Anxious Washington Awaits News from Virginia Front

May 11, 1864

At night, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles joins President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton at the War Department. Welles writes in his diary: “I met [Montgomery] Blair as I came from the Department, who wished me to go to his house. A letter from Governor [Edwin] Morgan asking me to name the month to which I would postpone the Union National Convention, if I desired a postponement, was received and answered by me this evening. It was a singular document and surprised me. I spoke of it to Blair, who said he had seen the circular last week. This gave me even great surprise, for Morgan has frequently consulted and interchanged views with me, both of us concurring against postponement. It was discussed by us at our last interview.”

Blair, as well as myself, was puzzled, but we both were willing to believe that no mischief was intended. The course of Thurlow Weed and some New York politicians has been singular. Blair took from his pocket a letter from Barlow of New York, a Copperhead leader, with whom, he informs me, he has corresponded for some weeks past. Barlow is thick with General McClellan, and Blair, who has clung also to McC, not giving him up until his Woodward letter betrayed his weakness and his ambition, still thought he might have military service, provided he gave up his political aspirations. It was this feeling that had led to the correspondence.

Historian Brooks D. Simpson wrote in Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, 1822-1865: “The next morning Grant showed how unruffled he was. Elihu Washburne, about to return to Washington, asked Grant if he could carry any message back to Lincoln and Stanton. Grant remarked that while he was pleased with his progress so far, he didn’t want to raise false hopes of an early success. He then entrusted the congressman with dispatches for Halleck and Stanton – the first time he had written the war secretary during the campaign. He puffed away at a cigar as he scribbled out his messages, his head almost enveloped in smoke before he paused to blow it away – a process that he repeated several times as he thought and wrote.” Grant writes Lincoln:

‘We have now entered the sixth day of very hard fighting,’ he began his message to Stanton. ‘The result to his time is much in our favor. Our losses have been heavy as well as those of the enemy….I purpose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.’ The words were written without flourish; Grant buried similar language in his description of the situation to Halleck. Nor did they convey the sense that there had been missed opportunities to do so much more. Instead they stood out to anyone who read the message as a statement of his deep determination to see the thing through.

After the Battle of Yellow Tavern, General Philip H. Sheridan declared: “I could have gone in and burned and killed right and left, I could capture Richmond, if I wanted, but I can’t hold it. It isn’t worth the men it would cost.”

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Cabinet Meeting Discusses Military Situation

May 10, 1864

Cabinet meeting. Gideon Welles writes in his diary: “At the Cabinet, the President read dispatches from General Grant, General Butler, General Sherman, and some others. I had previously seen some of these dispatches. They were all in good and encouraging tone. There have been some conflicting doubts in regard to General Wadsworth, who is undoubtedly slain, and his body is, I think, in the hands of the Rebels. Few nobler spirits have fallen in this war. He should, by good right and fair-dealing, have been at this moment Governor of New York, but the perfidy of Thurlow Weed and others defeated him. I have always believed that Seward was, if not implicated, a sympathizer in that business. No purer or more single-minded patriot than Wadsworth has shown himself in this war. He left home and comforts and wealth to fight the battles of the Union.”

A scout came in this P.m. with dispatches from General Grant. He brings information that General Sedgwick was killed yesterday by a sharpshooter. He was among the good and brave generals, though not of the class of dashing ing, I apprehend, than this, and his loss at this juncture will be felt by the army and country.

Journalist Noah Brooks write: “The past few days of suspense and intense anxiety have been succeeded by a relief of substantial good news; our most ardent hopes have been realized by the good tidings from the front of battle, and yesterday and last night the excitement over the glorious news was unparalleled, even in Washington. On every street corner and public place hundreds of men were gathered in knots, discussing or inquiring about the military situation, and last evening the entire city was ablaze with joy upon learning that Grant had pressed the rebels past their old battle ground of the Wilderness, and was driving them before him toward Richmond. About nine o’clock in the evening, the excitement of the populace having risen to a fever heat, an impromptu procession was formed in front of Willard’s and preceded by a band of music the crowd marched up to the White House, where a fine serenade was given the President, and he appeared at the door, stepping out among the sovereigns who were crowded around the entrance. Order being restored, he proceeded to thank the assemblage for the compliment, which he thought would not have been bestowed if they were not anxious to hear from his own lips the confirmation of the good news which was in circulation on the street.”

