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Title: A Military Genius
Life of Anna Ella Carroll of Maryland
Author: Sarah Ellen Blackwell
Release Date: June 23, 2007 [EBook #21909]
Language: English
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A MILITARY GENIUS.
LIFE OF ANNA ELLA CARROLL OF MARYLAND
SARAH ELLEN BLACKWELL
[Illustration: Ex Libris]
[Illustration: Anna Ella Carroll]
A MILITARY GENIUS.
LIFE OF ANNA ELLA CARROLL,
OF MARYLAND,
("The great unrecognized member of Lincoln's Cabinet.")
COMPILED FROM FAMILY RECORDS AND CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS
BY
SARAH ELLEN BLACKWELL.
For Sale at the Office of the _Woman's Journal_, 3 Park Street,
Boston, Mass. Rooms of the Woman's Suffrage Society, 1406 G St.,
Washington, D. C.
Price: $1.10 (Forwarded free on receipt of price).
WASHINGTON, D. C.
JUDD & DETWEILER, PRINTERS.
1891.
Entered in the office of the Librarian of Congress, 1891.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The long years come and go,
And the Past,
The sorrowful splendid Past,
With its glory and its woe,
Seems never to have been.
Seems never to have been!
O somber days and grand,
How ye crowd back once more,
Seeing our heroes graves are green
By the Potomac, and the Cumberland
And in the valley of the Shenandoah!
When we remember how they died,
In dark ravine and on the mountain side,
In leaguered fort and fire-encircled town,
And where the iron ships went down.
How their dear lives were spent
In the weary hospital tent,
In the cockpit's crowded hive,
---- it seems
Ignoble to be alive!
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH.
CONTENTS.
Chapter I.
Ancestry and Old Plantation Life............................... 1
Chapter II.
Childhood and Early Life -- Miss Carroll's Youthful Letters to
Her Father -- Religious Tendencies -- Letters from Dr. Robert J.
Breckenridge -- Sale of Kingston Hall -- Early Writings -- Letter
of Hon. Edward Bates -- Breaking Out of the Civil War --
Preoccupation in Military Affairs............................. 14
Chapter III.
Rise of the Secession Movement -- The Capital in Danger -- Miss
Carroll's Literary Labors for the Cause of the Union --
Testimonials from Eminent Men................................. 31
Chapter IV.
The Military Situation -- Goes to St. Louis -- Inception of the
Plan of the Tennessee Campaign -- Gives in The Plan at the War
Department -- President Lincoln's Delight at the Solution of the
Problem -- Account Written in 1889 -- Judge Wade at Bull Run --
Formation of the Committee for the Conduct of the War......... 59
Chapter V.
Miss Carroll's Papers to the War Department -- Plan of Campaign
-- Letters from Scott, Wade, and Others -- Discussions -- Papers
as the Campaign Progresses.................................... 81
Chapter VI.
Congressional Revelations -- Great Results -- Discussions -- Miss
Carroll Presents Her Claim -- Political Opposition -- Letters and
Testimony.................................................... 105
Chapter VII.
Miss Carroll's Pamphlets in Aid of the Administration -- The
Presentation of the Bill..................................... 124
Chapter VIII.
Miss Carroll Before Congress................................. 132
Chapter IX.
A Wounded Veteran Retires from the Field -- Interview with Grant
-- The Women of America make the Cause Their Own -- A National
Lesson....................................................... 150
PREFACE.
In commencing the attempt to portray a very remarkable career I had
hoped for the coöperation of the person concerned so far, at least, as
the supervision of any statements I might find it necessary to make.
But it was decided by her friends that it would not be well for her at
present to be troubled with new projects, or even informed of them. It
was at first a serious disappointment to me and seemed to increase my
difficulties, but as I was allowed access to sources of family
information I have been enabled to present a sketch, slight and
inadequate, but authentic, and greatly desired by many distant
friends. With continued improvement in health I trust that the wishes
of Miss Carroll's friends may be better met by an autobiography taking
the place of the present meager and imperfect sketch.
It should be at once understood that this is not a plea for Miss
Carroll.
Her work has but to be fairly presented to speak for itself.
Her claim was settled once and forever by the evidence given before
the first Military Committee of 1871, met to consider the claim, and
reporting, through Senator Howard, unanimously endorsing every fact.
The Assistant Secretary of War, Thomas A. Scott, the Chairman of the
Committee for the Conduct of the War, Benjamin F. Wade, and Judge
Evans, of Texas, testifying in a manner that was conclusive. These men
knew what they were talking about and human testimony could no farther
go. Congress, through its committees, has again and again endorsed the
claim, and never denied it, being "adverse" only to award as involving
national recognition.
Our great generals have left us one by one without ever antagonizing
the claim, and General Grant advised Miss Carroll to continue to push
her claim for recognition.
But this work is to be considered rather in the light of an historical
research bearing on questions of the day.
Are our present laws and customs just toward women? Are women ever
preëminently fitted for high offices in the State? Is it for our honor
and advantage when so fitted to avail ourselves of the whole united
intellect and moral power of men and women side by side in peril and
in duty? Such a life as this gives to all these questions the
authoritative answer of established facts.
NEW YORK, _April 21st, 1891_. (Summer address, Lawrence, Long Island,
N. Y.)
Miss Carroll's address is 931 New Hampshire Avenue, Washington, D. C.
A SEARCH FOR THE DOCUMENTS.
Arriving as a stranger in Washington, knowing nothing of libraries and
document rooms, Secretaries offices, and War departments, I was at
first greatly at a loss. For many years I had had in my possession two
very important documents, the last memorial of 1878 and the report of
the Military Committee thereon under General Bragg in 1881. With these
two in my hand I proceeded to consult the Descriptive Catalogue of the
Congressional Library. To my surprise, I found that these two very
important documents had been omitted from the index. Calling attention
to the fact, we looked them up in the body of the volume and Mr.
Spofford immediately added them in pencil together with the other
important documents, in Miss Carroll's favor, which had also been
omitted. When I made my way to the Senate document room I found that
this important Miss. Doc. 58 had been omitted there also, having been
set down under another name. Looking it up in the volume of
Miscellaneous Documents I again obtained the admission by Mr. Amzi
Smith. In the list at the Secretaries office Miss. Doc. 58 was also
omitted together with the last report by a Military Committee, under
General Bragg, endorsing the claim in the most thorough going way. The
index ending with an intermediate report mistakenly designated as
_adverse_, though the previous reports were not thus heralded as
favorable.
After the first report, as made by Senator Howard and the repeated
endorsements made by Wilson and Williams of succeeding Congresses,
these two documents are by far the most important and interesting.
The memorial of '78, containing additional evidence explaining some
things, otherwise unaccountable, and making some very singular
revelations. It is a mine of wealth for the future historian. At the
Secretary's office I showed the documents and stated that their
exclusion must have been unfavorable to the presentation of the case.
I was not equally fortunate in obtaining their immediate admission,
but trust the mistake has since been rectified.
The report marked as "adverse" would be more truly described as
"admission of the incontestable nature of the evidence in support of
the claim," admitting the services in every particular and being
"adverse" only to award involving national recognition.
At the Secretary's office I obtained permission to see the file of the
41st Congress, 2d. session. There I saw the first short memorial with
the plan of campaign attached as described by Thomas Scott. Then my
investigations were temporarily ended by the outside of a document
being shown me stating that the papers had been withdrawn by Samuel
Hunt, thus agreeing with the statement made by him in Miss. Doc. 58,
that they had been stolen from his desk while the committee were
examining the claim.
I found it very difficult to obtain the earlier documents. "Supply
exhausted" being the answer that has long been given, but all can be
looked up in the bound volumes.
When, at length, fairly started in my work I was disturbed by a rumor
that Miss Carroll's papers, formerly placed on file at the War
Department, were no longer to be found there. I set out as far as
possible to investigate. Provided with an excellent letter of
introduction to the Secretary of War I made my way, on March 6, 1891,
to the vast building of the War Department and sent in my letter with
a list of the documents I wanted to see. Miss Carroll's Military
papers, given in the Miss. Doc. 58, and a list of letters from the
same memorial by Wade, Scott, and Evans.
The permission being kindly accorded I was transferred to the Record
office and told that the file should be ready for me on the following
day.
Taking with me the Miss. Doc. 58, an unpublished manuscript of Miss
Carroll's, and specimens of the handwriting of Wade and Scott, I
punctually put in an appearance, was transferred to the office of the
Adjutant General, and Miss Carroll's file produced for my inspection.
I met with all possible courtesy and every facility for the
examination. I found two of the papers on my list in her now familiar
handwriting, and some others.
A letter to Secretary Stanton, of May 14, 1862, recommending the
occupation of Vicksburgh and referring to Pilot Scott, stating that
she had derived from him some of the important information which had
lead to her paper to the War Department on Nov. 30, 1861, which had
occasioned the change of campaign in the southwest and proved of such
incalculable benefit to the national cause.
A paper of May 15th, 1862, advising that Memphis and Vicksburgh should
be strongly occupied and the Yazoo river watched. Another letter to
Stanton concerning her pamphlets and proposing to write another one in
aid of Mr. Lincoln, unjustly assailed. There was a portion of a letter
written in great haste from St. Louis. There was an interesting letter
from Robert Lincoln when Secretary of War. A petition from a group of
ladies, asking for information concerning Miss Carroll's services and
several other documents, but most of the important papers on my list
were not on the file.
After examining the papers for some time I asked to see the originals
of the letters of Wade and Scott. I was told they were in another
department and would take some time to look up, but a gentleman was
politely detailed to conduct me there and look up the letters. I
opened my Miss. Doc. 58 and pointed out the long list of letters of
Mr. Wade's, on pages 23, 24, 25, and 26, and asked to see those first.
The gentlemen expressed his astonishment that, with _such_ a document
in my hand, I should ask for _originals_. He said that the documents
printed by order of Congress were to all intents and purposes the same
as the originals, as they were never so printed until those letters
and papers had been examined and proved to be genuine. I asked if the
printing was also a guarantee for Miss Carroll's papers as printed in
that document, though we were now unable to find the originals. He
replied assuredly it was; that I could positively rely upon all that
had been so printed. There was no going back upon the Congressional
records. Other gentlemen came up and confirmed the statement.
Under these circumstances it seemed unnecessary to carry the
investigation any further, so with thanks for the great friendliness
and courtesy that I had met with I took up my precious Miss. Doc. 58
and departed with a slight intimation that if anything more should be
needed they might have the pleasure of seeing me again.
The missing documents, after being on file for 8 years, were sent on
one or more occasions from the War Department to the Capitol for
examination by committees.
On page 30 of the Miss. Doc. 58 we learn the reason, on testimony of
Wade and Hunt (keeper of the records), why they are there no longer.
[Footnote: For list of documents see pages 29 and
82.]
MISS CARROLL'S MILITARY MAPS.
On page 178 of the memorial of '78 Judge Evans, in one of the many
repeated letters and statements of great interest that I have been
obliged to omit for want of space, relates how he stood beside Miss
Carroll in her parlor at St. Louis when she was gathering the
information for the preparation of her paper to the War Department of
November 30, 1861, and its accompanying map. He says, "I have a very
distinct recollection of aiding her in the preparation of that paper,
tracing with her upon a map of the United States, which hung in her
parlor, the Memphis and Charleston railroad and its connections
southward, the course of the Tennessee, the Alabama, and the Tombigbee
rivers, and the position of Mobile Bay; and when Henry fell she wrote
the Department, showing the feasability of going either to Mobile or
Vicksburg."
In his testimony given on page 85 of Miss. Doc. 179, he says, "On Miss
Carroll's return from the West she prepared and submitted to the
deponent, for his opinion, the plan of the Tennessee river expedition,
as set forth in her memorial. Being a native and resident of that part
of the section and intimately acquainted with its geography, and
particularly with the Tennessee river, deponent was convinced of the
vast military importance of her paper, and advised her to lose no time
in laying the same before the War Department, which she did on or
about November 30, 1861. The accompanying map, rapidly prepared by
Miss Carroll, was made on ordinary writing paper. An unpretentious
map, but fraught with immense importance to the national cause.
Assistant Secretary of War Thomas A. Scott, the great railroad magnate
and a man of remarkably acute mind, saw at a glance the immense
importance of the plan; he hastened with it to Lincoln, and when her
plan of campaign was determined on he studied her map with the
greatest care before going West to consolidate the troops for the
coming campaign.
The second map sent in with Miss Carroll's paper of October, 1862,
when the army before Vicksburg was meeting with disastrous failure,
was made on regular map paper, representing the fortifications at
Vicksburg, demonstrating that they could not be taken on the plan then
adopted and indicating the right course to pursue. Miss Carroll bought
the paper for the map at Shillington's, corner of Four-and-a-Half
street and Pennsylvania avenue; sketched it out herself with blue and
red pencils and ink and took it to the War Department.
On page 24 of Miss. Doc. 58, Judge Wade writes:
"Referring to a conversation with Judge Evans last evening he called
my attention to Colonel Scott's telegram announcing the fall of Island
No. 10 in 1862 as endorsing your plan, when Scott said, 'the movement
in the rear has done the work.' I stated to the Judge, as you and he
knew before, that your paper on the reduction of Vicksburg had done
the work on that place, after being so long baffled and with the loss
of so much life and treasure by trying to take it from the water; that
to my knowledge your paper was approved and adopted by the Secretary
of War and immediately sent out to the proper military authority in
that Department."
On April 16, 1891, by permission of the kindly authorities of the War
Department, search was made in the office of the Chief Engineer to see
if, by chance, these maps might have come to the War Department. No
trace or record was found and it seemed to be agreed that, considering
the circumstances of extreme secrecy attending the inauguration of the
campaign, it was unlikely that they should come there. Time, which so
often corroborates the truth, may possibly bring those maps to light.
At present I cannot trace them.
* * * * *
It is proposed to follow this volume with another, entitled "Civil War
Papers in Aid of the Administration," by Anna Ella Carroll, with notes
by the author.
CHAPTER I.
ANCESTRY AND OLD PLANTATION LIFE.
In looking at the map of Maryland we find that the configuration of
the State is of an unusual character. The eastern portion is divided
through the middle by the broad waters of Chesapeake Bay, leaving nine
counties with the State of Delaware on the long stretch between the
Chesapeake, Delaware Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean. Of late years the
great tide of population has set toward the western side of Chesapeake
Bay, leaving the widely divided eastern counties in a comparatively
quiet and primitive condition. But in the earlier history of our
country these eastern counties, with easy access to the Atlantic
Ocean, were of greater comparative importance to the State, and were a
Center of culture and of hospitality. It was in Somerset, one of the
two southernmost of these eastern counties, that Sir Thomas King,
coming from England about the middle of the eighteenth century,
purchased an extensive domain.
Landing first in Virginia with a group of colonists, he there married
Miss Reid, an English lady also highly connected and of an influential
family. The estate which he subsequently purchased in Maryland
embraced several plantations, extending from the county road back to a
creek, a branch of the Annemessex river, then and since known as
King's creek.
Standing well back and divided from the county road by extensive
grounds, Sir Thomas King built Kingston Hall, a pleasant and
commodious residence. An avenue of fine trees, principally Lombard
poplars and the magnificent native tulip tree, formed the approach to
the Hall, and its gardens were terraced down to the creek behind.
On one of the outlying plantations Sir Thomas King also established
the little village of Kingston, of which he built and owned every
house. He brought hither settlers, but the little place did not
thrive. Plantation life and proprietary ownership were not conducive
to the growth of cities. As the old settlers died out the houses were
abandoned, and the post office was removed to a corner of the Hall
plantation, then known as Kingston Corner. A new settlement grew up
there, and since emancipation has changed the conditions of life it
has grown and thriven. It is now a promising little place of 250
inhabitants. It has assumed to itself the name of the older village
and is known as Kingston on the present maps.
At the Hall Sir Thomas King established his family residence. Here he
lived and here his wife died, leaving but one child, a daughter,
heiress to these wide estates, the future mother of Governor Thomas
King Carroll and the grandmother of Anna Ella Carroll, whose
interesting career is the subject of our present relation.
Through all the early history of Maryland the contests between
Catholic and Protestant form one of its most conspicuous features.
Early settled by Lord Baltimore, a Catholic proprietary, his followers
were at once involved in a struggle with still earlier settlers at
Kent Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, and the Protestants who followed,
while condemning Catholicism as a rule of faith, associated it also
with the doctrine of divine right and arbitrary rule. Bitter contests
followed. The most active minds of the Colony enrolled themselves
enthusiastically in the opposing parties.
St. Mary's, a little town on the western side of the Chesapeake, was
the ancient capital of the State and the headquarters of Catholicism.
Sir Thomas King, on his side, was a staunch Presbyterian. This
household was strictly ruled in conformity to his faith, and by
liberal contribution and personal influence he was largely
instrumental in building the first Presbyterian meeting-house, at the
little town of Rehoboth, a few miles from his own domain, a great
barn-like structure of red brick, which remains to this day. The
marriage of Miss King with her cousin, young Mr. Armstead, of
Virginia, the ward of Sir Thomas King, was an event that had been
planned for in both families, and was looked forward to with great
satisfaction on all sides.
One may well imagine, then, the consternation which ensued to the
proprietor of the Hall, to his relatives and friends, and all the
neighbors of that staunch Presbyterian region, when Colonel Henry
James Carroll, of St. Mary's, of the old Catholic family of the noted
Charles Carroll, and himself a Catholic by profession, came across the
waters of the Chesapeake, courting the only daughter of Sir Thomas
King, the heiress to all these estates and the reigning belle of the
county.
In vain was the bitter opposition of father and friends. The willful
young heiress insisted on giving to the handsome officer from St.
Mary's the preference over all her other admirers. It may be that a
reaction from the strict rules and the severe tenets of her education
gave to this young scion of another faith an additional charm. However
that may be, love won the day.
The father was compelled to yield, and the young heiress became the
wife of the intrepid Colonel Henry James Carroll. It could hardly have
been expected that Sir Thomas King should associate with himself under
the same roof a son-in-law of principles so opposed to his own; but he
established the young couple on the adjacent estate of Bloomsborough,
which he also owned, and here their little son, Thomas King Carroll,
first saw the light of day.
The old proprietor, in his great empty hall, coveted this little
grandson and proposed to adopt him as his own child and make him the
heir to all his estates.
In course of time a younger son, Charles Cecilius Carroll, was born to
the Bloomsborough household, the grandfather's proposition was
accepted, and little Thomas King Carroll, then between five and six
years of age, became an inmate of Kingston Hall and the object of Sir
Thomas King's devoted affection and brightest hopes.
Governor Carroll, in after times, used to relate to his children how
they spent the winter evenings alone in the old Hall. His grandfather,
in his spacious armchair, on one side of the open hearth, with a
blazing wood fire and tall brass andirons; the little boy, in a low
chair, on the opposite side, listening to the tales that his
grandfather related of ancient times and heroic deeds. By these means
Sir Thomas King strove to amuse his youthful heir and to train his
mind to high principles and brave aspirations. But Sunday must have
been a terrible day to the little boy, attending long services in the
red brick meeting-house and occupying himself as he best could between
whiles with the old English family Bible, with pictures of devils and
lakes of fire and brimstone, calculated to inspire his youthful mind
with horror and alarm.
At an early age the young heir was sent to college, to the
Pennsylvania University at Philadelphia, then the most famous seat of
learning for those parts. Here he graduated with distinguished honors,
at the age of seventeen. Among his classmates and intimate friends
were Mr. William M. Meredith, of Philadelphia; Benjamin Gratz, of St.
Louis, and the father of Mr. Mitchell, the author of Ike Marvel.
Returning to Maryland, Thomas King Carroll began the study of law with
Ephraim King Wilson, who had been named after Sir Thomas King. He was
the father of the late United States Senator for Maryland. His studies
being completed, arrangements were made to associate him as partner
with Robert Goodloe Harper, the son-in-law of Charles Carroll, of
Carrollton, in his lucrative law practice, and a house was engaged for
his future residence in Baltimore.
During the studies of Thomas King Carroll, his aged grandfather, Sir
Thomas King, having died, Colonel Henry James Carroll and his family
were residing at Kingston Hall and managing the estate for the young
heir.
An old friend of the family was Dr. Henry James Stevenson, one of the
prominent physicians of Baltimore. Dr. Stevenson had come over
formerly as a surgeon in the British army. He had married in England
Miss Anne Henry, of Hampton. Settling in Baltimore, he acquired a
large estate, then on the outskirts, now in the center of Baltimore.
On Parnassus Hill he built a very spacious and handsome residence.
During the Revolutionary War Dr. Stevenson remained loyal to his
British training and was an outspoken Tory. The populace of Baltimore
were so incensed against him that they mobbed his residence,
threatening to destroy it. The Doctor showed his military courage by
standing, fully armed, in his doorway and threatening to shoot the
first man who attempted to enter. The mob were so impressed by his
determined attitude that they finally retired, leaving the owner and
his property uninjured. Dr. Stevenson afterwards became much beloved
through his devotion and care, bestowed alike on the wounded of both
armies. He became noted in the profession from his controversy with
Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, the one advocating and the other
opposing inoculation for small-pox. Dr. Stevenson was so enthusiastic
that he gave up, temporarily, his beautiful residence as a hospital
for the support of his theory.
An ivory miniature in a gold locket, now in possession of Miss
Carroll, represents Dr. Stevenson in his red coat and white waistcoat,
and at the back of the locket there is a picture of Parnassus Hill,
crowned by the Doctor's residence, with a perpendicular avenue
straight up hill, and a negro attendant opening the gate at the foot
for Dr. Stevenson, mounted on his horse and returning home. It is a
very quaint and valuable specimen of ante-revolutionary art.
The daughter of this valiant doctor was a beautiful and accomplished
girl, Miss Juliana Stevenson. She is described as having very regular
features, a complexion of dazzling fairness, deep blue eyes, and
auburn hair flowing in curls upon her shoulders. She was a good
musician, playing the organ at her church, and educated carefully in
every respect. Her knowledge of English history was considered
something phenomenal.
Thomas King Carroll early won the affections of this lovely girl, and
they were married by Bishop Kemp before the youthful bridegroom had
completed his twentieth year.
Those that care for heraldry may be interested to know that at
Baltimore may be seen the eight coats-of-arms belonging to the
King-Carroll family, of which Miss Anna Ella is the eldest
representative.
When the question came of Miss Stevenson leaving home, her especial
attendant, a bright colored woman, had been given her choice of
remaining with Dr. Stevenson's family or accompanying her mistress.
The poor woman was greatly exercised in choosing between conflicting
ties.
Mrs. Carroll was accustomed to describe to her children, with much
feeling, the scene which followed. Sitting in her room she heard a
knock at the door and in rushed Milly, with her face bathed in tears,
and throwing herself at Miss Stevenson's feet she exclaimed "Oh,
mistis, I cannot, cannot, leave you!" It was a moment of deep emotion
for both mistress and maid. Milly followed Mrs. Carroll to her new
home and became the old mammy, the dear old mammy of all the Carroll
children.
Her daughter Leah was born on the Kingston plantation, and then her
granddaughter Milly, who in later times clung to the changing fortunes
of the Carroll family, and is at this day a devoted attendant on her
invalid mistress, Miss Anna Ella Carroll. A visitor to the modest home
in Washington, now occupied by the Carroll sisters, is met at the door
by the comely face and pleasant smile of this same faithful Milly. The
life-long devotion of the affectionate "Mammy" illustrates one of the
most touching features of the old plantation life; but the shadow of
slavery was over it all. To follow the fortunes of her adored
mistress, Mammy left behind her in Baltimore her husband, a free
colored man. But what was the marital relation to a slave! The
youthful couple set out on a wedding tour, but were unexpectedly
recalled by the sudden death of Colonel Henry James Carroll. It was
necessary for his son to return at once and take possession of his
inheritance.
The coming home of the proprietor and his youthful bride was a great
event at Kingston Hall. There were at that time on the plantation 150
slaves, besides the children. They are described as a fine and
stalwart people, looking as if they belonged to a different race from
the colored people that we now meet with in cities. They seemed like a
race of giants. The men were usually as much as six feet in height,
and broad and muscular in proportion. All these numerous dependents
were drawn up in lines on the long avenues, dressed in their livery of
green and buff, and must have presented an imposing appearance as the
stately family carriage was seen approaching through the long vista of
fine old trees. The arrival was heralded by a roar of welcome and
demonstrations of joy.
And thus the youthful couple took possession of the home that was to
be the scene of so many joys and so many sorrows, ending in troublous
times that completely changed the existing order of things, and which
witnessed the conclusion of the reign of the Kings and the Carrolls at
Kingston Hall.
