CHAPTER VI.. Congressional Revelations -- Great Results -- Discussions -- Miss

CONGRESSIONAL REVELATIONS -- GREAT RESULTS -- DISCUSSIONS -- MISS CARROLL PRESENTS HER CLAIM -- POLITICAL OPPOSITION -- LETTERS AND TESTIMONY.

Very curious is the picture revealed by the Congressional records. Fully as Lincoln and his Military Committee recognize the genius of the remarkable woman now taking the lead, it needs great courage to adopt her plans.

"Mr. Lincoln and Stanton are opposed to having it known that the armies are moving under the plan of a civilian, directed by the President as Commander-in-Chief. Mr. Lincoln says it was that which made him hesitate to inaugurate the movement against the opinions of the military commanders, and he says he does not want to risk the effect it might have upon the armies if they found that some outside party had originated the campaign; that he wanted the country and the armies to believe they were doing the whole business in saving the country."

Judge Wade alludes to a remark about the sword of Gideon, made by Secretary Stanton, and says that was done to maintain the policy of secrecy as to the origin of the plan. Strict silence is counselled as absolutely necessary, and Anna Ella Carroll is not the woman to allow a thought of self to interfere with her plans for the salvation of her country.

Rapid and brilliant is the success of that Tennessee campaign, planned and supervised by that able head. Her papers, as the campaign progresses, are as remarkable as the original plan. On the fall of Fort Henry she prepares a paper on the feasibility of advancing immediately on Mobile or Vicksburg, without turning to the right or left. She carries it, in person, to the War Department and delivers it into the hands of Assistant Secretary Tucker, who takes it at once to the Secretary of War.

She exhibits also a copy of the original plan, submitted on the 30th of November, 1861.

Mr. Tucker remarks: "This is prophecy fulfilled so far," and says he knows her to be the author, Colonel Scott having so informed him before he left for the West.

Notwithstanding some blunders in the execution, the campaign progresses, as the authorities at the War Office testify, "mainly in accordance with Miss Carroll's suggestions."

The fall of Fort Henry having opened the navigation of the Tennessee river, its capture is followed by the evacuation of Columbus and Bowling Green. Fort Donelson is given up and its garrison of 14,000 troops are marched out as prisoners of war; Pittsburg Landing and Corinth follow. The Confederate leaders discover with consternation that the key to the whole situation has been found. All Europe rings with the news of victories that have reversed the probabilities of the war.

On the 10th of April, four months after the adoption of Miss Carroll's plans, President Lincoln issues a proclamation thanking Almighty God for the "signal victories which have saved the country from foreign intervention and invasion."

* * * * *

THE FOREIGN MINISTERS ARE ENRAPTURED.

* * * * *

SEWARD TO DAYTON.

March 6, 1862.

"It is now apparent that we are at the beginning of the end of the attempted revolution. Cities, districts, and States are coming back under Federal authority."

* * * * *

ADAMS TO SEWARD.

March 6, 1862.

"We are anxiously awaiting the news by every steamer, but not for the same reasons as before; the pressure for interference here has disappeared."

* * * * *

DAYTON TO SEWARD.

March 25, 1862.

"The Emperor said that he must frankly say that when the insurrection broke out and this concession of belligerent rights was made he did not suppose the North would succeed; that it was the general belief of the statesmen of Europe that the two sections would never come together again."

* * * * *

DAYTON TO SEWARD.

March 31, 1862.

"I again called the Emperor's attention to the propriety of his Government retracing its steps in regard to its concession to the insurrectionists of belligerent rights, referring him to the consideration in regard thereto contained in your former dispatches. He said, 'It would scarcely be worthy of a great power, now that the South was beaten, to withdraw a concession made to them in the day of their strength.'"

* * * * *

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION.

April 10, 1862.

"It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to the land and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal rebellion, and at the same time to avert from our country the danger of foreign intervention and invasion."

* * * * *

SEWARD TO DAYTON.

May 7, 1862.

"The proclamation of commerce which is made may be regarded by the maritime powers as an announcement that the Republic has passed the danger of disunion."

