The National tribune., 1882-03-18
baltimore AMERICAN.

In another column of to-day's american
will be found complete history of the cam
paign in the summer of 1863 which led to
the evacuation of Middle Tennessee by the.
confederate forces, and their retreat to Chat
tanOOga. 1t is written or dictated by Major
General W. S. Rosecrans, and is designed to
counteract the statements made by Mr..
Blaine in his Grafton in memory of President
Garfield. Mr.. Blaine, in his address, said
there was a certain amount of discomfort
and want of accord among the leading gen.
erals of the Army of the Cumberland, and
want of harmony between them and the
commander, which General Garfield made it
his object to control and subdue. The letter
said to have been written by General Gar
field at the time to Secretary Chase, which
has recently been made public, certainly
gave Mr. Blaine just grounds for his state
ments. The letter from General Rosecrans,
a very interesting document, scarcely i'm
proves the situation. The fact that he sought
the views of his generals in writing to SUBJ
NIT to General Halleck, in order to bolster
up his own course, will produce the impress
sion that he was not altogether satisfied with
it up to that time and the fact that he had
not pursued the usual method of assembling
his corps commanders together in council
and asking their opinions by word Of mouth,
would seem to indicate want of harmony
which General Garfield said he was afraid
would prove disastrous in the approaching
campaign. What his generals wrote on that
occasion can only be determined by refer
ence to the files of the War Department, as
General RoseCrans admits he did not read
their communications, but received sttn-
mary of them from General Garfield. But
aside from communications on either side
there can be little doubt that the views of
General Garfield were, in the main, correct.
Long before the advance OF General Rose
Grams, the army under Bragg had been
weakened by the withdrawal of General
Breckinridge's division and portion of the
old division of McCown, sent to Jackson to
assist General Johnston in raising the siege
of Vicksburg. Before this withdrawal
Bragg's army was infinitely weaker than
General Rosecrans describes his own to have
been. Why then he hesitated to attack
such force was always a mystery to the
confederate troops, and they never failed to
inquire of prisoners the cause of his inaction.
When Chattanooga was reached, after the
long retreat, the confederates were in the
same weak condition; but for months no
effort was made to bring on an engagement
and when at last it did come, the forces of
the enemy had been reinforced from the
various armies of the confederacy until they
were almost, if not quite, equal in numbers
to the Union army. No person, who appre-
ciates the character of Garfield, can doubt
thai if lie were alive he would be fully able
TO defend his course, and that it would be
proven that whatever he said or did in
connection with the Tennessee campaign
was prompted by the loftiest motives and
was intended to do no injustice to General
Rosecrans or any one else. The people who
have stirred up this controversy have the
advantage that they are fighting dead
man, and, of course, it would be utterly
useless to appeal to them in the name of
decency or courtesy. But it still remains
an exceedingly silly performance to attempt
to throw mud upon the grave of Garfield,
and the more light that is cast upon this
disputed question of the war, the clearer it
will be seen that there is nothing for which
the friends of the dead hero need to apollo
gize in his behalf.
WHAT GENERAL ROSECRANS SAYS.
A representative of THE NATIONAL
TRIBUNE called on General ROsecrans at his