Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-05-08
Burnside and Sprague.

The following are the remarks of HoDs
Joseph G. Abbott, of North Carolina, in
the United States Senate, April %, upon
the charge Of cowardice against General
A. e. Burnside and the Rhode Island
troops made by Hon. VIM. Sprague, of
Rhode Island:
Mr.. President, rise to say word on
this matter. I confess that [ was greatly
panied, some days ago, when a Senator,
availing himself Of his privileges on this
floor, assailed the military character of
Rhode Island troops and that of Rhode
Islands greatest officer. This criticism of
military conduct was the more surprising
since it came from one who never appear
ed upon the field IN but one engagement,
and who retired from that field amid a
common disaster and with no more than
common credit. And the regret and sur
prise with which we listened were increas-
ed on account of the high business position
of the speaker, and on account of the Off
cial position which he held in his State
and now holds in the nation. When we
remember that no real soldier ever aspers-
ed the Echaracter of his comrades under
vauntings of his own achievements, we
begin to comprehend the dishonor with
which one member might humiliate this
whole body, and the extent of this outrage
upon State and a chief in that State
When we recollected, also, the hot-house
growths thrown into undue prominence
by the infamed atmosphere of the early
part of the war, when military and political
empires held their sway, regret changed
into indignation.
Neither before the war, nor during the
war, nor since the war, did [ ever speak
with General Burnside, nor was ever IN
any part of the army embraced within his
command, so that l 90 not speak of him
now with any Of that natural regard which
soldier entertalns for his commander !;
but was on the shore of the Narragansett
one summer morning when in the gray
light the steamer bearing the survivors of
the disaster of Bull Run belonging to
Providence, streaming with pennants,
swept toward that ancient city trailing the
Joyous murmur of voices and the blast of
the trupet in its way. The reception which
that capital that day gave to her sons,
wherein every tower and every balcony
were waving plaudits, was the verdict of
Rhode Island as we'll on the conduct of
the commander of those troops as upon
the conduct OF the troops themselves. l
leave Rhode Island to decide now and
hereafter whether the voice OF that people
on that day was false adulation. She has
already given her decision by electing
three times the officer who Iode at the
head of that column as her Chief Magis-
trate, and that officer was General Burn
side.
General Burnsides subsequent service
was in Kentucky and Tennessee, where he
pressed to Knoxville. resisting the siege OF
Longstreet in North Carolina, where he
acquired and held the region from the AL
bemarle to the Neuse, capturing the whole
rebel army upon Roanoke island, and hold
| ing the enemy back beyond the Chowan
and Kinston, menacing all the while the
enemy's great lines of communication, and
conducting campaigns Of extraordinary
| military vIgor, in command OF the army Oh
| tho Potomac, assuming which at warren
| ton, he moved to Falm outh, and there, con-
| fronting Lee. initiated two attacks, both OF
which were unsuccessful, but neither OF
which reflected upou his character as q
soldier and last, as the commander of a
corps in the army of the Potomac, in the
greatest, as it was the concluding, cam
paign of the war. st e..- ..... 4.
In all this great and various service he
| maintained as much if not more than any
other man the character of patriotic, m
selfish, gallant, judicious, and modest sol.
dier. Upon bis character the Government
has set its seal, for from his successtul cam.
paign in North Carolina, where ne held
| u territory greater than that OF his own
| State, he was transferred to KENTUCKY
and Tennessee, and from kentucky TO
the high command of the army of the
Potomac. Resigniug that, he Joined, IN
! 1854. at the head of corps forty live thou
sand strong, that great army which hrst
struck the enemy at the Wilderness and
ultimately encircled Petersburg, and finally