Shortly after his return with his bride Thomas King Carroll was
elected to serve in the Legislature. He only attained the requisite
age of 21 years on the day before he took his seat. His birth-day was
celebrated at Kingston Hall after the old English fashion, and he was
feted and toasted and received congratulations on all sides. It is
said that he was the youngest member ever elected to the Legislature.
Thomas King Carroll commenced life not only with wide social
advantages, but with great natural gifts. He was striking in
appearance, and of so graceful and dignified a demeanor that it is
said that he never entered a crowd without a movement of respect and
appreciation showing the impression that he created.
He was a good orator and of unimpeachable integrity and lofty
character. This was early exemplified when as still very youthful he
was sent to represent his county at a political caucus in Baltimore.
The question of raising money for the approaching campaign came up,
and he was asked in his turn how much would be needed for his county
of Somerset. He arose and said: "With all due deference, Mr.
President, _not one cent_. We can carry our county without any such
aid!" There was a general laugh, and Robert Goodloe Harper, who was
present, said, "Very well, young gentleman, you will tell a different
tale a few years hence." He went home and related the proceedings to
his constituents, who applauded his answer, and that year Somerset was
the banner county of the State.
The early years succeeding the marriage were years of peace and
prosperity.
The young bride won all hearts by her beauty and the sweetness of her
disposition.
In time a lively group of children filled the old Hall with life and
gayety.
Thomas King Carroll, like many another Maryland planter, was fully
convinced that in itself slavery was wrong. The early settlers of
Maryland would gladly have excluded it, but the institution was forced
upon them by the mother country, the English monarch and his court
deriving large incomes from the sale of slaves and canceling every law
made by the early settlers to prevent their introduction into the
colony. Slavery had now become a settled institution, on which the
whole social fabric was built, and individual proprietors, however
they might disapprove of the system, could see no way to change it.
All that Thomas King Carroll knew how to do was to seek as far as
possible the happiness and welfare of his slaves, and slavery showed
itself on the Kingston plantation in its mildest and most attractive
form.
Not much money was made usually upon plantations, but everything was
produced upon the estate that was needed to feed and clothe the great
group of dependents. And this was the state of things at Kingston
Hall.
There was Uncle Nathan, the butler, whose wife was Aunt Susan, the
dairywoman; Uncle Davy, the shoemaker; Saul, the blacksmith; Mingo,
the old body servant of Colonel Carroll; Fortune, the coachman, etc.,
etc.--all very powerful men.
Every trade was represented upon the estate. There were blacksmith
shops; there were shoemakers, tanners, weavers, dyers, etc. All the
goods worn by the servants, male and female, were manufactured on the
place. The wool was sheared from the sheep, and went through every
process needed to produce the linsey-woolsey garments of men and
women. The women were allowed to choose the colors of their dresses,
and the wool was dyed in accordance with their tastes. Two of these
dresses were allowed for a winter's wear, and each woman was furnished
with a new calico print for Sundays.
There were few local preachers among them at that time, but two were
noticeable during the childhood of the Carroll children, Ethan Howard
and Uncle Saul. And there was an Uncle Remus, too, in Fortune, the
coachman, who told the children the stories of Brer Rabbit and the
Tar-baby quite as effectively as the Uncle Remus of our popular
magazines.
The servants had their own rivalries and class distinctions. One
portion of the house servants prided themselves as being the old
servants--born on the place. Another group plumed themselves as having
come in with the "Mistis," and having seen outside regions and a wider
range of life. But all the house servants considered themselves vastly
superior to the field hands and treated them with condescension.
The house servants, though slaves, in fact, were absolute despots in
their own department. The Carroll children would not have dared to
touch a knife or a fork without the permission of the butler, and if
they had attempted to enter the cellar or the dairy without leave from
their respective guardians a revolutionary war would have been the
result.
Mammy, too, was the absolute ruler over every shoe and stocking, and
was expected under all circumstances to be responsible for every
article of the children's toilet.
The largest quarter devoted to the slaves was a great circular
structure, with a central hall surrounded by partitions, giving to
each field hand a separate sleeping berth. The hall in the center was
devoted to those who were old or unfitted for work, and here the young
children were deposited while their parents were pursuing their tasks,
and they were expected to wait upon the "Grannies" and be cared for in
return.
Behind this central apartment was one in which the food was prepared,
and there was a great hand-mill, where the corn was ground for the
daily use.
The children at the Hall were seldom allowed to enter these quarters,
but were occasionally granted permission to go there when delicacies
for the sick or new caps and dresses for the babies were furnished
from the Hall.
There were also quarters for the married slaves, each family having
its little cottage and garden, which it was allowed to cultivate on
its own account, and great was the pride of its occupants if by dint
of especial care they could raise the spring vegetables earlier than
in the master's garden, and carry them up to the Hall in triumph.
There they always found a customer ready to purchase their produce.
Every Monday morning rations were given out for a week by the overseer
and they were cooked by the families in their own quarters.
The hours of work were moderate, and on Saturday they had a half
holiday.
Sometimes there were parties and merry-makings at the negro quarters.
On great occasions, such as the marriage of a house servant, the
family at the Hall, by their presence, gave dignity to the
festivities, and inwardly they greatly enjoyed the fantastic scene.
At Kingston Hall open house was kept, and numerous visitors and
entertainments made life gay for the children, who grew up in an
atmosphere of ease and hospitality, little anticipating the
vicissitudes of the future and the stormy and heart-rending times in
which their country was about to be involved.
CHAPTER II.
CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE -- MISS CARROLL'S YOUTHFUL LETTERS TO HER
FATHER -- RELIGIOUS TENDENCIES -- LETTERS FROM DR. ROBERT J.
BRECKENRIDGE -- SALE OF KINGSTON HALL -- EARLY WRITINGS -- LETTER OF
HON. EDWARD BATES -- BREAKING OUT OF THE CIVIL WAR -- PREOCCUPATION IN
MILITARY AFFAIRS.
On August the 29th, 1815, Anna Ella Carroll was born, at Kingston
Hall. By this time a little brick Episcopal church had also been built
at Rehoboth, but the congregation was too small to support a resident
clergyman, and it had to alternate with other churches in its
services. At this infant church, in due course of time, Anna Ella was
christened by the Rev. Mr. Slemmonds. She was the eldest child, and
thenceforth the pride of her distinguished father, who viewed with
delight her remarkable intelligence, and early made her his companion
in the political interests in which he took such an active part. It
soon became evident that this was a child of decided and unusual
character. When but three years old she would sit on a little stool at
her father's feet, in his library, listening intently as he read aloud
his favorite passages from Shakespeare.
[Illustration: KINGSTON HALL--Birth Place of Anna Ella Carroll.]
All Mr. Carroll's children were so drilled in Shakespeare that there
was not one of them who could not, when somewhat older, repeat long
passages by rote, and they made the rehearsal of scenes from
Shakespeare's plays one of their favorite amusements. Anna Ella showed
no taste for accomplishments; cared neither for dancing, drawing,
music, or needlework. She used to boast to her sisters that she had
made a shirt beautifully when ten years old; but they would smile at
the idea, as they had never seen her handle a needle and could
associate her only with books.
These were to her of absorbing interest, and books, too, of a grave
and thoughtful character. Alison's History and Kant's Philosophy were
her favorite reading at eleven years of age. She read fiction to some
extent, under her father's direction; but, with the exception of
Shakespeare and Scott, she never cared for it. While other girls of
her age were entranced by Sir Charles Grandison and fascinated by the
heroes of Bulwer's earlier novels, she turned from them to read Coke
and Blackstone with her father, and followed with him the political
debates and discussions of the day. She studied with lively interest
the principles and events which led to the separation of the Colonists
from the Mother Country, and buried herself in theological questions.
At a very early age her letters bore reference to the gravest
subjects. Imagination was never prominent; her mind was essentially
analytical. Pure reason and clear consecutive argument delighted her,
and works of that nature were eagerly sought by her.
Her life passed largely in her father's excellent library, which was
well stocked with classic works, both history, biography, philosophy,
and poetry, and her education was to him a constant delight.
Miss Carroll's early associates were the children of the neighboring
proprietors, the Handys, the Wilsons, the Gales, the Henrys, etc., and
she early made acquaintance with the distinguished men who where her
father's associates.
Mr. Carroll continued to serve in the Legislature until elected
Governor of Maryland, in 1829. On this occasion he received an
interesting letter from Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, congratulating
him and expressing his pride and gratification at the event. When
Governor Thomas King Carroll went to Annapolis, in performance of the
duties of his office, he was accompanied by Mrs. Carroll, with the
younger children and a group of servants under the superintendence of
the invaluable Mammy. Mrs. Carroll, by her beauty and accomplishments,
was well fitted to adorn her station. When the weather became warm she
returned with her children to Kingston Hall.
The following charming letters from Miss Carroll, then a girl of
fourteen, show the tenderness of the relation between father and
child, and at how early an age she interested herself in politics and
entered into the questions of the day:
KINGSTON HALL, _Jan. 20, 1830_.
My Precious Father:
My dearest mother received your letter on Monday, and we were all
happy to know you had arrived safely at the seat of government,
although the Annapolis paper had previously announced it.
Oh! my dear father, if I could but see you! I miss you--we all
miss you--beyond measure. The time passes tediously without you.
I have just read Governor Martin's last message.[1] I think it
quite well written. I wondered to see it published in the
_Telegraph_ [an opposition paper, I suppose]. I am anxious to see
what the Eastern papers say of your election. Please, dear
father, when anything relating to your political action is
published, whether in the form of a message, in pamphlet, or in
newspaper, do not fail to let us have them. I read with so much
pride your letter in the Annapolis paper. It merits all the
distinction and fame it has brought you. Too much could not be
said in praise of my noble father. Dr. K---- was here to-day. He
says they feel "quite exalted" to be so near neighbors to a
Governor.
When do you think the Legislature will rise? But I must not write
on political subjects only. Brother is delighted with his new
horse. The little children are begging dearest mother to write
you for them. May every blessing attend you, my precious father.
Be sure and write me a _long_ letter.
Your devoted daughter,
A. E. CARROLL.
[Footnote 1: He was Governor Carroll's
predecessor.]
KINGSTON HALL, _Feb. 17, 1830_.
My Beloved Father:
Again we are disappointed in your arrival home! _and how_
disappointed no tongue can tell. Dearest mother thought it
possible you might come on a little visit, even if the
Legislature did not rise.[2] You said in your last letter to me
that this was "probable." Why did you not say "_certain_?" Then
I would rejoice, for when my father says a thing is certain, I
_know_ it is certain. I am happy to tell you that I am much
better; have had a long and tedious spell. I would lie for hours
and think of you away from me, and if I had not the kindest and
tenderest mother to care for me and for us all, what should we
do. I understand that your appointments have not been generally
approved by the milk-and-water strata of the party, of course,
for no thorough Jackson man would denounce, even if he did not
approve. It is my principle, as well as that of Lycurgus, to
avoid "mediums"--that is to say, people who are not decidedly one
thing or the other. In politics they are the inveterate enemies
of the State. I hear there has been a committee appointed to
visit you on your return to the Hall and present a petition for
the removal of some whom you have recently appointed. They call
themselves reformers. I want reform, too, even in court criers,
but to be forever reforming reform is absurd. I know whatever you
do is _right_, and needs no reform, my wisest and dearest of
fathers.
Write as soon as you can to your loving child,
A. E. CARROLL.
[Footnote 2: At that time the sessions of the
Legislature were not restricted, as now they are,
to sixty days.]
Mrs. Carroll was a devoted member of the Church of England, as was
natural in the daughter of staunch Dr. Stevenson.
As there were no Sunday schools in those days, Mrs. Carroll gathered
her children around her on Sunday afternoons and drilled them in the
church catechism until it was as familiar to them as their A B C; but
Anna Ella always inclined to the Westminster Confession and the tenets
in which her father's childhood had been so rigorously educated.
When about fifteen Miss Carroll was sent to a boarding school, at West
River, near Annapolis, to pursue her studies with Miss Margaret
Mercer, an accomplished teacher.
Thomas King Carroll, at the same age, had been sent to the University
of Pennsylvania, and afterward to the law school; but for this girl of
gifts so remarkable, and of a character so decided, the best thing
that the world of those times offered was a young ladies' boarding
school of the olden time. Well it was for her and her country that her
exceptional position as the cherished daughter of a man of such
education and talent, occupied with political affairs, secured for her
an education that would otherwise have been unattainable to her.
However, she made the best possible use of such education as a
ladylike school permitted, was noted for her intelligence, and made
many friends; but her true education began and continued with Governor
Carroll at home.
Miss Carroll had early shown an intense interest in moral and
religious questions, following her father's views on these subjects.
She became interested in the ministrations of Dr. Robert J.
Breckenridge, of Kentucky, then settled over a Presbyterian church in
Baltimore.
Dr. Breckenridge was the uncle of John C. Breckenridge, afterward one
of the leading secessionists, utterly opposed to his uncle in
political views, and one of the candidates for the Presidency in 1860.
Dr. Robert J. Breckenridge was a valued friend of Governor Carroll.
Miss Anna Ella became a communicant and earnest member of his church,
and a mutual friendship arose, terminated only by the death of the
aged minister, who has left on record his high appreciation of the
mental abilities and the great services afterward rendered by his
remarkable parishioner.
We will give in part two letters from this excellent man to Miss
Carroll, written from Kentucky in after years. For want of space we
must greatly shorten them.
DANVILLE, Ky., _December 6, 1864_.
My Excellent Friend:
It is very seldom I have read a letter with more gratification
than yours of November 29th. How kind it is of you, after so many
events, to remember me; and how many people and events and trials
and enjoyments, connected with years of labor, rush through my
heart and my brain as you recall Maryland and Baltimore so
freshly and suddenly to me; and how noble is the picture of a
fine life, well spent, which the modest detail of some of your
efforts realizes to me. It is no extravagance, not even a trace
of romance; it is a true enjoyment, and deeply affecting, too,
that you give me in what you recount and what is recalled
thereby. For what is there in our advanced life more worthy of
thankfulness to God than that our former years were such that if
we remember them with tears they are tears of which we need not
be ashamed. My life during the almost twenty years since I left
Maryland has been, as the preceding period had all been, a scene
of unremitting effort in very many ways; and now, if the force of
invincible habit permitted me to live otherwise, I should hardly
escape by any other means a solitary if not a desolate old age.
Solitary, because of a numerous family all, except one young
son, are either in the great battle of life or in their graves.
Desolate, because the terrible curse which marks our times and
desolates our country has divided my house, like thousands of
others, and my children literally fight in opposite armies and my
kindred and friends die by each other's hands. There is no
likelihood, in my opinion, that our Legislature will send me to
the Senate of the United States; and will you wonder if I assure
you that I have never desired that they should. Was it not a
purer, perhaps a higher, ambition to prove that in the most
frightful times and through long years a simple citizen had it in
his power by his example, his voice and his pen, by courage, by
disinterestedness, by toil, to become a real power in the State
of himself; and have not you, delicately nurtured woman as you
are, also cherished a similar ambition and done a similar work,
even from a more difficult position? * * * I beg to be remembered
in kind terms to your father, and that you will accept the
assurances of my great respect and esteem.
ROBERT J. BRECKENRIDGE.
DANVILLE, Ky., _April 27, 1865_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
* * * You will easily understand how much I value the good
opinion you express of my past efforts to serve our country, and
of my ability to serve it still further; and it is very kind of
you to report to me with your approbation the good opinion of
others, whom to have satisfied is in a measure fame. * * * Many
years ago, without reserve and with a perfect and irrevocable
consecration, I gave myself and all I had to Him, and have never,
for one moment, regretted that I did so. The single principle of
my existence, from that day to this, has been to do with my might
what it was given to me to see it was God's will I should do.
You see, my dear Miss Carroll, that I, who never sought anything,
am not now capable of seeking anything, nor even permitted to do
so; and, on the other hand, that I, who never refused to
undertake any duty, am not allowed now to hesitate, if the Lord
shows me the way, nor permitted to refuse what my country might
demand of me. This is all I can say--all I have cared to say for
nearly my whole life. I would not turn my hand over to secure any
earthly power or distinction. I would not hesitate a moment to
lay down my life to please God or to bless my country.
Mr. Lincoln was my personal friend and habitually expressed
sentiments to me which did me the highest honor.
It gives me pleasure to learn that you propose to publish annals
of this revolution, and I trust you will be spared to execute
your purpose.
Make my cordial salutations to your father and accept the
assurance of my high respect and esteem.
Your friend, &c.,
R. J. BRECKENRIDGE.
Miss Carroll was very pleasing, with a fine and intelligent face, an
animated and cordial manner, and great life and vivacity, roused into
fire and enthusiasm on any topic that appealed to her intellect and
her sympathies. Naturally, in so favorable a social position and with
such gifts, she received early in life much attention and had offers
of marriage from many distinguished parties; but she never seemed
inclined to change her condition or to give up the beloved
companionship of her father. A literary life and his congenial
presence seemed to be all-sufficient for her, and she remained his
devoted companion until his death, in 1873, when she also, the child
of his youth, was well advanced in life.
After Governor Carroll's term of office had expired he returned to his
estate, and shortly after he was waited upon by a deputation, who had
been sent to enquire if he would accept a nomination as United States
Senator. But at that time Mrs. Carroll was dangerously ill. His
extensive plantation and group of children required his presence, and
he declined to serve. He was devoted to his wife, and their marriage
was one of unbroken harmony until her death, in 1849. Governor Carroll
devoted himself thereafter to the necessities of his family and
estate.
Anna Ella Carroll frequently visited her friends at Washington, and
early commenced an extended relation with the press, writing usually
anonymously on the political subjects of the day. A friend of her
father, Thomas Hicks, considered that he owed his election as Governor
of Maryland largely to the articles which she contributed in his
favor, and he retained through life a strong personal friendship and
high admiration for her intellectual powers. At his death he left her
his papers and letters, to be edited by her--a labor prevented by her
subsequent illness. In 1857 Miss Carroll published a considerable
work, entitled "The Great American Battle," or Political Romanism,
that being the subject of immediate discussion at that time. This work
was compiled from a series of letters contributed by her to the press,
and her family knew nothing of the project until she surprised them by
the presentation of the bound volume.
Old Sir Thomas King would certainly have been greatly gratified if he
could have known how vigorously his great-granddaughter was to uphold
the banner of religious and political freedom. This work was
accompanied by an excellent portrait of the authoress in the prime of
life, which we here reproduce for our present readers.
In the following year Miss Carroll published another considerable
work, entitled "The Star of the West," relating to the exploration of
our Western Territories, their characteristics, the origin of the
National claims, and our duties towards our new acquisitions, and she
urged the building of the Pacific railroad. This seems to have been
one of her most popular works, as it went through several editions,
and greatly extended her acquaintance with leading men.
The following letter, written by the Hon. Edward Bates, is very
descriptive of Miss Carroll and evinces the admiration and esteem
which she inspired among those best fitted to appreciate her high
character, her uncommon cultivation, and natural gifts.
WASHINGTON, D. C., _October 3, 1863_.
To Hon. Isaac Hazlehurst, _of Philadelphia_.
My Dear Sir: I have just received a note from Miss Anna Ella
Carroll, of Maryland, informing me she is going to Philadelphia,
where she is a comparative stranger, and desiring an introduction
to some of the eminent publicists of your famous city.
I venture to present her to you, sir, first, as an unquestionable
lady of the highest personal standing and family connection;
second, as a person of superior mind, highly cultivated,
especially in the solids of American literature, political
history, and constitutional law; third, of strong will,
indomitable courage, and patient labor. Guided by the light of
her own understanding, she seeks truth among the mixed materials
of other minds, and having found it, maintains it against all
obstacles; fourth and last, a writer fluent, cogent, and
abounding with evidence of patient investigation and original
thought.
I commend her to your courtesy, less for the delicate attentions
proper for the drawing room than for the higher communion of
congenial students, alike devoted to the good of the
Commonwealth.
With the greatest respect, I remain, sir, your friend and
servant.
EDWARD BATES.
As time went on, Thomas King Carroll, now advanced in years, many of
his children married and scattered, began to find his estate and great
group of dependents a burdensome and unprofitable possession.
Under a humane master, unwilling to sell his slaves, they were apt to
increase beyond the resources of the plantation to sustain them.
Ready-money payment was not the general rule upon plantations.
Abundance of food was produced, but money was not very plentiful when
markets were distant and trade very limited.
It was not unusual for debts to accumulate and even to be handed down
from father to son. The creditors rather favored this state of things,
as the debt drew interest. As long as there were plenty of slaves,
their ultimate payment was secure whenever they chose to press for
it. If the money was not then forthcoming, their redress was
certain--a descent followed of that brutal intermediary, "the nigger
dealer," loathed and dreaded alike by master and servant. A sufficient
amount of the human property was speedily secured and driven off for
sale to satisfy the creditor. To the slave, torn from his home and his
life-long ties, it was despair. To the master's family, often a bitter
grief. They might shut themselves up and weep at the outrage, but they
were powerless in the face of an inexorable system. To the master,
therefore, as the slaves increased, there could often be no
alternative between ruthless sale and financial ruin. Thomas King
Carroll, honorable, humane, unwilling to sell his slaves, immersed
during the best years of his life in political affairs, found in later
years his burdens increasing, and his kindness of heart had involved
him also in some especial difficulties. He had on several occasions
allowed his name to be used as security for friends in difficulty. Two
or three of these debts remained unpaid and the responsibility came
upon him. One especially, of an unusually large amount, involved him
in embarrassment which led him to determine on the sale of his
plantation. A neighbor and intimate friend, Mr. Dennis, was desirous
to purchase, and very sorrowfully Thomas King Carroll came to the
resolution to give up his ancestral home. As he was accustomed to say,
he loved every corner and every stone upon the place, but the burden
had become too great for his declining strength.
The sale was effected and Mr. Carroll removed to Dorchester county,
on the eastern side of the Chesapeake, with his unmarried children,
and here he died, in 1873, in his 80th year.
Governor Carroll is described in the annals of the State as "one of
the best men Maryland has ever produced," a man of _character
unsullied_ and of lofty integrity.
At the breaking out of the civil war Mr. Carroll was already an
elderly man. At first his sympathies were with his own section, but
after the attack on Fort Sumter they were steadily enlisted for the
National cause, though he foresaw that its triumph would lead to the
destruction of his own fortunes and those of his children.
Most of the slaves had been left on the plantation, but some had
always been considered the especial property of each of his children.
Thus Anna Ella Carroll had her own group. At the very outset of the
war she fully realized that slavery was at the root of the rebellion,
and she at once liberated her own slaves and devoted her time, her
pen, and all her resources to the maintenance of the National cause.
She immediately commenced a series of writings of such marked ability
that they speedily attracted the attention of Mr. Lincoln and the
Administration. Governor Hicks, too, placed in a situation of unusual
difficulty, turned to his able friend for consultation and for moral
and literary support.
Jefferson Davis, who was aware of Miss Carroll's great literary and
social influence, wrote to her early in the secession movement
adjuring her to induce her father to take sides with the South.
"I will give him any position he asks for," wrote Mr. Davis.
"Not if you will give him the whole South," replied Miss Carroll.
A visitor to her in 1861 says: "Her room was lined with military maps,
her tables covered with papers and war documents. She would talk of
nothing but the war. Her countenance would light up most radiantly as
she spoke of the Union victories and the certainty that the great
Nation must win an ultimate success."
When fresh news from the army came in she would step up to one of her
charts and, placing a finger on a point, she would say: "Here is
General ----'s detachment; here is the rebel army; such and such are
the fortifications and surrounding circumstances; and she would then
begin thoughtfully to predicate the result and suggest the proper
move."
We will give a sketch of the situation in the early days of the
secession movement, mainly in the words of Miss Carroll's own able
account, afterwards published by order of Congress.
_List of Documents in Relation to Services Rendered by Anna Ella
Carroll, to be Found in the Descriptive Catalogue of the Congressional
Library._
* * * * *
(Descriptive Catalogue, page 911.)
Petition for compensation for services. Anna Ella Carroll. March 31,
1870. Senate Mis. Doc. No. 100, 41st Congress, 2d session.
* * * * *
(Catalogue, page 928.)
Report on memorial of Miss Carroll. Senator Howard. February 2, 1871.
Senate report No. 339, 41st Congress, 3d session.
* * * * *
(Catalogue, page 962.)
Memorial for payment of services. June 8, 1872. Senate Mis. Doc. No.
167, 42d Congress, 2d session, vol. II.
* * * * *
(Catalogue, page 1058.)
Petition for compensation for services. Anna Ella Carroll. February
14, 1876. House Mis. Doc. No. 179, 44th Congress, 1st session, vol.
IX.
* * * * *
(Catalogue, page 1099.)
Memorial of Anna Ella Carroll. October 22, 1877. Senate Mis. Doc. No.
5, 45th Congress, 1st session, vol. I.