Former Illinois Senator Orville H. Browning writes in his diary: “At Presidents in morning with Mr Ewing about Adml Wilkes & Capt. Blacks cases. Genl Oglesby called and spent sometime in the afternoon.”

President Lincoln Told of Red River Expedition Failure

May 9, 1864

Navy Secretary Gideon Welles writes in his diary: “I took [Gwinn H.] Heap [clerk to Rear-Admiral David Dixon Porter] with me to the President and had him tell his own story [about Red River expedition]. It was less full and denunciatory than to me, but it seemed to convince the President, who I have thought was over-partial to Banks, and I have thought that Seward contributed to that feeling. The President, after hearing Heap, said he had rather cousined up to Banks, but for some time past had begun to think he was erring in so doing. He repeated two verses from Moore, commencing

‘Oh, ever thus, from childhood’s hour,

I’ve seen my fondest hopes decay,’ etc.

It would do to retain him in military command at such obvious sacrifice of the public interest.

Presidential aide John Hay writes in his diary: “The President thinks very highly of what Grant has done. He was talking about it today with me and said ‘How near we have been to this thing before and failed. I believe that if any other General had been at the Head of that army it would have now been on this side of the Rapidan. It is the dogged pertinacity of Grant that wins.’ It is said that Meade observed to Grant that the enemy seemed inclined to make a Kilkenny cat fight of the affair,& Grant answered, ‘Our cat has the longest tail.’”

 

In response to a serenade at the White House, President Lincoln said (under misapprehension that the Army of the Potomac had recently won a victory): “I am very much obliged to you for the compliment of this call, though I apprehend it is owing more to the good news received to-day from the army than to a desire to see me. I am, indeed, very grateful to the brave men who have been struggling with the enemy in the field, to their noble commanders who have directed them, and especially to our Maker. Our commanders are following up their victories resolutely and successfully. I think, without knowing the particulars of the plans of Gen. Grant, that what has been accomplished is of more importance than at first appears. I believe I know, (and am especially grateful to know) that Gen. Grant has not been jostled in his purposes; that he has made all his points, and to-day he is on his line as he purposed before he moved his armies. I will volunteer to say that I am very glad at what has happened; but there is a great deal still to be done. While we are grateful to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past few days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who gives us victory.

There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and patriots to perform their share of the labor and follow the example of the modest General at the head of our armies, and sink all personal considerations for the sake of the country. I commend you to keep yourselves in the same tranquil mood that is characteristic of that brave and loyal man. I have said more than I expected when I came before you; repeating my thanks for this call, I bid you good-bye.

President Lincoln issues a call for thanksgiving “To the Friends of Union and Liberty”:

“Enough is known of Army operations within the last five days to claim our especial gratitude to God; while what remains undone demands our most sincere prayers to, and reliance upon, Him, without whom, all human effort is vain. I recommend that all patriots, at their homes, in their places of public worship, and wherever they may be, unite in common thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God.”

President Lincoln Saddened by Battle of the Wilderness

May 8, 1864

Indiana Congressman Schulyer Colfax remembered: “The morning after the bloody battle of the Wilderness, I saw him walk up and down the Executive Chamber, his long arms behind his back, his dark features contracted still more with gloom; and as he looked up, I thought his face the saddest one I had ever seen. He exclaimed: ‘Why do we suffer reverses after reverses! Could we have avoided this terrible, bloody war! Was it not forced upon us! Is it ever to end!’ But he quickly recovered, and told me the sad aggregate of those days of bloodshed. Of course it is perfectly well known that the battle of the Wilderness, however, then claimed as a drawn battle, was, on the contrary, a bloody reverse to our arms, our loss in killed and wounded along being fifteen thousand more than the Confederates.   Hope beamed on his face as he said, ‘Grant will not fail us now; he says he will fight it out on that line, and this is now the hope of our country.’ An hour afterward, he was telling story after story to congressional visitors at the White House, to hide his saddened heart from their keen and anxious scrutiny.”

Presidential aide John G. Nicolay writes home: “We have been in another week of terrible suspense. Grant began moving last Wednesday morning, and beyond learning that he had succeeded in last Wednesday morning, and beyond learning than he had succeeded in crossing the Rapidan without serious opposition, we were without any information from him for two or three days. And indeed we know comparatively little yet of his operations, beyond the fact that he has fought one or more severe battles, and which information we pick up from the dispatches of others.”

