St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-14


of his brother, which Nero threw over the
city wall The night marches of Napoleon
were the distinguishing characteristic of his
military methods, and were one secret of his
success Logan sent to the clerks desk and
had read from Motley's "Dutch Republic'' an
instance in 1872 where 5000 soldiers
marched nine miles through an arm of the
sea that came up to their chins to reach their
goal in time, and they did it and accom-
plished their objects. Yet Porters distance
from the point where he was wanted was
only nine miles on dry land. VIII any
American say an American soldier cannot
do what foreign soldier could do? In the
name of heaven and all that was 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 in the light of the extract Just read I?
It was easy to denounce the action of the
dead for they spoke not, but it did not al
ways succeed. Logan knew of some gentle
men who were very anxious to show in this
that he might have been unjustly condemned.
| He held in his hand the condemnation of
fffty-one officers Of the army. He read a
number of those to show the offcnses for
which the men were dismissed.
One was for absence without
leave, and in that case the general
announced, he regretted that he (the gen
| eraD was the instrument to inflict the pun
ishment Of death, and not one of those fifty
one men had even had the benefit Of court
martial, but were summarily dismissed by
their officer And who was that officer! It
was Major General Rosecrans. Who ap-
pealed to that general on behalf Of those men
| =; orr ri nra i'm
but the mere within of the commanding of
fcerl On, but they were only volunteer
officers, nobody cared for them; and that is
the way things are running in this country
at the present time. Men had been kicked
out of the way because they had been volun
teer officers 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 l
say this without disrespect. Come forward
and attempt to reverse, history and get some
assistance from our side, and on the ground
of charity. Charity for the benefit of the
man who, on the hour of trial, failed to per-
form his duty to his country. Logan was
charged, he said, with following the man too
far. If ne (Logan) was the only man in the
senate chamber whose opinion opposed this
| bill, he would still be found maintaining that
opinion. The senator from New jersey
| (SewelD had had letter read from Gen.
Grant. If any man in the senate had more
respect for Gen. Grant than he Qogan) he
did not know who the man was. He would
say nothing to detract from the well
earned fame of Gen. Grant. But he
would be permitted to say, that as lawyer,
General Grant could not be regarded as first
class. 1t had been said, there was no battle
on the 29th of August, 1868, and so Porter
could not be guilty. Well, then, if there was
a battle on the goth he was guilty according
| to the views of Porter's friends. Logan then
read a letter from General Grant to Porter,
in which he Grant said he had condemned
Porter on insufficient information. That is,
since General Grant had ascertained that
| there was no battle fought on the 29th, and
| then he had said that Porter was not guilty.
| In this Logan frankly agreed with General
| Grant. The gentlemen did not like federal
testimony. They wanted confederate testimo-
nv, and he would therefore take confederate
| testimony. Logan then read from the state
ment of General Lee to show that there was
| battle on the goth, and that, as General
Lee said, sit ragged with great fury" Logan
could prove, by the testimony of every union
officer, that there was such battle.
Senator Sewell said there was no question
of fact that there had been heavy fighting
during the da::ss 5u u was by isolated brig
AIDES.
Senator Logan said there evidently was
one isolated brigade that did not fight,
| Qaughter), and no battle was fought in these
| times in which all the forces on both sides
were simultaneously engaged. If the gentle
man admitted that there was battle on the
| hot loI ha N there
being %, 900 troops in charge of Longstreet,
in front of Porter, as was claimed,
Logan said it was proved that there were
not 5000 men in Porter's front. General
Longstreet, and several other gentlemen
| that belonged to the Confederate army, had
tried to make this thing as easy as possible
| for Porter, but Logan had taken their re-
ports, made at the time and analysed it, and
found how things were, and that was other
| 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 evil
| dence of Pope who issued the order, and the
orderly who delivered it, said, it could not
| have been, delivered later than $50. The
sun set that day at 6:36, and if he
had only got the order, it indicated that he
had still nearly two hours 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 Wei
lington's guard upon Napoleon was made af-
| ter o'clock at night, and when the old Iron
Duke gave the famous order: Sup guards,
and at them,'' and notwithstanding the late
ness of the hour that charge passed into his
| tory. Bnt our ''band box'' soldier could
not fight until he got ready. When the word
was handed to Porter he folded it and put it
| in his pocket. Gen. Sykes was by his side,
| but that officer and Gen. Moren had said that
Porter had not told them he was ordered to
fight. The only order Sturgis received that
| day from Porter, was not to fight
but to have his troops back to Manassas. so
that there could not be found in all the evil
dence a single order that Porter gave to en-
gage the enemy even. as skirmish. AS
suming he had received, even at $3.50 a. m.
order to move on the enemy's tanks on the
rear if possible, why did he not obey it!
Logan desired any friend of Porter to show
that he obeyed any order at that time. He
utterly failed to obey any order to fight. The
only rule of warfare that Logan knew was to
strike an 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 new
principle of military action. He had never
heard that, till be heard Fitz John Porter. It
had been said that Porter had been good
soldier, and that the next day after this dis
obedience he had done well. That was not
the point here. He was merely insisting that
Porter had disobeyed his orders. So far as
the argument of sympathy is concerned, all
men in distress were entitled to our sympa-
thy. The poorest man who had fought in
the army was entitled to our sympathy for
his wounds and priyations. But there was
no proposition to put him on the retired list.