* * * * *
(Catalogue, page 1128.)
House of Representatives. Mis. Doc. No. 58, 45th Congress, 2d session.
Claim of Anna Ella Carroll. Memorial of Anna Ella Carroll, of
Maryland, praying for compensation for services rendered to the United
States during the late civil war. May 18, 1878.
* * * * *
(Catalogue, page 1149.)
Report on claim of Anna Ella Carroll. Senator Cockrell February 18,
1879. Senate Report No. 775, 45th Congress, 3d session, vol. II.
* * * * *
(Catalogue, page 1241.)
Report of claim of Anna Ella Carroll. Representative E. S. Bragg.
March 3, 1881. House report No. 386, 46th Congress, 3d session, vol.
II.
Note.--Most of these only to be seen by consulting the bound volumes
in the Congressional Library.
* * * * *
(All the following letters, reports, etc., concerning Miss Carroll's
literary and military services are reproduced from these Congressional
documents.)
[Illustration: Thomas A. Scott]
CHAPTER III.
RISE OF THE SECESSION MOVEMENT -- THE CAPITAL IN DANGER -- MISS
CARROLL'S LITERARY LABORS FOR THE CAUSE OF THE UNION -- TESTIMONIALS
FROM EMINENT MEN.
"On the election of Mr. Lincoln, in 1860, the safety of the Union was
felt to be in peril and its perpetuity to depend on the action of the
border slave States, and, from her geographical position, especially
on Maryland.
In the cotton States the Breckenridge party had conducted the canvass
on the avowed position that the election of a sectional President--as
they were pleased to characterize Mr. Lincoln--would be a virtual
dissolution of the "compact of the Union;" whereupon it would become
the duty of all the Southern States to assemble in "sovereign
convention" for the purpose of considering the question of their
separate independence.
In Maryland the Breckenridge electors assumed the same position, and
as the Legislature was under the control of that party, it was
understood that could it assemble they would at once provide for a
convention for the purpose of formally withdrawing from the Union. The
sessions, however, were biennial, and could only be convened by
authority of the Governor. It therefore seemed for the time that the
salvation of the Union was in the hands of Governor Hicks. Although
he had opposed the election of Mr. Lincoln and all his sympathies were
on the side of slavery, his strong point was devotion to the Union.
With this conviction, founded upon long established friendship, Miss
Carroll believed she might render some service to her country, and
took her stand with him at once for the preservation of the Union,
come weal or woe to the institution of slavery.
Governor Hicks had been elected some three years before as the
candidate of the American party, and to the publications Miss Carroll
had contributed to that canvass he largely attributed his election. It
was therefore natural that when entering on the fierce struggle for
the preservation of the Union, with the political and social powers of
the State arrayed against him, that he should desire whatever aid it
might be in her power to render him.
A few days after the Presidential election Miss Carroll wrote Governor
Hicks upon the probable designs of the Southern leaders should the
cotton States secede, and suggested the importance of not allowing a
call for the Legislature to be made a question. That she might be in a
position to make her services more effective, she repaired to
Washington on the meeting of Congress in December, and soon understood
that the Southern leaders regarded the dissolution of the Union as
accomplished.
The leading disunionists from Maryland and Virginia were on the ground
in consultation with the secession leaders in Congress, and the
emissaries from the cotton States soon made their appearance, when it
was resolved to make Maryland the base of their operations and bring
her into the line of the seceding States before the power of the
Democratic party had passed away, on the 4th of March, 1861.
Hence every agency that wickedness could invent was industriously
manufacturing public opinion in Baltimore and all parts of the State
to coerce Governor Hicks to convene the Legislature.
With Maryland out of the Union they expected to inaugurate their
Southern Confederacy in the Capitol of the United States on the
expiration of President Buchanan's term, on the 4th of March, and by
divesting the North of the seat of Government and retaining possession
of the public buildings and archives, they calculated with great
confidence upon recognition of national independence by European
powers. About the middle of December Miss Carroll communicated to
Governor Hicks their designs on Maryland and suggested the propriety
of a public announcement of his unalterable determination to hold
Maryland to the Union.
After his address on the 3d of January, 1861, resolutions and letters
from men and women endorsing his cause were received from Maryland and
from all quarters of the United States.
Governor Hicks at that time was willing to abide by any terms of
settlement that would save a conflict between the sections. He favored
the compromise proposed by the border States committee, that slavery
should not be forbidden, either by Federal or territorial legislation,
south of 36° 30', and he was strongly inclined to base his action on
the acceptance or rejection of the Crittenden resolutions by Congress.
On the 19th of January, 1861, he urged Miss Carroll to exert whatever
influence she was able to induce Congress to adopt some measure of
pacification; but she was soon satisfied that no compromise that
Congress would adopt would be accepted by the cotton States, and,
perceiving the danger should the Governor commit himself to any
impossible condition, informed him on the 24th of January that the
Crittenden proposition would by no possibility receive the sanction of
Congress.
All efforts to move the steadfastness of the Governor having failed,
the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates
issued their call to the people to act independently of him and elect
delegates to a convention. This was a most daring and dangerous
proceeding, and had the plan succeeded and a convention assembled they
would immediately have deposed the Governor and passed an ordinance of
secession. The Governor was powerless in such an emergency to defend
the State against the revolutionary body, as the State militia were on
their side and Mr. Buchanan had declared that the National Government
could not coerce a sovereign State.
The gravity of the situation was appreciated by the Governor and the
friends of the Union. Miss Carroll addressed articles through the
press and wrote many letters to prepare the public mind in Maryland
for the struggle. Fortunately the people (thus warned) failed to
endorse this call; consequently the leading statesmen of the disunion
party abandoned their cherished expectation of inaugurating their
Government in the National Capitol.
Many of the conspirators, however, still sought to seize Washington
and forcibly prevent the inauguration of the President elect on the
4th of March. The military organizations of the South were deemed
sufficient for the enterprise, and a leader trained in the wars of
Texas was solicited to lead them. The more sagacious of their party,
however, discountenanced the mad scheme. They assured Miss Carroll
that no attempt would be made to seize the Capitol and prevent the
inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, so long as Maryland remained in the
Union.
The ruthless assault upon the Massachusetts troops in Baltimore, as
they were passing through on their way to Washington, on the 19th of
April, with the antecedent and attendant circumstances, roused to the
highest degree the passions of all who sympathized with the secession
movement, and the mob became for the time being the controlling force
of that city. So largely in the ascendant was it and so confident were
the disunionists in consequence that they, without warrant of law,
assumed the responsibility of issuing a call for the Legislature of
Maryland to convene in Baltimore. Governor Hicks, fearing that the
Legislature would respond to the call, and that if it did it would
yield to the predominant spirit, give voice to the purpose of the mob,
and adopt an act of secession, resolved to forestall such action by
convening that body to meet at Frederick City, away from the violent
and menacing demonstrations of Baltimore.
The Legislature thus assembled contained a number of leading members
who were ready at once for unconditional secession. There were also
others who, with them, would constitute a majority and would vote for
the measure could they be sustained by public sentiment, but who were
not prepared to give that support without that assurance. The field of
conflict was, therefore, transferred from the halls of legislation to
the State at large, and to the homes of their constituents, and there
the battle raged during the summer of 1861. In that conflict of ideas
Miss Carroll bore an earnest and prominent part, and the most
distinguished men have given repeated evidence that her labors were
largely instrumental in thwarting the secessionists and saving
Maryland to the Union. The objective point of the labors of the
disunion leaders was a formal act of secession, by which Maryland
would become an integral portion of the Confederacy, not only
affording moral and material aid to the Southern cause, but relieving
the rebel armies in crossing the Potomac from the charge, which at
that stage of the conflict the leaders were anxious to avoid, of
ignoring their vaunted doctrine of State rights by invading the
territory of sovereign States. With the usual arguments that were
urged to fire the Southern heart and to reconcile the people to the
extreme remedy of revolution, special prominence was given to what was
stigmatized as the arbitrary and unconstitutional acts of President
Lincoln. To place the people in possession of the true theory of their
institutions and to define and defend the war powers of the Government
were the special purposes of Miss Carroll's labors during these
eventful months."
It would not be possible in the compass of this paper to set forth
circumstantially all the important questions that arose in the
progress of the war, in the discussion of which Miss Carroll took
part; but it is proper to say that on every material issue, from the
inception of the rebellion to the final reconstruction of the seceded
States, she contributed through the newspapers, in pamphlet form, and
by private correspondence to the discussion of important subjects.
Governor Hicks bore the brunt of this terrible conflict, greatly aided
by Miss Carroll's public and private support, and stimulated by such
inspiring letters as the following:
WASHINGTON HOUSE, WASHINGTON CITY, _Jan. 16, 1861_.
My Dear Governor:
I have for some days intended to write and express my cordial
admiration and gratitude for the noble stand you have now taken
in behalf of the Union by the public address issued on the 3d
instant. An extended relation with the leading presses of the
country has enabled me in a public and more efficient manner to
testify to this and create a public opinion favorable to your
course of patriotic action throughout the land. Many of the
articles you have seen emanated from this source.
I feel it will be a gratification to you, in the high and sacred
responsibilities which surround your position, to know from one
who is incapable of flattering or deceiving you the opinion
privately held in this metropolis concerning your whole course
since the secession movement in the South was practically
initiated.
With all the friends of the Union with whom I converse, without
regard to section or party, your course elicits the most
unbounded applause. I might add to this the evidences furnished
from private correspondence, but you doubtless feel already the
sympathy and moral support to be derived in this way. I am often
asked if I think you _can_ continue to stand firm under the
frightful pressure brought to bear upon you. I answer, _yes_;
that my personal knowledge enables me to express the confident
belief that nothing will ever induce you to surrender while the
oath to support the Constitution of your country and the vow to
fulfill the obligations of your God rest upon your soul.
As a daughter of Maryland, I am proud to have her destiny in the
hands of one so worthy of her ancient great name; one who will
never betray the sacred trust imposed upon him. "When God is for
us, no man can be against us," is the Christian's courage when
the day of trial comes.
I shall continue to fight your battle to the end.
Your sincere friend,
A. E. CARROLL.
Well might Governor Hicks say to her again and again, as in a letter
to her in 1863: "Your moral and material support I shall never forget
in that trying ordeal, such as no other man in this country ever went
through."
A little further on, Governor Hicks writes as follows:
ANNAPOLIS, Md., _December 17, 1861_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
In the hurry and excitement incident to closing my official
relations to the State of Maryland I cannot find fitting words
to express my high sense of gratitude to you for the kind and
feeling manner in which you express your approval of my whole
term of service in doing all in my power to uphold the honor and
dignity of the State; but especially do I thank you for the
personal aid you rendered me in the last part of my arduous
duties.
When all was dark and dreadful for Maryland's future, when the
waves of secession were beating furiously upon your frail
executive, borne down with private as well as public grief, you
stood nobly by and watched the storm and skillfully helped to
work the ship, until, thank God, helmsmen and crew were safe in
port.
* * * * *
With great regard, I have the honor to be ever your obedient
friend and servant.
T. H. HICKS.
Thus it was that, supported by Miss Carroll, this high-minded and
sorely tried man held fast to the end. He went into the struggle a
rich man, in a position of worldly honor and prosperity. He came out
of it reduced in prosperity, having, like other faithful Southern
Unionists, lost his worldly possessions in that great upheaval.
Thenceforth he lived, and he died, comparatively a poor man, but one
of the noble and faithful who had acted an immortal part in the
salvation of his country. All honor to brave and true-hearted Governor
Hicks of Maryland!
Thus by her powerful advocacy and influence Miss Carroll largely
contributed to securing the State of Maryland to the Union and saving
the National Capital, and her writings also had a great effect upon
the border States. Besides her numerous letters and newspaper
articles, she began writing and publishing, at her own expense, a
remarkable series of war pamphlets, which speedily became an important
element in the guidance of the country.
Senator John C. Breckenridge, in the July Congress of 1861, made a
notable secession speech. Miss Carroll replied to this in a pamphlet
containing such clear and powerful arguments that the War Department
circulated a large edition, and requested her to write on other
important points then being discussed with great diversity of opinion.
The following letters give some indication of the timely nature and
value of the Breckenridge pamphlet:
My Dear Miss Carroll:
Your refutation of the sophistries of Senator Breckenridge's
speech is full and conclusive. I trust this reply may have an
extended circulation at the present time, as I am sure its
perusal by the people will do much to aid the cause of the
Constitution and the Union.
CALEB B. SMITH.[3]
[Footnote 3: Caleb B. Smith was Secretary of
Interior in Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet and an old friend
of Miss Carroll.]
* * * * *
GLOBE OFFICE, _Aug. 8, 1861_.
Dear Miss Carroll:
Allow me to thank you for the privilege of reading your admirable
review of Mr. Breckenridge's speech. I have enjoyed it greatly.
Especially have I been struck with its very ingenious and just
exposition of the constitutional law bearing on the President,
assailed by Mr. B., and with the very apt citation of Mr.
Jefferson's opinion as to the necessity and propriety of
disregarding mere legal punctilio when the source of all is in
danger of destruction. The gradual development of the plot in the
South to overthrow the Union is also exceedingly well depicted
and with remarkable clearness. If spoken in the Senate your
article would have been regarded by the country as a complete and
masterly refutation of Mr. B.'s heresies. Though the peculiar
position of the _Globe_ might preclude the publication of the
review, I am glad that it has not been denied to the editor of
the _Globe_ to enjoy what the _Globe_ itself has not been
privileged to contain.
I remain, with great respect, your obedient servant,
SAM'L T. WILLIAMS.[4]
[Footnote 4: Samuel T. Williams was at that time
chief editor of the _Globe_ (the Congressional
Record of the day) and son-in-law of Mr. Rives, the
owner of the _Globe_.]
* * * * *
_September 21, 1861._
Dear Miss Carroll:
I have this moment, 11 o'clock Saturday night, finished reading
your most admirable reply to the speech of Mr. Breckenridge; and
now, my dear lady, I have only time to thank you for taking the
trouble to embody for the use of others so much sound
constitutional doctrine and so many valuable historic facts in a
form so compact and manageable. The President received a copy
left for him and requested me to thank you cordially for your
able support.
The delay was not voluntary on my part. For some time past my
time and mind have been painfully engrossed by very urgent public
duties, and my best affections stirred by the present condition
of Missouri, my own neglected and almost ruined State; and this
is the reason why I have been so long deprived of the pleasure
and instruction of perusing your excellent pamphlet.
I remain, with great respect and regard, your friend and
obedient servant,
EDWARD BATES.[5]
[Footnote 5: Edward Bates was the Attorney General
of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet and an intimate friend of
Miss Carroll.]
* * * * *
APPLEBY, _Sept. 22, 1861_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
I will thank you very much if you will send me a couple of
hundred copies of your reply to Breckenridge, with bill of
expenses for the same. I do not think it is right that you should
furnish your publications gratis any longer. I told our friends
in Baltimore last week that the Union State Committee must go to
work and send your documents over the entire State if they expect
to carry this election. Mr. Mayer and Mr. Fickey, of the
committee, said they would make application to you immediately
and pay for all you can supply.
No money can ever pay for what you have done for the State and
the country in this terrible crisis, but I trust and believe the
time will come when all will know the debt they owe you.
With great respect, your friend and obedient servant,
THOS. H. HICKS.
* * * * *
BALTIMORE, _Oct. 2, 1861_.
Miss Carroll:
If you could let me have more of your last pamphlet in answer to
Breckenridge, I could use them with great effect. I have
distributed from my house on Camden street all the committee
could furnish me. I set my son at the door with paper and pencil,
and five hundred men called for it in one day. These are the bone
and sinew of the city, wanting to know which army to enter.
Please send as many as you can spare. They go like hot cakes.
Yours very respectfully,
JAMES TILGHMAN.
* * * * *
A. S. Diven, in the House of Representatives, January 22, 1862:
"She signs herself Anna Ella Carroll. I commend her answer on the
doctrine of the war power to those who have been following that
phantom and misleading the people, and I recommend it to another
individual, a friend of mine, who gave a most learned
disquisition on the writ of _habeas corpus_ and against the power
of the President to imprison men. He will find that answered. I
am not surprised at this. The French Revolution discovered great
political minds in some of the French women, and I am happy to
see a like development in our women."
Judge Diven subsequently addressed the following letter to Miss
Carroll:
WASHINGTON, _February 9, 1862_.
I thank you for the note of the 6th. Your pamphlet I have read
with satisfaction, as I had your former publication. I have no
desire to appear complimentary, but cannot forbear the expression
of my admiration of your writings. There is a cogency in your
argument that I have seldom met with. Such maturity of judicial
learning with so comprehensive and concise a style of
communication surprises me. Ladies have certainly seldom evinced
ability as jurists--it may be because the profession was not
their sphere--but you have satisfied me that at least one might
have been a distinguished lawyer. Go on, madam, in aiding the
cause to which you have devoted your talent; your country needs
the labor of all her defenders. If the time will ever come when
men will break away from passion and return to reason your labors
will be appreciated; unless that time soon arrives, alas for this
Republic; I have almost despaired of the wisdom of men. God's
ways are mysterious, and my trust in Him is left me as a ground
of hope.
I have the honor to be, madam, your obedient servant,
A. S. DIVEN.[6]
[Footnote 6: A. S. Diven was Member of Congress
from New York, a railroad man, and, I think, is
still living.]
* * * * *
BALTIMORE, _May 9, 1874_.
Miss Carroll:
After the Presidential election in 1860 a Union Association was
formed in Baltimore and I was elected chairman, which position I
held until the Union party was formed in Maryland in 1861, when
Brantz Mayer was made chairman and I was appointed treasurer, and
held the position until 1863. We commenced at once to circulate
your publications and sent them broadcast over the entire State.
When we appealed to you, you furnished them most liberally, and
to our surprise and the relief of our treasury you informed us
you made no charge.
All were disposed to give your articles a careful perusal, and
many instances came to my knowledge of the great positive good
they effected in keeping men within the Union party when the
first blow of secession had been struck.
FRED. FICKEY, JR.
* * * * *
_May 15, 1862._
I have never read an abler or more conclusive paper than your
war-power document in all my reading. * * *
RICHARD S. COXE.[7]
[Footnote 7: Richard S. Coxe was a very eminent
lawyer from the District of Columbia.]
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, _May 22, 1862_.
I most cheerfully indorse the papers respecting your publications
under the authority of the War Department. Mr. Richard S. Coxe, I
can say, is one of the ablest lawyers in this District or in the
country. In his opinion of your writings I entirely concur as
with other men who have expressed one. I regret that I am without
the influence to serve you at the War Department, but Mr.
Lincoln, with whom I have conversed, has, I know, the highest
appreciation of your services in this connection. Judge Collamer,
whom I regard as among the first of living statesmen and
patriots, is enthusiastic in praise of your publications, and,
indeed, I have heard but one opinion expressed by all the able
men who have referred to them.
Sincerely yours,
R. J. WALKER.[8]
[Footnote 8: R. J. Walker was long a Representative
in Congress, Secretary of the Treasury under James
K. Polk, and was acknowledged as the best financier
of his day.]
In September of 1861 Miss Carroll prepared a paper on "the
Constitutional powers of the President to make arrests and to suspend
the writ of _habeas corpus_." In December, 1861, she published a
pamphlet entitled "The War Powers of the Government." This was
followed by a paper entitled "The Relation of Revolted Citizens to the
National Government." This was written at the especial request of
President Lincoln, approved by him, and adopted as the basis of his
subsequent action.
WASHINGTON, _January 25, 1861_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
I read the address of Governor Hicks, which gave me great
pleasure. I have been overwhelmed with work and anxiety for North
Carolina. I franked all the papers you sent me. It is a great
matter for the Union that you hold Maryland firm now.
Go on in your great work. I wish you would say a word for S----
in some of your articles; he is doing us good, but needs
encouragement.
I wish to talk with you on these matters as soon as I can find a
moment.
Respectfully and sincerely your friend,
JOHN A. GILMER.[9]
[Footnote 9: John A. Gilmer was Member of Congress
from North Carolina, but a Union man throughout the
war.]
* * * * *
WASHINGTON CITY, _March 11, 1861_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
I will be pleased to see you to-morrow, any time convenient to
yourself, after nine o'clock. I am not seeing any one just yet
on the matter to which you refer, but, of course, will see _you_.
You have my grateful thanks for the great and patriotic services
you have rendered and are still rendering to the country in this
crisis.
I have the honor to be your friend and servant,
S. P. CHASE.[10]
[Footnote 10: Salmon P. Chase was U. S. Senator,
Governor of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury, and
Chief Judge of the Supreme Court.]
* * * * *
WASHINGTON CITY, _April 15, 1862_.
My Dear Lady:
I thank you for sending me the last number of your able essays in
the New York _Times_. The President paid you a very handsome
compliment in the Cabinet meeting yesterday, in reference to your
usefulness to the country. He handed your views on colonization
and the proper point to initiate the colony, which he said he had
requested of you, to Secretary Smith, and said you had given him
a better insight into the whole question than any one beside, and
you had, on his inquiry, suggested the Interior Department as
proper to look after the matter, and advised the Secretary to get
into communication with you. This was no more than your desert,
but, coming from the President in Cabinet meeting, it was as
gratifying to me to hear as it is now to communicate this to you.
With great regard, your obedient servant,
EDWARD BATES.
* * * * *
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, _May 13, 1862_.
Miss Carroll:
I send a package by your servant which came here yesterday, I
suppose, as I had the honor to frank some of your documents from
here. If you will excuse my poor writing I will tell you what
Mr. Lincoln said about you last night.
I was there with some seven or eight members of Congress and
others, when a note and box came from you with products from
Central America. He seemed much delighted and read your letter
out to us and showed the contents of the box. He said, "This Anna
Ella Carroll is the head of the Carroll race. When the history of
this war is written she will stand a good bit taller than ever
old Charles Carroll did." I thought you might like to hear this.
WM. MITCHELL.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, D. C., _September 9, 1863_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
I have read with great pleasure the manuscript left with me. Like
all that emanates from your pen, it is profound and able, and I
concur with you that its publication would now be timely. As you
requested, I forward the package to New York.
Very sincerely and respectfully your friend,
S. P. CHASE.
* * * * *
The Hon. B. F. Wade (then President of the United States Senate)
writes from Washington:
_March 1, 1869._
Miss Carroll:
I cannot take leave of public life without expressing my deep
sense of your services to the country during the whole period of
our national troubles. Although the citizen of a State almost
unanimously disloyal and deeply sympathizing with secession,
especially the wealthy and aristocratic class of the people, to
which you belonged, yet, in the midst of such surroundings, you
emancipated your own slaves at a great sacrifice of personal
interest, and with your powerful pen defended the cause of the
Union and loyalty as ably and effectively as it ever has been
defended.
From my position on the Committee on the Conduct of the War I
know that some of the most successful expeditions of the war were
suggested by you, among which I might instance the expedition up
the Tennessee river.
The powerful support you gave Governor Hicks during the darkest
hour of your State history prompted him to take and maintain the
stand he did, and thereby saved your State from secession and
consequent ruin.
All these things, as well as your unremitted labors in the cause
of reconstruction, I doubt not are well known and remembered by
the members of Congress at that period. I also well know in what
high estimation your services were held by President Lincoln, and
I cannot leave this subject without sincerely hoping that the
Government may yet confer on you some token of acknowledgment for
all these services and sacrifices.
Very sincerely, your friend,
B. F. WADE.
* * * * *
BALTIMORE, _September 28, 1869_.
I have known Miss Carroll many years; she is a daughter of
Governor Carroll, and by birth and education entitled to the
highest consideration.
She writes exceedingly well, and during the late war published
several pamphlets, etc., which I have no doubt proved most
serviceable to the cause of the Union. Her own loyalty was ardent
and constant through the struggle.
REVERDY JOHNSON.[11]
[Footnote 11: Reverdy Johnson--a distinguished
lawyer from Maryland, U. S. Senator, Attorney
General in Taylor's Cabinet, and Minister to
England during Johnson's Administration.]
* * * * *
DAYTON, _Nov. 23, 1869_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
Your letter finds me in the midst of care, labor, and preparation
for removal to Washington.
Pardon me, therefore, if I write briefly. You must see me when
the session of Congress commences, that I may say much for which
there is not space or time on paper. Nobody appreciates more
highly than I do your patriotism and your valuable services with
mind and pen through so many years.
Yours faithfully and truly,
ROBERT C. SCHENCK.[12]
[Footnote 12: Robert C. Schenck--General through
the war, Member of Congress, and Minister to
England.]
* * * * *
LONDON, E. C., _July 30, 1872_.
Dear Miss Carroll:
I have read with pleasure the pamphlet you were so kind as to
send me, and am glad to see that your claim is so strongly
endorsed--so strongly that it can hardly be ignored by Congress.