News of Wilderness Battle Trickles Back to Washington

May 7, 1864

Very early in the morning, journalist Henry Wing brought to news to the White House and the Lincoln Cabinet of the recent battle at the Wilderness in northern Virginia.

Navy Secretary Gideon Welles writes in his diary: “Some fragmentary intelligence comes to us of a conflict of the two great armies. A two days’ fight is said to have taken place. The President came into my room about 1 P.M., and told me he had slept none last night. He lay down for a short time on the sofa in my room and detailed all the news he had gathered.”

Mr. [Henry] Wing, a correspondent of the New York Tribune, called upon me this evening. He brings the first news we have had, but this is not full and conclusive.

About 2 A.M., journalist Henry Wing was brought to the White House where he was interviewed by President Lincoln. He had made it through an obstacle course of geography, Confederate troops and Union bureaucracy. Finally the previous night, he arrived at a Union outpost with telegraph service at Union Mills.   Blocked in an attempt to file his story by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, Wing had been given permission by President Lincoln: “I repeated my offer—to communicate whatever information I had, for the use of the wire to transmit one hundred words. He accepted my terms without hesitation, only suggesting that my statement to my paper be so full as to disclose to the public the general situation.” The President was very anxious to receive news of the recent battle and sent a Union train to transport Wing back to Washington. James M. Perry wrote in A Bohemian Brigade: The Civil War Correspondents: “Henry Wing may be the only truly endearing reporter to cover the war for either side. He was a gentle, innocent (though persistent young man, serving after the war as a Methodist preacher in Iowa and Connecticut. And surely he was the only reporter who was ever kissed by Abraham Lincoln.”

Wing made his report to Lincoln and several members of the Cabinet.   He held back one piece of information to convey privately from General Ulysses S. Grant. ‘He told me to tell you, Mr. President, that there would be no turning back.” That was when President Lincoln bent over to kiss the much shorter reporter. As Wing later wrote in his memoir of the event: “Mr. Lincoln put his great, strong arms about me and, carried away in the exuberance of his gladness, imprinted a kiss upon my forehead. We sat down again; and then I disclosed to him, as I could not do except in the light of that pledge of the great commander, all the disheartening details of that dreadful day in the wilderness. But I could assure him that the Army of the Potomac, in all its history, was never in such hopeful spirit as when they discovered, at the close of a day of disappointment, that they were not to ‘turn back.’”

“Henry Wing…widely respected by soldiers and officers because he had been a soldier himself, walking with a limp (and two missing fingers) to prove it. One of four Tribune correspondents in the field, he had witnessed the first day’s terrible fighting in the Wilderness, a huge tract of second-growth timber with nothing more than paths leading through it. Grant had hoped to take his army through the woods and engage Lee in clear country on the other side. Lee would have none of that; he attacked Grant on the morning of May 5, in woods so dense that artillery was useless….

Wing published his own book in 1913, fourteen years before Ida Tarbel published hers. At the close of the first day’s fighting, he wrote,

we [the four Tribune correspondents] came together at army headquarters to compare notes and to lay plans for the future. The battle was to be renewed the next morning…It was quickly decided that one of us should start for the North with the several reports of the stirring events of the last few days. As I was the youngest, I knew the task naturally belonged to me, and my offer to undertake it was instantly accepted by the others.

Later in the day, Wing returns to the White House for a further briefing with the President. When Lincoln asks what he can do for him, Wing asks for help recovering his horse that he had left in the Virginia wilderness.   President Lincoln sends a special train so that Wing can recover “Jesse.”

Cabinet Discusses Fort Pillow Massacre

May 6, 1864

Cabinet meets to discuss President Lincoln’s request for their opinions on retaliation for Fort Pillow massacre of black soldiers. Navy Secretary Gideon Welles writes: “At the Cabinet-meeting each of the members read his opinion. There had, I think, been some concert between Seward and Stanton and probably Chase; that is, they had talked on the subject, although there was not coincidence of views on all respects. Although I was dissatisfied with my own, it was as well as well as most others.”

Between Mr. Bates and Mr. Blair a suggestion came out that met my views better than anything that had previously been offered. It is that the President should by proclamation declare the officers who had command at the massacre outlaws, and require any of our officers who may capture them, to detain them in custody and not exchange them, but hold them to punishment. The thought was not very distinctly enunciated. In a conversation that followed the reading of our papers, I expressed myself favorable to this new suggestion, which relieved the subject of much of the difficulty. It avoids communication with the Rebel authorities. Takes the matter in our own hands. We get rid of the barbarity of retaliation.

