A Military Genius Part 14

Sir: I find that the Secretary of War and the President are violently a.s.sailed for arresting certain parties in the loyal States and suspending the writ of _habeas corpus_. It is represented that a high judicial officer in the State of Vermont has taken issue with the Administration on this question. It is also intimated that the State authorities, in Vermont and elsewhere, are to be invoked for the protection of the citizen against military arrests. There is very great danger at this time to be apprehended to the country from a conflict between the military and the judicial authorities, because the opinion is almost universal that the authority to suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_ rests with Congress. The reason that this opinion has so generally obtained is that in England, whence we have derived much of our political and judicial system, the power to suspend the writ is vested alone in Parliament; and our jurists, without reflecting upon the distinction between the const.i.tutions of the two Governments, have erroneously made the English theory applicable to our own.

I believe in my work on the "War Powers of the Government," etc., I was the first writer who has succeeded in placing the power of the Government to arrest for political offences, and to suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_, on its true foundation. In the opinion of eminent men, if this work were now placed in the hands of every lawyer and judge it would stay the evil which threatens to arise from a conflict between the military and judicial departments of the country. I therefore respectfully suggest the propriety of authorizing me to circulate a large edition of this work, or, what would be still better, that I should write a _new paper_, specially on the power of the Executive to suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_, and to arrest political offenders.

ANNA ELLA CARROLL.

In October, 1862, Miss Carroll wrote the following letter to the Secretary of War, through the hands of John Tucker, a.s.sistant Secretary, on the reduction of Vicksburg:

"As I understand an expedition is about to go down the river for the purpose of reducing Vicksburg, I have prepared the enclosed map in order to demonstrate more clearly the obstacles to be encountered in the contemplated a.s.sault. In the first place, it is impossible to take Vicksburg in front without too great a loss of life and material, for the reason that the river is only about half a mile wide, and our forces would be in point-blank range of their guns, not only from their water batteries, which line the sh.o.r.e, but from the batteries that crown the hills, while the enemy would be protected by the elevation from the range of our fire. By examining the map I enclose you will at once perceive why a place of so little apparent strength has been enabled to resist the combined fleets of the upper and lower Mississippi.

The most economical plan for the reduction of Vicksburg now is to push a column from Memphis to Corinth, down the Mississippi Central railroad to Jackson, the capital of the State of Mississippi. _The occupation of Jackson and the command of the railroad to New Orleans would compel the immediate evacuation of Vicksburg_, as well as the retreat of the entire rebel army east of that line, and by another movement of our army from Jackson, Mississippi, or from Corinth to Meridian, in the State of Mississippi, on the Ohio and Mobile railroad, especially if aided by a movement of our gunboats on Mobile, the Confederate forces, with all the disloyal men and their slaves, would be compelled to fly east of the Tombigbee. Mobile being then in our possession, with 100,000 men at Meridian we would redeem the entire country from Memphis to the Tombigbee river. Of course I would have the gunboats with a small force at Vicksburg as auxiliary to this movement. With regard to the ca.n.a.l, Vicksburg can be rendered useless to the Confederate army upon the first rise of the river; but I do not advise this, because Vicksburg belongs to the United States and we desire to hold and fortify it, for the Mississippi river at Vicksburg and the Vicksburg-Jackson railroad will become necessary as a base of our future operations. Vicksburg might have been reduced eight months ago, as I then advised, after the fall of Fort Henry, and with much more ease than it can be done to-day."

WASHINGTON, D. C., _May 10, 1876_.

My Dear Miss Carroll:

Referring to the conversation with Judge Evans last evening, he called my attention to Colonel Scott's telegram, announcing the fall of Island No. 10, in 1862, as endorsing your plan, when Scott said: "The movement in the rear has done the work." I stated to the Judge, as he and you knew before, that your paper on the reduction of Vicksburg did the work on that place, after being so long baffled and with the loss of so much life and treasure, by trying to take it from the water; that to my knowledge your paper was approved and adopted by the Secretary of War and the President, and immediately sent out to the proper military authority in that Department.