Very truly yours,
H. MCCULLOCH.[13]
[Footnote 13: Hugh S. McCulloch was Secretary of
the Treasury under Lincoln, Johnson, and Arthur.]
* * * * *
WASHINGTON CITY, _January 20, 1873_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
I owe you an humble apology for not calling to pay my respects to
you, as I intended to do; but I have been so occupied with
numerous engagements that the purpose indicated escaped my
recollection until I was on the point of leaving for my home in
Connecticut, and can only now proffer to you my cordial and
heartfelt wishes for your health, prosperity, and happiness.
I have too much respect for your name and character to address
you in the accents of flattery, and I presume you will not
suspect me of any such purpose when I say that of the many
characters, both male and female, of whom I have formed a
favorable opinion since I was introduced into public life, there
is no one for whom I cherish a higher esteem than Miss Carroll,
of Maryland.
May the richest of Heaven's blessings rest upon your ladyship,
and may the inappreciable services which you rendered your
country in the dark hour of its peril be recognized by your
countrymen, and to a just extent rewarded.
I have the honor to be and to remain, my dear Miss Carroll, most
faithfully and truly your friend,
TRUMAN SMITH.[14]
[Footnote 14: Truman Smith was a Member of Congress
from Connecticut for a long time.]
* * * * *
GREENSBURG, Pa., _May 3, 1873_.
Miss Carroll:
I do remember well that Mr. Lincoln expressed himself in wonder
and admiration at your papers on the proper course to be pursued
in legislating for the crisis.
In this connection I know that he considered your opinions sound
and, coming from a lady, most remarkable for their knowledge of
international law.
EDGAR COWAN.[15]
[Footnote 15: Edgar Cowan was U. S. Senator from
Pennsylvania during the whole war.]
* * * * *
QUINCY, ILLINOIS, _Sept. 17, 1873_.
Miss A. E. Carroll:
During the progress of the War of the Rebellion, from 1861 to
1865, I had frequent conversations with President Lincoln and
Secretary Stanton in regard to the active and efficient part you
had taken in behalf of the country, in all of which they
expressed their admiration of and gratitude for the patriotic and
valuable services you had rendered the cause of the Union and the
hope that you would be adequately compensated by Congress. At
this late day I cannot recall the details of those conversations,
but am sure that the salutary influence of your publications upon
public opinion and your suggestions in connection with the
important military movements were among the meritorious services
which they recognized as entitled to remuneration.
In addition to the large debt of gratitude which the country owes
you, I am sure you are entitled to generous pecuniary
consideration, which I trust will not be withheld.
With sentiments of high regard, I am,
Your obedient servant,
O. H. BROWNING.[16]
[Footnote 16: O. H. Browning, of Illinois, was
Senator during the war, in confidential relations
with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton.]
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, D. C., _May 13, 1874_.
Miss A. E. Carroll:
I am gratified to have the opportunity of expressing my knowledge
and appreciation of the valuable services rendered by you to the
cause of the Union at the beginning of and during the late war.
Being a Marylander and located officially in Baltimore in 1861,
1862, 1863, and 1864, I can speak confidently of the important
aid contributed by you to the Government in its struggle with the
rebellion. I recollect very distinctly your literary labors, the
powerful productions of your pen, which struck terror into the
heart of the rebellion in Maryland and encouraged the hopes and
stimulated the energies of the loyal sons of our gallant State.
Especially do I recall the eminent aid you gave to Governor
Hicks, and the high esteem he placed upon your services. Indeed,
I have reason to know he possessed no more efficient coadjutor,
or one whose co-operation and important service he more justly
appreciated. I can say with all sincerity I know of no one to
whom the State of Maryland--I may say the country at large--is
more indebted for singleness of purpose, earnestness, and
effectiveness of effort in behalf of the Government than to
yourself.
A failure to recognize these service will indicate a reckless
indifference to the cause of true and unfaltering patriotism, to
which I cannot think a just Government will prove ungrateful.
I am, dear Miss Carroll, always most sincerely and truly yours,
CHRIS. C. COXE.[17]
[Footnote 17: Christopher C. Coxe held many offices
of trust throughout the war, was quite eminent as a
poet and man of letters, and was pension agent at
Baltimore.]
* * * * *
PETERSBORO', N. Y., _May, 1874_.
Miss Anna Ella Carroll:
Surely nothing more can be needed than your pamphlet, entitled
"Miss Carroll's Claim before Congress," to insure the prompt and
generous payment of it. Our country will be deeply dishonored if
you, its wise and faithful and grandly useful servant, shall be
left unpaid.
GERRITT SMITH.[18]
[Footnote 18: Gerritt Smith was a noted
philanthropist, Member of Congress, one of the
first so-called Abolitionists, and a man of immense
wealth.]
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, D. C. _June 5, 1874_.
Dear Miss Carroll:
I did not receive your polite note and the pamphlet in relation
to your claim till this morning. The statement of your case is
very strong, both as to the clear proof of "value received" from
you by the Government, and on which was founded its promise to
pay, and as to the favorable opinions of your literary and
military services expressed by leading men. I know of no instance
in which a woman not born to sovereign sway has done so much to
avert the impending ruin of her country, and that not by cheap
valor, like Joan of Arc, but by rare mental ability. As a
Marylander, I am proud that the "Old Maryland line" was so
worthily represented by you in the struggle for the Union.
You would have had your substantial reward long ago but for the
very absurd opinion that by some fixed, mysterious law of nature
the labor done by women is worth less than precisely similar work
done by men. You should persist in your just claim, if only to
establish the principle that the value of work should be
estimated according to its merits and not with reference to the
worker; but, whatever may be the fate of your demand on the
Government, you cannot fail to receive the thanks of the people.
Very respectfully,
SAM'L T. WILLIAMS.
* * * * *
PRINCESS ANNE, Md., _August 22, 1874_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
I have read with interest and gratification the publication
respecting your claim now pending before Congress.
I well remember that you were an earnest supporter of the Union
in the hour of its trial, and that you did much by word and pen
to encourage and sustain those who battled against the rebellion,
and for such services you are entitled to high consideration and
reward. The proofs adduced are very full and direct. I don't see
how its payment can be resisted without impeaching the evidence
of Mr. Scott, the late Assistant Secretary of War, and of Judge
Wade, Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of War--an
alternative which their official and personal characters forbid,
even in cases where their personal interests were involved.
With, my best wishes, I have the honor to be very truly yours,
&c.,
J. W. CRISFIELD.[19]
[Footnote 19: J. W. Crisfield was a Representative
from Maryland during the war.]
* * * * *
CUMBERLAND, Md., _August 25, 1874_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
You may feel assured that I read with exceeding interest
everything from your pen and every reference in the press to
yourself and interests. I have no doubt your contribution to the
history of Maryland at the eventful crisis referred to will be a
most valuable and interesting one.
H. W. HOFFMAN.[20]
[Footnote 20: Hoffman was a Representative from
Maryland, lawyer, and Member of the House of
Representatives.]
* * * * *
LIMA, PERU, _September 12, 1874_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
It affords me great pleasure to have an opportunity to testify to
the valuable assistance rendered by yourself to the cause of the
Union at the commencement and during the progress of the late
war. Your private conversations and your publications in the
newspapers and pamphlets all tended to inspire that ardent
patriotism which a grave crisis in public affairs imperatively
demanded. Every Marylander who felt called upon to support the
endangered Government of the United States must have been
encouraged and cheered in the discharge of a painful duty by that
earnest enthusiasm which was at that time displayed by yourself
in support of the measures forced upon the Government by the
rebellion. I am gratified to hear that you propose to publish a
book that will do justice to the memory of the late Governor
Hicks; and offering my best wishes for the success of your
undertaking and for your personal health and happiness,
I am sincerely your friend,
FRANCIS THOMAS.[21]
[Footnote 21: Francis Thomas was a Member of
Congress from Maryland, Governor of Maryland, and
Minister to Peru under Grant.]
* * * * *
NEWARK, _Sept. 28, 1874_.
Dear Miss Carroll:
I have carefully read your pamphlet, and I do not hesitate to say
your claim is a strong one. You could not have a better witness
than Colonel Scott, a man of the highest character. His testimony
is clear and unequivocal, and if your claim is rejected I can
attribute it to but one cause--you are a woman--a relic of
barbarism against your sex; but still I believe you will succeed.
I am satisfied that a large majority of the members of both
Houses are fair-minded, honorable men, disposed to do what is
right.
I should be glad to meet you and talk with you about your
proposed life of Governor Hicks. There are several matters I
should be pleased to discuss with you.
Very truly your friend,
WM. H. PARNELL,
_President Delaware College_.
* * * * *
CHESTERTOWN, Md., _Oct. 9, 1874_.
My friend Miss Carroll has two claims against the Government
growing out of services rendered to the country during the civil
war--the one of a literary and the other of a military character.
Miss Carroll is a daughter of the late Hon. Thomas King Carroll,
one of the best men Maryland has ever produced.
GEORGE VICKERS.
* * * * *
PRINCETON, _October 13, 1874_.
Miss Carroll:
I thank you for your letter of the 19th ultimo and for the two
pamphlets that accompanied it, which I read with great interest.
I think they clearly establish your claim on the gratitude of the
country and on a suitable remuneration by Congress by proving
that you rendered the Government very important service during
the crisis of the late war. As that service involved great labor
and sacrifice on your part and saved the country a great amount
of useless expenditure in men and money, justice as well as
gratitude demands that it should be liberally rewarded.
Hoping that those in authority will recognize the debt which the
country owes you,
I am very respectfully yours,
CHARLES HODGE,
_President of Theological Seminary_.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, D. C., _December 16, 1874_.
Dear Miss Carroll:
I have not the vanity to suppose that my commendation can add to
the high estimate placed by all upon your services to the Union
in the late war; but as you have done me the honor to ask a
candid expression of my opinion I venture to say that any
statesman or author of America might be justly proud of having
written such papers as the able pamphlets produced by you in
support of the Government at that critical period.
As to your military services in planning the Tennessee campaign,
you hold and have published too many proofs of the validity of
your claim to require further confirmation.
I shall rejoice in your success in procuring a formal recognition
of your labors if only it will aid in establishing the just rule
that equal services, whether performed by man or woman, must
always command equal recognition and reward.
As a Marylander, I am proud that in the war of the rebellion "the
Old Maryland line" was so worthily represented by you.
SAMUEL T. WILLIAMS.
* * * * *
The letters of eminent men in admiration of Miss Carroll's papers,
published and unpublished, would fill a volume. These are only a
portion of those published by order of Congress.
Senator Jacob Howard, of the Military Commission appointed to inquire
into Miss Carroll's services, in his report of the 42d Congress,
states--
"She did more for the country than all the military generals. She
showed where to fight and how to strike the rebellion on the head,
possessing withal judicial learning so comprehensive and concise in
its style of argument that the Government gladly sat at her feet to
learn the wisdom of its powers."
This allusion to military services leads us to a still more remarkable
record of Miss Carroll's work.
[Illustration: BENJAMIN F. WADE.]
CHAPTER IV.
THE MILITARY SITUATION -- GOES TO ST. LOUIS -- INCEPTION OF THE PLAN
OF THE TENNESSEE CAMPAIGN -- GIVES IN THE PLAN AT THE WAR DEPARTMENT
-- PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S DELIGHT AT THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM --
ACCOUNT WRITTEN IN 1889 -- JUDGE WADE AT BULL RUN -- FORMATION OF THE
COMMITTEE FOR THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.
Early in the fall of 1861 a gunboat fleet was under preparation to
descend the Mississippi. It was a time of extreme peril, when the
continuance of the Union depended on immediate military success. The
Union armies had met with repeated reverses. The Confederates were
exultant and the European nations were expectant of the approaching
downfall of the United States Government. France had already put forth
her hand to control Mexico, and although in England the Union had warm
friends who still hoped for its success, the general impression was
that its defeat might be considered a foregone conclusion. Financial
ruin also seemed inevitable. The Northern army was costing the nation
two million dollars a day. The Hon. Mr. Dawes, in a speech in
Congress, had declared it "impossible for the United States to meet
this state of things sixty days longer." "An ignominious peace," he
predicted, "was upon the country and at its very doors."
At that time there was nothing in the attitude of the Union cause very
strongly to appeal to English sympathy. It was openly set forth that
the war was not waged for the extermination of slavery. Devotion to
the Union could not excite especial interest in any but an American.
On the contrary, the prevalent opinion in England was that the United
States was a dangerous and rather unscrupulous power, and that it
would be for the interests of humanity that it should be divided;
consequently the general sympathy was largely with the Confederates
and the desires of the governing classes for their success openly
avowed. After the emancipation proclamation it was different. The
Union cause had thereafter the incalculable advantage of a
well-defined moral position--a position always keenly felt by the
English masses. The desires of the governing class at that period and
the dangers of the position from a military point of view are well
indicated in extracts given by Miss Carroll in her successive
memorials from the English journals and from diplomatic
correspondence.
In an extract from the London _Times_, brought to the notice of the
Senate by Mr. Howe, the command of the waters of the southwest is
pointed out as the essential matter, and it is stated by Mr. Grimes
that "the British Government has sent over into all the British
colonies of North America some thirty thousand men."
* * * * *
[London _Times_, September 27, 1861.]
"Whatever may be the assertions of the Northerners, they must look
upon the permanent separation of the Southern States and the
formation of a second republic as at least highly probable, and in the
action of England and France toward Mexico Mr. Lincoln, perhaps, only
sees an intervention in the affairs of a country which is soon to be
divided from his own by the territory of a rival. * * It is said the
three European powers have taken advantage of the dissensions of the
American Union to carry out plans upon a violation of the Monroe
doctrine."
* * * * *
[London _Shipping Gazette_, February 1, 1862.]
"A semi-official note is sent by Napoleon to the British Government
respecting the blockade, to the effect that the Emperor cannot longer
allow French commerce to be injured."
* * * * *
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE--CLAY[22] TO SEWARD.
_Jan. 24, 1862._
"Prince Gortchakoff expresses his fears should any reverse happen to
us that England would at once make common cause with the South,
acknowledge her independence, and finally break down the power of the
Republic. I must confess I very much fear England's influence. My
first impression is not weakened, but rather strengthened. Nothing but
great and decisive success will save us from foreign war. I would
prepare for war with England as an essential means to prevent the
independence of the South before the first of April."
[Footnote 22: Cassius M. Clay, Minister to St.
Petersburg during the Civil War, has been from
first to last one of Miss Carroll's warm
supporters. He says, "Be that as it may, your case
stands out unique, for you towered above all our
generals in military genius, and it would be a
shame upon our country if you were not honored with
the gratitude of all and solid pecuniary reward."
(See p. 132 of batch of memorials.)]
* * * * *
SEWARD TO DAYTON.
_Jan. 27, 1862._
* * * "You see our army and our fleet are at Cairo. You see another
army and another fleet are behind Columbus, which alone is relied upon
to close the Mississippi against us on the north. Though you may not
see it, another army and another fleet are actually on their way to
New Orleans."
* * * * *
At this time of intense anxiety it was suggested to Miss Carroll by
the War Department that she should go West and endeavor to form an
opinion as to the probable result of the proposed descent of the
Mississippi by the gunboats, upon the success of which the continuance
of the Union depended. Accordingly she went to St. Louis, and
remaining for a month or more at the Everett House, in that city, by
means of maps and charts procured from the Mercantile Library she made
careful study of the topography of the proposed line of advance. She
became convinced that this intended expedition would result in
disaster, and that the Tennessee river, not the Mississippi, would be
the true pathway to success.
Again we will turn to Miss Carroll's able account in the Congressional
Records of the military position at that time.
"It became evident, in the autumn of 1861, that if the unity of the
United States could be maintained by military force, the decisive blow
upon the Confederate power must be delivered within sixty or ninety
days. To that period the tide of battle had been steadily against the
Union, and the military operations had not met the expectations of the
country. Nothing is more certain than that this rebel power was able
to resist all the power of the Union upon any of the lines of
operation known to the Administration; for operating on any safe base,
on any of these known lines, the Union armies were not numerically
strong enough to reach the vital point in the Confederate power. The
enemy were in strong force on a line extending from the Potomac,
westward through Bowling Green, to Columbus, on the Mississippi, and
was complete master of all the territory to the Gulf. Kentucky and
Missouri had been admitted formally into the Confederacy, and they had
resolved to move the Capital to Nashville and extend their battle
lines to the northern limits of those States, and the Secretary of
War, after a tour of inspection, reported that these States had not
sufficient force to hold them to the Union.
The war had then been waged seven months, and between 700,000 and
800,000 men had been mustered in the field; the public debt aggregated
over $500,000,000; and the daily average expenses of maintaining the
army was upward of $2,000,000, besides the hundreds of precious lives
which were being daily sacrificed.
Thus, while the two armies were confronting each other in sight of
Washington, events were rapidly pressing in the Southwest which, if
unchecked, would change the destiny of the American people for ages to
come.
Thus, in that ominous silence which preceded the shock and storm, the
two sections stood, each watching and awaiting the movements of the
other. Both were confident; the South greatly strengthened from her
successes and impregnable position; the North strong in its large
excess of numbers, wealth, and the justice of its cause.
The Army of the Potomac and the Army of the West were the two
expeditions on which the Administration relied.
All others were auxiliary to these great movements. The first named,
though seeming to the country of such signal moment, occupied a
position of comparative insignificance when contrasted with the army
of the Southwest, and had chance thrown Richmond under national
control at an earlier day it could not have materially affected the
destiny of the war. Capitals in an insurgent and unrecognized power
can have but very little strategic value, and from the geographical
position of Richmond it had none at all, and they were ready to move
it any day.
They could have surrendered all the Atlantic States to Florida and yet
maintained their independence; indeed, it was upon this theory that
the disunion party had ever based its expectations of separate and
independent nationality. Could the Confederates have held their power
over the Mississippi Valley but a few more months they would have so
connected themselves with France through Texas and with England
through the States of the great northwest as not only to have made
good their own independence but to have dwarfed the United States to
the area of their old thirteen and taken the lead as the controlling
political power on this continent.
With the Mississippi in their possession to the mouth of the Ohio,
the presence of the English and French fleets at New Orleans would
have brought about that result.
The Army of the Potomac, after having been put upon a scale of the
rarest magnificence consistent with mobility, and with several changes
of commanders, took three years and a half to reach Richmond, and was
not then half way to a decisive point, and never would have been
strong enough had the expedition to open the Mississippi been executed
on the plan as originally devised.
Strategically an invasion always leads to deep lines of operations
which, on account of the difficulty of maintaining communications with
its base, are always dangerous in a hostile country, and every mile
the national armies advanced, every victory they gained, carried them
farther from their base, and required an increase of force to protect
their communications; while every retreat of the enemy brought him
nearer to his resources, and it is mathematically certain that he
would soon have reached the point on that line where he would have
been the superior power. Nothing but the results of the Tennessee
campaign prevented Lee from recruiting his army and extorted from him
his sword at Appomatox Court-House.
The Mississippi expedition was designed by the aid of the one from the
Gulf to clear the river to the mouth, etc. Could it succeed? Could it
open the Mississippi to its mouth? These momentous questions and the
military delay were weakening the confidence of the people and
confirming foreign powers in the belief that the Government had
neither the strength nor the ability to conquer the rebellion. And
even could the expedition have opened the river, was there any point
on that river where a decisive blow could have been dealt the
Confederacy? The Memphis and Charleston railroad, the only complete
interior line of communication, would not necessarily have been
touched. So long as the Confederacy could maintain its interior lines
of communication complete, the United States could neither destroy its
armies in the east nor open the Mississippi river. The National
Government could only escape annihilation by reaching the center of
the Confederate power and striking a fatal blow upon its resources.
Geographically, there was but one mode of attack by which this could
be accomplished, and this was unthought of or unknown to all connected
with the prosecution of the war.
Mr. Lincoln saw from the beginning the vital importance of regaining
the Mississippi and controlling the resources of its great valley, and
therefore reserved to himself the direction of this expedition as
Commander-in-chief. He was fully alive to the perils that now
environed the Government, and he and his advisers looked imploringly
to the army for relief as the agency absolutely essential to the
nation's life. This and this only could strike the blow that must then
be struck, if ever.
No display of military genius could have extorted from Lee his sword
so long as his resources were unwasted. No valor on the part of our
navies and armies could have opened the Mississippi so long as the
Confederates could keep open the lines of communication. The Memphis
and Charleston railroad was their only complete bond of connection
between their armies of the east and the armies of the Mississippi
Valley. There was but one avenue by which this bond could be reached
and effectually severed, and that was the Tennessee river. The people
had responded grandly; their uprising in behalf of their endangered
Government had astonished the world. It now remained for the army to
supplement by its valor in the field what the Administration and the
people had done at home.
Never was the stress and strain of a nation more severe; never when
another defeat would have been so perilous and a victory so desirable
as then. So long as the Confederates were undisturbed in the
possession of the southwest, and men and munitions of war sent
uninterruptedly to the east, the Army of the Potomac could not
advance. Something had to be done to cripple or engage the rebel
armies in that section.
As the weary months of October and November wore away, the darkness
grew more and more intense and the anxiety more oppressive. A blow had
to be inflicted quickly that would be sharp and mortal, to ward off
intervention and invasion by European powers, to smother the spirit of
secession in southern Illinois and Indiana, and to prevent financial
bankruptcy, which of itself must destroy the nation.
And yet neither Mr. Lincoln nor his generals knew or had in mind any
plan other than that of forcing a passage down the Mississippi,
bristling with batteries that frowned from its bluffs, while swamps
and bayous skirted and pierced its banks, affording defenses in the
rear little less formidable and forbidding.
And thus the nation stood as in the hush that precedes the storm or
the crash of battle, apprehending not so much any particular movement
of the Confederate armies as the threatening elements generally with
which the air seemed surcharged, and knowing not how or when or where
the blow would fall. Military success was of all things most desired;
military delay of all things most dreaded. With the South to stand
still was their strength; time was power, and every day's delay
increased the thickening dangers that were closing around the Union
cause. With the North not to advance was to recede; not to destroy was
to be destroyed. The exigencies of the situation made it imperative
that the decisive blow should be struck thus early in the war. How to
make that advance and deliver that fatal blow was the great problem to
be solved. Omniscience only was then able to know whether the last sun
had set to rise no more on the Union of these States. The country was
clamorous for military successes, but not half so troubled as was Mr.
Lincoln and his advisers, for the people did not know, as they did,
how much depended thereon; how the beam trembled in the balance and
what irremediable evils were involved in delay.
Congress met; the Committee on the Conduct of the War was at once
created. How great were the dangers which at that supreme moment made
the continued existence of the Government a question of doubt, and the
fact that the military successes in the West which followed were not
achieved a day too soon is made evident by the speeches of many of the
most distinguished statesmen of that period, in both houses of
Congress, some of them occupying positions on the most important
committees connected with the prosecution of the war and necessarily
possessed of the most reliable information. The utterances in the
halls of Congress sustain every fact as here described."
In this same Congressional document of 1878 Miss Carroll thus
describes her inception of the plan of the Tennessee campaign:
"In the autumn of 1861 my attention was arrested by the confidence
expressed by Southern sympathizers in the southwest, that the
Mississippi could not be opened before the recognition of Southern
independence. I determined to inform myself what the pilots thought of
the gunboat expedition then preparing to descend the river. On inquiry
I was directed to Mrs. Scott, then in the hotel, whose husband was a
pilot, and learned from her that he was then with the expedition that
had moved against Belmont; and the important facts she gave me
increased my wish to see Mr. Scott. On his arrival in St. Louis I sent
for him. He said that it was his opinion, and that of all the pilots
on these waters, that the Mississippi could not be opened by the
gunboats. I inquired as to the navigability of the Cumberland and the
Tennessee. He said at favorable stages of water the gunboats could go
up the former as high Nashville, and the latter, at all stages, as
high as the Muscle Shoals in Alabama. The moment he said the Tennessee
was navigable for gunboats the thought flashed upon me that the
strongholds of the enemy might be turned at once by diverting the
expedition in course of preparation to open the Mississippi up the
Tennessee; and having had frequent conversations with Judge Evans on
the military situation, I left the room to communicate this
thought--as he had just then called at the hotel--and asked him if it
would not have that effect. He concurred that it would, and that it
was the move if it was a fact that the Tennessee afforded the
navigation; and he accompanied me to interrogate Mr. Scott, to be
satisfied as to the feasibility of the Tennessee. The interview was
prolonged some time. At the close I told Mr. Scott it was my purpose
to try and induce the Government to divert the Mississippi expedition
up the Tennessee, and asked him to give me a memorandum of the most
important facts elicited in the conversation, as I wished them for
this object. I further stated my intention to pen the history of the
war, and requested him to write from time to time all the valuable
information he might be able, and I would remember him in my work. The
same day I wrote again to Assistant Secretary of War Thomas A.
