Chance (Or A Good Friend) Has Placed Me In Command

In which feelings are hurt

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Sir:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Commission of brigadier General, which you are pleased to confer on me.

The opinion manifested by the Senate of the United States as to the incompatibility of the office of a Senator of the United States with the office of General compels me to decline the Commission. I do not feel myself at liberty to resign the position with which I am honored by the State of Oregon.

While nearly every man of even minor influence in the North and South was trying to get himself a commission in the growing armies, Senator Edward Baker was busy turning one down. True, he already held the rank of colonel in the lead of the 1st California Volunteer Regiment that he had dreamed up (recruited from New Yorkers and Philadelphians), and, as he observed in his letter of refusal to Lincoln "the government is pleased to allow me a command with my present rank", but everyone else around Washington was scrambling to command one of the divisions that Major General George McClellan was creating for his new, grand Army of the Potomac.

McClellan's first two picks for division command had been perfunctory, former commanders of the Departments of Northeastern Virginia and the Shenandoah, Irvin McDowell and Nathaniel P. Banks, respectively. Both had seen their commands folded into McClellan's new Army of the Potomac, so both had been given some compensation. But his next two picks, announced on August 28 and August 30, had been more surprising.

Hooker's On Parade

In which McClellan, et al., review the new Army of the Potomac

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The old Bladensburg dueling grounds

Since he had secured his U.S. Volunteers brigadier generalship in the most dramatic way possible, Joe Hooker had set to work proving that he was a "damned sight better general than [Lincoln] had on that field" on the banks of the Bull Run. Hooker was in command of a brigade stationed at Camp Union, just shy of Bladensburg on the B&O Railroad line, where the Bladensburg Road passed outside of the boundaries of the District of Columbia.

It was a historic area, even in 1861. Named after a pre-Revolution governor of Maryland, it developed as a port on the Eastern Branch of the Potomac (today called the Anacostia) for Maryland tobacco crops. On August 24, 1814 American briefly occupied the same territory as Camp Union, before they ran from British soldiers and marines at the Battle of Bladensburg in one of the most shameful defeats in U.S. history (part of the flight was in terror from the new Congreve rocket employed by the British, which would also give its red glare to the Baltimore sky a month later, inspiring Francis Scott Key). The British had a free pass into Washington City, and burned most of it that night.

Gotcha!

Wherein the Rebel Rose is nabbed

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On August 23, the somewhat sour-faced Scot took pleasure in a good night's work. He had found the Rebels' leak in Washington and plugged it. Rose O'Neal Greenhow was now his prisoner.

Rose Greenhow

The man was Allan Pinkerton, and he was on temporary absence from his detective firm (the famed Pinkerton National Detective Agency) by special request of Major General George McClellan to found the Union Intelligence Service in Washington to root out spies, especially those that had delivered news to Confederate Brigadier General G.T. Beauregard about the build up and movement of Union forces. In reality, Beauregard probably didn't need their reports since the army had moved so slowly and destructively. But in the paranoia following Bull Run, spies were given undue importance. Besides, there was no area of the defense of Washington McClellan wasn't sure he could improve.

As far as spies went, Greenhow wasn't a particularly a good one. She had been born in Port Tobacco, Maryland around the time of the British raid that burned Washington, but when her father was killed by rebellious slaves in 1817, young Rose went to live with an aunt in the rebuilt Washington City. At her boarding house, Rose grew-up around Washington's social elites and Members of Congress and important national figures came to enjoy being around the high-spirited young woman. She fell in with Dolley Madison's social circle and met the man she would marry (with Dolley's blessing, of course), Dr. Robert Greenhow.

Rec'd: The Usual War Salutations

Harper's Weekly cartoon captioned with a quotation from a "Rebel
Paper" ("Our Artillery are improving rapidly in their firing; they
practice constantly at targets.")

It's time for the weekly local history articles round-up. I've been out of town this week, so I haven't had time to do as much reading as usual, so apologies for missing other good items.

First up, today is the 150th anniversary of a skirmish at Pohick Church in Fairfax County. Both armies had largely recovered from Manassas, but had not yet grown into their new missions and were feeling each other out. Cavalry from the brigade of William Franklin chased off an unidentified Confederate cavalry company and learned important lessons in the process. All Not So Quiet Along the Potomac sums up the action well. The official reports can be found here.

To the Sound of the Guns has an interesting piece on the gunner's quadrant, equipment I had never heard of that was invaluable to artillery.

And Adam Goodheart continues to save Disunion with an account of James Garfield's decision to join the army.

An Idiot and a Dotard

In which McClellan inadvertently pens his most famous quotation

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It's not entirely clear what got George McClellan, major general commanding the Military Division of the Potomac, so upset on August 16, but he was in a fit for sure. He issued a General Order banning all passes to go beyond Union lines into Virginia (before, a not-uncommon practice) and what looked like orders to Brigadier General William Rosecrans, who commanded the army in western Virginia that McClellan formerly commanded, urging him to (ironically) stop asking for more soldiers and strike boldly at the Confederates near him. McClellan, of course, had no authority to issue such orders and similar circumstances had caused the now-simmering feud between him and the army's real commander, Winfield Scott. He had, however, refrained from labeling his headquarters an "army" in deference to the old general.