Stanton fell in with my suggestion, so far as to propose that, should Forrest, or Chalmers, or any officer conspicuous in this butchery be captured, he should be turned over for trial for the murders at Fort Pillow. I sat beside Chase and mentioned to him some of the advantages of this course, and he said it made a favorable impression. I urged him to say so, for it appeared to me that the President and Seward did not appreciate it.

We get no tidings from the front. There is an impression that we are on the eve of a great battle and that it may already have commenced.

Historian Bruce Tap wrote in Over Lincoln’s Shoulder: “Although a variety of opinions was expressed, two general viewpoints emerged. Seward, Stanton, Chase, and Secretary of the Interior John P. Usher favored man-for-man retaliation. They suggested that rebel officers, in an equal number to the Union casualties at Fort Pillow, be set aside pending a response from Confederate authorities. If the Fort Pillow massacre was not officially disavowed with explicit guarantees that repetitions would not occur in the future, then the souther officers would be punished. Stanton, armed with additional evidence as a result of his own War Department investigation, seemed the most adamant. Bates, Blair, and Welles opposed man-for-man retaliation, noting that it would not be effective, nor was there a precedent for it….Before Lincoln acted, however, the treatment of prisoners of war emerged as a complicating factor, and the committee once again occupied center stage.”

President Lincoln meets at War Department next door with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana, whom he asks to travel to the Virginia front to report on the position of General Ulysses S. Grant.

President Lincoln Thanks Massachusetts Woman for Socks

May 5, 1864

President Lincoln writes Mrs. Abner Bartlett: “I have received the very excellent pair of socks of your own knitting, which you did me the honor to send. I accept them as a very comfortable article to wear; but more gratefully as an evidence, of the patriotic devotion which, at your advanced age, you bear to our great and just cause.” He concludes: “May God give you yet many happy days.”

California journalist Noah Brooks writes of General Ulysses S. Grant’s Wilderness Campaign, which is beginning in northern Virginia: “The past few days of suspense and intense anxiety have been succeeded by a relief of substantial good news; our most ardent hopes have been realized by the good tidings from the front of battle, and yesterday and last night the excitement over the glorious news was unparalleled, even in Washington. On every street corner and public place hundreds of men were gathered in knots, discussing or inquiring about the military situation, and last evening the entire city was ablaze with joy upon learning that Grant had pressed the rebels past their old battle ground of the Wilderness, and was driving them before him toward Richmond. About nine o’clock in the evening, the excitement of the populace having risen to a fever heat, an impromptu procession was formed in front of Willard’s and preceded by a band of music the crowd marched up to the White House, where a fine serenade was given the President, and he appeared at the door, stepping out among the sovereigns who were crowded around the entrance. Order being restored, he proceeded to thank the assemblage for the compliment, which he thought would not have been bestowed if they were not anxious to hear from his own lips the confirmation of the good news which was in circulation on the street.”

Navy Secretary Gideon Welles writes: “I have written a letter to the President in relation to the Fort Pillow massacre, but it is not satisfactory to me, nor can I make it so without the evidence of what was done, nor am I certain that even then I could come to a conclusion on so grave and important a question. The idea of retaliation, — killing man for man, — which is the popular noisy demand, is barbarous, and I cannot assent to or advise it. The leading officers should be held accountable and punished, but how? The policy of killing negro soldiers after they have surrendered must not be permitted, and the Rebel leaders should be called upon to avow or disavow it. But how is this to be done? Shall we go to Jeff Davis and his government, or apply to General Lee? If they will give us no answer, or declare they will kill the negroes, or justify Forrest, shall we take innocent Rebel officers as hostages? The whole subject is beset with difficulties. I cannot yield to any inhuman scheme of retaliation. Must wait the publication of the testimony.”

Presidential aide John Hay writes in his diary: “This evening while I was sitting in the Prest’s room, came in Green Clay Smith & [James] Ashley. They were talking about some matters which drifted into politics. Smith said nothing cd. beat Lincoln. Ashley did not give in his adhesion, but denounced the Fremont-Cleveland movement as foolish and ruinous: he said that Fremont was in New York personally soliciting signers to the Cleveland call: that he sent for him (Ashley) & he wd. not go to see him: that Fremont was an ass &c.”