Scott,[23] to whom I had promised to communicate the result of my
observations while in the West, and also to Attorney General Bates; to
both of whom I urged the importance of a change of campaign."
[Footnote 23: Thomas A. Scott was the great
railroad magnate, was Assistant Secretary of War
when Stanton was Secretary, and was sent by Stanton
to inaugurate the Tennessee campaign which saved
the Union.]
A letter from Judge Evans, who chanced to be in St. Louis on other
business, at the time gives a precisely similar account of this
interview with the pilot, and the ideas then suggested by Miss Carroll
uttered, as he relates, "in a very earnest and animated manner!"
Even though it involves some repetition, we will here give also an
account written by Miss Carroll in the winter of 1889. It will possess
an especial interest, as it may be the last literary exertion that the
invalid authoress will ever be asked to make.
It was called forth by a wish expressed by a leading magazine to have
a fresh account written directly by Miss Carroll. With fingers lamed
by paralysis the following account was written, showing the clearness
of Miss Carroll's memory in her seventy-fifth year.
"In the beginning of the rebellion public opinion gave the victory to
the Southern cause, and no one shared in this conviction to a greater
extent than President Lincoln and the War Department. The first effort
made by me was in an unpretentious pamphlet, which fell into the hands
of Mr. Lincoln and so pleased him (it did not appear with my name)
that he suggested its adoption as a war measure, and the satisfaction
it gave was so general that Governor Bates, then Attorney General,
urged that I should continue to write in the interest of the
Government. Fired by enthusiasm in a noble cause, I accepted the
suggestion, and followed soon with what some have considered my best
work, "The War Powers of the Government," and other pamphlets. About
this time I had thought of visiting St. Louis, and mentioned my
intention to Col. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War. He
urged me to go, asking me to write him fully of every point and fact
investigated. These facts I communicated as requested, both to him and
to Governor Bates.
The clouds were dark and lowering. Despair had well nigh possession
of the bravest hearts. After my arrival I soon saw and felt that the
sentiment of the West was decidedly against the Union, or rather in
favor of the Southern cause.
I visited the various encampments en route and in St. Louis and found
but little difference among leading minds as to the result
anticipated. All in a measure believed the struggle useless.
Finding the sentiment prevalent that the Union must fall and feeling
in my soul that it _must not_ fall, I began revolving an escape from
the threatened doom. Just then, while I was in St. Louis, the battle
of Belmont was fought. When I saw the dead and dying as they lay upon
that field and witnessed the sad sight of the ambulance wagons bearing
the wounded to the hospitals, my heart sank within me. The future of
the war with these awful scenes repeated was a picture not to be
endured, and my anxiety as to the result grew still more intense.
In reflecting upon the dangers of the proposed expedition it came upon
me, as by inspiration, that the sailors--the pilots--might offer some
suggestion. I knew that the military leaders would never avail
themselves of this humble source of information. I thought the pilots,
of all others, should know the strategic points. Sending for the
proprietor of the hotel where I was stopping, I asked him how I could
get into contact with any of these men. He told me that the wife of a
pilot named Scott was then in the house. I called on her at once and,
finding her well informed, I questioned her as to the harbors, coast
defenses, etc. Mrs. Scott was just about to leave the city, but she
promised to send her husband to me. I could not wait for this chance,
but wrote to him for the information I desired. He called upon me in
response, and during our conversation he said it would be "death to
every man who attempted to go down the Mississippi." Yet no other
route had been dreamed of. I then asked him, "What about the
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers;" whether they were fordable for
gunboats? He replied, "Yes, the Tennessee especially." Of course, he
did not at first know of any ulterior purpose in the questions which I
was asking, other than the information of an ardent lover of our
country. As he mentioned the Tennessee it flashed upon me with the
certainty of conviction that I had seen my way to the salvation of my
country.
I left the pilot and sent immediately for Judge Evans, of Texas, who
was stopping at the same hotel. I was almost overcome with excitement
and shall never forget the moment that I rushed to him exclaiming,
"What do you think of diverting the army from the Mississippi to the
Tennessee!"[24]
[Footnote 24: Judge Evans himself, describing this
eventful scene, said "that for a moment it seemed
as if a halo of glory surrounded Miss Carroll, and
that she looked like one transfigured." One
hesitates in these matter-of-fact days to repeat
such words as these, but as my reliable informant,
to whom they were addressed, assures me that such
were his words it seemed worth while to record
them. In all times it has seemed that the human
countenance wholly possessed by a great idea could
assume a radiance only to be described by the
spectator by some such words as these, and the fact
was so symbolized in ancient art. The human soul is
no less potent in these days than in the times of
old.]
I waited breathlessly for his reply. It came in measured tones. "It
may be so. I had never thought of it."
That night I wrote to Governor Bates, who had planned the Mississippi
gunboat scheme. He presented the letter at once to the Acting
Secretary of War, Mr. Scott. They both opposed it at first as
impracticable. I returned immediately to Washington, prepared a paper
on that basis and took it to Mr. Scott, who was really Acting
Secretary of War, General Cameron's time being largely consumed in
Cabinet meetings. After reading my plan and hearing my verbal
arguments, Mr. Scott's countenance brightened and he exclaimed, "Miss
Carroll, I believe you have solved the question." He hurried at once,
with the plan in his hands, to the White House and with much
excitement gave it to the President. Mr. Lincoln read it with avidity,
and when he had finished it Mr. Scott told me that he had never
witnessed such delight as he evinced.
General McClellan was then in command. He opposed the plan, but Mr.
Lincoln quietly gave the orders himself for a change of base as soon
as possible. Up to that time no plan for the close of the struggle,
except down the Mississippi, had ever occurred to the mind of any
living man or woman, as far as known; but from that moment Mr. Lincoln
thought of nothing else. He hastened to send Mr. Scott to investigate,
and went himself at once to St. Louis to aid in putting the plan in
motion.
Just after the fall of Fort Henry I called at the War Department and
saw Mr. Tucker, then Assistant Secretary of War. He told me that Mr.
Scott stated to him on leaving for the West, "This is Miss Carroll's
plan, and if it succeeds the glory is hers."
General Wade, then chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the
War, was consulted in the matter. He recognized it at once as the
right move and openly and boldly approved the plan. Every effort was
made to hasten the completion of the gunboats. As soon as they were
finished, which was not until February, action was commenced on the
Tennessee line. Mr. Wade at the same time, made it known to Hon. Wm.
Pitt Fessenden, chairman of the Finance Committee in the Senate, that
there was then a movement on foot, to be executed as soon as the
gunboats, then building at St. Louis, were ready, which would satisfy
the entire country and astound the world; and he so reassured the
Senate that they calmly waited until the time arrived for the
execution of the plan.
Colonel Thomas A. Scott was sent to the West to make all things ready
and expedite the movement.
He gave his orders from one point to another, so that when General
Halleck, who was then in military command, was notified by Mr. Lincoln
that the whole force was to be moved from the Mississippi up the
Tennessee river he stood ready for the movement. In February, 1862,
the armies moved up the Tennessee, then to Fort Donelson, and then
back up the Tennessee to Hamburgh, and two miles from there they
fought the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, as pointed out in my plan.
Had the movement been strictly carried out from the foot of the Muscle
Shoals, in Alabama, Vicksburgh could have been reduced, or Mobile, and
the whole thing ended in the spring of 1862 as easily as in 1865, and
with the same result. In a recent publication General Sherman has
admitted this fact. At the fall of Fort Henry the country was
thoroughly aroused as it never had been before. It was clearly seen
that the end was approaching. Richmond was then within reach through
Tennessee. For this General McClellan had been waiting. Before this no
power on earth could have captured Richmond, and no one knew this
better than General McClellan. When the National armies had penetrated
into the heart of the South, within two miles of the Memphis and
Charleston railroad, the result was plain to every mind.
The old flag displayed in the presence of a million of slaves, who had
before been necessarily on the side of their owners, made the fact
doubly secure. All hearts were jubilant, and Roscoe Conkling then
offered his celebrated resolutions in the House of Representatives to
ascertain who it was that had designed these military movements so
fruitful in great results; whether they came from Washington or
elsewhere; by whom they were designed and what they were intended to
accomplish. Judge Olin replied that if it was Mr. Conkling's design to
find out who had done this work he could learn by inquiring at the War
Department, for certainly the Secretary of War or the President must
know all about it; but it was sufficient for the present to know that
some one had designed these movements, and that the country was now in
the enjoyment of the blessings that had resulted from them. Hon.
Thaddeus Stevens moved that the resolutions of Mr. Conkling, making
inquiry, be referred to the Military Committee of the House. During
the discussion the plan was attributed to one person and another, but
no satisfactory proof could be given on any side. I was present
through it all and could at any moment have satisfied Congress and the
world as to the authorship of the plan, but from prudential reasons I
refrained from uttering a word. It was decided to refer the question
to the Military Committee of the House, and there the matter slept."
It is worth while to pause for a moment in our narration to introduce
upon the scene one of the most useful and remarkable men of the time,
who became one of Miss Carroll's principal coadjutors; this was
Senator Wade, of Ohio. He was successively justice of the peace,
prosecuting attorney, State senator, judge of the circuit court, and
United States Senator for three terms; he was also Acting
Vice-President of the United States after Lincoln's death. If
President Johnson's impeachment had been carried through he would have
been the President for the rest of the term, and it was feared by his
opponents that in that case he would have secured the Chicago
nomination for the coming term, of which he was one of the candidates.
The first encounter of the Union army, a crowd of raw, undisciplined
recruits, under new and inexperienced officers, with the better
prepared Confederate army naturally resulted in a tremendous panic.
Two carriages were present on the battlefield; one contained Senators
Wade, Chandler, and Brown, Sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, and Major
Eaton; in the other was Tom Brown, of Cleveland, Blake, Morris, and
Riddle, of the House. Near the extemporized hospital, Ashley's Black
Horse sweeping down on the recruits caused the panic. One of the
gentlemen present thus described the scene. (The description can be
met with in Coxe's Three Decades and in Riddle's Life of Wade, a work
that should be more widely published.)
"It seemed as if the very devils of panic and cowardice had seized
every mortal officer, soldier, teamster, and citizen. No officer tried
to rally a soldier or do anything but spring and run toward
Centerville. There was never anything like it for causeless, sheer,
absolute, absurd cowardice--or rather panic--on this miserable earth
before. Off they went, one and all--off down the highway, across the
fields, towards the woods, anywhere, everywhere, to escape. The
further they ran the more frightened they grew, and though we moved as
fast as we could the fugitives passed us by scores. To enable
themselves better to run they threw away their blankets, knapsacks,
canteens, and finally their muskets, cartridge-boxes--everything. We
called to them; told them there was no danger; implored them to stand.
We called them cowards; denounced them in the most offensive terms;
pulled out our heavy revolvers, threatened to kill them--in vain. A
cruel, crazy, hopeless panic possessed them and infected everybody,
front and rear."
The two carriages were blocked up in the awful gorge of Cub's Run and
were for a time separated. When they again met, Mr. Wade shouted,
"Boys, we'll _stop_ this damned runaway!"
They found a good position, where a high wall on one side and a dense
impassable wood secured the other side. The eight gentlemen leaped
from their carriages and put Mr. Wade in command. Mr. Wade, with his
hat well back and his famous rifle in his hand, formed them across the
pikes all armed with heavy revolvers and facing the onflowing torrent
of runaways, who were ghastly sick with panic, and this little band,
worthy of the heroes of Thermopylæ, actually kept back the runaway
army, so that "for the fourth of an hour not a man passed save
McDowell's bearer of dispatches, and he only on production of his
papers. The rushing, cowardly, half-armed, demented fugitives stopped,
gathered, crowded, flowed back, hedged in by thick-growing cedars that
a rabbit could scarcely penetrate. The position became serious. A
revolver was discharged, shattering the arm of Major Eaton, from the
hand of a mounted escaping teamster" (who had cut loose from his
wagon).
"At that critical moment the heroic old Senator and his friends were
relieved and probably saved by Colonel Crane and a part of the Second
New York, hurrying toward the scene of the disaster, and then the
party proceeded. Naturally the exploit of Mr. Wade in stopping a
runaway army caused much talk at Washington and increased the great
confidence and admiration with which he was already regarded.[25]
[Footnote 25: A few days ago the present writer was
conversing with one of the survivors of the party
and received from him a detailed account of this
singular episode.]
"In consequence of this disaster and the following one at Ball's
Bluff, it was evident that both soldiers and officers would have to be
created, and that we were without a military commander competent to
direct so vast a war. This led to the formation by Congress of a
Committee for the Conduct of the War. It consisted of seven members,
three from the Senate and four from the House; Wade, Chandler, and
Andrew Johnson from the Senate; Julian, Covode, Gooch, and Odell from
the House. (Johnson seems never to have acted.) Nobody but Wade was
thought of for chairman. Mr. Wade was absolutely fearless, physically
and morally; absolutely regardless of self; absolutely devoted to his
country. All parties agreed in boundless admiration and confidence in
the heroic old Senator. "It is said that Wade seldom missed a session
of the committee. The most conscientious of known men; never ill; he
never neglected a duty; failed of an engagement; was never waited for,
and never failed to meet his foe, one or many."
"The committee, by Mr. Wade, omitting Mr. Johnson's name, made their
first report soon after the close of the 37th Congress, in April,
1863, which made three heavy volumes of over 2,000 printed pages.
Their second report was made May 22, 1865, a trifle more in bulk, six
volumes in all." (Very valuable for future historians.)--_Life of
Benjamin F. Wade by A. G. Riddle._
President Lincoln, as Commander-in-Chief, with the assistance of this
committee, thereafter directed the movements of the war, all the
generals being subordinate and only enlightened step by step as to the
accepted plan of campaign, great secrecy being, as Mr. Wade testifies,
necessary or the plan would have been frustrated.
CHAPTER V.
MISS CARROLL'S PAPERS TO THE WAR DEPARTMENT -- PLAN OF CAMPAIGN --
LETTERS FROM SCOTT, WADE, AND OTHERS -- DISCUSSIONS -- PAPERS AS THE
CAMPAIGN PROGRESSES.
List of Miss Carroll's papers sent into the War Department in her own
handwriting and signed with her name, originally on file at the War
Department; all in the first division relating to the Tennessee
campaign; sent on various occasions to the Capital to be examined by
military committees, and printed by order of Congress in successive
memorials and reports from 1870 to 1881.
The papers marked with a star are now on file at the War Department.
With the permission of the Secretary of War, these were seen by me and
carefully examined March 7th, 1891. They were sent by Robert Lincoln
to the Court of Claims in 1885, and copies were put on file in the
office of the Attorney General, the original documents being returned
to the War Department. One of these original documents at the War
Department is now incomplete, but must have been in good order in
1885, as the copies then made are complete and in excellent condition.
They were verified as true copies by the Secretary of War. These also
were examined by me at the office of the Attorney General March 23,
1891. The absence of the other documents from the War Office is
accounted for by the remarkable testimony of Benjamin F. Wade and
Samuel Hunt (keeper of the records), as given on page 30, 45th
Congress, 2d session, Mis. Doc. 58, both testifying that the papers
were abstracted from the desk of the Secretary when the Military
Committee were considering Miss Carroll's claim, in 1871. As Miss
Carroll possessed the original draft of these letters, she quickly
reproduced them. The papers having been already examined by the
Committee and by Mr. Hunt, the copies were accepted in place of the
missing file and printed "by order of Congress," and thus guaranteed
they became, to all intents and purposes, the same thing as the
original documents; but apparently they were not sent to the War
Office, not being the original documents sent from there. On March 20,
1891, I examined the files of the 41st Congress, 2d session, at the
Secretary's office of the U. S. Senate, at the Capitol, and there I
found Miss Carroll's first memorial, 1870, with the "plan of campaign"
attached, just as described by Thomas A. Scott.
S. E. BLACKWELL.
FIRST DIVISION.
A paper usually designated as the "plan of campaign."
When given in at the War Office to Thomas A. Scott it was accompanied
by a military map; the paper in Miss Carroll's own handwriting and
signed with her name, the map unsigned.
1. November 30, 1862.
2. January 5, 1862.
3. March 26, 1862.
4. May 2, 1862.*
5. May 14, 1862.*
6. May 15, 1862.*
7. Following Monday, 1862.
8. September 9, 1862.*
9. October ----, 1862.
The letter to Stanton is on file at the office of the Attorney
General, certified as copied from the documents furnished by the War
Department in 1885.
(The letter of October, 1862, was also accompanied by a military map,
"approved and adopted by the Secretary of War and the President and
immediately sent out to the proper military authority." See letter of
B. F. Wade, page 24, Mis. Doc. 58, of Memorial, May 18, 1878.)
SECOND DIVISION.
August 25, 1862.
January 31, 1863.
October 7, 1863.
January 11, 1864.
---- ----, 1865.
A letter, on file from Robert Lincoln, states that the papers of the
second division were returned to Miss Carroll, March 10, 1869.
* * * * *
Miss Carroll's first paper, addressed to the War Department, for a
campaign on the Tennessee river and thence south, placed in the hands
of Hon. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, the 30th of
November, 1861, with accompanying map, is as follows:
"The civil and military authorities seem to be laboring under a great
mistake in regard to the true key to the war in the southwest. _It is
not the Mississippi, but the Tennessee river._ All the military
preparations made in the West indicate that the Mississippi river is
the point to which the authorities are directing their attention. On
that river many battles must be fought and heavy risks incurred before
any impression can be made on the enemy, all of which could be avoided
by using the Tennessee river. This river is navigable for middle-class
boats to the foot of the Muscle Shoals, in Alabama, and is open to
navigation all the year, while the distance is but two hundred and
fifty miles, by the river, from Paducah, on the Ohio. The Tennessee
offers many advantages over the Mississippi. We should avoid the
almost impregnable batteries of the enemy, which cannot be taken
without great danger and great risk of life to our forces, from the
fact that our boats, if crippled, would fall a prey to the enemy by
being swept by the current to him and away from the relief of our
friends; but even should we succeed, still we will only have begun the
war, for we shall then fight for the country from whence the enemy
derives his supplies.
"Now an advance up the Tennessee river would avoid this danger, for
_if our boats were crippled, they would drop back with the current and
escape capture_; but a still greater advantage would be its tendency
_to cut the enemy's lines in two by reaching the Memphis and
Charleston railroad_, threatening Memphis, which lies one hundred
miles due west, and no defensible point between; also Nashville, only
ninety miles northeast, and Florence and Tuscumbia, in North Alabama,
forty miles east.
"A movement in this direction would do more to relieve our friends in
Kentucky and inspire the loyal hearts in East Tennessee than the
possession of the whole of the Mississippi river. If well executed _it
would cause the evacuation of all these formidable fortifications_
upon which the rebels ground their hopes for success; and in the event
of our fleet attacking Mobile, the presence of our troops in the
northern part of Alabama _would be material aid to the fleet_.
"Again, the aid our forces would receive from the loyal men in
Tennessee would enable them soon to crush the last traitor in that
region, and the separation of the two extremes would do more than one
hundred battles for the Union cause.
"The Tennessee river is crossed by the Memphis and Louisville railroad
and the Memphis and Nashville railroad. At Hamburg the river makes the
big bend on the east, touching the northeast corner of Mississippi,
entering the northwest corner of Alabama, forming an arc to the South,
entering the State of Tennessee at the northeast corner of Alabama,
and if it does not touch the northwest corner of Georgia comes very
near it.
"It is but eight miles from Hamburg to the Memphis and Charleston
railroad, which goes through Tuscumbia, only two miles from the river,
which it crosses at Decatur, thirty miles above, intersecting with the
Nashville and Chattanooga road at Stevenson. The Tennessee river has
never less than three feet to Hamburg on the shoalest bar, and during
the fall, winter, and spring months there is always water for the
largest boats that are used on the Mississippi river.
"It follows, from the above facts, that in making the Mississippi the
key to the war in the West, or rather in overlooking the Tennessee
river, the subject is not understood by the superiors in command."
Extracts from a second paper, January 5, 1862, giving additional
particulars for the advance up the Tennessee:
"Having given you my views of the Tennessee river on my return from
the West, showing that this river is the true strategical key to
overcome the rebels in the southwest, I beg again to recur to the
importance of its adoption. This river is never impeded by ice in the
coldest winter, as the Mississippi and the Cumberland sometimes are. I
ascertained, when in St. Louis, that the gunboats then fitting out
could not retreat against the current of the western rivers, and so
stated to you; besides, their principal guns are placed forward and
will not be very efficient against an enemy below them. The fighting
would have to be done by their stern guns--only two; or if they
anchored by the stern they would lose the advantage of motion, which
would prevent the enemy from getting their range. Our gunboats at
anchor would be a target which the enemy will not be slow to improve
and benefit thereby.
"The Tennessee river, beginning at Paducah fifty miles above Cairo,
after leaving the Ohio, runs across south-southeast, rather than
through Kentucky and Tennessee, until it reaches the Mississippi line
directly west of Florence and Tuscumbia, which lie fifty miles east,
and Memphis, one hundred and twenty-five miles west, with the
Charleston and Memphis railroad eight miles from the river. There is
no difficulty in reaching this point at any time of the year, and the
water is known to be deeper than on the Ohio.
"If you will look on the map of the Western States you will see in
what a position Buckner would be placed by a strong advance up the
Tennessee river. He would be obliged to back out of Kentucky, or, if
he did not, our forces could take Nashville in his rear and compel him
to lay down his arms."
Testimony of Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, to Hon.
Jacob M. Howard, chairman of the Military Committee, to consider the
claim presented by Miss Carroll in 1870:
PHILADELPHIA, _June 24, 1870_.
On or about the 30th of November, 1861, Miss Carroll, as stated
in her memorial, called on me, as the Assistant Secretary of War,
and suggested the propriety of abandoning the expedition which
was then preparing to descend the Mississippi, and to adopt
instead the Tennessee river, and handed to me the plan of
campaign, as appended to her memorial; which plan I submitted to
the Secretary of War, and its general ideas were adopted. On my
return from the southwest in 1862 I informed Miss Carroll, as she
states in her memorial, that through the adoption of this plan
the county had been saved millions, and that it entitled her to
the kind consideration of Congress.
THOMAS A. SCOTT.
* * * * *
To the Military Committee, appointed for that purpose in 1872:
Hon. JACOB M. HOWARD, of the Military Committee of the United States
Senate.
Again:
PHILADELPHIA, _May 1, 1872_.
My Dear Sir:
I take pleasure in stating that the plan presented by Miss
Carroll in November, 1861, for a campaign upon the Tennessee
river and thence south, was submitted to the Secretary of War and
President Lincoln, and after Secretary Stanton's appointment I
was directed to go to the Western armies and arrange to increase
their effective force as rapidly as possible. A part of the duty
assigned me was the organization and consolidation into regiments
of all the troops then being recruited in Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, and Michigan, for the purpose of carrying through this
campaign, then inaugurated. This work was vigorously prosecuted
by the army, and as the valuable suggestions of Miss Carroll,
made to the Department some months before, were substantially
carried out through the campaigns in that section, great success
followed, and the country was largely benefited in the saving of
time and expenditure.
I hope Congress will reward Miss Carroll liberally for her
patriotic efforts and services.
Very truly yours,
THOMAS A. SCOTT.
* * * * *
Letter from the Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, appended to the report of
General Bragg, of the Military Committee, of March 3, 1881:
Dear Miss Carroll:
I had no part in getting up the Committee [on the Conduct of the
War]. The first intimation to me was that I had been made the
head of it; but I never shirked a public duty, and at once went
to work to do all that was possible to save the country. We went
fully into the examination of the several plans for military
operations then known to the Government, and we saw plainly
enough that the time it must take to execute any of them would
make it fatal to the Union.
We were in the deepest despair, until just at this time Colonel
Scott informed me that there was a plan already devised which, if
executed with secrecy, would open the Tennessee and save the
national cause. I went immediately to Mr. Lincoln and talked the
whole matter over. He said he did not himself doubt that the
plan was feasible, but said there was one difficulty in the way;
that no military or naval man had any idea of such a movement, it
being the work of a civilian, and none of them would believe it
safe to make such an advance upon only a navigable river, with no
protection but a gunboat fleet, and they would not want to take
the risk. He said it was devised by Miss Carroll, and military
men were extremely jealous of all outside interference. I pleaded
earnestly with him, for I found there were influences in his
Cabinet then averse to his taking the responsibility, and wanting
everything done in deference to the views of McClellan and
Halleck. I said to Mr. Lincoln: "You know we are now in the last
extremity, and you have to choose between adopting and at once
executing a plan which you believe to be the right one and save
the country, or defer to the opinions of military men in command
and lose the country." He finally decided he would take the
initiative; but there was Mr. Bates, who had suggested the
gunboat fleet, and wanted to advance down the Mississippi, as
originally designed; but after a little he came to see that no
result could be achieved on that mode of attack, and he united
with us in favor of the change of expedition as you recommended.
