National Republican., 1883-06-01


no doubt of his COURSE" shows that Porter
was fully acquainted with the loyal position
which Thomas occupied.
Thus by tho testimony Of his own witness |
are the senator's statements proved absolutely |
baseless. Not only this, but by the same evil |
dence is the early loyalty of Thomas estab'
lished. He had received his first orders TO
proceed with his command against rebels.
When asked by fellow officers, TON, what
shall we do2" he answered promptly we
are ordered to CO. and we GO"
Attached to this same official report oil
Porter's are the kilograms by which Thomas
was ordered 10 send his forces to Harris
burg, and the reply. The first order was as
follows; IL was sent over the railway tole-
graph line from Don Cameron's office:
HARRISBURG, April 20, 1866, 3 a.m.-To MAJ.THoMAs
and MAJ. GRAHAM Carlisle, Pa: Send here by q
train at a, m. to- morrow four companies armed,
equipped with ammunition aud four days proyis.
ions in haversacks II you have them-as sD, htse
baggage as possible. An officer Of the highest
rank wanted. BY authority of Gen. Scott
+. ]. PORTER, Adjutant General
Here was an order that told in every word
and line that immediate fighting was OK
pected. The date shows 1t to have been the
day before the alleged pleading with Thomas
in Cameron's office. He was free by the terms
Of the order, il he had SO chosen, to remain
and send an officer to command but he
promptly replied by letter in his own hand
as follows, saying he would come himself
with all his troops aud como prepared;
CARLISLE BARRACKS Pa, April 20. 1s6l-MAJ r.
j. PORTER, Assistant Adjutant General, Harris
burg. Ps.-Sir; i will go with my entire force as
efficiently equipped as the means we have Will
permit by the. tram this afternoon, as you request
In your dispatch of n. III. to-day.
GEORGE H. THOMAS, Major Commanding.
Orders relating to recruits forced days
delay, and he arrived at Harrisburg the next
afternoon.
The full confidence which the authorities
at Washington had in Thomas at this date is
sufficiently apparent from the following or
der:
wAsH1SGroN, April %, 1S61-MAJ. GEORGE II.
THOMAS I'd cavalry Carlisle Barracks-Sir: The
general i'm chief directs that the four companies
fast as they are mounted (Which must be done
with all possible dspatoh) and by the route which
will insure their arrival at the earliest moment
| better of the route than we. The men must be
| preparedto encounter opposition and overcome H.
am, sir very respectfully, your obedtent servant
| L. d. TOWNSEND. A. A. g.
Though the evidence directly adduced de-
| stroys the web and woof of Mr.. Cameron's
story, which, in justice to him. we may sup
pose to have been founded upon remem-
brsnce of what other southern officers pre-
sent,and now confounded with what Thomas,
may have said. Still the discussion of the
question which he has deemed it fitting to
raise over the honored grave of Gen. Thomas,
has such features of interest to every Amerl-
can that the mere refutation of this story
does not leave the case complete.
Gen. Thomas was Virginian. When the
war came he was major of the I'd cavalry.
Albert Sidney Johnston was its colonel.
| Robert Il. Lee was its lieutenant colonel.
| Hardee was its senior major, and Van Dorm,
Kirby Smith, Hood, aud Fitzhugh Lee were
among its officers. Thirteen, OK more than
one-third of all, afterward became rebel gen.
erals, and every southern born officer in the
a,,1 nd nnn nj
promptly Joined the confederacy. Every
influence but that of his patriotic
northern wife and loyalty to the flag drew
him toward his native state-home kindred,
previous political opinions, professional asso-
Citations and pride in the commonwealth
of Virginia-all these drew him toward the
south with q power which but for his un-
shaken and unhesitatlng loyalty would have
proved irresistible In the very nature oil
the situation, it was absolutely necessary that
there should come time when every south
ern born officer should consider anu decide
upon his course. That time and that prompt
decision came for Thomas when the first NUT
terings of treason fell ON his ear, and long
before an overt act had been. committed any
where. His political sympathes were at the
first conservative, but his loyalty was steady
and true. AS Gen. Garfield said in his elo
quent oration before the Society of the Army
Of the Cumberland, at Cleveland:
1
and found expression only In constitutional theo.
ries aud legal subtieties, the wtsest might well be
perplexed. But the flash OF the hrst gun revealed
ter and spirit of the controversy, and his cnoicC
was made in an instant.
According to the Cameron assertion, the
cloud of doubt hung over the mind of Thomas
up to the morning of tho twenty-second o.
April, 1861. After that he was rs the coun.
try knows him. With a few points of evi
dence covering the time before he reached
Harrisburg the subject may be allowed to rest
Most of these were presented by Gen. Gar
field upon the occasion already named. Ii
December, 1860 four months before Dor
Camerons day of doubt, Maj. Thomas, WHIT
had arrived on leave of absence from Twigg
command in Texas, was in Westinghouse
doubt. No, but reporting to the authori
: ties that in his Judgment Twigg'
was meditating treason. From Washington
/, he went to New York. Gen. William
Hartsuff, who was stationed there, wrote o
him that while he shared the feelings o
, southern officers in regard to the responsi
bility of certain men and parties at the nortl
, in bringing ON the war, he never" to us,
Gen. Hartsuff's words in my hearing, agreed
! with them respecting the necessity Of goinl
with their states, but he denounced the idea
and denied the necessity of dividing thu
: country or destroying the government. Thi
was before the actual secession Of any of th
q states, when the prospect OF war was no
a strong"
. The day Fort Sumter was fired on, Maj
Thomas wrote, in the confidence of his family
, this sentence, never before made public
Every time thought of the matter,my dut,
:, 10 the country was uppermost." A week be
. fore April 81 he wrote to his sister In Virgini
. declaring his purpose to stand by the govern
:, ment, and from the arrival of that letter al
y intercourse with him ended on the side of hi
, | own family.
=, After Robert Il. Lee resigned his commits
' sion in the regiment, April 20, and while hi
: fellow officers were leaving to join the rebels
h one of them asked him what he would do
= Virginia seeded az will help to whip he
!, back again." said Thomas-this vacillatin
= Thomas of our senatorial historian. Gen.
: w. johnson wrote of Thomas:
/, After the surrender in Texas my regiment,
n which Thomas was major, concentrated at Cal
!, : Isle barracks. was intimately lated wit
IL Gen. Thomas from that time till the close OF III
o war. During the Patterson campaign we messe
together and frequently conyersed freely togethe
In regard to the war. Gen. Thomas never finche
or iaitered or wRvered in his devotion TO his cour
4 try,
d Gen. Patterson, under whom Tho mas pc
- formed his first field duty, wrote;
- Gen. Thomas contemplated with horror III
p prospect of war between his own state and III
IL union, but he never for moment hesitated, new
n wayered. eyersweryed from his allegiance to q
n he was. From the beginning / would hay
- pledged my hopes here and hereafter on Il
. loyalty ofThomas.
Gen. Sherman is authority for tho declart
tion that as soon as Mr.. Lincoln was inau
gurated Thomas brushed away the subtletie
:, Of the hour, saw clearly his duty, and pro