The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-18
IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Mr. Dana Employed by the IoVerh-
ment to Report Operations.


ment to Report Operations.
Ar the close of 1860 says Ida M. Tarpel,
IN McClure's Magazine for OCTOBER, the
army Of the United States was composed OF
1s GOO men. It's wages that year were some
thing under $500 600 and Its care cost about
&c 900 coo. Two years later this army NUM-
bered over 100000 men, its pay roll was
S13OO0 600 and it's supplies cost $l76,OOOVO.
This terrible expansion was not the result
Of a growth, but of fiat-and it had all the
evils of a"thing produced by fiat.
The word of the President had called
this mass into existence. 1t was the duty
Of the War Department to make an efrec-
tive army of it; to feed, clothe equip
and shelter it, to transport it east or west,
as II was needed; to nurse its sick, punish
it's criminals bury it's dead This work
could only be accomplished by the aid of
a great number Of officers but where were
they to be found? A regular army of less
than 10000 men produces few officers.
The War Department saw that to beat
this raw material into form it must take
men as unframed as the mass itself. ON
GERS must be made, as the army was to be
made, in the actual work OF waging war.
1t was a dangerous undertaking. Inef-
icient and dishonest men could push their
way into places of trust and there was no
way Of keeping them back. for where all
men are untried the usefulness OF par
ticular man could only be known by prov
ing him. The result was that the War
Department was forced to invent methods
for verifying it's own work; 1t had to set
watch on it's own appointments. One OF
the chief assistants whom it called to this
service Of critic and investigator was Mr..
Charles A. Dana.
At the beginning of the war Mr.. Dana
was the managing editor of the New York
Tribune. He had been associated with
Horace Greeley on that journal for fifteen
years, and had with James S. Pike, held
it to an aggressive anti-slayery policy,
age of it's editor-in-chief failed. After the
battle Of Bull Run Mr. Dana IAN and Mr. Mr.
of the war policy of the Tribune that in
April, 1852, Mr.. Dana let the paper.
The secretary OF war at that date was
Edwin NJ Stanton. He had been but
little over three months in position, but
his aggressive loyalty had been tried to
the last degree by the intertia, failures and
frauds which were inevitable in an army
created in the way in which the federal
army of 1862 had been. Mr.. Stanton's
appeals for help to men who he believed
were as dsinterested as himself We're pa
thetic in their vehemence When he heard
that Mr.. Dana was free from the Tribune
he at once begged him to hold himself at
the service of the War Department.
STATIONS OFFER ACCEPTED.
An immediate task Mr.. Stanton did not
offer; the nature of the service he left to
circumstances. He simply assured Mr..
Dana that he would be needed, and in 1862
the knowledge that the government needed
one for any service whatever was enough
for an honest man. Mr.. Dana promised
to hold himself at Mr.. Stanton's CALL and
the relations thus begun lasted until July,
1865 The position never became one of
routine From first to last it was special
service made necessary by unexpected
conditions, and it was always full of sur
prises and adventure. Indeed, it is doubt
full if any man connected with the War
Department had more varied and unique
experience in the civil war than Mr. Dana
His first commission of particular inter-
est came in the spring of 1853 Next to
the capture of Richmond, the opening OF
the Mississippi was considered the most
imperative duty of the war. Grant was
al il, but was he the man to do the work?
He did fight; that the War Department
knew; but his critics said that he fought
badly that he could not be trusted. Was
this true? 1t was imperative that the
department risk nothing by trusting an un-
safe man. and IL was equally imperative
that IT should not lose strong man by
needing criticisms which were inspired by
generals in Grants army concerning whom
Lincoln and Stanton were uncertain-Mc-
Clernand, Sherman, Mcpherson, all were
men whose full value yet unknown.
The department was in doubt not only
about it's generals on the Mississippi; IL
could not keep itself promptly and fully
informed about the operations going on