Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-11-09
GRANT TO PORTER.
ANOTaER LETTER FBOM THR FOR
MER 10 THE LITTER.
In Which he Declares Him Innocent of
the Charges of which he Was Convicted,
and Reviews thu Testimony on its Merits.
Especial Telegram to the Globe. |

l ISpoSldl 1cieS IdIi " siio oAobo.I
New York. Nov. S.-A letter written last
| Saturday by Gen. Grant to Gen. Fitz John
Porter was made public tonight. In it
Gen. Grant writes as follows:
! DEAR SIR: AS there is now some discus
sion as to the probable reasons for my
change Of mind in regard to your case now
pending before the people of ths United
States, deem it proper that should give
them myself. In the first place I never
believed you to be traitor, as
many affected to believe.
thought I knew you too well
to believe for one moment that you would
accept the pay, rank and command you
held for the purpose of betraying the
cause you were protesting to serve. Then,
Gus as staff officer at the beginning of
the war and as a commander of troops
| later to support such theory for mo
ment. Bus did believe Sen. Pope was so
odious to some of the officers in the east
that a cordial support was not
given him by them. I was
disposed to accept the verdict
! u q SOOLs A1d1 2Ac@l CO41 pNbOO do S1O O4iO
which tried you was. Some Of the mem
bers of that court I knew personally, and
had great confidence in their Judgment
and justice. l supposed you had shared in
this feeling toward Pope, and while not
| moro guilty than others, you were unfor-
tunate in being placed in position where
| specifications could be made, showing this
al L..
1 was requested to read your new defense,
read it with the feeling above
described. At the same time I read the
| other side as prepared of furnished by
Gen. Pope. This gave maps showing the
positions or the two armies substantially
as shown by the first of the diagrams pre-
sented by Mr.. Lord, of San Francisco,
from whom copied in the article in your
| case and did not indicate the pressure of
any other force than Jackson's. Then, too,
it appeared that you had actually received
an order at about or $50 in the after
noon of August 30 to attack the enemy's
flank and that, too, at time
when fierce battle was raging in front. 1
was first shaken in my views, however,
when such man as General Terry, who
uoites the lawyer with the soldier, and
| man of high character and ability, land who
had believed as had and possibly worse,
after many weeks of investigation should
| entirely vindicste you, and be sustained,
| too, by men of the known ability OF his
colleagues on the board. Until 1881, when
re-examined for myself, my
belief was that, on the 29th
of August 1862, great battle
vas brought between Gen. Pope, com
manding the union forces and Gen. Jack
son, commanding the confederate force;
that you with a corps of $4,000 Or more
men stood in position across the right
| flank of Jackson and where you could
easily get into his rear; that you received
an order to do so about 8 or $50 o'clock,
which you refused to obey because of
clouds of dust in your front, which you
| superior number to you; that
you allowed Pope to get beaten,
[ while you stood idly looking on witho ut
| raising an arm to help him. With this
understanding and without a doubt as to
the correctness of it, I condemned you.
Now on full investigation of the facts I
find that the battle was fought on Aug.
Both, that your corps, commanded directly
by you in person, lost a greater percentage
than any other corps engaged; that the
order of the day before did not reach you
until nightfall; that your Immediate su
perior had cautioned you
early in the day that you
were too fer out to the front then; that
Gen. Pope had cautioned against bringing
on an engagement except under such cir
cumstances as he directed, and that at any
event you must be prepared 10 fall back
behind Bull Run that night, where it would
be necessary for you to receive supplies;
that from II o'clock OF the 29fh you were
confronted by force of twice your own
number, of whose presence you had posi-
tive proof, while Gen. Pope did not know
of it. This fact is shown by the wording
of the 4:30 order. It directed you to
attack the enemy's right and go
into his rear. Gen. Pope's circular of the
Goth said Gen. Lee was advancing by way
of Thoroughfare Gap. At the rate at
which he was going he would be up the
night of the 30th or morning of the 31st.
In his testimony before the court martial
which tried you he said that he did not know
of Lees command until 6 o'clock of the
goth, en- hour and half after he had die
tated the order for your attack. His cir
cular and testimony prove conclusiyely
that johnson ana Jackson alone was the
enemy he intended you to attack. Your
knowledge of this fact, as well as the fact
that you had another force quite
double yours in addition in your
front, would have been sufficient
justification for your not attacking, even
If the order had been received in time. OF
course this would not apply if battle had
been raging between jackson and Pope.
At the hour you received the order all was
quiet.
This very short, hastily written and in
complete summary shows why and when
my mind underwent a change. have no
doukt now that The change would have
taken place in 1867 if I had then made
an investigation. regret now that 1 did
not understand your case then as I do now.
Your whole life since your trial, as we'll as
! your services before disproves the great