Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-07-05
ARMY HEADQUARTERS.
Will the Removal Mystery Never be
solved.

Cinclhnall OdlctOc.
The army headquarters removal, and
the relations of Gen. Sherman and the
War Department and the President,
promise to become as great an open
mysterty as the Beecher-Tilton- Bowen
scandal. The Washington Chronicle
muddIes it by the statement that "Gen.
Sherman's removal is made at this time
on account of private add personal
matters, which in his Judgment, under
all the circumstances, Justify his
course, What are these private and
personal matters? What are the cir
cumstances? Are they matters of feel
ing, or of private business! Does the
General of the Army move its head
quarters from the capital because he is
in a huff, or because he has no private
business elsewhere? Neither horn is a
reason. Really the administration and
the General of the Army are not pre-
senting a very dignifed attitude before
the country. 1t is time to stop this
nonsense, and to show public reasons
for the removal or stop that.
To add to the muddle, there comes
out now letter written by Gen. Sher-
man to Secretary Belknap in 1870,
asking to have his military province
defined. and the line drawn between it
and the duties of the Secretary of War,
and stating that he is deprived Of the
command of the army which the law
intended, and that the Adjutant- General
and the staff at Washington, which, we
suppose, includes the various army
bureaus, and the Military Academy,
are taken out of his command, and that
the Secretary issues orders through
these staff officers, making militry dis
positions without reference to the Gen
eral. He states that this remains from
the secession conspiracy and from the
quarrel of Marcy and Gen. Scott, when
the design was to strip that officer of all
real command of the army.
He also cites letterfrom Gen. Grant
to Secretary Stanton, to the same pur-
port, in 1866, view which seems to
have changed when Gen. Grant became
President, and Sherman General. Thus
it appers that there was discomfort in
Gen. Sherman as far back as 1870, with
precedentof Gen. Grants discomfort
with the same state of things, dating
back to 1866.
And nowispublished by the Secretary
Of War Gen. Sherman s formal request
to move his headquarters to St. Lonis,
and the Secretary's answer, inwhich he
states that the removal will not change
the order of business with the depart
ment. and that no material change shall
be made in the stations of troops or
commanders without the previous APP
proval of the department. That is to
say, Gen. Sherman's removal will put a
space between hima and the War Depart
ment, but all affairs must pass through
that as before. Therefore the removal
only makes hindrance to business.
Then why is the removal desired or
allowed? Does not all this present a
spectacle of disorganization and disaf-
lection at the head of the military adj
ministration, which is the reverse of a
moralizing example to the rank and
file? In all this there is a striking
similitude to the mysterious disclosure
of the half open mysteries and crying
secrets of the Beecher-TiltOn scandal.
Surely there has been enough of this
fooling. There appears to be no pub
lie reason for this removal, nor any
thing personal to be gained by it. The
thing should be stopped. The soldier
PRECEDENT, the soldier Secretary, and
the soldier General of the Army ought
to be able to settle the whole affair on
soldierly principles, and to agree on
the requisite legislation 10 be asked of
Congress.