History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 28

Author: Williams Brothers
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 443

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 28
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 28

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I have almost exceeded my limits. This hasty outline must shrink to a mere mention of incidents most useful to my purpose. Garfield received reinforce- ments, and held the conquered territory for a time. Rations grew scarce, and the only source of supply was from the mouth of the Big Sandy, which the long- continued winter rains in that mountain region had swollen to an unnavigable torrent, up which a salmon could hardly make his way. The colonel was at the mouth. He had a cargo of provisions placed in the little stern-wheel, "Sandy Valley," and ordered it to start up. The captain refused. No craft could be found to attempt it. The river was sixty feet deep ; had risen almost to the tree-tops along its wooded banks. Garfield ordered the captain and crew on board, sta- tioned a plucky officer on deck over the captain, and himself took the wheel. Steering a canal boat had not been wholly in vain. The captain protested; de- clared no such craft could stem such a down-sweeping tide. The new helmsman had the steam turned on, and headed the shuddering little craft up-stream. With her greatest power she could not make three miles an hour. Night came. The captain implored that the frightened thing might be tied up, but she was kept head- up, and the determined colonel kept the wheel. She plunged her nose into the bank past digging out. Colonel Garfield manned a boat, pushed across the stream, ex- temporized a windlass, and with a line pulled her out, and sent her on up to his hungry boys. He started on Saturday. All that day and night, Sunday and

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

Sunday night, and at nine o'clock Monday morning they reached the camp. A tumult of cheers welcomed him. Spite of military rule, the young commander barely escaped being carried to headquarters on the shoulders of his soldiers. Of the whole time in climbing the Big Sandy, he had been absent from the wheel but eight hours.

He was formed for a soldier's idol.

The Big Sandy campaign could have no wide significance, save on the fortunes of the two commanders. Humphrey Marshall disappeared in a shower of ridi- cule and sarcasm from both sides. The attention of the country was for a day concentrated on the young man who had shown such dashing qualities. He was made a brigadier-general, to date from January 10, and ordered to report to Gen- eral Buell. The separation from the Forty-second was a real affliction to both. His new command were two Ohio and two Indiana regiments; nor did the for- tunes of war ever again place his old regiment under his command or in his presence.

He was enabled to get into the second day's battle at Pittsburg Landing. He had his share in the tedious siege of Corinth, and finally advanced to Huntsville, where he was at the close of that campaign. He was placed at the head of the court-martial on General Turchin, which developed his qualities and fine ability in new directions. The old malarial influences, the result of his early campaign on the canal, quickened by the climate of the South, brought a vigorous return of the old foe, and late in the summer he was obliged to return home. He was ordered to relieve General Morgan at Cumberland Gap, but was still in the clutch of the ague when he was directed to report at Washington as soon as his health permitted. The eye of the secretary of war had been on him from his first appearance in the army. His knowledge of law, the ability displayed in the Turchin case, his admirable judgment on all occasions, and his ardent patriotism induced Mr. Stanton to place his name among the first of the court for the trial of Fitz-John Porter. The history of that famous trial is to be re-written, with what result is unknown. It is known that General Garfield then had no doubt of his guilt. He is not one to make or change his opinions lightly. ' In him, however, the moral qualities which produce a firm, quick sense of justice are strong and active.

During this long trial he became intimate with General Hunter, the president, who desired to have him in the contemplated campaign in South Carolina; and, with his intensified anti-slavery sentiments, the assignment to this field was gratifying to the young general. Meantime was fought the sanguinary battle of Stone River. Gerache, the chief-of-staff of the commanding general, was slain, and Garfield, appointed to the vacant post, was sent to Rosecrans, in January, 1863.

This commander, in some respects the most brilliant general of the army, was the poorest judge of men ; and though one of the best-hearted, he had one of the most unaccommodating of tempers, especially in his dealings with the powers at Wash- ington. His deficiencies were admirably supplied by his new chief-of-staff. There was perhaps not a prominent general in the army who could not have been sup- plemented in the same way. The quick eye of the new chief saw the defects in the organization of the army. These could be measurably supplied. He saw the incapacity of the wing commanders, A. M. McCook and T. L. Crittenden, and promptly recommended their removal. The general could not injure " two such good fellows." The inefficiency of McCook lost the first day at Stone River. They went on to Chickamauga, where he ruined the field. Garfield would have supplied their places with McDowell and Buell. His arrival at headquarters was about the beginning of the bitter, acrimonious correspondence between the general of the army and the war office, which laid the foundation for his being relieved from the command under a cloud. Garfield found the army at Murfreesboro', and here it lay, spite of the urgency, the importunity, the almost command of the secretary of war for action, till the 24th of June, in the presence of Bragg. Rosecrans needed reinforcements, material, supplies. He had defeated a superior army at Stone River. The secretary could not understand why he should hesi- tate to assail an inferior one now. It needed explanation.

Rosecrans required the formal opinions of his corps, division, and cavalry generals as to the safety and expediency of an advance. The seventeen, with singular unanimity, coincided that it should not be attempted. The chief-of-staff collected these opinions, analyzed, and replied to them, showed their weakness, and conclusively that the army could move at once. This bore date June 12, and the army marched the 24th. The paper has been pronounced by high authority the ablest of its kind of the war. On the morning of the advance one of the three corps commanders, Crittenden, said to Garfield, at headquarters, " It is understood, sir, by the general officers of the army that this movement is your work. I wish you to understand that it is a rash and fatal move, for which you will be held responsible." The army marched on the short and brilliant Tullahoma campaign, which relieved that region of Bragg and his army. Had

it been commenced a week sooner his army undoubtedly would have disappeared from the war. Probably the incessant heavy rains only saved him finally. It would have saved Chickamauga.