After repeated talks with Mr. Stanton I was entirely convinced
that, if placed at the head of the War Department, he would have
your plan executed vigorously, as he fully believed it was the
only means of safety, as I did. Mr. Lincoln, on my suggesting
Stanton, asked me how the leading Republicans would take it; that
Stanton was fresh from the Buchanan Cabinet, and many things were
said of him.[26] I insisted he was our man withal, and brought
him and Lincoln into communication, and Lincoln was entirely
satisfied. But so soon as it got out, the doubters came to the
front. Senators and members called on me. I sent them to Stanton
and told them to decide for themselves. The gunboats were then
nearly ready for the Mississippi expedition, and Mr. Lincoln
agreed, as soon as they were, to start the Tennessee movement. It
was determined that as soon as Mr. Stanton came into the
Department, then Colonel Scott should go out to the Western
armies and make ready for the campaign in pursuance of your plan,
as he has testified before committees. It was a great work to get
the matter started; you have no idea of it. We almost fought for
it. If ever there was a righteous claim on earth, you have one. I
have often been sorry that, knowing all this as I did then, I had
not publicly declared you as the author; but we were fully alive
to the importance of absolute secrecy. I trusted but few of our
people; but to pacify the country I announced from the Senate
that the armies were about to move, and inaction was no longer to
be tolerated. Mr. Fessenden, head of the Finance Committee, who
had been told of the proposed advance, also stated in the Senate
that what would be achieved in a few more days would satisfy the
country and astound the world.
As the expedition advanced, Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Stanton, and myself
frequently alluded to your extraordinary sagacity and unselfish
patriotism, but all agreed that you should be recognized for your
most noble service and properly rewarded for the same.
The last time I saw Mr. Stanton he was on his deathbed; he was
then most earnest in his desire to have you come before Congress,
as I told you soon after, and said that if he lived he would see
that justice was awarded you. This I have told you often since,
and I believe the truth in this matter will finally prevail.
B. F. WADE.
[Footnote 26: Stanton had been the bitterest of
Democrats. The Republicans then knew nothing
certainly of his course in Buchanan's Cabinet. His
appointment surprised the Senate. Wade knew and
endorsed him there. That was sufficient.--_Riddle's
Life of Wade._]
* * * * *
JEFFERSON, OHIO, _July 27, 1876_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
Yours of the 22nd is at hand and its contents noticed, but I
cannot perceive, myself, that it is necessary for you to procure
any further testimony to prove to all unprejudiced minds that you
were the first to discover the importance of the Tennessee river
in a military point of view, and was the first to discover that
said river was navigable for heavy gunboats; and to ascertain
these important facts you made a journey to that region, and with
great labor and expense, by examination of pilots and others, and
that with these facts you drew up a plan of campaign which you, I
think, first exhibited to Colonel Scott, who was then Assistant
Secretary of War, which was shown to the President and Mr.
Stanton, which information and plan caused the immediate change
of the campaign from the Mississippi to the Tennessee river, and
this change, with all the immense advantages to the national
cause, was solely due to your labor and sagacity. I do not regard
it as an impeachment of the military sagacity of the officers on
either side that they had not seen all this before, but I suppose
none of them knew or believed the Tennessee river to be navigable
for such craft, for had the Confederate officers known all this
it would have been easy for them to have so fortified its banks
as to have made such an expedition impossible.
Now all the above facts are proved beyond doubt, unless the
witnesses are impeached; but all should bear in mind that when
the Government had concluded to make this important change from
the Mississippi to the Tennessee the utmost secrecy was
absolutely necessary or the whole plan might have been frustrated
by the enemy, and it was so kept that even members of Congress
and Senators never could ascertain who was entitled to the honor
of the plan, as can be seen by their endeavors to find out by
consulting the Congressional Globe, etc. * * * Where is Judge
Evans and how is his health? I am anxious to hear from him, whom
I regard as one of the best of men. Give him my best respects.
Truly yours,
B. F. WADE.
* * * * *
WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL,
LONDON, _November 29, 1875_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
I remember very well that you were the first to advise the
campaign on the Tennessee river in November, 1861. This I have
never heard doubted, and the great events which followed it
demonstrated the value of your suggestions. This will be
recognized by our Government, sooner or later, I cannot doubt. On
reaching home I hope to shake you by the hand once more.
Sincerely your friend,
REVERDY JOHNSON.
* * * * *
_Discussions in Congress Showing the Critical Nature of the
Situation._
IN THE HOUSE, _January 7, 1862_.
Mr. KELLEY: I think the condition of this Capital to-day invites war.
It is environed within a narrow circle of two hundred thousand men in
arms, and yet, sir, that short river which leads to the Capital of a
great and proud country, thus defended and encircled by patriot
troops, is so thoroughly blockaded by rebels that the Government,
though its army has not an adequate supply of forage, cannot bring
upon it a peck of oats to feed a hungry horse. * * * Call it what you
may, it is a sight at which men may well wonder. We have six hundred
thousand men in the field. We have spent I know not how many millions
of dollars, and what have we done? What one evidence of determined war
or military skill have we exhibited to foreign nations, or to our own
people? * * * We have been engaged in war for seven months. * * *
England does respect power. * * * Let her hear the shouts of a
victorious army, and England and the powers of the continent will
pause with bated breath. Sir, it was said yesterday the last days had
come. My heart has felt the last day of our dear country was rapidly
approaching. Before we have reached victory we have reached
bankruptcy. We are to-day flooding the country with an irredeemable
currency. In ninety days, with the patriotism of the people paralyzed
by the inaction of our great army, the funded debt of the country will
depreciate with a rapidity that will startle us. In ninety days more
the nations of the world will, I fear, be justified in saying to us,
"You have no more right to shut up the cotton fields of the world by a
vain and fruitless effort to reconquer the territory now in rebellion
than China or Japan has to wall themselves in", and in the eyes of
international law, in the eyes of the world, and, I fear, in the eyes
of impartial history, they will be justified in breaking our blockade
and giving to the rebels means and munitions of war. * * * But, sir,
in less than ninety days, to come back to the point of time, we shall
be advancing in the month of April, when Northern men will begin to
feel the effects of heat in the neighborhood of Ship Island and the
mouth of the Mississippi. Looking at the period of ninety days, I say
it is not a double but a triple edged sword approaching, perhaps, the
single thread of destiny upon which the welfare of our country hangs.
Bankruptcy and miasmatic pestilence are sure to come within the lapse
of that period, and foreign war may add its horror to theirs.
Mr. WRIGHT: We are gasping for life. This great Government is upon the
brink of a volcano, which is heaving to and fro, and we are not
certain whether we exist or no.
Mr. F. A. CONKLING: In this crisis of our history, when the very
existence of the Republic is threatened, when in all human probability
the next thirty days will decide forever whether the Union is to
maintain its place among the powers of the earth or whether it is to
go down and constitutional liberty is to perish. * * *
* * * * *
IN THE HOUSE, _January 20, 1862_.
Mr. WRIGHT: There is one great abiding and powerful issue to-day, and
that is the issue whether the country and the Constitution shall be
saved or whether it shall be utterly and entirely annihilated. With
Pennsylvania it is a question of national existence, of life or death.
* * * The great heart of Pennsylvania is beating to-day for the cause
of the Union. * * * It is to decide the great question whether the
liberty which has been handed down to us by our fathers shall be
permitted to remain in the land, or whether chaos or desolation shall
blot out the country and Government forever.
* * * * *
IN THE SENATE, _January 22, 1862_.
Mr. WADE: But, sir, though the war lies dormant, still there is war,
and it is not intended that it shall stay in this quiescent state much
longer. The committee to which I belong are determined * * * that it
shall move with energy. If the Congress will not give us, or give
themselves, power to act with efficiency in war, we must confide
everything to the Executive Government and let them usurp everything.
If you would not fix your machinery so that you might advise with me
and act with me, * * * I would act independent of you, and you might
call it what you please. This is for the suppression of the rebellion,
and the measures that we are to sit in secrecy upon look to that end
and none other. No measure rises in importance above that connected
with the suppression of the rebellion. * * * We stand here for the
people and we act for them. * * * There is no danger to be apprehended
from any secrecy which, in the consideration of war measures, we may
deem it proper to adopt. It is proper for us, as it is for the general
in the field, as it is for your Cabinet ministers, to discuss matters
in secret when they pertain to war.
* * * * *
IN THE HOUSE, _January 22, 1862_.
Mr. THADDEUS STEVENS: * * * Remember that every day's delay costs the
nation $1,500,000 and hundreds of lives. * * * What an awful
responsibility rests upon those in authority; their mistakes may bring
mourning to the land and sorrow to many a fireside. * * * If we cannot
save our honor, save at least the lives and the treasure of the
nation.
* * * * *
About this time Miss Carroll was spoken of by those conversant with
her plans as "the great unrecognized member of Lincoln's Cabinet."
But, glorious as was the success, Miss Carroll's plans were not fully
carried out, to the great after regret of the War Department, who
recognized that the war, which might then have been brought to a
speedy termination, had been greatly prolonged through the omission.
Miss Carroll continued her communications to the War Department,
endeavoring to rectify mistakes.
* * * * *
Extract from Miss Carroll's letter to the Department on the reduction
of Island No. 10, and pointing out the advantages of the immediate
seizure of the Memphis and Charleston railroad, March 26, 1862.
"The failure to take Island No. 10, which thus far occasions much
disappointment to the country, excites no surprise in me. When I
looked at the gunboats at St. Louis and was informed as to their
power, and considered that the current of the Mississippi at full tide
runs at the rate of five miles per hour, which is very near the speed
of our gunboats, I could not resist the conclusion that they were not
well fitted to the taking of batteries on the Mississippi river if
assisted by gunboats perhaps equal to our own. Hence it was that I
wrote Colonel Scott from there that the Tennessee was our strategic
point, and the successes at Fort Henry and Donelson established the
justice of these observations. Had our victorious army, after the fall
of Fort Henry, immediately pushed up the Tennessee river and taken a
position on the Memphis and Charleston railroad, between Corinth,
Mississippi, and Decatur, Alabama, which might easily have been done
at that time with a small force, every rebel soldier in Western
Kentucky and Tennessee would have fled from every position to the
south of that railroad; and had Buell pursued the enemy in his retreat
from Nashville, without delay, into a commanding position in North
Alabama, on the railroad between Chattanooga and Decatur, the rebel
government at Richmond would have necessarily been obliged to retreat
to the cotton States. I am fully satisfied that the true policy of
General H----is to strengthen Grant's column by such force as will
enable him at once to seize the Memphis and Charleston railroad, as it
is the readiest means of reducing Island 10 and all the strongholds of
the enemy to Memphis."
Letter written from St. Louis, military headquarters for the
Southwest:
[27]ST. LOUIS, _May 2, 1862_.
"I think the war on the approaches to the Tennessee river has
ended. I think the enemy will retreat to the Grand Junction, some
sixty miles nearer Memphis; and when our forces approach him
there, he will go down the Central Mississippi railroad to
Jackson, and if there is another great battle in the West it will
be there. I think they will try to postpone anything serious
until after the pending battles in Virginia. If they make the
attempt now every leader would be taken in the event of defeat,
without fail, whilst if it is postponed until after the fate of
Virginia is decided the leaders can bring what troops they have
left and, joining them to what they have here, make one last
struggle for life, and if defeated they can escape across the
Mississippi into Arkansas, and through that into Texas and
Mexico. You may rest assured the _leaders_ will not be caught if
they can get away with life; and as to _property_, they have
_that_ secured already. The only way this plan can be frustrated
is to occupy Memphis and Vicksburg strongly, _particularly_ the
_latter_, and send one or more of our gunboats up the _Yazoo_
river _to watch every creek and inlet_, so that they may be
unable to get across the _swamps_ by _canoes_ and _skiffs_.
"I have heard that all the skiffs and canoes have been taken from
Memphis and Vicksburg to some point up the _Yazoo river_ and
fitted up, for what purpose I do not know, but I can think there
is no other than what I name, for _one night's ride_ from Jackson
will carry a man to the edge of the _Yazoo_ river _swamps_, where
it would be impossible to follow unless equally well acquainted
and with boats like theirs. From there their escape would be
easy, as _they would have 400 miles_ of the river to strike, at
any part of which they would find friends to assist them over to
the Arkansas side of the river, and from _there_ pursuit would be
useless."
[Footnote 27: Copied by me on March 23, 1891, from
the file at the office of the Attorney General.
S. E. BLACKWELL.]
[28]Letter from Miss Carroll to Secretary Stanton:
[Footnote 28: Written to recommend Pilot Scott for
information given.]
_May 14, 1862._
Hon. E. M. STANTON, _Secretary of War_:
It will be the obvious policy of the rebels, in the event of
Beauregard's defeat, to send a large column into Texas for the
purpose of holding that country for subsistence, where beef and
wheat abound. Now, all this can be defeated by strongly occupying
Vicksburg and plying a gunboat or two on the Yazoo river. I would
also suggest a gunboat to be placed at the mouth of the Red and
Arkansas rivers. Whether the impending battle in North
Mississippi should occur at Corinth or within the area of a
hundred miles, a large part of the enemy's forces will retreat by
the Yazoo river and by the railroad to Vicksburg, on the
Mississippi, and will then take the railroad through Louisiana
into Texas. I handed Honorable Mr. Watson on Monday a letter
giving information that the canoes, skiffs, and other transports
had been sent up the Yazoo river from Memphis and Vicksburg for
the purpose, undoubtedly, of securing the rebels' retreat from
our pursuing army.
This information I obtained from Mr. Scott, a pilot on the
_Memphis_, which conducted the retreat of the soldiers at the
battle of Belmont, and had been with the fleet in the same
capacity up the Tennessee river. Until June last he resided in
New Orleans, and for twenty years or more has been in his present
employment. His wife stated this to me, and with a view of
obtaining facts about that section of country I requested her to
introduce him to me. I was surprised at his general intelligence
in regard to the war, and from the facts I derived from him and
other practical men I satisfied myself that the Tennessee river
was the true strategic point, and submitted a document to this
effect to Hon. Thomas A. Scott, dated the 30th of November, 1861,
which changed the whole programme of the war in the Southwest,
and inured to the glory of our arms in that section and
throughout the land. The Government is not aware of the
incalculable service rendered by the facts I learned from this
pilot, and I therefore take the present occasion to ask his
promotion to the surveyorship of New Orleans, for which I should
think him well suited in this crisis.
I enclose you a letter describing the battle of Pittsburg
Landing, which will interest you.
Very sincerely,
ANNA ELLA CARROLL.
* * * * *
Extract from the letter to the Secretary of War on the 15th of May,
1862, advising the occupation of Vicksburg:
* * * "It will be the obvious policy of the rebels, in the event
of Beauregard's defeat, to send a large column into Texas for the
purpose of holding that country for subsistence, where beef and
wheat abound. This can be defeated by strongly occupying
Vicksburg and plying a gunboat, to be placed at the mouth of the
Red and Arkansas rivers." * * * "Whether the impending battle in
North Mississippi should occur at Corinth or within the area of a
hundred miles, a large part of the enemy's forces will retreat by
the Yazoo river, and by the railroad to Vicksburg, on the
Mississippi, and will take the railroad through Louisiana into
Texas." * * *
* * * * *
On the following Monday Miss Carroll handed Mr. Watson a letter giving
information that the canoes, skiffs, and other transports had been
sent up the Yazoo from Memphis and Vicksburg for the purpose,
undoubtedly, of securing the rebels' retreat from our pursuing army.
Letter from the file of the Attorney General, Court of Claims:[29]
[Footnote 29: Copied by me from the file at the
office of the Attorney General, March 23, 1891. S.
E. BLACKWELL.]
Hon. E. M. STANTON, _Secretary of War_:
Sir: I find that the Secretary of War and the President are
violently assailed for arresting certain parties in the loyal
States and suspending the writ of _habeas corpus_. It is
represented that a high judicial officer in the State of Vermont
has taken issue with the Administration on this question. It is
also intimated that the State authorities, in Vermont and
elsewhere, are to be invoked for the protection of the citizen
against military arrests. There is very great danger at this time
to be apprehended to the country from a conflict between the
military and the judicial authorities, because the opinion is
almost universal that the authority to suspend the writ of
_habeas corpus_ rests with Congress. The reason that this opinion
has so generally obtained is that in England, whence we have
derived much of our political and judicial system, the power to
suspend the writ is vested alone in Parliament; and our jurists,
without reflecting upon the distinction between the constitutions
of the two Governments, have erroneously made the English theory
applicable to our own.
I believe in my work on the "War Powers of the Government," etc.,
I was the first writer who has succeeded in placing the power of
the Government to arrest for political offences, and to suspend
the writ of _habeas corpus_, on its true foundation. In the
opinion of eminent men, if this work were now placed in the hands
of every lawyer and judge it would stay the evil which threatens
to arise from a conflict between the military and judicial
departments of the country. I therefore respectfully suggest the
propriety of authorizing me to circulate a large edition of this
work, or, what would be still better, that I should write a _new
paper_, specially on the power of the Executive to suspend the
writ of _habeas corpus_, and to arrest political offenders.
ANNA ELLA CARROLL.
* * * * *
In October, 1862, Miss Carroll wrote the following letter to the
Secretary of War, through the hands of John Tucker, Assistant
Secretary, on the reduction of Vicksburg:
"As I understand an expedition is about to go down the river for
the purpose of reducing Vicksburg, I have prepared the enclosed
map in order to demonstrate more clearly the obstacles to be
encountered in the contemplated assault. In the first place, it
is impossible to take Vicksburg in front without too great a loss
of life and material, for the reason that the river is only about
half a mile wide, and our forces would be in point-blank range of
their guns, not only from their water batteries, which line the
shore, but from the batteries that crown the hills, while the
enemy would be protected by the elevation from the range of our
fire. By examining the map I enclose you will at once perceive
why a place of so little apparent strength has been enabled to
resist the combined fleets of the upper and lower Mississippi.
The most economical plan for the reduction of Vicksburg now is to
push a column from Memphis to Corinth, down the Mississippi
Central railroad to Jackson, the capital of the State of
Mississippi. _The occupation of Jackson and the command of the
railroad to New Orleans would compel the immediate evacuation of
Vicksburg_, as well as the retreat of the entire rebel army east
of that line, and by another movement of our army from Jackson,
Mississippi, or from Corinth to Meridian, in the State of
Mississippi, on the Ohio and Mobile railroad, especially if aided
by a movement of our gunboats on Mobile, the Confederate forces,
with all the disloyal men and their slaves, would be compelled to
fly east of the Tombigbee. Mobile being then in our possession,
with 100,000 men at Meridian we would redeem the entire country
from Memphis to the Tombigbee river. Of course I would have the
gunboats with a small force at Vicksburg as auxiliary to this
movement. With regard to the canal, Vicksburg can be rendered
useless to the Confederate army upon the first rise of the river;
but I do not advise this, because Vicksburg belongs to the United
States and we desire to hold and fortify it, for the Mississippi
river at Vicksburg and the Vicksburg-Jackson railroad will become
necessary as a base of our future operations. Vicksburg might
have been reduced eight months ago, as I then advised, after the
fall of Fort Henry, and with much more ease than it can be done
to-day."
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, D. C., _May 10, 1876_.
My Dear Miss Carroll:
Referring to the conversation with Judge Evans last evening, he
called my attention to Colonel Scott's telegram, announcing the
fall of Island No. 10, in 1862, as endorsing your plan, when
Scott said: "The movement in the rear has done the work." I
stated to the Judge, as he and you knew before, that your paper
on the reduction of Vicksburg did the work on that place, after
being so long baffled and with the loss of so much life and
treasure, by trying to take it from the water; that to my
knowledge your paper was approved and adopted by the Secretary of
War and the President, and immediately sent out to the proper
military authority in that Department.
I remember well their remarks upon it at that time, and of all
your other views and suggestions, made after we got the
expedition inaugurated, and know the direction they took. These
matters were often talked over as the campaign advanced, and in
the very last interview with Mr. Stanton, just before his death,
he referred to your services in originating the campaign in the
strongest terms he could express, and, as I have informed you,
stated that if his life was spared he would discharge the great
duty of seeing your services to the country properly recognized
and rewarded. But why need I say more. Your claim is established
beyond controversy, unless the witnesses are impeached, and I
hardly think they would undertake that business. What motive
could any of us have had to mislead or falsify the history of the
war. Your claim is righteous and just, if ever there was one, and
for the honor of my country I trust and hope you will be suitably
rewarded and so declared before the world.
Yours truly,
B. F. WADE.
* * * * *
Miss Carroll's after papers, so far as I can learn, were mainly on
emancipation, on the ballot, and on reconstruction.
CHAPTER VI.
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."[30]
[Footnote 30: Abbie M. Gannet, in the Boston
_Sunday Herald_, February, 1890.]
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."[31]
[Footnote 31: Abbie M. Gannet, in the Boston
_Sunday Herald_.]
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.[32]
[Footnote 32: Thomas Corwin was Secretary of the
Treasury under Fillmore, U. S. Senator, a noted
lawyer and wit, and a man of letters.]
* * * * *
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.
CHAPTER VII.
MISS CARROLL'S PAMPHLETS IN AID OF THE ADMINISTRATION. THE
PRESENTATION OF THE BILL.
In July of 1862 Miss Carroll presented her very modest bill for the
pamphlets that had been accepted at the War Department, which included
the expenses paid by herself of printing and circulating.
Of the Breckenridge pamphlet she printed and circulated 50,000, which
went off, as Hon. James Tilghman (president of the Union Association
in Baltimore in 1860) testifies, "like hot cakes."
In the library of the State Department specimens of two large editions
of the War Powers may be seen side by side in the volumes of bound
manuscripts. It is over 23 closely printed pages in length, and was
circulated east and west with admirable results, all expenses borne by
Miss Carroll personally.
The Power of the President to Suspend the Writ of _Habeas Corpus_, The
Relation of the Revolted Citizens to the United States, and other able
papers followed.
The Secretary of War suggested the presentation of Miss Carroll's
bill, advising her to obtain the opinion of one or more competent
judges as to the reasonableness of her charges and a statement of the
understanding upon which they were written.
The bill is as follows, and the testimonials are as reported in the
Miss. Doc. 58 (House), 45th Congress, 2d session:
_Secret-Service Fund of the War Department to Anna Ella Carroll, Dr.,
as per Agreement with Hon. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of
War._
1861.
Sept. 25. To circulating the Breckenridge reply $1,250
Dec. 24. To writing, publishing, and circulating the
"War Powers," etc. 3,000
1862.
May ----. Writing, publishing, and circulating the relations
of the National Government to the rebelled
citizens 2,000
------
$6,250
Credit, October 2, 1861:
By cash 1,250
------
$5,000
* * * * *
PHILADELPHIA, _January 2, 1863_.
I believe Miss Carroll has earned fairly, and should be paid, the
compensation she has charged above.
THOS. A. SCOTT.
* * * * *
PHILADELPHIA, _January 28, 1863_.
All my interviews with Miss Carroll were in my official capacity
as Assistant Secretary of War, and in that capacity I would have
allowed, and believed she should be paid, the amount of her bill
within, which is certified as being reasonable by many of the
leading men of the country.
THOS. A. SCOTT.
* * * * *
PHILADELPHIA, _January 28, 1863_.
The pamphlets published by Miss Carroll were published upon a
general understanding made by me with her as Assistant Secretary
of War, under no special authority in the premises, but under a
general authority then exercised by me in the discharge of public
duties as Assistant Secretary of War. I then thought them of
value to the service, and still believe they were of great value
to the Government. I brought the matter generally to the
knowledge of General Cameron, then Secretary of War, without his
having special knowledge of the whole matter; he made no
objections thereto. No price was fixed, but it was understood
that the Government would treat her with sufficient liberality to
compensate her for any service she might render, and I believe
she acted upon the expectation that she would be paid by the
Government.
THOMAS A. SCOTT.
* * * * *
NEW YORK, _October 10, 1862_.
Without intending to express any assent or dissent to the
positions therein asserted, but merely with a view of forming a
judgment in respect to their merits as argumentative
compositions, I have carefully perused Miss Carroll's pamphlets
mentioned in the within account. The propositions are clearly
stated, the authorities relied on are judiciously selected, and
the reasoning is natural, direct, and well sustained, and framed
in a manner extremely well adapted to win the reader's assent,
and thus to obtain the object in view. I consider the charges
quite moderate.
CHARLES O'CONOR.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, _September 19, 1862_.
