The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1874-05-09
y A FEMALE sTRATEGIsT.
Miss Anna Ellen CAROLS Claim to Hav-
Ia ing Broken the Power of the confed-
eracy in the Southwest. = 47ss

! New York Tribune Editorial, April IL.
This year, as for several years past, Mis-.
Anna Ellen Carroll comes before Congress.
with her claim for compensation for service,
rendered during the civil war. For while
this claim was laughed at ON general princi
pies, because Miss Carroll was woman
Afterwards it was frowned upon as disre
spectful in its essence to some of our great
captains. But it gathered strength; anG
consistency all the while, until at last it OBJ
tanned the suffrages of many Congressmer
and the favorable report of a committee, II
| is by no means impossible that it may vel
be recognized by considerable parties in
both houses, and even that Miss Carroll
may some day obtain the compensation she
asks. Her claim is certainly an extraordi.
nary one. She asserts and assumes to prove
that she originated and suggested to the
government the plan for opening the Mis-
sissippi and breaking the rebel power in
the Southwest, which was finally adopted
and carried out. She claims to have made
out detailed plan of the campaign in which
our armies assembled the Tennessee river to
the decisive position which they occupied
on the Memphis and Charleston railroad.
She claims further to have written an i'm
portant series Of papers on the rebellion, for
which the War Department promised her
compensation which she has not received.
The latter claim is not SO serious, and will
scarcely hold, but the proofs she brings to
sustain her assertions in relation to the Ten
nessee campaign are of character which it
is almost equally difficult TO admit or deny.
The Hon. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant
Secretary of War, certifies to the justice Of
the claim in the most positive and unqual-
ified terms. His statement is worth giving
in his own words:
f'9 PHILADELPHIA, June "a, 1870.
On or about the 30th of November, 1861.
Miss Carroll, as stated in her memorial,
called on me, as Assistant Secretary of War,
and suggested the propriety of abandoning
the expedition which was then preparing to
d iscend the Mississippi river, and to adopt
instead the Tennessee river, and handed to
me the plan of campaign, as appended to
her memorial, which plan submitted to
the Secretary of War. and its general ideas
were adopted On my return from the
Southwest in 1872 Informed Miss Carroll.
as she states in her memorial, that through
the adoption of this plan the country had
been saved millions, and that it entitled her
to the kind consideration of Congress.
THOMAS A. SCOTT.
Col. Scott repeats this unreserved deelar-
alton in two or three different forms. The
Hon. B. F. Wade is equally emphatic. He
says that President Lincoln and Mr.. Stan
ton both informed him that the credit of
the Tennessee campaign was due to Miss
Carroll. Tie Hon. o. IT, Browning, Sen
ator from Illinois, gives the same evidence
with equal distinctness. Chief Justice Ey-
ans, of the Supreme Court of Texas, goes
further into details, giving the case of the
Inemorialist far more fully and strongly
than she presents it herself. The venerable
Elisha Whittlesey joins in. the same repre-
sentations Such legal authorities as Rev.
erdy Johnson and Truman Smith say that
the evidence is complete in her, favor. FL
nally, the Military Committee of the Senate
in XLIst Congress, after maturely weighing
the case, reported through their chairman,
Senator Howard, of Michigan, that Miss
Carroll had established her claim.
The case thus supported is one of the
most remarkable ones which ever came be-
fore the National Legislature, The decis-
ion is of importance to more than the
Ifitisin her favor, the coan-
try viii, of course, give her l,ngladgingly
the compensation she deserves, although
others have already been munifcently paid
iii money and glory for the work she claims
to have done.
Summer and the Chief .yusticeshin