Whatever the cause, McClellan penned a sentence that historians since its accidental publishing have been unable to refrain quoting: "I am here in a terrible place--the enemy have from 3 to 4 times my force--the Presdt is an idiot, the old General in his dotage--they cannot or will not see the true state of affairs."

Given the lack of embellishing information and the frequency with which the one line is pulled out, here's a re-type of the most full version I can find, short of going into the Library of Congress's manuscript room. It comes from Sears, pp. 85-86.

. . . I am here in a terrible place: the enemy have from three to four times my force; the President is an idiot, the old general in his dotage, they cannot or will not see the true state of affairs. Most of my troops are demoralized by the defeat at Bull Run; some regiments even mutinous. I have probably stopped that; but you see my position is not pleasant. . .

I have, I believe made the best possible disposition of the few men under my command; will quietly await events, and, if the enemy attacks, will try to make my movements as rapid and desperate as may be. If my men will only fight I think I can thrash him, notwithstanding the disparity of numbers. As it is, I trust to God to give success to our arms, though He is not wont to aid those who refuse to aid themselves...

I am weary of all this. I have no ambition in the present affairs; only wish to save my country, and find the incapables around me will not permit it. They sit on the verge of the precipice, and cannot realize what they see. Their reply to everything is, “Impossible! Impossible!” They think nothing possible which is against their wishes.

6 p.m. .. . Gen. Scott is at last opening his eyes to the fact that I am right and that we are in imminent danger.  Providence is aiding me by heavy rains, which are swelling the Potomac, which may be impassable for a week; if so we are saved. If Beauregard comes down upon us soon I have everything ready to make a manoeuvre which will be decisive. Give me two weeks and I will defy Beauregard; in a week the chances will be at least even.

Hell Reigns

In which three Union regiments try to end the war

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Return of the 69th New York Militia from the Seat of War

 "Hell reigns in the 13th today, and has all day," wrote Samuel Partridge to a friend. Partridge was a young man in Company F of the 13th New York, who had fought at Bull Run as part of Cump Sherman's brigade.He was only a private on August 14, but he would rise to the rank of lieutenant as the regiment's adjutant and quartermaster by the time it finally went home in two years -- and that was the problem.

Company F, like all but three of the 13th New York's companies, was raised in Rochester. The men had pledged two years of service to the State of New York under its militia law, but under Federal law the Lincoln administration could only accept their service for 90 days. The 13th New York marched to Washington and were sent to Fort Corcoran, in present-day Rosslyn, and began a very unhappy period under then-Colonel Sherman.

Status Quo Ante

Wherein the fallout of the McClellan/Scott feud brings us back to where we were

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The nation's capital in the second week of August was filled with false alarms about imminent Confederate attacks, but the most damage to the Union cause kept coming from the Union men themselves. On August 8, commander of the Military Division of the Potomac, Major General George McClellan, had deliberately tried to embarrass General-in-chief of the U.S. Army, Bvt. Lt. General Winfield Scott. On August 10, Abraham Lincoln's efforts to quash the feud paid off.

McClellan offered the olive branch in a letter addressed to Lincoln:

The letter addressed by me... to Lieutenant General Scott... was designed to be a plain and respectful expression of my views of the measures demanded for the safety of the Government... It is therefore with great pain that I have learned from you this morning... that my letter is unfavorably regarded by him... Influenced by these considerations, I yield to your request, and withdraw the letter referred to... I will only add that as you requested my authority to withdraw the letter, that authority is hereby given, with the most profound assurances of respect for General Scott and yourself.

It was not a moment too soon, because that evening word came from Missouri that Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon's army had been defeated and the general had been killed, raising the specter that all of Missouri would fall into its pro-secessionist governor's control. Scott worked tirelessly with the Adjutant General's office to make sure Major General John C. Fremont would get the reinforcements he needed to stave off disaster.

Which is why it took him until August 12 to throw a wrench in Lincoln's peace negotiations with his own missive to Secretary of War Simon Cameron (up the proper chain of command, unlike McClellan's).

...I was kindly requested by the President to withdraw my letter to you of the 9th, in reply to one I had received from Major-General McClellan of the day before... I deeply regret that, notwithstanding my respect for the opinions and wishes of the President, I cannot withdraw the letter in question...

First, McClellan's original letter "seems to have been the result of deliberation between him and some members of the Cabinet" (by which Scott probably meant Salmon Chase or Montgomery Blair), who had been influencing decisions on the conduct of the war "without resort to or consultation with me, the nominal General-in-Chief of the Army." Further, the Military Division of the Potomac had been reinforced with a number of three-years regiments, which McClellan had brigaded and encamped, not "not one of these movements has been reported to me (or anything else) by Major-General McClellan." Scott, however, was positive that the Cabinet had been told.

Second, McClellan was talented, Scott acknowledged, and he didn't cherish spending his days "filing daily complaints against an ambitious junior." And third, Scott insisted that he was still old and sick and he "should unavoidably be in the way at headquarters, even if my abilities for war were now greater than when I was young." Also, there was the small matter that McClellan had sent a copy of his letter to Scott, unsigned and with only a blank piece of paper for a cover note. "This slight was not without its influence on my mind," Scott noted.

Lincoln chose at this juncture to be too busy with the problems in Missouri to take any further action on Scott's request to be ordered into retirement, and McClellan chose to celebrate August 12 with a letter to the Secretary of the Navy about an imminent Confederate attack across the mouth of the Potomac, and urging him to transfer warships from Newport News to Aquia Creek.