The age-herald., 1897-11-06

accounts. Other aecodnss. Rhsse r.gat-
 fulness was established were rejected on proof of dis1oyalty. The commission re-
 garded complfoity in the rebellion as
 barring all claims against the United ! States.
 A very small percentage of the claims i were rejected because of fraud. In ale most every case it was possible to sup
 pose that the apparent fraud was accl-
 dent. My observation throughout the
 war was the same. I do not believe that i so much business could be transacted
 with closer adherence to the line of
 honesty. That there wsre frauds is i, matter of course, because men, and even some women, are wicked, but they were the exception. First Meeting With Grant
 | An the leisure that I had at Cairo I
 spent in horseback riding up and down
 the river banks and in visiting the ad- l jacent military posts. My longest and | most interesting trip was on the f'ourth
 of July, when I werJt down the Misss- sippi ito attend big celebration at Mem | phis. remember it particularly b,cause | it was there that I first met Gen. Grant. | The officers sta ationed in the city gave l dinner that day, 10 which l was in- | ytsed. At the table I was seated be- | tween Gen. Grant and Maj. John A. Rawhns, of his staff. I remebmer dls- ! tinctly the pleasan nit impression Grant | nade-tha,t of man of simple manners, | s.raightforward, cordial, and unpre- | tending. He had already fought the sue | csssful battles of Font Donelson and Shiloh, and when I met him was ma | ior-general in command of the dlst-acl | of West Tennessee, Department or the l Missouri under Tlalleck, with heaoquaF- | ters at Memphis. Although one would | not have expected it from his manners, l he was really under a cloud 4 the tlme | because of the operations at Sniioh | Those who did not like him had acouseu | him of having been taken by surpglse | there, and had decnr,d that he Woulo have been beaten if Bue1 had not come | up. I often talked later Wlth Grdle . staff officers about Shiloh, and Fhey aF ways affirmed that he would have pesh successful if Buell. had net come 10 ms relief I believe Grant himself Fhougnl so, although he never, in any or HIS many talks I afterward had with nm about the battle. said so direct'y
 Return to Washington
 We finished our labors at Cairo on the 31st of July, 1862, and l went at once to Washington with the report, placing IL in the hands of Mir. Stanton on August 5. It was never printed. and the manu- script is still in the files of the war de- partment.
 There was a great deal of curiosity among officers in Washington about the result of our investigation, and all the time that I was in the city l was ques- tioned on the subject. It was naturai enough that they should have been ln- terested in our report. The charges or fraud and corruption against ofhcers and contractors had become so reckless and general that the mere sight or a man in conference with high oinclai led to the suspicion and often the charge that he was conspiring to TOD the government. That in this case, where the charges seemed so well based, so small a percentage of corruption nao been proved was a source of sohd satls- faction to every one in the war depart ment.
 As MT. Stanton had no immediate need of my services, I returned to New fork' in August where I was occupied with various private affairs until the middle l of November, when l received a tele- gram from Assistant Secretary of War P. H. Watson,~asking me to come imme- diately to Washington to enter upon an- other investigation. I went, and was re- ceived by MT. stanton, who offered me the place of assistant secretary or war. I said I would accept.
 "All right" said he, consider it set tled.
 As I went out from the war depart- ment into the street I met Major Charles G. Halpine (Miles O'Reilly), of the Six ty-ninth New York Infantry. l had known Halpine we'll as a newspaper man in New York, and I told him of my appointment as MT. Stanton's as- sistant He immediately repeated what I had told him to some newspaper peo- pie; it was reported in the New York papers the next morning. The secretary was greatly offended and withdrew the appointment. When I told Halpine had. of course, no idea he was going to repeat it; besides, I did not think there was any harm in telling.
 As Cotton Trader
 Immediately after this episode form ed a partnership with Rosco ConkLng and George w. Chadwick to buy cotton. The outcry which the manufacturers had raised over the inability to get cot ton for their industries had induced the government to permit trading through the lines of the army, and the business looked profitable. Conkling and I each put s10,000 into the firm and Chadwick gave his services, which, as he was an expert in cotton, was considered equal to our capital. To facilitate our opera tions I went to Washington to ask Mr.
 Stanton for letters of recommendation to the generals on and near the Missls- sippi where we proposed to begin our operations. Mr. Stanton and had sev- eral conversations about the advisabili- ty of allowing such traffic, but he did not hesitate about giving me the letters I asked There were several of them