Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-03-05

SAID Porter was directed at D o CLOCK In Luo
forenoon by Pope to move on Centreville at the
first dawn of day with his whole command,
leaving his trains to follow. ut is very impOr
tant that you should be here at very early
hour in the morning. A severe engagement is
likely to take place and your presence ls nee
essary." Gen. Porter didn't move at dawn.
The sun rose before clock, but at A. M.
Porter wrote Burnside that he would be off in
half an hour. His camp was nothing but q
biyouack, atented field. He could move at an
hours notice, but he waited till $3.50. In this
letter, as in all his letters, he sneered at Pope.
He says that according to POpe's statements
the army was wandering around loose. Porter
thought, however, that the enemy knew what
it was about, which is more than anybody else
does.
No general officer, said Logan, ever spoke of
his commanding officer in such disrespectful
terms as this man had from the time he first
put pen to paper up to the very last day, and
after the battle of the 30th of August. 1t is
criticism and sport making all through. Had
l been commanding that army there would
have been no Gen. Fitz John Porter knocking
at the portals of Congress to-day.
Continuing, he said that contrary to military
custom Porter refused, on the 29,h, to accept a
verbal order from Pope, and sent the orderly
back to get a written order, which was as fol-
lows:
Headquarters Army of Virginia, Centreville
Aug. 26, 1862.-Push forward with your corps
and Kings division, which you will take with
you to Centreville. am following the enemy
down the Warrenton turnpike. Be expeditions
or we will lose.
Porter movements after this were 30 strange,
and, in fact all his movements in response to
ORDERS were such an enigma, that Pope didn't
know what they meant. He finally sent joint
order to Mcdowell and Porter. This didn't
place Porter under Mcdowell. They acted as
,Ea,M ov0 frNIH
Porter to stop here, where the enemy
was at that time, Porter
made that an excuse to stay in one place inact-
i've, not to go further though the enemy moved
away,
As to the plea that Porter thought there were
%, 900 men in his front, too many to cope with,
Logan said it was sometimes necessary for a
whole division to be sacrificed to save the rest
of the army. No general should
inquire the number of men ahead
of MIN before Obeying an order.
Pope said Logan finally dispaired of getting
Porter to obey orders and made up his mind to
/ arrest him. but was dissuaded from this inten-
| ton by his officers, and finally issued this Or
order: 'Immediately upon receipt of this Or
| der the precise hour of which you will &C.
knowledge, you will march your command to
the field of battle of to-day, and report to me
| in person for orders. You are to understand
that you are expected to comply strictly with
this order and be present on the field within
| three hours after its receipt or after daybreak
| tomorrow morning."
| No such order was ever before issued by
a commanding general, probably because no
such order was ever before necessary. When
| Mcdowell told Porter to put his men in here,
Porter replied: eff l put my men in here
will get into fight" Mcdowell asked him if
that wasn't what he came for, and in God 8
| name, said Logan, what is an army for if not
| to get into fight. Porter's own report shows
| that he had $4,000 men. That force can double
up any army like knife blade till it has time
| to rally from the shock. A man with 12,OOO
| men, who don't give battle when he sees the
| flag of the enemy, doesn't know the use of the
army. George Washington would have been
| glad to have had Porters corps ut most any time
during the revolution. AS to getting out of
| the way, if they had to retreat $4,000 men
| never had any difficulty in getting out3of the
| way when told to go.
Passing on TO discussion of the celebrated
4:30 ORDER Logan said the testimony showed
| that Mcdowell read it when it was on the way
| to Porter, went in with his command and went
| into battle little after o'clock. Porter did
receive the order, read it, put it in his pocket
and sat down under tree. Porter thought 1T
too late to move forward, though the battle
| continued till after o'clock, and Mcdowell,
who had only two or three miles less to go, got
there little after o clock and went into the
battle.
Logan also quoted Lieutenant Smiths testi-
mony before the board of review, to the effect
| that Porter told him that certain supplies had
gone where they belonged, where we will all be
soon, on the way to Alexandria. Smith went
back to Pope and told him Porter would fail
| him, Pope wouldn't believe him, but Smith
was so impressed by Porter's Indifferent and
sneering manner, that he excitedly
| told Pope that if he were in command
| he would shoot Porter. Many had thought
Smiths testimony was overdrawn, but Logan
believed it was trustworthy. The evidence
showed that after getting the 4:3O order Porter
ordered his men to go into the woods and lie
down, and they got ready to stay there all
| night. Though the position of the sun indicat-
| ed, according to witnesses, that it was about
| or 80 o'clock that he, for some reason, got
| all his men that he could out of sight. Gen.
| Morrill, began to suspect that Porter didn't
! want to fight. and, in order probably to test
him, sent dispatch asking if he hadn't bet
| ter retire. Porter answered that we can't re-
tire while Mcdowell holds on. He wanted to
| back out of the whole thing but waited for
Mcdowell to get whipped, when
| he would have excuse to
fall back, and at the very
moment when King and Mcdowell were at the
point of moving to attack, Porter notified them
| that he could not join them and was obliged to
| fall clear back on Manassas. The disbeartening
effect of this Information could be imagined,
but il was of piece with all of Porter action.
Senator Logan will continue his remarks to-
morrow Adjourned.