Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-06-25
A WAR SECRET
Significantly Hinted at by Hon. Charles A
Dana and Further Indicated by Gen. H. v
BOynt0n.

DanS anu Hurtner Indicated by Gen. H. v.
BOynton.
Special to the Cincinnati Commercisl-Gazette
WASHINGTON, June %. There are two men
now living, and probably but two. who are the
custodians Of nearly all the important secrets
Of the war. These are Hon. Charles A. Dana,
formerly assistant secretary of war under Mr..
Stanton, and Gen. 7. T. Eckert now of the
western Union, who was in charge of military
telegraphs during the war.
An editorial in today's Sum- evidently from
the pen of Mr.. Dana, commencing the excoria-
ton of Lord wolseley by Hon. Geo. C. Cor
ham, closes with what seems to be an allusion
to one Of the most sensational chapters of in
side war history. Lord wolseley, in a recent
article. made an ignorant and brutal attack
upon the great War Secretary Mr. Gorham
| replied in crushing article that the Sun
| printed yesterday and which ought to make
| Englishmen blush for their general. The chief
point In the discussion was Stanton's attitude
| toward the terms first proposed between Gems
sherman and Johnston. After speaking of
| Gorhams article as lone of extraordinary
| ability and value" Mr.. Dana closes as follows:
But there is one point upon which he does
| not dwell as fully as we could wish, and that
point We will now attempt briefly to consider
| when the war ended by the enforced sur
| render OF the confederacy the United States
had under arms, as we suppose something
| more than a million of soldiers. Most Of them
we're veterans practiced in war during three
| or four years of constant service. They had
| over them generals whom they followed and
| fought under, and whom they regarded with
mutual confidence and attachment. These
generals were able men, many of them am
bilious, many of them probably convinced that
In the qualities requisite for conducting the
business of government they were superior to
those whom the recent election had put in
charge of that business. We do not believe
that there was a man among them who knew
the wish or conceived the thought of conspir-
ing against his country, but none the less the
supreme question OF the time was the disband-
ment OF that immense army and the return of
soldiers and officers to the walks of peace with
out any friction or any danger to the republic.
10 maintain the superiority of the civil spirit
over the military was one Of the great cares of
Mr. Lincolns mind, and it was the great care
OF MIR. Stantons. The war was over; the need
Tor armies was gone. and if this million veterans
could only be merged and lost in the mass of
citizenship critical difficulty would be re-
moved and dissipated.
This was one reason why Gen. Shermans
convention was so promptly and emphatically
repudiated, and it is to the glory of Cen Grant
that he saw this necessity as clearly as Mr.
stanton himself. Sherman was perhaps his
nearest friend. but he agreed heartily in the
order the President issued to him to 20 down
TO North Carolina and take charge Of the sur
render which Sherman had so perilously mis-
managed.
The great work was finally accomplished,
the army was brought back to peaceful life
without struggle an accident. That ire
mendous martial array, which could have
dehed the world in arms. disappeared as if by
magic, and some future historian. who may be
able to penetrate deeply into the causes and
the DISCUSSES of events, will record in his page
the circumstance that this unprecedented
transformation, in which SO many anxious pa
triots, soldiers and statesmen alike labOred to-
gether, was pre-eminently achieved by the
heroic genius and craftsmanship of Edwin VI.
Stanton"
Whether or not what is now to be related was
known in the War Department in detail, ard
Mr. Dana Is thus referring to il in general
terms, cannot OF course be known to an out
slder. But to a number who were on the in
side about several prominent military head
quarters at Greensboro and Raleigh during
the period Immediately following the junction
OF sherman and Schotields armies this edi-
torial will recall certain political propositions
which came down from conservative quarters
III Washington, and which were quietly under
discussion at several headquarters up to the
time OF the overruling of Gen. Shermans
terms.
The assassination of Mr.. Lincoln, the utter
collapse OF the rebellion, the marching OF the
armies for home, the grand re view and the uni
versal acclaim of the north-these all contrib.
uted to put political propositions wholly out of
slght, II not out OF mind and. Il result, they
were not then disclosed to tie country. The
scheme originated in the fertile brain of Mont
gomery Blair. His brother Frank was one of
the corps commanders to whom it was confided.
Briefly stated. the points of the startling propo-
sltlons were these:
l. The war is about to end and the Lincoln
government is not prepared with any COM
prehensive plan Of restoration.
z. The Union army can control the situation,
and If Its leaders will agree to any conserva-
tive settlement they will be followed by the
Union soldiers and can be certain of the sub
sequent support of the confederates.
.. with this preliminary argument, it was
boldly proposed to undertake "a politica! move
ment In the armies which should look to the
elevation OF some popular soldier and which
should be committed to wrestling the govern
ment at the earliest possible moment from the
administration In power, and putting aside
such leaders as Lincoln. Stanton, Charles Sum
ner, Ben Wade. Zach Chandler, Henry Wilson,
lhad Stephens and their associates; and in
such movement 1t was argued that in case of
surrender upon conservative terms the sup
port OF all leading confederates could subse-
quently be readily obtained.
There were doubtless some in the deeper Sc
crets OF this political intrigue who were ac-
quainted with the plan by which it was sup
posed that such a scheme could be carried out
and whether in the minds of its originators it
involved dictatorship or the slower process
OF the ballot box. This feature of the process
not disclosed. The others were quietly
thrown out among prominent officers for CON
sideration.
Into the midst of this plan fell the assassina-
ton of Mr.. Lincoln. the peremptory rejection
OF the first terms offered to Johnston, and the
final surrender. These made utterly impossi-
BILE the further consideration of the scheme at
that time. The armies were mustered out and
quietly absorbed throughout the north into
| the pursuits of peace.
But this scheme did not die, though the plan
OF making the army party to it had failed.
Two years later, with Montgomery Blair again
as its chief instigator, it was revived in the An
| drew johnson detection of 1866.
These are outlines only. There are officers
| who held high rank in Sherman's and Scho-
| fields armies in March and April, 1865, who
should be able to recall the scheme as it
was presented to them. If all the facts can
come out they will make chapter which will
hardly be exceeded by any of the hidden SEN
| sations Of the war. HVB.
Results Of Yesterdays Racing
At Sheepshead Bay, first race-Futurity
course. Correction 1. Fairy q. Eon Tina