dollars to their credit, to "provide for the wants and comfort of prisoners wherever held," and issued an order declaring that "the pay of all soldiers taken prisoners shall continue as long as they shall be held in captivity, with their usual rations."

While Ames and Fish were en route to Richmond, Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate secretary of war, sent word that the commission need proceed no farther, as he desired to effect a general exchange of prisoners. The commissioners answered that they possessed no power to discuss exchanges and asked to be permitted to proceed on their humane mission, which was refused. Thus the difficult question of a general exchange came sharply to the front.

Stanton could take no steps that might place the rebellious States on such an equality with the Government, even as belligerents, as would afford the pretext which England and France were seeking to recognize the Confederacy as an independent State.

The South, for that very reason, was extremely anxious to secure a written cartel of exchange that named in exact terms the Confederate States as a party. But the people, unable to measure the importance of this vital point, clamored loudly for such exchanges as are usual when two hostile nations are at war, and, as the Confederates held more prisoners than the United States, Stanton instructed General John E. Wool, on February 11:

Arrange for the restoration of all prisoners to their homes, on fair terms of exchange, man for man and officer for officer of equal grade, assimilating the grades of the officers of the army and navy when necessary, and agreeing upon equal terms for the number of men or officers of inferior grades to be exchanged for any of higher grade when occasion