* * * * *

Great enthusiasm is felt at Washington and throughout the country, as it becomes evident that a brilliant and successful plan has been adopted, and great anxiety is evinced to find out and reward the author.

For this purpose a lively debate takes place in the House of Representatives for the avowed purpose of finding out whether "these victories were arranged or won by men sitting at a distance, engaged in organizing victory," or whether "they have been achieved by bold and resolute men left free to act and to conquer." No one knows.

Mr. Conkling proposes to "thank Halleck and Grant."

Mr. Washburne thinks "General McClernand and General Logan should be included."

Mr. Cox thinks "General Smith is entitled to an equal degree of the glory."

Mr. Holman thinks "General Wallace should have a fair share."

Mr. Mallory thinks "General Buell should not be forgotten."

Mr. Kellogg thinks all these suggestions derogatory to President Lincoln, as Commander-in-Chief. He desires "it to be remembered that subordinate officers by law are under the control and command of the Commander-in-Chief of the American Army." He believes "there is, emanating from the Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, through his first subordinates, and by them to the next, and so continuously down to the soldiers who fight upon the battlefield, a well digested, clear, and definite policy of campaign, that is in motion to put down this rebellion;" and he "here declares that he believes that the system of movements that has culminated in glorious victories, and which will soon put down this rebellion, finds root, brain, and execution in the Commanding General of the American Army and the Chief Executive of the American people."

Mr. Olin says: "If it be the object of the House, before passing a vote of thanks, to ascertain who was the person who planned and organized these victories, then it would be eminently proper to request the Secretary of War to give us that information. That would satisfy the gentleman and the House directly as to who was the party that planned these military movements. It is sufficient for the present that somebody has planned and executed these military movements. Still, if the gentleman has any desire to know who originated these movements, he can ascertain that fact by inquiring at the proper office, for certainly some one at the War Department must be informed on the subject. The Secretary of War knows whether he had anything to do with them or not; the Commanding General knows whether he had anything to do with them or not. If neither of them had anything to do with them, they will cheerfully say so."

But at the War Department it has been determined that the secret must be kept so long as the war continues, and this noble, silent woman sits in the gallery listening to all this discussion and makes no claim, knowing well the injury that it would be to the national cause if it should be known that the plan was the work of a civilian, and, above all, a woman--a creature despised and ignored, not even counted as one of "the people" in the sounding profession made of human rights a hundred years ago.

The House of Representatives having failed to discover the author of the campaign, on March 13th, 1862, the Senate makes a similar attempt.

Mr. Washburne and Mr. Grimes think "it is Commodore Foote who should be thanked." But no one knows.

Again that wonderful, quiet woman in the gallery sits silently listening to all their talking and discussing.

She speaks of it afterwards to Colonel Scott; refers to the discussions which had taken place in Congress to find out who had devised the movement, and to the fact that she had preserved entire silence while the debate went on, claiming it for one and another of the generals of the war.

Colonel Scott says she has "acted very properly in the matter; that there is no question of her being entitled to the vote of thanks by Congress; that she has saved incalculable millions to the country, etc., but that it would not do while the struggle lasted to make a public claim;" and also states that the War Power pamphlet has done much good, and he has heard it frequently referred to while in the West.

Judge Wade discusses the matter and says it greatly adds to the merit of the author that it was not made known. "Where is there another man or woman," says Judge Wade, turning to Judge Evans, "who would have kept silence when so much could have come personally from an open avowal." Judge Evans says he has reproached himself more than once that he had not in some way made known what he knew, but was constrained to silence by considerations of patriotism that were above all else at that time.

Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, afterward writes to Miss Carroll:

"I have sometimes reproached myself that I had not made known the author when they were discussing the resolution in Congress to find out; but Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton were opposed to its being known that the armies were moving under the plan of a civilian. Mr. Lincoln wanted the armies to believe that they were doing the whole business of saving the country."

Mr. Wade also writes to Miss Carroll:

"The country, almost in her last extremity, was saved by your sagacity and unremitting labor; indeed, your services were so great that it is hard to make the world believe it. That all this great work should be brought about by a woman is inconceivable to vulgar minds. You cannot be deprived of the honor of having done greater and more efficient services for the country in time of her greatest peril than any other person in the Republic, and a knowledge of this cannot be long repressed."

