The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-02-09
FIIZ JOHN PORTER,

The House at Washington last Saturday
passed the bill to restore Gen. Fit John
! Porter to the rank in the army from which
he was cashicred 20 years ago by one Of
StantOn's court martialS "OrganiZed To con
Wet" The vote in favor of the bill was
ls4, of whom lG4 were democrats, Is re-
pubicans and independents; - republi-
cans and democrat-Converse, Of Ohio
voted against the bill The bill has yet To
pass the senate hut as il passed that body
at the last session there is no doubt il will
pass again, in spite of John A. Logans
threat again to use up three days Of the
senate's valuable time in torturing English
grammar against it,
The case of Gen. Porter, though now ten
wears before congress and the subject of a
vast amount of angry debate, is really IA
very simple one, AT the close of the sec
ond battle of Bull Run, the disastrous out
come of which, now that all the facts in re
gard to it are clearly settled and under
stood, is traccable to nothing but the con
| Spicuou> incompetency of Gen, Pope, the
authorities at Washington, by whom Pope
had 50 periously been placed at the head
of the Army of the Potomac over McClcl
Ian needed Scapegoat, 50 that popular in
digmtion could be diverted from them.
selves and their bag q wind General, and
To this end Gen FitZ John Porter was Sc
lected rs the victim.
The pretense set up was that the battle
of Bull Run was lost on account of the dis
obedience of certain orders by Gen. Porter
Before the court martial by which he was
tried three points We're set up: /. That
being ordered To march from Warrenton
junction to Bristow'S station on August
2Sth, he did not move at the time ordered
nor arrive until later than the hour desig-
mated; 3 DisObedience of the sOcalled
Joint order" to Porter and Mcdowell, to
move towards GAINESVILLE on the 29th; and
3. Disobedience of the order to 90 into
battle on the 29th-known as the a 80 p.
" order
The facts, as now clearly shown in re-
gard to point No are, that it was impos-
Sible for Porter Ia move TO BristOw Station
on August 2sth at the time designated, be
cause his doing 50, on account of the
blocked condition of the roads, was phys
ical impossibility; and, secondly, that had
Ia, ,rriy.I tlara 10 ar,laral thar. "a
no enemy there, and the march was simply
wild goose chase and one more evidence
of Pope's incapacity. As To the % point,
the Joint order" was 50 indefinite rs really
not 10 amount 10 an order, for ii was to be
Obeved only in case considerable advan-
tages" are to he gained by not oheying il.
Neither Mcdowell or Porter could make
ont what il meant and aS il was disobeyed
! by Mcdowell, who was the superior officer,
of course Porter was relieved from the
obi CATION And as 10 the 81 point, DISC
bcying the Il 30 o'clock order" 10 30 into
| battle, it was an order to attack in flank the
enemy "maSscd in the woods in front of us,
which Pope said was Stonewall Jackson'S
| force. The order only reached Porter at
- O'Clock and by that time he had found
out that instead of the force lin the woods
in front of Us" being Stonewall Jackson's
corps, it was LongNtreets army, four times
Porter'S strength, with jackson behind
him. If Porter had wildly thrown himself
upon LongstreetS lines, what would have
| happened; Let any one who wants To
know read the history of the fighting of the
next day, for then the whole army did just
that On the Both Pope, having a wild
imagination that he had whipped some
body on the Goth, and that the rebel army
was in retreat, pushed his forces rapidly
forward, and our whole army stumbled
against Longstreet and Jackson in well
chosen positions and suffered II bloody and
terrible repulSe Tha, was bad enough Ia
happen as it did on the Both. If anybody
imagineS it would not have been worse If
il had happened on the night of the 29th
|, he has no knowledge of the condition the
= right wing of our army was in that horri-
BILE night
There was some excuse for the finding
, of the first court martial that tried Porter
because all the facts at the time could not
he known; but afterwards. when tile Court
of Inquiry appointed 10y President Garfield,
We believe, investigated the case, the rebel
-
: officers with LongStreet at the time, were
accessible, and on such additional testimo
; ny the latter court, though composed oil
five members three of whom were hostile