front. Everything military was at his tongue's end; he could almost rest and sleep while grinding at his tasks; he made no mistakes; he ran against no sharp corners.

Next to him-perhaps more learned in military laws and codes -and equally faithful, self-sacrificing, and reliable, of large constructive ability and unmixed devotion to duty and to Stanton, stood Thomas M. Vincent, assistant adjutant-general.

Not less true and efficient was Thomas T. Eckert (for years afterward president of the Western Union Telegraph Company) and Anson Stager, in charge of the Military Telegraph, the former especially being a model of those who question nothing, disclose nothing, discuss nothing, and perform everything.

William Whiting of Boston, solicitor* of the War Department, successfully stemmed that obstructive tide of trouble-makers, so much detested by Stanton, who rushed out with the mocking cry that the constitution was being violated every time the Government undertook a new step to save itself.

In certain respects General Montgomery C. Meigs, quartermaster-general, was Stanton's main support. His military learning was immense, his judgment rugged and sound, his energy never ending, and his methods practical.

General James A. Hardie, assistant adjutant-general, occupied a delicate and important post. For some time, being a master of personal diplomacy and of many languages, he met and disposed of the great throngs who constantly beseiged the War Office, deciding who might or ought to see Stanton, and where those were to go whose cases could be attended to by the heads of Departments. As everybody wanted to "see the Secretary," there was much clamor against his decisions, but they were never reversed by Stanton, from whose shoulders this shrewd, discreet, and tireless officer of wide education and polished manners lifted a destructive burden.

Others, like Surgeon-General J. K. Barnes, Colonel William P. Wood (superintendent of the Old Capitol and Carroll Prisons), General L. C. Baker (of the Secret Service), Colonel L. H. Pelouze

*In February, 1863, when Congress formally provided for a solicitor, Stanton proceeded to Steubenville, Ohio, and offered the position to Roderick S. Moodey, a lawyer of great attainments, saying: "I have no faith in those Washington attorneys." Moodey was unable to accept and Whiting was selected and, although in such poor health that he resigned just previous to the close of the war, he made a world-wide reputation, of which his "War Powers Under the Constitution" is an evidence.

(assistant adjutant-general, a discreet, non-talking West Pointer of inexhaustible patience and tact), General Herman Haupt and Colonel D. C. McCallum (of the Military Railways), Major A. E. H. Johnson (in charge of telegrams, who never opened his mouth or permitted a document to leave his hands), as well as several others whose doings are mentioned elsewhere in these pages, gave constant strength to the heart and security to the soul of Stanton, and to the Government a service of far greater value than history has ever recognized.

"It gives me pleasure to bear witness to the general diligence, ability, and fidelity manifested by the chiefs of the several bureaus of this Department. Whatever success may have attended its administration is, in a great measure, due to them and their subordinates," said Stanton in one of his reports to Congress; and in his review of the great conflict, after its close, he paid this tribute to his faithful lieutenants: "To the chiefs of bureaus and subdivisions the thanks of this Department are due for their unwearied industry, vigilance, and fidelity in the discharge of their duties."

From one whose patriotism was a mania and whose devotion to duty was desperate and ceaseless, words like the above are significant. Those in whom he placed discretionary duties toiled like galley slaves, and some of them, like C. P. Wolcott (his brother-inlaw) and Peter H. Watson, were literally crushed by the weight of their burdens.

"When Secretary Stanton gave orders to his trusted men to perform a given service, he expected them to succeed or die in the attempt, and they acted accordingly," says Colonel William P. Wood-which tells the whole story.

*

*On October 31, 1862, Wood, supposing he was acting under independent instructions from Stanton, refused to obey orders from General Dix in relation to exchanges. Dix telegraphed to Stanton, who replied: "Wood should have been put in the guard-house. When you think a man deserves it, 'shoot him on the spot.""

INAUGURATES

CHAPTER LII.

RECONSTRUCTION-MILITARY

ERNORS.

GOV

Upon every conqueror devolves the duty of providing for the territory acquired by his arms a form of government to succeed that which he has destroyed. In other words, he must reconstruct-a strange task at Stanton's time in the American Republic—yet he was fully equal to it. He closely followed his advancing armies with a military form of civil government in order to save the inhabitants from anarchy and prepare the rebellious States, at the close of the war, he hoped, to drop back into their former places in the Union. without friction by a simple form of congressional enactment.

On March 3, 1862 (forty-five days after assuming the war portfolio), he appointed United States Senator Andrew Johnson military governor of Tennessee, having first attached him to the army as brigadier-general, so that the entire process should be strictly military, using the following words:

Sir:

You are hereby appointed to be military governor of the State of Tennessee, with authority to exercise and perform within the limits of that State, all and singular, the powers, duties, and functions pertaining to the office of military governor (including the power to establish all necessary offices and tribunals and suspend the writ of habeas corpus) during the pleasure of the President or until the loyal inhabitants of that State shall have organized a civil government in conformity with the constitution of the United States.

Similar appointments followed shortly in North Carolina, Louisiana, and other States where the Federal troops were in more or less control, supplemented in some instances by sequestration commissions to insure ownership to loyal, and formally confiscate the holdings of disloyal, persons.

Deriving their authority from the direct orders of Stanton, the military governors exercised extraordinary powers. They performed not only gubernatorial functions, but levied and collected