Col. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, to whom her plans were submitted, informs her in 1862 that "the adoption of her plan has saved the country millions of money."

Hon. L. D. Evans, justice of the supreme court of Texas, in a pamphlet entitled "The Material Bearing of the Tennessee Campaign in 1862 upon the Destinies of our Civil War," shows that no military plan could have saved the country except this, and that this was unthought of and unknown until suggested by Miss Carroll, who alone had the genius to grasp the situation.

How clearly the Confederate leaders recognized the fatal effects of this Tennessee campaign is indicated by a letter found among the papers captured by General Mitchell at Huntsville, written by General Beauregard to General Samuel Cooper, Richmond, Va.:

"CORINTH, April 9, 1862.

"Can we not be reinforced by Pemberton's army?" "If defeated here, we lose the Mississippi Valley and probably our cause, whereas we could even afford to lose Charleston and Savannah for the purpose of defeating Buell's army, which would not only insure us the valley of the Mississippi, but our independence."

The feeling of the Confederate army is curiously indicated by the following letter received by Miss Carroll as the struggle drew towards its close and filed by Mr. Stanton among his papers:

FORT DELAWARE, March 1, 1865.

Miss Carroll, Baltimore, Md.:

Madam: It is rumored in the Southern army that you furnished the plan or information that caused the United States Government to abandon the expedition designed to descend the Mississippi river, and transferred the armies up the Tennessee river in 1862. We wish to know if this is true. If it is, you are the veriest of traitors to your section, and we warn you that you stand upon a volcano.

"CONFEDERATES."

* * * * *

Miss Carroll's patriotic labors continued to the end. She contributed papers on emancipation and on reconstruction, and wrote articles for the leading journals in support of the Government.

"While her pen was tireless in the cause of loyalty, her sympathy and interest extended themselves toward the prisons, the battlefields, and the hospitals, and many were the individual cases of suffering and want that she relieved. She was especially successful with procuring discharges for Union prisoners, and where such were in need her own means were most generously used to give adequate help."

Although the agreement with the Government was that she should be remunerated for her services and the employment of her private resources, it was not until some time after the close of the war that she endeavored, by the advice of her friends and prominent members of the War Committee, to make a public claim and establish so important a fact in the history of the war.

"Miss Carroll's own feeling was a desire to make her services a free gift to her country, and her aged father, who felt the proudest satisfaction in his daughter's patriotic career, was of the same disinterested opinion."

The same high and chivalrous feeling that led him to sacrifice his ancestral home to liquidate the debts incurred by others made him unwilling that his daughter should press even for the payment of the debt due for the publication of her pamphlets and campaign documents, though published at the request of the War Department on the understanding that she was to be repaid. His loftiness of feeling and unbounded generosity continued even under adverse fortunes.

"But as time went on, her father no longer living, Miss Carroll noted how honors and emoluments were allotted to her fellow-laborers, and that her own work, owing to the peculiar circumstances that at first surrounded it and the untimely deaths of Mr. Lincoln and others who would gladly have proclaimed it, was wholly sinking into obscurity. A sense of the injustice of the case took possession of her and the conviction that history itself would be falsified if her silence continued."

Thomas A. Scott and Mr. Wade, chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, and others well acquainted with her work were still living, able and desirous to establish her claim. By their advice and with their enthusiastic endorsement she made a statement of her case in 1870 and presented it before Congress, asking for recognition and a due award.

"Every lover of history, every true patriot, and, above all, every patriotic woman will be glad that she so decided."--Mrs. Abbie M. Gannet.

It was not fitting that such achievements should be allowed to sink into oblivion.

Accordingly she made her claim, supported by the strongest and clearest testimony from the very men who were most competent to speak with absolute authority, Mr. Wade, Mr. Scott, and others of the War Department testifying again and again to the facts of the case.

It immediately became evident that a most determined effort was to be made to crush her claims. The honors of war were not to be allowed to rest on the head that had so ably won them. Personal and political interests were too strongly involved. If it had been a little matter it might have passed; but this was a case of such magnitude and importance, a case that must greatly change existing estimates.