Without having seen the writings mentioned in the within account
I have heard them so favorably spoken of by the most competent
judges that the charges of the account seem to be most
reasonable.
REVERDY JOHNSON.
* * * * *
706 Walnut St., PHILADELPHIA, _Oct. 11, 1862_.
Having been requested to give my opinion of the pamphlets
described in the within list, I have in a cursory way looked over
them. As I have just returned from Europe from a long absence and
am at present with many unsettled matters of my own, I cannot
undertake therefore to study them. From the examination I have
given them I cheerfully say they appear to be learned and able
productions and the work of a well-stored mind. They are written
in a clear style and must be read with interest and advantage,
and certainly cannot fail to be of service to the cause they
uphold.
Much labor must have been given to these productions. Their
actual value in money I cannot determine, but I think they are
well worthy of a high and liberal compensation.
BENJAMIN H. BREWSTER.[33]
[Footnote 33: Benjamin H. Brewster was a noted
lawyer of Philadelphia and a member of Arthur's
Cabinet.]
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, _September 23, 1862_.
I have read several of the productions of Miss Carroll, and,
among others, two of the within mentioned. The learning, ability,
and force of reasoning they exhibit have astonished me. Without
concurring in all the conclusions of the writer, I think that the
writer is fully entitled, not only to the amount charged, but to
the thanks and high consideration of the Government and the
nation.
RICHARD S. COXE.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, _September 10, 1862_.
Having read with care the several pamphlets mentioned within, and
comparing them with professional arguments in causes of any
considerable importance, and considering the vast learning and
the ability with which it is handled, I have to say that in my
judgment the charges are not only very reasonable, but will, in
the estimation of all men of learning who will carefully examine
the documents, be deemed _too small_.
L. D. EVANS.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, D. C., _September 23, 1862_.
I have read the pamphlets mentioned within, together with others
on similar subjects written by Miss Carroll, and I fully concur
in the opinion above expressed, believing that said pamphlets
have been of essential service to the cause of the Union.
S. T. WILLIAMS.
* * * * *
_September 8, 1862._
I have carefully perused, some time since, the papers referred to
within, and without entering into any question of concurrence or
non-concurrence of views I deem the documents of great value to
the Government, and that the estimate of the account is
reasonable.
ROBERT J. WALKER.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON, _October, 1862_.
Miss Carroll:
While I never put my name to any paper, I would very cheerfully
state at the Department that I consider the charges for your
publications _too small_, but I do not think it can be necessary.
What more could any one want than such an endorsement as you
have from Mr. O'Conor and other eminent men?
Very respectfully,
EDWARDS PIERREPONT.[34]
[Footnote 34: Edwards Pierrepont was Minister to
England under Grant.]
* * * * *
Later developments showed that the $1,250 that Miss Carroll had
credited to the secret-service fund had come out of Thomas A. Scott's
own pocket as his private contribution to the national cause and to
help on the circulation of such important documents.
Mr. Scott sent the following letter, to be found in Miss. Doc. 167:
PHILADELPHIA, _January 16, 1863_.
Hon. JOHN TUCKER, _Assistant Secretary of War_:
I believe Miss Carroll has fairly earned and ought to be paid the
amount of her bill ($6,750), and if you will pay her I will
certify to such form as you may think necessary as a voucher.
THOMAS A. SCOTT.
* * * * *
Mr. Tucker not having the settlement of the account, and the matter
being referred to Assistant Secretary Watson, Miss Carroll submitted
the account endorsed by many eminent men as reasonable, and also
endorsed with Hon. Thomas A. Scott's recollection of the agreement
upon which they were produced.
An agent tendered but $750, _with a receipt in full_.
On objecting he said her redress was with Congress, and, upon being
informed by Mr. Reverdy Johnson that the receipts would not bar her
claim, she accepted it. The original account, with endorsements, etc.,
it is stated, is "on file in the War Department." The Senate Military
Committee of the 41st Congress, 3d session, Report 339, referring to
these publications, said: "Miss Carroll preferred a claim to reimburse
her for expenses incurred in their publication which ought to have
been paid."
Miss Carroll having also credited the $750 to the secret-service fund,
Mr. Thomas A. Scott wrote her that she should not have done so; that
it came out of his own pocket in his indignation at finding the
agreement made by himself in his capacity of Assistant Secretary of
War disregarded by his successor. For thirty years this account has
been presented in vain. In 1885 it was retransmitted from the Court of
Claims on some judicial grounds, though accompanied by the "moral
assent" of the court.
Miss Carroll had written the great and influential pamphlets of the
day which ought to have made her a minister of state. She had devised
the military movements that ought to have given her a very high
military rank. Under our arrangements for securing a male aristocracy
no services, however brilliant, could secure to a woman any post
whatever. She must remain an _unrecognized_ member, and being an
unrecognized member for her there was no pay--not even her traveling
expenses. Any help towards the circulation of her invaluable pamphlets
had to come out of the private means of Thomas A. Scott. From first to
last, for all her intense and unremitting labors through all the
years of the civil war, she has, it would appear, received from the
_Government_, in any department whatever, not one cent. To her
personally, through the generous and unhesitating use of her own
private means, the result has been a long martyrdom of poverty and
suffering.
That is how America has treated her noblest daughter.
That is the result of belonging to a disfranchised class.
CHAPTER VIII.
MISS CARROLL BEFORE CONGRESS.
Miss Carroll's first memorial was brought before Congress March 31,
1870. It was simple and short, with a copy of the plan of campaign
appended.
A Military Committee, with General Jacob M. Howard as chairman, was
appointed to consider it. Thomas A. Scott wrote twice to the Military
Committee endorsing the claim. Mr. Wade, Judge Evans, etc., made their
statements on affidavit.
The evidence being thorough and incontrovertible, Mr. Howard reported
accordingly on February 2, 1871. He recapitulates the letters and
evidence received; gives Mr. Wade's testimony; states that a copy of
Miss Carroll's paper was shown him immediately after the success of
the campaign, by the late Hon. Elisha Whittlesey,[35] of Ohio (Mr.
Whittlesey had asked Miss Carroll for a copy that he might leave it in
his family as an heirloom); notes Miss Carroll's statement that no
military man had ever controverted her claim to having originated the
campaign, and concludes:
"From the high social position of this lady and her established
ability as a writer and thinker, she was prepared at the inception of
the rebellion to exercise a strong influence in behalf of liberty and
the Union; that it was felt and respected in Maryland during the
darkest hours in that State's history, there can be no question. Her
publications throughout the struggle were eloquently and ably written
and widely circulated, and did much to arouse and invigorate the
sentiment of loyalty in Maryland and other border States. It is not
too much to say that they were among the very ablest publications of
the time and exerted a powerful influence upon the hearts of the
people. Some of these publications were prepared under the auspices of
the War Department, and for these Miss Carroll preferred a claim to
reimburse her for the expenses incurred in their publication, which
ought to have been paid; and, as evidence of this, we subjoin the
following statement from the Assistant Secretary of War:--
"'PHILADELPHIA, _January 28, 1863_.
"'All my interviews with Miss Carroll were in my official
capacity as Assistant Secretary of War. The pamphlets published
were, to a certain extent, under a general authority then
exercised by me in the discharge of public duties as Assistant
Secretary of War. No price was fixed, but it was understood that
the Government would 'treat her with sufficient liberality to
compensate her for any service she might render.'"
[Footnote 35: Elisha Whittlesey was Comptroller of
the Treasury at the time of his death, a very
distinguished lawyer in Ohio, and for many terms a
Representative in Congress.]
On the fifteenth of June, 1870, Hon. Thomas A. Scott addressed a
letter to Hon. J. M. Howard, U. S. Senate, in which he says:
"'I learn from Miss Carroll that she has a claim before Congress
for services rendered in the year 1861 in aid of the Government.
I believe now that the Government ought to reward her liberally
for the efforts she made in its behalf to rouse the people
against the rebellious action of the South. I hope you will pass
some measure that will give Miss Carroll what she is certainly
entitled to.
"'THOS. A. SCOTT.'"
"In view, therefore, of the highly meritorious services of Miss
Carroll during the whole period of our National troubles, and
especially at that epoch of the war to which her memorial makes
reference, and in consideration of the further fact that all the
expenses incident to this service were borne by herself, the committee
believe her claim to be just, and that it ought to be recognized by
Congress, and consequently report a bill for her relief."
An accompanying bill was sent in, leaving the amount of compensation
blank for Congress to determine, but the committee agreeing that the
bill ought to be passed in some manner that should recognize the
remarkable and invaluable nature of the services rendered.
Congress having thus received the report made by their own Military
Committee appointed for the purpose, for reasons plainly given by Mr.
Wade and others, at once ignored it, tossing it over to the Court of
Claims, who would have nothing to do with it, and so that Congress
adjourned.
Then followed that singular and disheartening feature of congressional
committees.
Action having been taken, a Military Committee appointed, and a
conclusive report made, Congress could utterly neglect it, and at the
following Congress the previous action would count for nothing, and
the whole wearisome proceeding of a new memorial, a new effort to
procure attention, a new examination of evidence, a new report, a new
bill, and again utter neglect. But the brave woman continued. She was
really fighting alone and at terrible odds another Tennessee campaign
for the rightful recognition of woman's work.
Accordingly, the following year another memorial was sent in, another
committee appointed, renewed testimony given by Scott, Wade, Evans,
and others. Mr. Wilson testified that the claim was "incontestably
established," referred to the evidence given in Miss Carroll's own
memorial, but for want of time made no regular report, apparently,
except this:
_Report._
"Mr. Wilson, on behalf of the Committee on Military Affairs, laid
before the Senate the memorial of Anna Ella Carroll, of Maryland,
setting forth certain valuable military information given to the
Government by her during the war and asking compensation
therefor, which was ordered to be printed, together with a bill
rewarding her for military and literary services"--twice read in
United States Senate--amount left $----, to be filled by this
body. Then Congress again quietly dropped a recognition that
might interfere with party plans, and so _that_ Congress
adjourned.
And so the weary work went on of presenting new memorials and meeting
with the same neglect, Congress never denying the claim and none of
the military commanders making any claim or denying the facts.
Miss Carroll gave extracts from every known historical work showing
the surmises made, endeavoring to attribute the plan to one and
another, and no evidence found to establish such surmises.
Miss Carroll wrote to Hon. J. T. Headley, the distinguished historian
of the Civil War, and received the following letter:
NEWBURGH, N. Y., _February 6, 1873_.
My Dear Madam:
I am much obliged for the pamphlet you sent me. I never knew
before with whom the plan of the campaign up the Tennessee river
originated. There seemed to be a mystery attached to it that I
could not solve. Though General Buell sent me an immense amount
of documents relating to this campaign I could find no reference
to the origin of the change of plan. Afterwards I saw it
attributed to Halleck, which I knew to be false, and I noticed
that he never corroborated it. It is strange that after all my
research it has rested with you to enlighten me.
Money cannot pay for the plan of that campaign. I doubt not
Congress will show not liberality but some justice in the matter.
Yours very sincerely,
J. T. HEADLEY.
So matters went on. New memorials presented for the most part met with
"leave to withdraw." Then Miss Carroll gathered herself up for a
supreme effort, presented fresh testimony, and in 1878 sent in a
memorial that is a mine of wealth and the most interesting memorial
she has ever presented. It is labeled--
45th Congress, \ House of Representatives / Miss. Doc.
2d Session / \ No. 58
Being a document of the first importance and containing some singular
evidence, it has been systematically excluded from every Congressional
index, though published by order of Congress and included in the bound
volumes.
Miss Carroll having made in 1878 this very notable memorial, on
February 18, 1879--
45th Congress,\ Senate /Report
3d Session. / \ No. 775.
Mr. Cockrell made a report entered on the Congressional lists as
_adverse_, but really an additional evidence of the incontrovertible
nature of the facts and the testimony of the case, the report being
only adverse as to compensation. The report admits the services, both
literary and military, and even concedes the proposition that "_the
transfer of the national armies from the banks of the Ohio up the
Tennessee river to the decisive position in Mississippi was the
greatest military event in the interest of the human race known to
modern ages, and will ever rank among the very few strategic movements
in the world's history that have decided the fate of empires and
peoples_," and that "_no true history can be written that does not
assign to the memorialist the credit of the conception_."
The report thereupon proceeds to state the opinion of the committee,
that with all the evidence before them every subsequent Congress
having failed to make an award they must have had some unknown reasons
for the omission, and that the claim, having been so long neglected,
may as well be indefinitely postponed--a surprising mode of reasoning
and manner of disposition of a claim.
The report supposes the neglect was due to the fact that the services
were rendered to the Secret Service Commission and inclines to think
that the two thousand dollars received was considered a sufficient
remuneration for the literary work.
"The committee have not been able to find a precedent for payment of
claims of this character." * * * "But it would destroy much of the
poetry and grandeur of noble deeds were a price demanded for kindred
services, and achievements of this nature huckstered in the market as
commodities of barter." _And that is all a report intended to be
adverse can say against the claim._
One might remark that it is not wholly unprecedented for honorable
gentlemen to receive remuneration from the Government for services
rendered, or even to ask for their traveling expenses. But this looks
somewhat like a sneer.
Was it directed against the noble invalid who had devoted her life and
strength, her great ability, and her private fortune to the service of
her country for years, with such lavish prodigality and such brilliant
success, and had left a fitting award wholly to the determination of
Congress, asking only that it should be made in some way that should
mark the unusual and distinctive nature of the services rendered?
No; surely it must have been directed against the Government agent who
wanted Miss Carroll, for the consideration of $750, to give a receipt
in full for a bill of $5,000 remaining--a bill certified by the
highest authorities to be sufficiently low or altogether _too_ low for
the literary work performed. (No wonder if _such_ huckstering moved
Mr. Cockrell's righteous soul.) His remarks also were exceedingly
applicable to a liberal-minded person who shortly after sent in a bill
recommending that after all these years Congress would kindly allow
Miss Carroll a pension of _$50 a month_ for "the important military
services rendered the country by her during the late civil war." If
any more $50 miseries are proposed we would commend to the committees
Mr. Cockrell on "huckstering."
The true description of such a report would be "admission of the
incontestable nature of the services rendered."
Then followed the report of the Military Committee of 1881--the last
report, so far as I have been able to ascertain, "printed by order of
Congress."
It is as follows, verbatim:
46th Congress,\ House of Representatives. / Report
3d Session. / \ No. 386
* * * * *
ANNA ELLA CARROLL.
* * * * *
March 3, 1881.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and
ordered to be printed.
E. S. Bragg, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the
following
_Report._
(To accompany bill H. R. 7256.)
The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom the memorial of Anna Ella
Carroll was referred, asking national recognition and reward for
services rendered the United States during the war between the States,
after careful consideration of the same, submit the following:
In the autumn of 1861 the great question as to whether the Union could
be saved, or whether it was hopelessly subverted, depended on the
ability of the Government to open the Mississippi and deliver a fatal
blow upon the resources of the Confederate power.
The original plan was to reduce the formidable fortifications by
descending this river aided by the gunboat fleet then in preparation
for that object.
President Lincoln had reserved to himself the special direction of
this expedition, but before it was prepared to move he became
convinced that the obstacles to be encountered were too grave and
serious for the success which the exigencies of the crisis demanded,
and the plan was then abandoned and the armies diverted up the
Tennessee river and thence southward to the center of the Confederate
power.
The evidence before this committee completely establishes that Miss
Anna Ella Carroll was the author of this change of plan, which
involved a transfer of the national forces to their new base in north
Mississippi and Alabama, in command of the Memphis and Charleston
railroad. That she devoted time and money in the autumn of 1861 to the
investigation of its feasability is established by the sworn testimony
of L. D. Evans, chief justice of the supreme court of Texas, to the
Military Committee of the United States Senate in the 42d Congress
(see pp. 40, 41 of the memorial); that after that investigation she
submitted her plan in writing to the War Department at Washington,
placing it in the hands of Col. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary
of War, as is confirmed by his statement (see p. 38 of the memorial);
also confirmed by the statement of Hon. B. F. Wade, chairman of the
Committee on the Conduct of the War, made to the same committee (see
p. 38), and of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton (see p. 39 of
memorial); also by Hon. O. H. Browning, of Illinois, Senator during
the war, in confidential relations with President Lincoln and
Secretary Stanton (see p. 39 of memorial); also that of Hon. Elisha
Whittlesey, Comptroller of the Treasury (see p. 41 of memorial); also
by Hon. Thomas H. Hicks, Governor of Maryland, and by Hon. Frederick
Feckey's affidavit, Comptroller of the Public Works of Maryland (see
p. 127 of memorial); by Hon. Reverdy Johnson (see pp. 26 and 41 of
memorial); Hon. George Vickers, United States Senator from Maryland
(see p. 41 of memorial); again by Hon. B. F. Wade (see p. 41 of
memorial); Hon. J. T. Headley (see p. 43 of memorial); Rev. Dr. R. J.
Breckenridge on services (see p. 47 of memorial); Prof. Joseph Henry,
Rev. Dr. Hodge, of theological seminary at Princeton (see p. 30 of
memorial); remarkable interviews and correspondence of Judge B. F.
Wade (see pp. 23-26 of memorial).
That this campaign prevented the recognition of Southern independence
by its fatal effects on the Confederate States is shown by letters
from Hon. C. M. Clay (see pp. 40, 43 of memorial), and by his letters
from St. Petersburgh; also those of Mr. Adams and Mr. Dayton from
London and Paris (see pp. 100-102 of memorial).
That the campaign defeated national bankruptcy, then imminent, and
opened the way for a system of finance to defend the Federal cause is
shown by the debates of the period in both Houses of Congress; by the
utterances of Mr. Spalding, Mr. Diven, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, Mr.
Roscoe Conkling, Mr. John Sherman, Mr. Henry Wilson, Mr. Fessenden,
Mr. Trumbull, Mr. Foster, Mr. Garrett Davis, Mr. John C. Crittenden,
&c., found for convenient reference in appendix to memorial, page 59;
also therein the opinion of the English press as to why the Union
could not be restored.
The condition of the struggle can best be realized as depicted by the
leading statesmen in Congress previous to the execution of these
military movements (see synopsis of debates from _Congressional
Globe_, pp. 21, 22 of memorial).
The effect of this campaign upon the country and the anxiety to find
out and reward the author are evinced by the resolution of Mr. Roscoe
Conkling in the House of Representatives, 24th of February, 1862 (see
debates on the origin of the campaign, pp. 39-63 of memorial). But it
was deemed prudent to make no public claim as to authorship while the
war lasted (see Colonel Scott's view, p. 32 of memorial).
The wisdom of the plan was proven, not only by the absolute advantages
which resulted, giving the mastery of the conflict to the national
arms and ever more assuring their success even against the powers of
all Europe should they have combined, but it was likewise proven by
the failures to open the Mississippi or win any decided success on the
plan first devised by the Government.
It is further conclusively shown that no plan, order, letter,
telegram, or suggestion of the Tennessee river as the line of invasion
has ever been produced except in the paper submitted by Miss Carroll
on the 30th of November, 1861, and her subsequent letters to the
Government as the campaign progressed.
It is further shown to this committee that the able and patriotic
publications of the memorialist in pamphlets and newspapers, with her
high social influence, not only largely contributed to the cause of
the Union in her own State, Maryland (see Governor Hicks' letters, p.
27 of memorial), but exerted a wide and salutary influence on all the
border States (see Howard's Report, p. 33, and p. 75 of memorial).
These publications were used by the Government as war measures, and
the debate in Congress shows that she was the first writer on the war
powers of the Government (see p. 45 of memorial). Leading statesmen
and jurists bore testimony to their value, including President
Lincoln, Secretaries Chase, Stanton, Seward, Welles, Smith, Attorney
General Bates, Senators Browning, Doolittle, Collamer, Cowan, Reverdy
Johnson, and Hicks, Hon. Horace Binney, Hon. Benjamin H. Brewster,
Hon. William M. Meredith, Hon. Robert J. Walker, Hon. Charles
O'Connor, Hon. Edwards Pierrepont, Hon. Edward Everett, Hon. Thomas
Corwin, Hon. Francis Thomas, of Maryland, and many others, found in
memorial.
The Military Committee, through General Howard, in the Forty-first
Congress, 3d session, Document No. 337, unanimously reported that Miss
Carroll did cause the change of the military expedition from the
Mississippi to the Tennessee, &c.; and the aforesaid act of the 42d
Congress, 2d session, Document No. 167, as found in memorial, reported
through Hon. Henry Wilson the evidence and bill in support of this
claim. Again, in the Forty-fourth Congress, the Military Committee of
the House favorably considered this claim, and Gen. A. S. Williams was
prepared to report, and, being prevented by want of time, placed on
record that this claim is incontestably established, and that the
country owes to Miss Carroll a large and honest compensation, both in
money and in honors, for her services in the national crises.
In view of all these facts, this committee believes that the thanks of
the nation are due Miss Carroll, and that they are fully justified in
recommending that she be placed on the pension rolls of the Government
as a partial measure of recognition for her public service, and report
herewith a bill for such purpose and recommend its passage.
Hon. E. M. Stanton came into the War Department in 1862 pledged to
execute the Tennessee campaign.
Statement from Hon. B. F. Wade, chairman of the Committee on the
Conduct of the War, April 4, 1876. (This is the long letter from Mr.
Wade, which we have already given, and we need not repeat it.)
* * * * *
General Bragg prepared and suggested the following bill to accompany
the report:
[36]"_Be it enacted_, That the same sum and emoluments given by the
Government to the major generals of the United States Army be paid to
Anna Ella Carroll from the date of her services to the country, in
November, 1861, to the time of the passage of this act; and the
further payment of the same amount as the pay and emoluments of a
major general of the United States Army be paid to her in quarterly
installments to the end of her life, as a partial measure of
recognition of her services to the nation," and recommend its passage.
[Footnote 36: I copied this from a printed account
some years ago. Conversing lately with a friend of
General Bragg, I was assured that this was the
first bill prepared.]
To suggest a bill that should rightfully mark the preëminently
military nature of the services rendered without giving offense to the
class accustomed to monopolize the sounding titles and to wear the
glittering plumes was a wonderfully difficult thing to do. Here at
least was a brave and honest effort to accomplish what no previous
committee had even attempted. The other committees had left the award
a blank, to be filled in by a puzzled and unwilling Congress, who
preferred to do nothing at all.
In England probably there would not have been the same insuperable
difficulty, a sovereign lady holding high military office as a matter
of course; but we have thrown aside some noble traditions, and America
never has a sovereign lady.
There was something noble and fitting in this recommendation of award
by General Bragg. Considering how great public services have been
formerly rewarded, it was certainly not extreme.
To go back to English history:
"The Duke of Marlborough, who commanded the allied armies of England,
Austria, and Germany, received the most flattering testimonials in all
forms. A principality was voted to him in Germany, while the English
Government settled upon him the manor of Woodstock, long a royal
residence, and erected thereon a magnificent palace as an expression
of a nation's gratitude. On the Duke of Wellington honors, offices,
and rewards were showered from every quarter. The crown exhausted its
stores of titles, and in addition to former grants the sum of £200,000
was voted in 1815 for the purchase of a mansion and estate, etc. The
rank of field marshal in four of the greatest armies in the world was
bestowed by the leading governments of Europe.
"In England it has for a long time been the custom to reward and honor
those illustrious in the realms of science and literature as well as
of military success. Though with less demonstration and expenditure of
wealth, our own country has not overlooked signal services in its
behalf. The government of Pennsylvania in the days of the Revolution
voted £2,500 for the political writings of Thomas Paine, and New York
a farm of 300 acres in a high state of cultivation, with elegant and
spacious buildings. Washington himself gave a woman a sergeant's
commission in the army, who stood at the gun by which her husband had
fallen, and on his recommendation she was placed on the pay-roll for
life.
"Congress, in pursuance of this feeling, has not been unmindful of
Anderson's heroic defense of Fort Sumter, of Farragut's capture of New
Orleans, of Rawlins, etc., of Stanton, and of Lincoln, in conferring
tokens of recognition for their services upon the families who
survived them. Many instances might be cited where public-spirited
women have been rewarded for services rendered in individual cases
during the late struggle and in other forms since."
And was it not fitting that the author of such influential pamphlets
and the designer of the remarkable plan of the Tennessee campaign
should be honorably recognized and rewarded?
Miss Carroll was in her 66th year at the time of General Bragg's
recommendation. Her father was no longer living, her family was
scattered, her health was failing, and her time, strength, and fortune
had been wholly expended in the service of her country with noble
generosity and the most brilliant results. Surely she deserved to
spend the remaining years of her life in honorable independence,
distinguished and beloved by the nation to whom she had rendered
incalculable service.
