Today in History:

640 Series I Volume XVI-I Serial 22 - Morgan's First Kentucky Raid, Perryville Campaign Part I

Page 640 KY., M. AND E. TENN., N. ALA., AND SW. VA. Chapter XXVIII.

There was the Chicago Tribune and perhaps the Chicago Times. I cannot remember distinctly if that is the name of it.

Question. Were these papers unanimous in their condemnation of the commander of the Army of the Ohio?

Those that spoke of the conduct of the commander of the army particularly, with, I think the exception of the Louisville Journal, criticized his course severely. I do not mean to say that all these papers I have named spoke of the conduct of the commander of the army, but those that did, with the single exception of the Louisville Journal, spoke of it in condemnatory terms.

QQuestion. What was generally the burden of this condemnation? And mention, if you please papers that indulged in it most freely?

I cannot give the exact language of any papers, nor can I specify which papers were most severe. The Chicago papers, I remember, condemned him very bitterly for his punishment of Colonel Turchin. The burden of complaint in the papers was this: that General Buell was protecting the people, rather than punishing them, generally; that he did not devastate the country and destroy all the rebel sympathizers, and that he treated the people generally too kindly; I mean the people of Tennessee and Alabama. In other words, they seemed to advocate what they called a "vigorous was policy," by which they seemed to mean general devastation.

Question. Did this sort of criticism have a good effect or a bad effect upon the temper of the troops and the discipline of the army?

I think it sowed the seeds of demoralization. I remember another thing which gave me a great deal of trouble in controlling my command. It was the general applause of the press for the orders and policy pursued by General Pope in Virginia, which the troops and papers construed into a right on the part of our soldiers to appropriate all the rebel goods they could find, to make themselves as comfortable as possible, and destroy the resources of the enemy. I know that many of our soldiers practiced the policy pretty freely, and I had great trouble and difficulty in restraining my own. I restrained mine not so much to protect the property of the people as to preserve the discipline of the troops, and in obedience to General Orders, No. 13, because that required me to do it.

Question. Have you any knowledge of the extent of the straggling that took place in the army after the march from Louisville in the pursuit of the rebel army? If you have, please state all you know about it.

Yes, sir; about the time we reached Louisville I suffered from a very violent hemorrhage, which incapacited me from field duty, and I was ordered to report to-General Boyle for duty. I reported to him immediately. I think it was the same day or the day afterward I was enabled to get up to him, and not being able for specific duty he assigned me to the general superintendence of military affairs bout Louisville index himself. Citizens from all the roads over which our army had gone out cane in with constant complaints that the country was full of stragglers, who were committing all kinds of depredations upon them. I sent out cavalry patrols on all the roads, who gathered up a great many stragglers near the city of Louisville, some of whom they brought back to Louisville and some they sent forward to overtake their respective columns. These complaints were coming in continually until after the battle of Perryville. I have no idea now of the extent or the number of stragglers, except from the universal complaint from every part of the country between Louisville and Perryville. I know that during the month of November, when I had been assigned a command at the barracks at Louisville, I sent forward to Nashville over 5,000 and I sent forward during December about 4,000. This embraced not only stragglers, but a few convalescents sent form Louisville. I remember in my own regiment, which was encamped in the island, surrounded by water and a strong guard, when ordered to march from Louisville toward Perryville, left 125 guns in the stacks, and yet I had used every precaution, with a strong guard, to keep them in camp. I found afterward, by interrogating some of them that were captured, that they had waded and swum the Ohio River across the falls after night to get home. I sent out detachments as I had organized them on the city for recapturing them on the roads, under officers, with instructions to pick up all they could find and carry them to their commands.


Page 640 KY., M. AND E. TENN., N. ALA., AND SW. VA. Chapter XXVIII.