President Lincoln Urges Help for Nashville Residents

May 4, 1864

President Lincoln writes General William T. Sherman: “I have an imploring appeal in behalf of the citizens who say your order No. 8 will compel them to go North of Nashville. This is in no sense, an order; nor is it even a request that you will do any thing which in the least, shall be a drawback upon your military operations, but any thing you can do consistently with those operations, for those suffering people, I shall be glad of…”

Sherman replied: “`We have worked hard with the best talent of the country & it is demonstrated that the railroad cannot supply the army & the people too. one or the other must quit & the army don’t intend to unless Joe Johnston makes us. The issues to citizens have been enormous & the same weight of corn or oats would have saved thousands of the mules whose carcasses now corduroy the roads and which we need so much. We have paid back to East Tenn. ten for one of provisions taken in war. I will not change my order and I beg of you to be satisfied that the clamor is partly a humbug & for effect, & to test it I advise you to tell the bearers of the appeal to hurry to Kentucky & make up a caravan of cattle & wagons & to come over by Cumberland Gap and Somerset to relieve their suffering friends on foot as they used to do before a railroad was built. Tell them they have no time to lose. We can relieve all actual suffering by each company or regiment giving of their savings. Every man who is willing to fight and work gets all rations & all who won’t fight or work should go away and we offer them free transportation.” Sherman’s army begins march to Atlanta.

President Lincoln writes Secretary of the TreasurySalmon P. Chase: “In consequence of a call Mr. [journalist Henry] Villard makes on, me, having a note from you to him, I am induced to say I have no wish for the publication of the correspondence between yourself and me in relation to the Pomeroy Circular–in fact, rather prefer to avoid an unnecessary exhibition–yet you are at liberty, without in the least offending me, to allow the publication, if you choose.”

Historian Allan Nevins wrote in Fremont, Pathmarker of the West: “On May 4, 1864, a group of radical Republicans who were known to favor the choice of Fremont sent out an invitation to a mas convention in Cleveland, to meet May 31^st for the purpose of forestalling the action of the regular Republicans. The signers did not constitute an impressive group. Representing only eleven states, they included no names more distinguished than those of B. Gratz Brown, Friedrich Kapp, Emil Preetorius, and James Redpath. However, their call was shortly reinforced by one emanating from a number of minor state officials in New York, and one sent out by a considerable number of Abolitionists.”

President Lincoln Seeks Cabinet Advice On Fort Pillow Massacre

May 3, 1864

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles write: ”At the Cabinet-meeting the President requested each member to give him an opinion as to what course the Government should pursue in relation to the recent massacre at Fort Pillow,” writes Navy Secretary Gideon Welles in his diary. “The committee from Congress who have visited the scene returned yesterday and will soon report. All the reported horrors are said to be verified. The President wishes to be prepared to act as soon as the subject is brought to his notice officially, and hence Cabinet advice in advance.

The subject is one of great responsibility and great embarrassment, especially before we are in possession of the facts and evidence of the committee. There must be something in these terrible reports, but I distrust Congressional committees. They exaggerate.

President Lincoln writes: “It is now quite certain that a large number of our colored soldiers, with their white officers, were, by the rebel force, massacred after they had surrendered, at the recent capture of Fort-Pillow. So much is known, though the evidence is not yet quite ready to be laid before me. Meanwhile I will thank you to prepare, and give me in writing your [2] opinion as to what course, the government should take in the case.

Presidential aide John G. Nicolay writes that President Lincoln “called a cabinet meeting for the discussion of the question what court the Government should take in regard to the massacre of colored soldiers at the capture of Fort Pillow by the rebels on April 12.” President Lincoln writes: “It is now quite certain that a large number of our colored soldiers; with their officers, were, by the rebel force, massacred after they had surrendered, at the recent capture of Fort-Pillow. So much is known, though the evidence is not yet quite ready to be laid before me. Meanwhile, I will thank you to prepare, and give me in writing your opinion as to what course, the government should take in the case.”

A congressional committee had been investing the massacre. Navy Secretary Gideon Welles writes in his diary: “At the Cabinet-meeting the President requested each member to give him an opinion as to what course the Government should pursue in relation to the recent massacre at Fort Pillow. The committee from Congress who have visited the scene returned yesterday and will soon report. All the reported horrors are said to be verified. The President wishes to be prepared to act as soon as the subject is brought to his notice officially, and hence Cabinet advice in advance.”