To defeat the testimony was impossible. Other means must be used. Chicanery of every kind was resorted to.

Twice Miss Carroll's whole file of papers were stolen from the Military Committee, who were considering her claims.

Fortunately Miss Carroll possessed the original drafts of these letters. She speedily reproduced them, and the Military Committee and Mr. Hunt, the keeper of the records, having already examined the letters, accepted the new file and ordered them to be printed, thus giving them their guarantee; so that, to all intents and purposes, they became the same as the originals.

Judge Wade advises Miss Carroll:

"I want you to set forth to these gentlemen, in your private letters, the facts about the abstracting of these papers. It has never been properly done. It is exceedingly important as evidence of the truth of your claim. Tell them how your papers were abstracted from the files twice. Send a letter to General Banning. Tell Judge Evans to ask the General to appoint a sub-committee to investigate it, so as to submit it to the general committee. Tell them all, and remind them that when one report was made in the Senate Committee by Mr. Howard the papers were abstracted from the files, as the Secretary of the Committee, Rev. Samuel Hunt, will testify. I hope the report will be a very emphatic and explicit one in setting forth your plan as you took it to Colonel Scott. It makes the strongest foundation to commence upon in the sub-committee. There will undoubtedly be a minority of Republicans, and it will be so much the better for that, because they can find no evidence to invalidate the report of the majority, and I would like to see them make the attempt. Being at the head of the War Committee, I had most to do with it. The committee not half the time were present. Nobody knows the difficulty the War Committee had to get the army moved. We had almost to fight for that campaign."

Mr. Hunt writes from Natick, Mass.:

March 7, 1876.

My Dear Miss Carroll:

I remember well your failure to recover twice all the papers you intrusted to the charge of the Military Committee and our inability to account for their loss.

Hoping you will have better success now, I remain as ever,

Very truly yours,

S. HUNT, Late Secretary of Senate Military Committee.

* * * * *

Senator Howard tells Miss Carroll she has a right to feel disappointed that her claims should be neglected, but he says, "you know the great power of the military, who don't want you to have the recognition."

"Senator Howard," she replies, "there is something in moral integrity. I understand you, but just tell the truth. I ask only to be sustained by truth, and am not afraid of this power."

"Miss Carroll," he says with emphasis, "you have done more for the country than them all. You told and showed where to fight and how to strike the rebellion upon its head. No one comprehends the magnitude of that service more than I."

* * * * *

Judge Wade's remarks to Senator Wilson last of May, 1862 (as taken down by a reporter):

Judge Wade said he talked just right to Wilson for the delay in Miss Carroll's matter before his committee; that Wilson said he was no more against the claim than Wade. Wade told him it would kill him politically if he didn't act soon; that it ought to kill any party who knew the truths of the great civil war and conspired to conceal them for their own purposes; that it would be a great feather in a man's cap and a great help to his own cause to bring the matter before the country right, no matter who it offended, and he only regretted he was not in the Senate then on this very account, and would always be sorry he had not induced Miss Carroll to come out and make claim for her rights while the rejoicing was going on at the final surrender. Wilson said it was a big thing, and he agreed that the American people would cheerfully pay for it, if it had been so done, by contribution boxes at the cross-roads and post-offices of the country.

* * * * *

Mr. Tucker writes from Philadelphia in 1870:

"I saw Colonel Scott yesterday and placed your papers in his hands. He remarked that he should stand by all he had said or written in the matter, and he presumed that was all you would want."

* * * * *

1872.

Judge Wade says: "I went to Morton, in the Senate, and told him that it was infamous that the Military Committee did not report at once. He said, for himself he was ready to endorse your claim fully, and had done so when Howard reported. I went on to tell him more, but he said, 'I could not be more strongly convinced of the justice of that claim. Your own statement satisfied me without anything more. If Wilson will send down for the report I will sign my name to it right now.' I then went over to Wilson and told him what Morton had said, and told him he had better send down for it. Wilson said he didn't think that was the best way of doing it, but that he would call a special meeting of the Committee and have it done. I then saw Cameron. He said he was ready and always had been."

* * * * *

1873.

