The Washington critic., 1886-02-23
TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Speaking of some of the great fight.
ers of the war, an old Federal soldier,
now in Congress, said to a CORE.
spondent of the Atlanta Constitution
the other day: "The most promising
military career in our army was
blighted when Porter fell under
cloud. There is no doubt of the fact
that he had contempt for Pope as
man and as commander. He chafed
under the consciousness that he was
under the command of an incompe.
tent and spiteful officer. ! don't think
this influenced his action in the his.
toric case. If there was man in
either army who loved to fight it was
Porter, but he was no fool, and the
conduct for which he was court
martialed was the exercise of his mill
tary sense. He had an appreciation of
the situation of which Pope was abso-
lutely incapable and he had no desire
TO sacrifice the Fifth Army Corps in a
useless dash upon Jackson with Long
street ready to swoop down and insure
the capture Of his entire command.
The best corps commander, believe,
in either army, was Joe Hooker. |
never saw man who could handle q
corps so well and get so much
fighting out of u. But that was the
limit Of Hooker's capacity of a general.
The two men, who have received less
credit for their work in conquering the
Confederacy, compared to the value of
their services, are Sherman and Meade.
Sherman's march to the sea- was un.
dertaken against the protest of Grant
and other high military authorities
Stanton hated Sherman because Sher-
man would not truckle to him. AS to
Meade, the injustice is still more strik-
ing. Had Lee won the battle of Get.
tysburg the Confederacy would have
been invincible. Lee has been severely
censured by military critics for push
ing into this fight. 1t was q Napo-
leonic movement worthy of the great
commander who made II. Lee realized
that the Confederacy with its limited
resources must triumph soon If it tri-
umphed at all He failed, but failed
| through no fault of his own. Meade
laid plans for his battle superbly, and
calculated the result from the start.
Hancock was his right arm, but the
man who directed the ruinous work of
the artillery was Henry j, Hunt.
| Meade died almost unknown, and Hunt
is now only q retired colonel. Congress
| passed bill retiring him as a major.
| general, and Chester Arthur vetoed II
for tlimsy technicalitics. Sherman has
| riled under his subordination to the
unanimous Northern praise of Grant,
and is going to his grave bitter and
cynical old man."
~
Says the Washington correspondent
of the ST. Louis Republican: In tht
revival Of talk about the overbearing
despotic ways of Stanton while he was
Secretary of War, which has been one
OF the incidents of the Fitz John Porter
debate this week, Ex-Governor Curtin
has been led to the relation of an Incl
dent in his experience never heretofore
made public. lie says he came to Wash
ington at the time so many Unior
soldiers were shut up in Andersonvillt
to urge Stanton to consent to an ex
change, only to get the answer Stanton
| gave everybody else. "That woult
only be giving 80, 900 able-bodied mel
| for 80 900 skeletons, was the only re
ply he could get from Stanton; so afte
a plain expression of his indignation h,
went back to Pennsylvania. A few
days later brief note came to him from
Stanton, telling him in a half dozer