I remember well their remarks upon it at that time, and of all your other views and suggestions, made after we got the expedition inaugurated, and know the direction they took. These matters were often talked over as the campaign advanced, and in the very last interview with Mr. Stanton, just before his death, he referred to your services in originating the campaign in the strongest terms he could express, and, as I have informed you, stated that if his life was spared he would discharge the great duty of seeing your services to the country properly recognized and rewarded. But why need I say more. Your claim is established beyond controversy, unless the witnesses are impeached, and I hardly think they would undertake that business. What motive could any of us have had to mislead or falsify the history of the war. Your claim is righteous and just, if ever there was one, and for the honor of my country I trust and hope you will be suitably rewarded and so declared before the world.

Yours truly,

B. F. WADE.

Miss Carroll's after papers, so far as I can learn, were mainly on emanc.i.p.ation, on the ballot, and on reconstruction.

CHAPTER VI.

CONGRESSIONAL REVELATIONS -- GREAT RESULTS -- DISCUSSIONS -- MISS CARROLL PRESENTS HER CLAIM -- POLITICAL OPPOSITION -- LETTERS AND TESTIMONY.

Very curious is the picture revealed by the Congressional records.

Fully as Lincoln and his Military Committee recognize the genius of the remarkable woman now taking the lead, it needs great courage to adopt her plans.

"Mr. Lincoln and Stanton are opposed to having it known that the armies are moving under the plan of a civilian, directed by the President as Commander-in-Chief. Mr. Lincoln says it was that which made him hesitate to inaugurate the movement against the opinions of the military commanders, and he says he does not want to risk the effect it might have upon the armies if they found that some outside party had originated the campaign; that he wanted the country and the armies to believe they were doing the whole business in saving the country."

Judge Wade alludes to a remark about the sword of Gideon, made by Secretary Stanton, and says that was done to maintain the policy of secrecy as to the origin of the plan. Strict silence is counselled as absolutely necessary, and Anna Ella Carroll is not the woman to allow a thought of self to interfere with her plans for the salvation of her country.

Rapid and brilliant is the success of that Tennessee campaign, planned and supervised by that able head. Her papers, as the campaign progresses, are as remarkable as the original plan. On the fall of Fort Henry she prepares a paper on the feasibility of advancing immediately on Mobile or Vicksburg, without turning to the right or left. She carries it, in person, to the War Department and delivers it into the hands of a.s.sistant Secretary Tucker, who takes it at once to the Secretary of War.

She exhibits also a copy of the original plan, submitted on the 30th of November, 1861.

Mr. Tucker remarks: "This is prophecy fulfilled so far," and says he knows her to be the author, Colonel Scott having so informed him before he left for the West.

Notwithstanding some blunders in the execution, the campaign progresses, as the authorities at the War Office testify, "mainly in accordance with Miss Carroll's suggestions."

The fall of Fort Henry having opened the navigation of the Tennessee river, its capture is followed by the evacuation of Columbus and Bowling Green. Fort Donelson is given up and its garrison of 14,000 troops are marched out as prisoners of war; Pittsburg Landing and Corinth follow. The Confederate leaders discover with consternation that the key to the whole situation has been found. All Europe rings with the news of victories that have reversed the probabilities of the war.

On the 10th of April, four months after the adoption of Miss Carroll's plans, President Lincoln issues a proclamation thanking Almighty G.o.d for the "signal victories which have saved the country from foreign intervention and invasion."

THE FOREIGN MINISTERS ARE ENRAPTURED.

SEWARD TO DAYTON.

_March 6, 1862._

"It is now apparent that we are at the beginning of the end of the attempted revolution. Cities, districts, and States are coming back under Federal authority."

ADAMS TO SEWARD.

_March 6, 1862._

"We are anxiously awaiting the news by every steamer, but not for the same reasons as before; the pressure for interference here has disappeared."

DAYTON TO SEWARD.

_March 25, 1862._

"The Emperor said that he must frankly say that when the insurrection broke out and this concession of belligerent rights was made he did not suppose the North would succeed; that it was the general belief of the statesmen of Europe that the two sections would never come together again."

DAYTON TO SEWARD.

_March 31, 1862._

"I again called the Emperor's attention to the propriety of his Government retracing its steps in regard to its concession to the insurrectionists of belligerent rights, referring him to the consideration in regard thereto contained in your former dispatches.

He said, 'It would scarcely be worthy of a great power, now that the South was beaten, to withdraw a concession made to them in the day of their strength.'"

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION.

_April 10, 1862._