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.