Omaha daily bee., 1896-06-28

so serious that l could not appreciate that
great minds like that OF President Lincoln
must have relaxation. | remember once
when things looked the blacklist Tom
Thumb and General Mutt were brought by
p. T.. Barnum to the white house. President
Lincoln and his cabinet gave up business
for an hour and spent it in being enter
tanned by them. This at the time seemed to
me outrageous. l thought it was a very
foolish proceeding to engross the attention
OF the president at such a time, but it was
perhaps a needed relaxation. | saw Tom
Thumb afterward and he told me that he
rode to the white house that day in a car
rage which was given to him by Queen
Victoria"
MCCLELLAN M HIS HORSES TONGUES.
Did President Lincoln really know much
about the operations of the war; | asked.
Yes, indeed. President Lincoln knew of
every movement on the military chess
board. He directed many OF the operations
himself. 1t was he who removed Mcclellan.
l don't think the real story OF this order
mas ever been told. 1t was Just after the
battle of Antietam in September, 1862. Both
Lincoln and Stanton had been urging Nc
Clellan to move on after General Lees
army and capture it. | sent for President
Lincoln message after message to McClel-
Ian, directing him to move on, and McCIel-
Ian repeatedly replied that rapid movement
was impossible. He held back on various
p%reteXts, and finally sent a message which
capped the climax. This last telegram was
as follows:
&" President Lincoln:
" We are still delayed. Cavalry horses
tongues are sore.
(signed.) GEORGE b. MCCLELLAN
The idea OF stopping a great army be-
cause of the soreness of the tongues of the
horses was more than Lincoln could stand.
Within an hour after the telegram came
McClellan's head was off. An order was
issued relieving him of the command of
the Army Of the potnnnpr
BEHIND II SCENES WITH STANTON.
How did Secretary Stanton impress you? %
/ asked,
Edwin NJ. Stanton seemed to me a man
of great force" replied Editor Rosewater.
There was no Joking about him, and he
did an MORMON amount of work, You
must remember thai there were no stem
oSraphers or typewriters then to write tele-
grams and letters. Stanton wrote the most
of his dispatches, which were very numer-
Gus. | sent off many kilograms for Presi-
dent and Mrs. Lincoln. and it was a Curl
Gus thing to me that Mrs. Lincoln's hand
writing was so much like that of the prcsi-
dent that you could hardly tell them apart.
As for General Burnside, he wrote a worse
hand than Horace Greeley. Secretary Stan
tons penmanship was in a big, round hand. >"
TELEGRAPHING DURING A BATTLE.
How about your work with the army,
Mr.. Rosewater? Tel%egraphing during a bat.
tie must be very eXciting?i
les. II Is, Itllltu MT. i
was in a number OF minor engagements, and
| did all the telegraphing that was done
for our army at the second battle of Bull
Run. / thought our army was going to
move right on to Richmond at that time, and
| asked that ] might be detailed to accom-
pany General Pope so that | might be one
OF the first to a rive at the rebel capital.
At Bull Run | had my instrument placed on
the ground among the dead horses. There
was shooting going on around me, and !
RnIlH not Toll NphntlaR tnn "a, tAnt a- a.
rebels or whether they were whipping us.
General Pope was sending dispatches all
day, stating that he was beating the enemy,
while in fact he was really being defeated.
At the first battle of Bull Run, you know,
there were a line OF c%ouriers, which brought
the news to Fairfax court house. from where
1t was telegraphed to Washington. The wire
was not carried to the battle itself, but the
news was brought for ten miles to Fairfax
station, and then sent. On the day of the
battle the telegraph office, desk, chair, etc,
consisted OF a railroad tie. upon which the
instrument was placed. The operator was
a man named Rose. He sent dispatches
up until q O'Clock, stating that everything
was going we'll, and then for a time there
was no news. and finally came a dispatch
stating Our army is in full retreat Pres
ident Lincoln and his cabinet were In the
War department Office at the time. and the
news was a great shock to them. That
same night, however, orders were tele-
graphcd over the country for endorsements
and YOU know 1000 men enlisted within two
days"
what kind OF machinery did you carry
with you to the field? I asked.
Not much replied Mr.. Rosewater.
During my service with General Fremont
in West Virginia, as well as in the cam
paign with General Pope, all had was a
pocket instrument about three Inches wide
and six inches long, l could connect my
instrument with any wire at any point. and