The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-14

40 Wllat a foreign one could d0f In the name OF
heaven and all that made, could not an
American do what other men could do! Had
Porter been ordered to march through water
four feet deep that night. and had said he could
not do it, what would be thought of him III
the light of the extract Just read. 1t was easy to
denounce the action of the dead, for they spoke
not, but it did not always succeed
MIR. Logan knew some gentlemen who We're very
anxious to show that this man had been unjustly
condemned. He held in his hand the condemna-
tlon of fifty one officers Of the army. lie read a
number of those to show the offenses for which
the men were dismissed One was for absence
without leave, and that the General an
nOunced he regretted that he 1.-THE General was
not the instrument to infict the punishment
OF DEATH and one of those fifty had never
had the benefit of a court martial, but was sum
marily dismissed by his officer. Who was that
officer! 1t was Major general Rosecrans. Who
appealed TO that general in behalf of those men
dismissed without court or trial or anything but
the mere whim of the commanding officer! Oh,
but they were only volunteer officers. Nobody
cared for them, and that is the way things
are running in this country at this
time. Men had been kicked out
of the way because they had been volunteer of
fcers or volunteer soldiers. No matter how
much they might be shattered, nobody ever put
them on the retired list Men that attempted to
destroy the government and | say this without
dsrespect, come forward and attempt to reverse
history and get some assistance from our
side, and on the ground of charity. Charity for
whom! For the benefit of a man who in the hour
Of trial failedfailed to perform his duty to his
country.
Mr. Logan was charged with following this
man too far If he logan was the only man
in the Senate chamber whose opinion opposed
the bill, he would be found maintaining that
opinion The Senator from New Jersey Mr..
SewelD had had letter read from General
Grant. If any man in the Senate had more re-
spect for General Grant than he
logan, he did not know who that
ma Ha
to detract from the well-earned fame of General
Grant; but, he would be permitted to say,
that as a lawyer General Grant could not be re
garded as first class. 1t had been said there
no battle on the Doth of August, 1862 and so
Porter could not be guilty. Well then. if there
was battle on the 29th he was guilty, according
to the views of Porter's friends.
Mr.. Logan then read the letter of General
Grant to Porter, in which he Grant said he
had condemned Porter on insufficient informa
ton; that since General Grant had ascertained
there was no battle fought ON the 29th then he
had said Porter was not guilty. In this, Mr..
Logan frankly agreed with General Grant. The
gentlemen did not want federal testimony; they
wanted confederate testimony He would there
fore take confederate testimony. Mr..
Logan then read from the statements
of General Lee to show that there was
a battle on the 29th, and that as General Lee
said, 1T ragged with great fury" Logan could
prove by the testimony of every Union officer
that there was such battle.
Mr.. Sewen said there was no question of the
fact that there had been very heavy fighting
during the day, but it was isolated bIigades.
Mr.. Logan said there evidently one ESQ
lated brigade" that did not fight laughter, and
no battle was fought in these times in which all
forces on both sides were simultaneously en-
gagged. If the gentlemen admitted there was a
battle on the Goth, that settled the case. In
stead of there being 900 troops i'll charge Of
General Longstreet, in front of Porter, as was
claimed, Mr.. Logan said it was proved that
there were not 5000 men in PorteFs front.
General Longstreet and several other gentleman
that belonged to the confederate army
had tried to make this thing as easy
as possible for Porter. But Logan had taken
their reports made at that time and analysed
them, and found how things were, and that was
better testimony than the memory of these men
twenty years later. When Pope concluded to
attack the enemy along the whole line. and
issued his afternoon order, he expected Porter to
be where he ought to be, instead of which Porter
was some miles away. The evidence of the Gen
eral who issued the order and the orderly who
delivered it, said it could not have been de
livered later than $40 p NJ. The sun set onthat
day at 636. and if he had only got the order at
the time indicated, he had still nearly two hours
of daylight This man Porter being wiser
man than Pope, and knowing better
when to fight than Pope did. did not
fight. The last assault of Wellingtons
guard upon Napoleon was made after 8 o'clock
at night, when the Iron Duke gave the famous
order, Up guards, and at Them and, notwith-
had passed into history But our bandbOx sol
der could not fight until he got ready. When
the order was handed to Porter, he folded it and
put it in his pocket General Sykes was at his
side, but that officer and General Morre had
said that Porter had not told them he was or
dercd to fight The only order Sturgis received
that day from Porter was not to fight, but to
move his troops back to Manassas, so thar there
could not be found in all evidence single order
that Porter gave to engage the enemy, even
in a skirmish. Assuming that he received,
at $50, an order to move on the enc
my mys v flank did and he rear aot obov posi-
Logan defed any friend of Porter to show that
he obeyed any Ter at the time. He utterly
failed to obey az order to fight. One Iule of
warfare Logan knew was to strike the enemy
where you find him, and to tell him that you
were not to fight because you feared you would
be whipped was to tell him a principle of
military action. He had never heard that till
he heard of Fitz John Porter. 1t had been said
that Porter had been good soldier, and that the
next day after this disobedence he had done
we'll That was not the point here. He was
merely insisting that Porter had disobeyed his
orders. So far as the argument of sympathy
was concerned all men in distress were en-
titled to our sympathy. The poorest man who
had fought in the army was entitled
to sympathy for his wounds and prva-
tons, but there was no PROPOSE
ton to put him on the retired list
Sympathy should not override law Sympathy
should not override principles. And said Mr.
Logan, turning to the Democratic side of the
chamber. Il say to-day, in all kindness to this
side of the chamber Though. of course, it will
have no effect, and l do not expect it to have
any, that the course of your people, assisted by
few of ours, is one which will prevent the PEG
pie of this country as long as you go on in this
way, from having any confidence that you in
tend to administer the affairs of this government
fairly
This opening of doors, he continued 'meant
the breaking down of the barriers between loyal
men and disloyal men, so far the foundations
of army discipline were concerned. 1t meant
opening the retired list to other men to come in
as Porter was coming. 1t meant more
than that" He did not care
what few gentlemen were in and what few were
out. He might say it was his conviction that
the great body of American people did not be-
lieve in breaking down the barriers between the
men who failed in the time of need ana those
who stood at their post ''and when | saw that