Judge Wade tells her: "Howe said your claim had been sent to his committee--on Claims--but that it did not properly belong there; but that he had examined the papers; that your claim was entirely just and ought to be paid."

And again: "That he had spoken to Wadleigh, a member of the Military Committee, about her claim. He said he had no question that it was clearly proved, and no doubt she would be ultimately paid by the Government."

* * * * *

1874.

Judge Wade says: "I asked Logan what he was going to do about Miss Carroll's claim." He said "he didn't know what to say." "I told him it ought to be paid at once; that it was clearly established." Logan said, "Yes; but she claims so much." Wade replies, "She claims to have furnished the information that led to the military movements that decided the war." Logan didn't say any more, or what he would do.

Judge Wade asked Morrill what he was going to do; that this claim had been before Congress long enough. Morrill said your claim was clearly established; "that were you applying for a title for a new patent of discovery nothing could defeat you, but that it was indispensable to have the Military Committee act again." Wade says "he feels embarrassed in appearing as an advocate, being a witness, but that he will go before the committee anyhow and insist upon action."

JEFFERSON, OHIO, October 3, 1876.

My Dear Miss Carroll:

I do assure you that the manner in which your most noble services and sacrifices have been treated by your country has given me more pain and anxiety than anything that ever happened to me personally; that such merit should go so long unrewarded is deeply disgraceful to the country, or rather to the agencies of the Government who have had the matter in charge. I hope and trust it will not always be so. The truth is, your services were so great they cannot be comprehended by the ordinary capacity of our public men; and then, again, your services were of such a character that they threw a shadow over the reputations of some of our would-be great men. No doubt great pains have been taken in the business of trying to defeat you, but it has always been an article of faith with me that truth and justice must ultimately triumph.

Ever yours truly,

B. F. WADE.

* * * * *

JEFFERSON, OHIO, April 10, 1877.

My Dear Miss Carroll:

There is nothing in my power I would not most gladly do for you, for none have ever done so much for the country as you, and none have had so little for it. I cannot but believe justice will be done you yet for the immense services you rendered the country in the civil war. But when I reflect what mighty work you have done for the country and how you have been treated it keeps me awake nights and fills my soul with bitterness.

Truly yours ever,

B. F. WADE.

* * * * *

JEFFERSON, OHIO, September 4, 1877.

My Dear Miss Carroll:

* * * I know you are right and I will never fail to do all I can to aid you in attaining it. Your only trouble is you have the whole army to fight, who seem better skilled in opposing you than they were in finding out the best method of fighting the enemy. I hope your health holds out and continues good, for what you have done and what you have to do would break down any weaker intellect and physical constitution.

Mrs. Wade joins me in wishing you all success.

Truly yours,

B. F. WADE.

* * * * *

Governor Corwin writes her:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 1878.

Dear Friend:

I thank you for the address of your good Governor of the third instant. I believe you will succeed in saving Maryland, but there is nothing to be done with this Congress, and your counsel to your friends is wise. Art, finesse, and trick are in this age worth the wisdom of Solomon, the faith of Abraham, and the fidelity of Moses.

Truly yours,

TOM CORWIN.

* * * * *

Soon after the close of the war Miss Carroll inquires of Mr. Stanton if he could not furnish what was termed "a transportation and subsistence" for a southern tour. Many people were present. He remarks he had rather pay her millions of dollars than to say no to any request she could make of him. "You," he says, "who have done such incomparable services for the country with so much modesty and so little pretension," etc.

Miss Carroll does not like so much in the line of compliment and says to General Hardie as she passes out, "Mr. Stanton said too much and attracted the attention of all in the room."

Hardie says, "Don't take it in that light. Mr. Stanton is not the man to say what he don't mean, and, I venture to say, never said so much to any one besides during the war."

Miss Carroll relates this to Judge Wade. "Why," says he, "Stanton has said the same of you to me, and often in the same vein; he said your course was the most remarkable in the war; that you found yourself, got no pay, and did the great work that made others famous."

For these reports and conversations see--

45th Congress,} House of Representatives.} Miss. Doc. 2nd Session, } Pp. 30, 31, 32, 33. } No. 58.

Vol. 6, Miscellaneous Documents, Document Room of the Senate.