The subject is one of great responsibility and great embarrassment, especially before we are in possession of the facts and evidence of the committee. There must be something in these terrible reports, but I distrust Congressional Committees. They exaggerate.”

President Lincoln writes General William T. Sherman: “I have an imploring appeal in behalf of the citizens who say your order Non. 8 will compel them to go North of Nashville. This is in no sense, an order; nor is it even a request that you will do any thing which in the last, shall be a drawback upon your military operations, but any thing you do consistently with those operations, for those suffering people, I shall be glad of

General George B. McClellan, deprived of an army command, writes to New York attorney Samuel L. M. Barlow: “Mr. B. [Blair] insinuates that while in command of the Army of the Potomac I entertained political aspirations and that my course was guided by them.

In this he is entirely mistaken — my thought & time were devoted solely to the military affairs committed to me, and whatever political opinions I expressed were expressed officially & frankly to the Govt as a part of my duty as the Comdr of the Army, or of one of the great armies of the nation. I never looked to the Presidency & no official or personal act letter or conversation of mine will bear a contrary interpretation. I deny that my course of conduct while in command was calculated to produce the impression that I was ready as a General to lend myself to any party to supplant the Chief Magistrate etc.

Mr. Blair then intimates an attempt on my part to get control of the Govt by throwing myself into a party hostile to its Administration etc & cites the example of Lee & others as a proper course.

I have already stated the facts as to my conduct while in command. Since then, when assailed in every way by the Administration & its partisans, I have but once raised my voice — the Woodward letter — & in this I exercised the right of a citizen to repel attack & express an opinion.

Mr. B. her assumes that the reelection of Mr L & the retention of power by his party are essential to our success — I differ from him & regard success as possible only by a change of Administration & policy, therefore I should be wanting to my country did I support a party & a policy which I conscientiously believe will bring ruin upon us all.

General Henry W. Halleck provides some wise political advice to General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, who had a strong distaste for political generals like John McClernand and Nathaniel Banks: “General Banks is a personal friend of the President, and has strong political supporters in and out of Congress. There will undoubtedly be a very strong opposition to his being removed or superseded, and I think the President will hesitate to act unless he has a definite request from you to do so, as a military necessity, you designating his superior or superior in command. On receiving such a formal request (not a mere suggestion) I believe, as I wrote you some days ago, he would act immediately.

I have no authority for saying this, but give it simply as my own opinion, formed from the last two years’ experience, and the reason, I think is very obvious. To do an act which will give offense to a large number of his political friends the President will require some evidence in a positive form to show the military necessity of that act. In other words, he must have something in a definite shape to fall back upon as his justification.

President Lincoln Responds to House Inquiry into Congressman Frank Blair

May 2, 1864

President Lincoln writes to the House of Representatives: In compliance with the request contained in your resolution of the 29th ultimo, a copy of which resolution is herewith returned, I have the honor to transmit the following” documents related to Francis P. Blair, Jr.’s resignation as a general in November 1863 and then reinstatement by Lincoln in April 1864.

President Lincoln writes General Stephen A. Hurlbut in Louisiana: “Gen Farnsworth has just been reading to me from your letter to him of the 26th. ult. I snatch a moment to say that my friendship and confidence for you remains unabated, but that Gen’s Grant & Thomas cannot be held to their just responsibilities. if they are not allowed to control in the class of cases to which yours belongs.”

From one stand point a court of Inquiry is most just, but if your case were my own, I would not allow Gen’s Grant and Sherman [to] be diverted by it just now

White House aide William O. Stoddard writes in an anonymous newspaper dispatch:

“It is true that the trees are full of buds and blossoms, and some are even putting out their small green leaves to make sure of the spring, and a few adventurous birds are singing, now and then, but it must be from a sense of duty, for the day had no spring sunshine in it, not any temptations to make music. It is not altogether because it is cold and raw and chilly, after a heavy rain in the night, or that the clouds cover the sky grimly from horizon to horizon; but it is more than this, because somehow or other we have all made up our minds that the veil of secresy which covers Grant’s plan and movements will soon be rent asunder, and all will be made plain to us by the red light of terrible battle-fields.””