New-York tribune., 1874-04-13
MISS CARROLES MEMORIAL.

This year, as for several years past, Miss
Anna Ella Carroll comes before Congress with
her claim for compensation for services rem
dered during the civil war. For a while this
claim was laughed at on general principles,
because Miss Carroll was woman. After
wards it was frowned upon, as disrespectful in its
essence to some of our great captains. But 1t
gathered strength and consistency all the
while. until it at last obtained the suffrages of
many Congressman and the favorable report
of committee. 1t is now by no means i'm
possible that it may yet 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
extraordinary one She asserts and assumes
to prove that she originated and suggested to
the Government the plan for opening the
Mississippi and breaking the rebel power in
the South West, which was finally adopted
and carried out. She claims to have made
out detailed plan of the campaign in which
our armies ascended the iTennessee River to
the decisive position which they occupied
on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.
She claims further to have written an import
ant series of papers on the Rebellion, for
WHICH Inc war pIOHllbcu Utr Is
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 to deny.
The Hon. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant
Secretary of War, certifes to the justice of
the claim in the most positive and unqualified
terms. His statement is worth giving in his
own words:
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 proprey OF abau-
doning the expedition which then preparing
TO descend the Mississippi River, and to adopt Instead
the Tennessee River, and handed Ito the plan OF
campaign. as appended TO her memorial, which plan
submitted 10 the Secretary Of Warand its general ideas
were adopted. On my return from the Southwest in
1862 informed Miss Carroll. she states in her me-
mortal, that through the adoption OF this plan the
country had saved millions, and that 1t entitled her
to the kind consideration Of Congress.
THoMAs.A. sco1r.
Col. Scott repeats this unreserved declara-
ton in two or three different forms. The Hon.
b. f. Wade lis equally emphatic. He says that
President Lincoln and Mr.. Stanton both
informed him that the credit of the
Tennessee campaign was due to Miss Car
roll. The Hon. o. Ii. Browning, Senator from
Illinois, gives the same evidence with equal
dstinctness Chief-Justice Evans of the
Supreme Court of Texas goes further into
details, giving the case of the memorialist far
more fully and strongly than she presents it
herself The venerable Elisha Whittlesey
Joins in the same representations. Such
legal authorities as Reverdy johnson and
Truman Smith say that the evidence
is complete in her favor. Finally, the Mill
tary Committee of the Senate in the 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 suDUOrted is one of the most