St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-12

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headquarters.
II then had consultation with OFF,
| GERS Rawlins, Hilyar and Logan, of
| Grants staff, and Commodore Graham,
| of the transports, as to what wonld be
! the result if the correspondents who
| accompanied BuelFs army and were
imbued with his sentiments got off the
| first report of the battle. On my
| way down the river L had
! learned that communications had
| been established with the north at Fort
! Henry, and | was the only man in the
army who knew it, owing to the fact
| that the wires had been connected just
| on the eve of the battle and no reports
| had been sent to the officers. Although
! on the staff still held my Herald COM
mission, and agreed. if they would put
transport at my disposal, | would send
| of the first news of the battle.
Commodore Graham turned over to
| me one of the transports then under
steam, with instructions to the captain
| that he was under my orders until he
| reached Cairo. Having failed to find
| Mr.. Wilson. the only correspondent
| OF the Herald whom l knew, and who
was present at the beginning of the fight,
we started towards Savannah. went
to sleep ana did not wake up until the
next day at 10 o'clock. | kept my iden-
| tity quiet, and when l got about in the
morning | saw that number of the war
| correspondents had boarded the boat
| Pittsburg Landing.
Bound TO Get a s'Beat.''
"Among them was Whitelaw Reid.
then the correspondent of the old Gin
| cinnati Gazette. | did not begin to
write my story until late in the after
| noon. l was sitting on the upper
deck, and we were approaching
| the landing. had my story
about completed and was feel
! ing quite good sOver my prospective
beat when a gust of wind came along
and blew all of my work into the river,
but the last two or three pages. Fort
Henry was then not more than a mile
| away. | had no copy, and the rest of
more or less all day from their notes. |
walked the deck, waiting for the boat to
land, trusting then only in my exclusive
knowledge of the existence of the tele-
graph office.
when the boat struck the wharf |
jumped ashore and ran up to the little
log house that was being utilized as a
telegraph Office and found the operator.
a bright SO gold piece fixed him. l
told him there might be some other men
there. but for him to make some excuse
and he said he would. l knew had
control of the line then and felt better.
lin moment or two number of cor
respondents came troOping in. They
had heard of the established cOmmuni-
cations after the boat landed. That OPP
orator was true to his word. 1t was a
severe, stormy night, and the lightning
was playing around al lively rate.
Every man wanted to have his special
filed first. The operator informed them
he could not guarantee their transmits
sion for the reason that the wires were
full of lightning, but that if they would
leave them he would do the best he
could. This was at o'clock at night.
"While / was standing there White
law Reid wrote a dispatch 10 the Ga
zette, giving in brief the result of the
battle, and stating that he would be in
Cincinnati by Friday following with
full particulars. As | looked over his
shoulder and read those few lines my
mind was made up. l must beat him in
some way before he could get Off to
Cincinnati.
II left those correspondence
with the operators and rushed to the
boat, told the captain to ring his bell
and go ahead. that released him from
my orders. 1t was laughable the way
those men rushed back to the boat
After | saw the steamer under way
began to write my story. That special
had to go round by the way of Fort Don
elSOn, Smithland, KY, Paducah, then
up to Cairo and across through the
north of New York. All newspaper
stuff was subject to censorship, and after
the operator had been sending a lit
tie while an inquiry came from Fort
DorelsOn to the effect that the COM
handing officer wanted to know who
was sending it. L learned the officer was
Gen. Logan and told the operator to
send back word that it was Carroll
Gen. Logan sent back word that it
should go ahead. After another dash
at it the operator stopped and said that,
owing to the distance and roundabout
course, had already incurred an eX-
pense that was running into hundreds,
and wanted to know what assurance he
would have that the bill would be paid.
l showed him letter of instructions,
ana from that time on it was all plain
sailing. had, Of course, nc other source
of information than my own ObSerYa-
ton, and had had no opportunity for
consultation with any one. Much detail
was omitted, and only the salient points
and general results of the battle put on
the wire.
Read the Story in s'The Tribune.'s
"Whitelaw Reid reached Cairo the
next afternoon, following me, and my
dispatch to the Herald. reproduced, met
him when he reached Cincinnati. | had
10 wait at Fort Henry for two days for a
boat, and when | returned to headquar-
tiers l found Gen. Webster in Grants
headquarters reading from some news
paper an account of the fight. | was in
tensely chagrined atwhat had apparent
~ proved to be a fruitlesS mission on
my part. While reading the last part
of the dispatch, which was all l heard,
thought the dictiOn sounded much
like my own. Webster turned to me
and SAID:
"'That's the fairest first report have
ever seen published of any fight with
which | am familiar and then turning
to me, he said: What do you know of
this. major?'
81 grasped the paper anxiously, and
saw that it was a Chicago Tribune, and
the report was one headed "a special to
the New York Herald says so and so.'
| had gained the end for which l had
struggled, and had beaten all the rest of
IllO OOS .. w 90 nap w ny SHOulOu L
be? The Herald on receipt of that
dispatch got out an extra, and the next
mornings papers went to Europe on an
outgoing vessel. Public opinion on
both sides Of the water was we'll founded
before any other story of that great bat
tie got into print. and l honestly be-
lieve it did much to stem the sentiment
that had been fostered and encouraged
against Gen. Grant.
''Gen. Grant was never a demonstra-
i've man, and in subsequent talk he
told me that he was under obligations
to me for the zeal had displayed in re-
porting the battle, and putting him
Alright before the people of the country.
That special was published forty
eight hours ahead of all others, and
ahead of any official communication. 1t
was impossible to get any report from
Gen. Grant. Halleck had accepted
Buell's report of the battle over Grants
head, notwithstanding Grant had sent
the report back to Buell. three times on
account of its inaccuracies and misstate-
mentS. For this reason Grant declined