Now it seemed as if, after such an unqualified indorsement of her work
by three successive military committees appointed for the purpose, and
a suitable bill prepared, that surely her cause was won. Miss Carroll
had been informed of the report and of the bill that had been
prepared. But the Military Committee, having made this excellent
summary of evidence, indorsed Miss Carroll's claim in the strongest
manner, and prepared a noble and fitting bill, became greatly alarmed
at what they had done. Leaving their report unchanged, at the last
moment they hastily withdrew the dignified and fitting bill and
substituted in its place the following surprising performance:
"_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled_, That the Secretary of
the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to place
upon the pension-rolls of the United States the name of Anna Ella
Carroll, and to pay to her a pension of fifty dollars per month from
and after the passage of this act, during her life, for the important
military service rendered the country by her during the late civil
war."
_Such_ a report and _such_ a bill side by side stand an anomaly
unparalleled.
Truly the life of the nation was rated as a cheap thing.
Of course the bill died immediately of its own glaring and ineffable
meanness.
One can hardly say whether it would have been the more unworthy
thing to pass such a bill or to pass none at all; but the last, being
the most timorous course, had been adopted for ten successive years,
as it has also been resorted to in the ten succeeding ones.
The Military Committee of 1881, having accomplished this astonishing
feat, threw away their arms and ignominiously fled--and Congress
followed in the rear, indefinitely postponing action on an unwelcome
claim, that always _would_ turn up "incontestably proven."
CHAPTER IX.
A WOUNDED VETERAN RETIRES FROM THE FIELD -- INTERVIEW WITH GRANT --
THE WOMEN OF AMERICA MAKE THE CAUSE THEIR OWN -- A NATIONAL LESSON.
Miss Carroll, urged on by the friends of justice and historical
verity, had made great efforts rightly to present her case and to get
together a wonderful mass of indubitable testimony.
She had been informed of the thorough endorsement of her claim made by
the Military Committee and reported by General Bragg, and of the noble
and fitting bill which he had prepared. Then came that pitiful little
bill and the adjournment of Congress without taking further action
upon the claim.
She perhaps did not realize, in the presence of what seemed immediate
defeat, that she had performed a great and lasting historical work in
putting the whole matter on immovable record; but she certainly
realized that, though an angel should come from heaven to testify, it
would be useless to expect national recognition. A reaction of
discouragement followed, and she was suddenly stricken down by
paralysis, which threatened at once to terminate her noble life. For
three years she hovered between life and death, no hope being
entertained of her recovery. Then the natural vigor of her
constitution reasserted itself, and she slowly regained a very
considerable portion of health; but any subsequent efforts with regard
to her claim, though receiving her assent, had to be made without her
personal co-operation, as mental fatigue was imperatively forbidden.
She had ceased to hope for any benefit to herself personally from the
prosecution of her claim; but, rejoicing in the sense of the great
work that she had been providentially called upon to accomplish, she
rested in the serene conviction that with the incontestable evidence
that had been presented the facts could not be forever buried out of
sight, and that ultimately the truths of history would be secure.
When Miss Carroll, who had hitherto been as a tower of strength to her
family, was suddenly stricken down, fortune seemed to be at its lowest
ebb; but again the Carroll energy and ability came to the rescue. An
unmarried sister, with noble devotion, sustained the nation's
benefactress. She obtained work in teaching in Baltimore and by hard
daily toil provided for her support. But those were very dark days
that followed. Then this same brave sister, through the influence of
an eminent lady at the White House, obtained a clerkship at the
Treasury, at Washington, brought her sister from Baltimore and
established her in a little unpretending family home, which she has
sustained to this day.
Note.--Owing to the confusion attendant upon Miss Carroll's
well-nigh fatal illness and her subsequent removal to Baltimore,
a trunk and box marked A. E. C. were left behind at the Tremont
House, in Washington.
After the severe three years' prostration ended, Miss Carroll
inquired for this trunk and box, and learned that the Tremont
House had gone into other hands after the death of Mr. Hill; that
all its contents had been sold off, and to this day she has
sought in vain to learn what has become of that box and trunk.
They contained a great number of letters, a completed history of
Maryland, and her materials for several projected works.
Thus, through the cruel neglect she had experienced, the world
has lost the benefit of works which, from her exceptional ability
and her exceptional opportunities, would have been of inestimable
value to our future literature.
If any one knows of the fate of that trunk and box they are
requested to send word to Miss Carroll or to the present writer,
and if ever that history of Maryland comes to light it will be
claimed for Miss Carroll, as there are internal evidences which
would establish its identity.
Governor Hicks a few days before his death committed to Miss
Carroll all his papers with a request that she would write the
history of Maryland in connection with the civil war, and the
part performed by him in the maintenance of the Union.
Cassius M. Clay also sent to her his letters and papers desiring
that she should write his biography.
During Miss Carroll's long and apparently hopeless illness Mr.
Clay's letters were sent for and returned to him.
Another ray of light, too, had come to cheer the invalid. A new power
was rising upon the horizon in the growing thoughtfulness and
development of women, now banding together in clubs, societies, and
confederations, with their own journals, newspapers, and publications,
and with the avowed determination of never resting until women, as an
integral half of the people, had obtained all the rights and
privileges proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, the granting
of which alone could make of our country a sound and true Republic and
secure the ultimate triumph of the moral and humane considerations and
measures upon which its welfare must depend.
Naturally, when this growing party came to know of Miss Carroll's
remarkable work they were not disposed to let it fall into oblivion.
It seemed as if the Lord himself had declared for their cause in
giving to a woman, at the crisis of the national peril, the remarkable
illumination that, so far as human knowledge can judge, had turned the
scale of war in favor of our National Union, and had thus pledged the
country for all future time to the just recognition of the equal
rights of women as an integral half of the people, and of equal
importance with their brethren to the welfare of the State. Every
effort may be made to ignore and hide the remarkable fact, but the
work of the Lord remains steadfast, immovable, and incapable of
lasting defeat.
"The moving finger writes,
And, having writ,
Moves on."
A notice of Miss Carroll and her brilliant achievements had been
written by Mrs. Matilda Joselyn Gage and incorporated in the history
of Woman Suffrage, a considerable work, giving a sketch of the career
of many eminent women. Mrs. Gage also wrote and circulated a pamphlet
calling attention to the case, and Miss Phoebe Couzzins made great
exertions in her behalf. One and another began to inquire what had
become of the woman who had done such wondrous work for the national
cause and had been treated with such deep ingratitude. Mrs. Cornelia
C. Hussey, daughter of a high-principled New York family of friends,
sought her out, visited her at Baltimore, cheered her with her
sympathy, and, interesting others in her behalf, she was enabled to
strengthen the hands of the devoted sister. She induced the _North
American Review_, of April, 1886, to publish an account furnished by
Miss Carroll, and she procured the publication of a series of letters
in the _Woman's Journal_, of Boston, that increased the knowledge and
interest beginning to be felt for Miss Carroll's work.
Petitions began to pour in asking Congress to take action in the case.
In 1885 it was taken up by the Court of Claims, and in case 93 may be
seen the result. The evidence presented, though remarkable, was by no
means as complete as it should have been, owing to Miss Carroll's
illness and to the difficulty of now procuring copies of her
pamphlets. Consequently, though the judgment rendered makes notable
admissions and the _moral assent_ runs all through, the court was
enabled, through some legal defects, to retransmit the case to
Congress for its consideration; and having once made its decision, the
case cannot again come before that court without a direct order from
Congress to take it up and try it again.
Looking over the brief at the Court of Claims, made by the late
Colonel Warden, I noted this significant passage:
[37]"It may not be amiss here to submit that the two and only
drawbacks or obstacles that we have met to the immediate, prompt, and
unanimous passage of an act of Congress in recognition of and adequate
compensation for the patriotic services and successful military
strategy of Miss Carroll in the late civil war are found first in an
obstruction which President Lincoln encountered and which he referred
to when he explained to Senator Wade that the Tennessee plan was
devised by Miss Carroll, and military men were exceedingly jealous of
all outside interference." (House Miss. Doc. 58). "The second obstacle
which has stayed us is founded in a (to some men) seemingly
insuperable objection, often demonstrated in words and acts by our
legislators--a misfortune or disability (if it be one) over which Miss
Carroll had no control whatever, namely, in the fact that she is a
woman."
[Footnote 37: Brief of claimant in Congressional
case 93.]
It would appear that the decision of the Court of Claims
retransmitting the claim to Congress was considered by Miss Carroll's
friends to be in her favor.
Erastus Brooks writes her at this time:
Dear Miss Carroll:
Your "Reminiscences of Lincoln" (a work suggested by Mrs. Hussey)
should, as far as possible, bring out the words and own thoughts
of the man. The subject, the man, and the occasion are the points
to be treated, and in this order, perhaps.
Again, my old and dear friend, I am very glad and hope the award
will meet all your expectations--mental, pecuniary, and of every
kind. The hope of the award to yourself and friends must be as
satisfactory as the judgment of the court.
Yours,
ERASTUS BROOKS.
Miss Carroll showed this letter to Mrs. Hussey, who copied and
immediately published it.
Miss Carroll, who had always been on friendly terms with General
Grant, spoke to him of her claim. They conversed together concerning
her work. He assured her that he had not been aware of its extent, and
advised her by all means to continue to push her claim. I have seen
the draft of a letter, written by Miss Carroll at this time, to
General Grant in which she alludes to the advice he had given her to
push her claim before Congress. The letter is written in the
friendliest spirit and in a tone of touching modesty. It should be
here noted that there never was any antagonism between these two who
had done such great work for the salvation of their country.
Cassius M. Clay wrote to the editor of the New York _Sun_ the
following letter, as published in that journal:
WHITE HALL, KENTUCKY, _March 3, 1886_.
In 1861, as soon as I could get General Scott apart from his
staff of rebel sympathizers, I advised him to reach the Southern
forces by all the water-ways, as the shortest and most practical
lines of attack. This advice was hardly necessary as every tyro
in the Union Army would probably have done the same. But it
belonged to Miss Anna Ella Carroll to project and force upon the
bewildered army officers--Halleck, Grant, and others--the cutting
in two of the Confederacy by way of the Tennessee river by means
of the gunboats, and of our facilities of thus concentrating
troops and supplies. It was the great strategical coup of the
war.
I call the attention of the American nation to Miss Carroll's
article in the April number of the _North American Review_ of
1886. It appears that the splendid conception of this project
called for the immediate reward of a grateful Congress as the
representative of the whole people. But when it was found that it
was neither Grant, nor Halleck, nor Buell, but a woman, who
showed more genius and patriotism than all the army of military
men, the resolution was suppressed and the combined effort of
many of the ablest men of the Republican party could never
resurrect it. Miss Carroll merely states her case. There is no
event in history better backed up-with impregnable evidence.
CASSIUS M. CLAY.
Mr. Clay also wrote to Mrs. Hussey the following letter, which she
sends me for publication:
_April 12, 1886._
C. C. HUSSEY.
Dear Madame: Your letter and circular of the 8th inst. are
received. I was a long time a correspondent of Miss C., never
having seen her, but holding a letter of introduction from
Vice-President Henry Wilson. I have no standpoint in politics of
influence now. * * * Miss Carroll's case shows the infinite
baseness of human nature--how few worship truth and justice. I am
already assailed for speaking a word in her cause, and shall have
all the old feuds against me revived; but I am not dependent upon
the American people for subsistence and am not a petitioner for
money or office, so I speak my mind.
Very truly yours,
C. M. CLAY.
Miss Katharine Mason, Miss Anna C. Waite, Miss Phoebe Couzzins, Mrs.
H. J. Boutelle, Mrs. Louisa D. Southworth, Mrs. Esther Herrman, and a
host of other prominent ladies in succession took up the cause,
publishing articles east and west, and speaking upon the subject or
contributing in some way to the cause. Petitions to Congress continued
asking attention to Miss Carroll's case, and that due recognition and
award should be accorded to her. High-principled Senators and
Representatives would take up these petitions and present them with
their own endorsement of the case. But ten righteous men count for
little among a mass of Senators and Representatives wildly pushing
their own individual and party measures. Every human being with a
ballot might be worthy of their attention, but a disfranchised class
must go to the wall. With every extension of the ballot such a class
sinks deeper and deeper in the scale, and the disregard and contempt
for women and their claims becomes inborn--for law is an educator.
In the spring of 1890 Mr. and Mrs. Root spent weeks in Washington
verifying, step by step, the incontrovertible facts of Miss Carroll's
work. The _Woman's Tribune_, of Washington, generously published a
large edition of their report, enclosed advanced sheets, with a
personal letter, to every Senator and Representative, and laid them
upon their desks, with the invariable result of continued neglect.
Mrs. Abby Gannett Wells, of a highly cultivated Boston family, took up
the cause with enthusiasm, made a tour among the army relief posts,
and created among soldiers and soldiers' wives a lively interest in
the work of their great coadjutor. Tokens of recognition were sent to
Miss Carroll, and many a retired veteran, beside his evening fire, put
down his name to petitions for her just recognition. Then this brave
lady made another effort. She published in the Boston _Sunday Herald_,
of February, 1890, an account, from which we give the following
extract, having already given extracts from the earlier portion:
"In the last year so many women throughout the country had come
to take an interest in this case, petitions to Congress asking
for Miss Carroll's suitable recognition and remuneration were
sent in considerable numbers, some being presented in the Senate
by Mr. Hoar and some in the House by Mr. Lodge. In September
last, at an interview with these gentlemen in Boston, I learned
it to be their opinion that if I made a plea in Miss Carroll's
behalf before the two Congressional Committees on Military
Affairs an interest might be aroused to lead to successful
results. I therefore promised to visit Washington, and went to
the city in the second week in February of the present year.
"The bill calling for an appropriation from Congress for Miss
Carroll's services during the civil war, such services consisting
of the preparation of papers used as war measures and the
furnishing of the military plan for our western armies, known as
the plan of the Tennessee campaign, had already been presented in
the Senate by General Manderson, of Nebraska, and in the House by
Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts. As Mr. Hoar was ill when I arrived
in Washington, he wrote a letter to Mr. Manderson, asking for an
early hearing for me, and then sent his private secretary to
conduct me to that gentleman in person. I write particulars of
the obtaining of these hearings simply to show that even a case
demanding urgent action like this finds unexpected obstacles that
threaten to retard it indefinitely.
"Mr. Manderson met me kindly, but stated that the committee had
such a pressure of business on hand it seemed impossible to take
time for Miss Carroll's case, greatly as some of the members had
it at heart. But on my replying that I represented the wishes of
many women, and we could appeal nowhere else in order for this
injustice to be righted, he said if I would come to the
committee-room on the morning of the 5th I should be given what
time was possible. On that morning General Hawley, the chairman,
received me pleasantly, but stated, as he introduced me to the
members, that it was unusual to give such a hearing, and he
trusted that I would occupy only a little time; but I am glad to
add that the committee's courtesy quite exceeded what might be
expected of these busy workers. I had over half an hour of their
most earnest attention, and if the expressions upon their faces
were a criterion to judge by, Miss Carroll's story was not
without its effect upon their sympathy and sense of right. I was
particularly glad to see such evidences, because among their
members were ex-Confederates, Gen. Wade Hampton being one.
"When Mr. Lodge presented me to General Cutcheon, chairman of the
House committee, I heard again the plea of overmuch business; yet
the concession was made--I might come on the morning of the 7th
and occupy a "few minutes." Promptly at the hour I was at the
committee-room, and since the time was to be so short I had put
aside my notes and was telling of Miss Carroll's work, and
growing sure of the interest of my listeners, when the chairman
interrupted, saying that it now occurred to him that a bill
asking for an appropriation belonged with the Committee on War
Claims. A book was consulted, and it became the opinion of the
committee that this bill did belong with the War Claims
Committee. As, in order for me to appear before that committee,
the bill would have to go back to the House and be remanded
there, and there might be some delay about it, the Military
Committee passed a unanimous vote asking the Committee on War
Claims to hear my plea at their next meeting, in view of the
bill not appearing until later.
"This was discouraging, and the matter grew more so when, on
meeting General Thomas, of the War Claims Committee, I was
assured that the bill could not possibly belong there. By good
fortune I met General Cutcheon at one of the doors of the ladies'
gallery of the House, and I told him the dilemma. He generously
went to the Speaker and got his decision, which was that either
committee could decide as to the merits of the bill. Being given
my choice, I decided to appear again before the Military
Committee.
"That brought the hearing round to the 11th, the limit of my
possible stay in the city. When a quorum had assembled General
Cutcheon stated the case, and I was about to begin, when a member
objected. He was sure that the bill belonged with the Committee
on War Claims. A second member expressed himself as decidedly. A
short discussion took place, the vote was put, it was against me
and I was dismissed.
"I turned away, having never had in my life a greater sense of
disappointment. Had I not known that the objection was so purely
technical I could have borne the situation better; but to lose
the opportunity for this, return home with my mission
unaccomplished, see Miss Carroll herself, and tell her that the
effort had been nipped in the bud, it seemed impossible to submit
to it.
"Mr. Wise of Virginia, the gentleman who had first objected, now
appeared to have a second thought.
"'Since the lady has come so far, and in behalf of another
person, it seems to me we hardly ought to dismiss her so
summarily.'
"I hastened to say that the bill had had a similar fate before,
had passed and repassed from Military and War Claims Committees
until action was wholly prevented.
"Mr. Wise thereupon asked for a reconsideration of the motion.
The final result was that a unanimous vote allowed me to present
my appeal.
"After this generous action I found the presentation of the case
a pleasure rather than a duty. It was rather a conversation with
liberal-minded gentlemen. When they learned that President
Lincoln, his Secretaries, and Senators and Representatives whose
names are famous vouched for Miss Carroll's work, the integrity
of her claim more surely revealed itself to them.
"The case was ordered to Mr. Wise for special consideration,
which he cordially promised to give.
"As I left the committee-room I could not help congratulating
myself over the ill-omened beginning, since it had resulted
toward a relation of the work far more complete than had
otherwise been the case.
"That day I saw the aged invalid for the first time. She is a
most remarkable woman still. I heard from her own lips the story
I knew so well, but rendered more thrilling than ever as thus
repeated; and I had the happiness of telling her that I believed
her case was now in safe hands.
"Not long after, through the unseating of Mr. Wise, of Virginia,
Hon. Francis W. Rockwell, of this State, received the case as
sub-committee. In view of this we ought to be even more hopeful,
since his colleagues, Messrs. Hoar and Lodge, have put forth so
many efforts in its furtherance.--_Boston Sunday Herald,
February, 1890._
ABBY M. GANNETT.
The _Century_ magazine, which had been publishing an exhaustive
account of "the men who fought and planned our battles," was appealed
to in the name of historical verity to give an account of Miss
Carroll's work. Having had the matter under consideration for more
than a year and having convinced themselves of the truth of the claim,
they published, in August of 1890, an open letter bringing the case to
the attention of their readers. A public-spirited lady of Washington
purchased copies and laid the marked article on the desks of Senators
and Representatives, with the same invariable result. But though
Congress disregarded the matter, not so the reading public, and
inquiries began to be made for further information, which it was
difficult to furnish for want of an easily attainable printed account.
It was therefore determined to meet this demand, and the present
relation is the result.
In consequence of the petitions continually received, friendly
Senators and Representatives have again and again brought in bills
asking for $10,000, or even $5,000, for Miss Carroll's relief
(invariably neglected).
Such bills, though very kindly meant, seem to me a mistake. It is not
a question of $5,000 or $500,000. It is--it always has been--a
question of _recognition_.
Granted that this wonderful woman by the intense labor of heart and
brain, by her whole-souled devotion of life and fortune, has saved the
national cause--for the thousands upon thousands of precious lives
laid down would have been of no avail had the plan adopted at the
crisis of fate been an unwise one--this granted, a noble bill might be
acted upon by Congress, but an _ignoble_ one--never. Whatever may be
our faults, we are at heart a proud and self-respecting people, and no
paltry bill would be endured, and no bill which did not award military
honor for pre-eminent military services could meet the case with
justice and with dignity.
Although weighed down with an immense mass of obsolete law and custom,
shall we say that England leads the van in integrity of principle and
devotion to human rights? Although the doctrine of divine right was
exploded long ago, England loyally holds to her Queen.
As long as it pleases the English people to maintain a royal line, it
makes no difference to them whether its representative be a man or a
woman. England never had a salic law. But America--when a grand woman
comes to her for her deliverance at the crisis of her fate, crowned
with heaven's own prerogative of genius, what America does for her in
return for her accepted services is to stamp her under foot and bury
her out of sight, that her well-earned glory may fall by default upon
the ruling class.
Can America continue to be so unjust to women? Can it continue to hold
them down as a disfranchised class?
Owing to continued petitions, Military Committees were appointed
during this last Congress to investigate Miss Carroll's claim.
I have not heard the result, but again Congress has adjourned without
taking action. About March 27 I had the opportunity of looking over
the file which had just come back from the Senate Committee. First of
all came a surprising number of petitions sent in during this past
year; then the documents in evidence of the claim. They were a meager
lot compared to what they should have been. In a case of this
importance one would suppose that a copy of every memorial and of
every report should have been on the file. Not at all. Quite early in
the history of the case "supply exhausted" was the answer given to
every request for these documents, and Miss Carroll herself was unable
to obtain them.
The reprint of a few of the earlier ones by no means represents them,
and owing to the universal exclusion from the Congressional indexes of
the later and more important ones, especially the memorial of 1878 and
Bragg's report thereon, much important evidence was wanting. Still
considering that all that has been printed by "order of Congress" is
guaranteed, I should have thought that the evidence given before the
Military Committee of 1871 would have been sufficient. Certain I am
that if a woman had been on that committee the matter would have
assumed more prominence, and there would have been a research for the
additional documents that have been omitted. It is the old, old story
that every intelligent woman is coming to understand, that you cannot
leave to others the interests of a disfranchised class.
In looking over the file at the War Department I noted that there had
been inquiries from committees asking if there was a letter of Miss
Carroll's there of November 30, 1861, and others mentioned, and the
answer returned was "_no_." It would be in place here to call
attention to the fact that they had once been on file there, and the
reason that they are there no longer is given in the memorial of 1878,
on the evidence of Wade, Hunt, and others.
On April 16, 1891, at the file-room of the House, I saw the file that
had come back from the House Committee of this past Congress, whose
attention also had been called to the subject in consequence of the
many petitions received by the House as well as by the Senate. I
counted twenty-five petitions with numerous signatures, as well as
some detached letters. An interesting petition was from one of the
Army Posts, signed by soldiers and by officers, asking for award to
their great coadjutor. I noted a statement in one of them that the
widow of one of the Generals employed in carrying out the Tennessee
campaign had been in receipt, ever since her husband's death, of a
pension of $5,000 a year, while the great projector of the campaign
had been left neglected. Asking if there was anything more, another
bundle of petitions was handed to me, each package containing a paper,
with extracts from the memorials and reports, neatly arranged, giving
some of the remarkable letters of Scott, Wade, and Evans, and the
decisions of the Military Committees fully endorsing the claim. It
would seem that the committees were appointed to receive the
petitions, not to consider evidence, as the documentary evidence was
not here on the file. And why should they consider it, when the case
had been at the first examined carefully, tried, and a unanimous vote
had endorsed the claim, and succeeding reports, including the one
mistakenly marked as "adverse," all bore witness to the incontestable
nature of the evidence. To go on trying a case so established over and
over for twenty years would be a manifest absurdity.
And thus the case stands.
In reading these records a sorrowful thought must come into every
woman's soul as she recognizes how deep must have been the feeling
against women to prevent Congress, in all these years, from coming to
a fair and square acknowledgment of the truth.
But a different spirit is coming over the world: A spirit of justice,
a spirit of brotherly kindness towards women, shown in innumerable
ways and recognized by them with gratitude and joy.
The active men of to-day were children when the Union was saved.
Helpless children, when Miss Carroll, in the prime of her life and
fullness of her powers, with clearness of perception, with firmness of
character, with the light of genius upon her brow, devoted her time,
her strength, her fortune, and her great social influence to the
national cause that the men of to-day might have a country, proud,
prosperous, and peaceful, to rejoice in themselves and to hand down in
unbroken unity to their children.
It should be not only a duty but a blessed privilege--still
possible--to see that all that earth can give to brighten the latter
days of our great benefactress shall be given her. That she shall be
crowned with the undying love and gratitude of a great and a united
nation.
And let us remember, too, what it would have been for our country if
the noble daughter of Governor Carroll had thought it her duty to keep
out of politics while her country was perishing, and to regard the
military movements, upon which its life depended, as something outside
of a woman's province.
The nation belongs to its women as surely as it belongs to its
men. All that concerns its welfare concerns them also, and nature has
gifted them with especial attributes of heart and intellect to aid in
its guidance and to aid in its salvation.
End of Project Gutenberg's A Military Genius, by Sarah Ellen Blackwell
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