The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-03-23
BApEAu AND HIS ACTIONS.

ii. ". Boynton. in Cincinnati commercial Gazette
At last General Badeau has caused the public
TO see him as those have known him who nave
been familiar with his whole career since ha
frat joined General Grant.
Only before the General and his immediate
family did he succeed through these ysars in
effectualy yelling his real self. The revelation
was sudden and soul-sickenine. General Grant
sat In the presence of death and the world was
watching by his bedside when this blow fell Tt
would have been staggering blow to most men
in health TO be unexpectedly made aware that
most trusted and confidential friend, whose OBJ
legations to his benefactor ran through long
wears and were measureless, had turned coldly
upon him What must the revelation have been
TO General Grant as he lay struggling with
death and giving his whole powers 20 the COM
petition of book which would leave his family
bread, to have the knowledge flash upon him
that the man who owed everything ne was in
life to his benefactor was seeklng to rob him az
he lay dying of all he had been able to save in
his stubborn contest with death
But the remarkable letter of General Grant
shows clearly that some months before he died
he became acquainted with Badeau The be-
reaved family made his acquaintance almost i'm
medlately after the burial LIZ rs now evident
tnat Tor all or them the associations or quarter
of a century had not served TO open their eyes
Co the real man. Everybody else about General
Grant had taken the true measure of this mlh-
tary secretary from the time when he was Sc
curely established in his position To them the
revelations of Grants last correspondence with
Badaau were not in the nature of intense sur
prise. With the experience of the past they
had not expected that General Grants eyes
would ever be fully opened. The only element
OF surprise was in the fact that the General had
at last come to full knowledge. The other feat
of the case, the dark lines of the revelation
by which the man made himself known, were
not matter of the least astonishmens TO them.
From the time he joined Grants staff, or
rather from the time he had succeeded in in graf.
iating himself, troubles multiplied about head
quarters. This is the testimony of officers who
were prominent there. He was Industrious and
skillful in undermining those who stood well
with Grant, and bringing about misunderstand-
ings.
Many of General Grants most serious differ
ences arose from Badeau's in references. And
the same is true of some OF the annoying
controversies which have arisen in the discussion
of war history.
Badeau did more than all other Influences to
poison prejudice and mislead General Grant in
regard to General Halleck. This work runs
through every book of those three volumes OF
fiction known as Badeau's Military History OF
Grant. In the first volume he began his ma
licious work against Halleck, and his writings in
regard to the very time when Haleck unques-
tionable saved Grant from overwhelmingly
after DoneIson-represented Halleck as intriRu-
ing instead to destroy him. He pretended that
Halleck had suppressed certain dispatch In
which he had reported the trouble he had had
with Grant after Donelson, and that he, Ba-
deau, had found it after long and laborious
search. This he took TO Grant as an evidence
of Haleck's treachery and double-dealing. Bus
matter of fact the dispatch had never been
withheld from the files, but was found in it's
proper place Correspondence beLw cen these
two Generals exists in the papers of General
Halleck TO show that General Grant wrote after
these events that he satisfied that General
Halleck had always been his friend and that he,
Grant, under deep obligations to him. The
reason for this persstant pursuit of Haileck are
well understood to have been altogether per-
sonal, and to have been based on the fact that
Halleck did not treat him with sufficient con-
slderaton when, as a very green aid, he report
ed for duty at Pittsburg Landing soon after the
battle of Shiloh.
General Thomas was ano Their officer against
whom Badeau constantly worked. His books
abound with thrusts which the general reader
will not fully understandable fact. in many
cases might not notice but which, TO the friends
of this greatest general of them all, have always
been n cause of evaporation. lie carried on his
underhand and dlshonorable warfare against
General Thomas up to the very day of this
officers death. In fact his last act toward him
was one which materially fastened his death.
The circumstances of this particular case will
we'll illustrate Badeau's methods.
In the early part of March, 1870. the Wash
ington correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette
called on President Grant in pursuance of
appointments made by General Logan to receive
General Grants statement of the facts attending
the contemplated removal of General Thomas
Just before the battle of Nashville. and the issu
ing of order for General Logan to super sede
him. This visit was made at the earnest per-
sonal request of General Logan, who desired
TO obtain the true story and publish
it. to meet certain statements then
in circulation that Generanl Logan
had intrigued with General Grant to obtain
command of the Army of the Cumberland in
place of Thomas This story was wholly unjust
TO Logan. General Grant readily agreed TO tell
the story of Nashville. The correspondents went
to his Office and wrote it out. and then gave it
to General Logan with the request that he
would take it to the President for revision. The
latter said that it written as he had given
it. but that his thinking over the matter had
made it clearer in his mind, and he had con-
cluded that the farest thing to all concerned
would be TO give the correspondent all the off,
cial correspondence in the case. He therefore
directed General Badeau, then serving at the
White House as his military secretary, to pre-
pare copies of all the official dispatches con-
nected with the matter, and give them the
correspondent. This Badeau proceeded TO do,
and some days afterwards produced what he de-
clared to be the complete official history of the
contemplated removal of General Thomas. Ac-
cess to the records at that day was by ne
means usual thing, and the appearancel
of what supposed TO be the full offieia-
record of the move against General Thomas at
tracted very wide attention. The dispatched
furnished full vindication of Thomas
that his friends were delighted with their ap
appearance.
About two weeks after their appearance the
correspondent surprised and panied TO re-
ceive q letter from General Thomas headQuar
ters at San Francisco asking If everything fur.
nished from the White House had been printed.
The tone of the letter was such as to snow that
the publication was incomplete in some impor-
tant and essential particulars, and that theirs
was deep feeling about II. Inquiry OF General
Badeau only elected the reply that he bad fur
nished everything of consequences. and that his
collection of dispatches complete few
days later the telegraph brought the news OF
General Thomas sudden death.
The facts an now known his friends, are
that the dispatches furnished by Badeau were
far from complete and that he had deliberately
suppressed fifteen dispatches of the greatest
consequence General Thomas side of the case,
and the very in which he took the greatest
pride as affording him the fullest vlndication.
The outrageous treatment properly enraged
General Thomas. He chafed under il, and
brooded over it as the browning indignity offered
him. and as a stab inflicted out of the sight OF
the pubic and under the guIse of doing him
full justice. few days later he determined TO
write full account of the matter for the pub
lie. A confidential staff officer gathered the
official material and left him at his desk engaged
upon his work A little later ON returning he
found HIM the floor in fit of apoplexy. He
never rallied. The excl ement of the work
upon which he engaged had killed him.
Badeau still insisted that the full history had
been given. Ii was not until year later, and