The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-12
GENERAL sGOTPs PROPHECY.
How the Old Soldier Intended to Begin the
War, and the Prediction He Made.

General Stone in Magazine of American History.
The "On to Richmond party had its power
full supporters in the capital of the country, in
the Senate and even IN the Presidents cabinet.
While it was well understood there that the
President and Mr.. Seward were disposed to act
coolly and in conformity with the ideas of the
responsible military chiefs in reference to mill
tary movements, it was also understood that Mr..
Chase was strong advocate for immediate
advance"
Leutenantgene Scott, the general-in
chief of the army, while desiring prompt and
vigorous action as soon as the proper means of
procuring success could be organized was earn
estly opposed to a forward movement until such
time as the national forces should be so reason
| ably organized as to make success at the least
| probable. Notwithstanding my appointment to
! the colonelcy of new regiment tthe Fourteenth
| United States Infantry / was still retained by
| General Scott as his inspector general for the
| district and commander of the District of
Columbia troops, and was acting directly under
| his orders.
At about s o'clock in evening on one of the last
days of May Il think it was the 31st of May) l
| entered usual the quarters of the aged gen
| eralin-chief to make my report for the day, ana
| to receive my orders for the night. AS entered
the General was seated at the head of his din
| ing table (which had been cleared), while the
Secretary of the Treasury Mr.. Chase, occupied
| a seat opposite to him at the foot of the table.
| Habitually the General in-chief. on my entrance
in the evening, courteously invited me to be
| seated; but now he seemed to have been engaged
IN earnest conversation, and as | advanced he
| said, quickly:
Colonel Stone, how many men do you want
to march on Richmond by the way of Man
assas2n
perceived that the General required an in
slant reply, and said, promptly: Forty thou
sand, General, and then quickly added: with
| Is, 900 in reserve"
"Well, sir, suppose 1 give you that force, how
1 soon could you mover
''That, General would depend upon the quar-
termaster's and subsistence departments. l
could move as soon as they could give me rations
| and transportation"
well, sir! suppose you had them. How fast
1 would you advanceP
Having all prepared, General, the advance
| guard Of my force might be on the Rappahan-
mock in three days, and
''Rappahannock! Rappahannock! What is
| that2'
1.-THE Rappahannock river, General"
| "Oh! There is a river there, is there? Rap
| pahannock river, eh2 wish that everybody
knew that! Well, sir, what then9n
SHOULD the bridge be burned"
Eth, there is bridge over that river, and that
! bridge might be burned l wish everybody knew
that. too WE'LL sir, if the bridges are burnedln
why, then, General / would probably lose
| two or three days in forcing the passage of the
| fords THE And so continued to describe
| the advance.
The General interrupted me with: ''Why,
Colonel Stone, you are taking forty or fifty days
to get to Richmond"
General think that would be fortunate to
arrive there in that time in the face of an active
enemy, fully acquainted with the country"
The General said, as if thinking aloud: II
wish / could see General Totten. wish could
see the chief of engineers"
/ d;a4 lof4
eral lotion the chief of engineers of the army.
1t was rainy night and to spare the aged Gen
eral damp walk | took carriage and drove to
his house. Admitted Immediately, / found
/ the venerable General lotion and his
gracious wife seated before the fireplace,
in which small fire had been kindled to
keep away the dampness. Both welcomed me
1 kindly, and invited me to take seat between
them; but excused myself, and, apologizing for
| disturbing them on SO damp an evening, said
General, the General in-chief desires to see you
at his headquarters and / have brought a car
riage in order that you may respond to his desire
! with as little inconvenience as possible
In one minute the careful wife of his youth
had thrown cloak over the old Generals shout
ders, and few minutes later I ushered him into
the presence of the general-in-chief,
There had been arrivals since my recent de-
parture. Mr.. Seward Secretary of State; Mr..
Cameron, Secretary of War, and General Thomas,
Adjutant general of the army were there. All
rose as General Totten entered and chair was
/ placed Tor MIN at the table, between General
Scott and Mr.. Secretary Chase. Mr.. Cameron
seated himself between General Scott aud Gen
eral Iotten, while Mr.. Seward stretched his
length upon a lounge near by.
/ After few words of compliment had passed
| General Scott said:
/ General Totten regret to have disturbed
| you so disagreeable an evening, but greatly
i desired your opinion on military matter which
is under consideration. How many troops
! would you consider it necessary to have to make
a movement hence on Richmond by the way of
/ Manassas"
General Totten, as he sat there with his hands
clasped on the table before him and his white
/ head bending over his hands, in serious thought,
looked the type of the scientific. general He re-
piled, carefully and deliberately: General, /
| do not think it would be wise to undertake such
an operation without force of at least fifty
/ thousand men"
General Scott-Supposing such force placed
at your disposal, General. how soon could you
make the advance?
General Totem suppose that the Ord
nance Department would probably have supplies
/ sufficient for such force, and the engineer de-
! partment would be ready quickly the great
! question of time would depend upon the pro
| curement of transportation, and of subsistence
Then came series of questions and answers
| concerning the details of advance almost iden
| tical with the questions which had been pro-
pounded to me, and to my great relief General
Totten's answers were sngularly like those |
had already given to similar questions.
The Generalin-chief was greatly pleased. He
| turned to the Cabinet ministers present and
said: Really, gentlemen here is a most extra
ordinary unanin1ity of opinion. I address GER
tain set of questions to young colonel, the
youngest colonel perhaps in the army, in whom
one might expect to find a youthful en-
thusiasm and a too sanguine view of
matters. and | receive a certain set Of answers
address the same set of questions to the oldest
and most distinguished of our scientific general
officers, rich in the experience of two wars, and
from him receive almost identically the same
unity of opinion9 Gentlemen, the only way
can explain it to myself is that it must be Of
their trade that they have been speaking, and