due to his assistants, Lieutenant J. H. Wilson, U. S. Topographical Engineer, and Lieutenant Horace Porter of the Ordnance Department." Generals Benham, Viele, and Gillmore in their several reports also spoke of me and my services in kindly and complimentary terms. 1 So that while the expedition itself fell far short of its possibilities, it was for me an opportunity which "led on to fortune.'

1

I add with unalloyed pleasure that the year was blessed by friendships with both army and navy men that lasted throughout life. Young as I was, I established close relations with Admiral DuPont, one of the most courtly and distinguished officers of his time, with John and Raymond Rodgers, Percival Drayton, Daniel Ammen, Napoleon Collins, John S. Barnes, and many of their juniors. Barnes was a peculiarly masterful man of great intelligence and splendid bearing. Strong, deep-chested, cleareyed, bold, and resolute, he was a typical sailor, a graduate of the Naval Academy, who rendered valuable service till the end of the war, when he resigned, and in a few years amassed an ample fortune as a railroad projector, builder, and manager.

Gillmore of the Engineers was my senior by seven or eight years and, although he was an excellent officer of great learning, dignity, and reserve, with many military accomplishments, he extended to me his confidence and his intimacy. Our routes through life lay apart from the time I left Port Royal, but we touched again at the close of the war in Georgia where he occupied the coast with a corps

1O. R., Series I, Vol. VI, pp. 134, 138, 142, 146, 150, 152, 153, 157, 160.

See, also, Vol. XIV, pp. 5, 6, 8, 9, 326.

of infantry while I occupied the interior with the Cavalry Corps, Military Division of the Mississippi.

Our chief commissary, Captain M. R. Morgan, was an officer of character and ability, who rose to high rank and distinction after his career had been almost wrecked by confinement to the duty of feeding the troops when he should have been leading them to victory. The same may be said in substantially the same words of John W. Turner, formerly of the regular artillery, who stopped at Port Royal with General Butler on his way to New Orleans. He wasted at least two years in duties which might have been as well performed by any intelligent grocer, but finally broke the shackles that bound him and reached the rank of major general before the war ended. The Military Academy never turned out two better soldiers. Modest, serious, accomplished, and experienced in every branch of the military profession, they needed only an opportunity to show their patriotism and their merits. Their cases, as well as many others, show how utterly uninformed the War Department was as to the record and character of its officers and how entirely it failed to organize an efficient system of making itself acquainted with their particular aptitude and merits. When all this is considered, the reader will be slow to condemn those officers who went out of their way to seek service in the hope that they might not only make themselves useful, but find rank and honor.

III

ANTIETAM CAMPAIGN

Return to Washington-McClellan's staff-South Mountain -Battle of Antietam-Hooker wounded-Pleasant Valley-Return to Washington.

I sailed for Philadelphia on the Augusta, formerly a merchantman, August 30. Her machinery was so out of order that she came into Port Royal at seven miles an hour, but when she started north for repairs she easily knocked off twelve or thirteen; but with all, we were four days on the way, and I did not reach Washington till eight o'clock September 5. While the new general-in-chief received me politely, I was not expected and no orders were ready for me. I had read Halleck's "Art of War", and was ready to believe him not only a learned. man, but a mighty captain. Great victories had been gained and great disasters had been averted in his western command. Belmont, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Corinth had been won, and while Grant was popularly regarded as the principal figure, Halleck was his titular chief, and in common with many others I was disposed to give him a great part of the credit. He had already received the sobriquet of "Old Brains", but when I beheld

his bulging eyes, his flabby cheeks, his slack-twistedfigure, and his slow and deliberate movements, and noted his sluggish speech, lacking in point and magnetism, I experienced a distinct feeling of disappointment which from that day never grew less. I could not reconcile myself to the idea that an officer of such negative appearance could ever be a great leader of men. He might be a great lawyer, a great student, a great theorist, but never an active, energetic, and capable commander in the field, and that is now the verdict of history. For several years some thought him a wise and self-reliant counsellor, a good military organizer, and a far-seeing strategist; but long before the war ended he came to be regarded by close observers, and especially by the Secretary of War, as a negligible quantity.

He was obliging and considerate with me and readily enough gave me permission to look about for a regiment, but that was the end of it. So far as I knew, he took no further interest in my career. I saw him but once after that, nor had I anything further to do with him, except that two years later, when relieved from charge of the Cavalry Bureau, the Secretary of War, at my suggestion, directed him to take general supervision of its administration along with his other duties as chief-of-staff to which position he had finally been reduced.

Leaving his office, I went at once to my bureau chief, and had a similar experience-plenty of civility, lots of sympathy, but no orders. I was again asked where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. Engineer officers were in great demand and, as there were but few of them, I might have my choice of places. The principal assistant evidently wanted

to help me. He had read my letters and reports with interest and approval and did his best to place me where I should have a fair field for my energies, but he was powerless himself to make orders or to direct my services. He said that Grant had no engineer officer whatever, that he was calling loudly for as many as could be spared and that I could doubtless go to him if I saw nothing better. Whereupon I replied that I preferred to go to Grant rather than to anyone else, that my brothers and my western friends were in his army, and that my interests and my inclinations lay in that direction.

But the country was in the midst of a great crisis. McClellan had been beaten and withdrawn from the James River. Pope and McDowell had just been overthrown by Lee at Bull Run and Chantilly, and, although both Fitz-John Porter and Franklin had reached the scene of conflict, the two armies had not been entirely united in front of Washington. In fact both were still retiring and, on the day I arrived, they began to pass through Washington into Maryland for the purpose of again confronting the victorious Confederates.

A great campaign was on, great battles were pending and, of course, I wanted to participate. I therefore asked that I might be ordered definitely to Grant, but permitted to volunteer temporarily on McClellan's staff. And thus the matter was arranged. The next step was to find interest with McClellan, who had again become all-powerful. Fortunately, Major Hardie, one of my friends and companions in the long trip from Vancouver, had a desk in the adjutant general's office and kindly offered to see McClellan at once and, if possible, to get