The influence of Garfield on Rosecrans was very great. Better for all had it been entire. Crittenden and McCook commanded two of the three corps in the great battle of Chickamauga,-battle of blood, glory, and disaster. The armies in array were seventy thousand Confederate and fifty-five thousand Union soldiers. Thomas commanded on the left and McCook the right. It is said Garfield wrote every order on this field save that fatal one to Wood, which he did not see. This in effect induced him to break the line of battle, and with his division take a position in the rear of another. Longstreet saw the blundering gap, and launched the impetuous Hood into it. The battle on the right was lost. The whole wing crumbled and dissolved, and McCook's whole corps, panic-stricken, fled, a swarm of frightened wretches, back to Chattanooga.

The tramping flood of mere human beings, reft of reason, caught the general and chief-of-staff in the rush. One eye-witness says that the conduct of the two men, stripped in an instant of all power to command by the dissolving of the charm of discipline, was superb. Garfield, dismounted, with his figure above the surging mass, and his resonant voice heard above the din, seized the colors from the fleeing bearer, who had instinctively borne them off, planted them, seized men to the right and left, faced them about, and formed the nucleus of a stand, shout- ing his ringing appeals in the dead ears of the unhearing men, reft of human attributes, save their insane fear. A panic is a real disease, which for the time nothing can stay. His exertions were vain. The moment he took his hands from a man he fled. The fleeing tide swept on. With a hasty permission from his chief, Garfield turned away to where the thunders of Thomas' guns pro- claimed the heart of the battle to beat fiercest, and against whom the enemy had concentrated his heaviest battalions. If the weakest-pressed wing had been thus crushed, what might be the fate of the left? Thomas was not McCook. While Garfield, with a few staff-officers and orderlies, went to warn and aid Thomas, the general, with firmness and coolness, hurried to Chattanooga to gather up, pre- serve, and reorganize the atoms of McCook's Corps.

Garfield's mission was by a long and perilous ride, crossing the lines of the fleeing and their pursuers, having an orderly killed on the way. Finally, almost alone, he reached Thomas, half-circled by a cordon of fire, and explained the fate of the right. He informed him how he could withdraw his own right, form on a new line and meet Longstreet, who had turned Thomas' right and was marching on his rear. The movement was promptly made, but the line was too short to reach ground that would have rendered it unassailable save in front. At that moment Gordon Granger came up with Steadman's Division, met Longstreet at the opening thus left, and after a fearful struggle forced him back. Thomas, the army and its honor, with the soil of the disaster on the right, were saved. It is said as night closed on that awful day, with the warm steam of blood from the ghastly wounded and recently killed rising from the burdened earth, Garfield and Granger, on foot, personally directed the loading and pointing of a battery of Napoleons, and sent their shot crashing after the retiring foe, and thus closed the battle of Chickamauga.

What there was left of the Union army, was left in possession of the field. The battle was fought September 20, 1863. After a few weeks, Garfield was sent on to Washington with dispatches. Too late to save his honored chief. His best . skill and ability had from his arrival at Rosecrans' headquarters been interposed, first to save him from his own pungent temper, and then from its consequences with the department at Washington, where, with the aid of maps, he made a most masterly expose of all the movements of the army of the Cumberland. Montgomery Blair, one of the most sagacious observers and judges of men at the capital, was filled with astonishment and admiration at its clearness, force, and completeness. "Garfield," said he, to a personal friend to whom he related the occurrence, " Garfield is a great man."

General Garfield, on his arrival at Washington, found himself a full major- general of volunteers, " for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Chickamauga."

One curious transaction, occurring while Garfield was connected with the army of the Cumberland, has never to my knowledge transpired in history, or in any form. It is within the memory of the well-informed that during one or two years, including quite the whole of 1863, there was a strong, decided, and almost bitter feeling of hostility to President Lincoln, personally, on the part of the lead- ing radicals, in and out of Congress,-a condemnation of his policy and manage- ment, and a lack of confidence in his ability and strength of character. It is known that Mr. Greeley shared this sentiment to the fullest extent. He and the rest naturally felt the greatest anxiety to secure the best possible man as Lincoln's successor in 1864, and it was largely due to the difficulty of securing a candidate that induced these men silently, and rather sullenly, to acquiesce in the instinctive

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choice of the masses, which secured his renomination at Baltimore. The brilliant qualities of Rosecrans, and the fame of the battle of Stone River, drew their eyes to him as the possible man on whom to fix and bring forward; and Edmund Kirk, a writer of some ability and shrewdness, was sent forward with letters to Garfield,-in whose judgment they had confidence, -- with instructions to remain at headquarters, observe, gather up opinions, learn the views of the chief-of-staff, and, if all concurred, Rosecrans was to be approached, sounded, and his acqui- escence in the plan secured if possible.

The clear, sagacious mind of Garfield saw the futility and probable evil conse- quences of the project at once. He gave it such emphatic discouragement that it is believed no whisper of it ever reached Rosecrans, or any considerable num- ber of men not in the secret. These reasons he urged among others : that it would be ruinous to the usefulness of his general ; that it could not succeed ; that it ought not to. Kirk was convinced, and the idea was abandoned. He, however, cultivated the acquaintance of Garfield, to whom, like most men, he was strongly drawn, and managed, in various conversations,-in which Garfield is the frankest of men,-to draw from him something of his early life.

As a consequence, not long after, there appeared " The Patriot Boy," by Trow- bridge. Of the hero of this pleasant novel the friends of General Garfield had little difficulty in recognizing the hero.

The military career of General Garfield ends here. A year before, in his ab- sence, the people of his congressional district desired, of all things, to place him in the House, and they elected him. Ordinarily, this would have been gratefully acquiesced in; now it came to break a high, brilliant, possibly a great career in arms, where, in his judgment, he could be equally and perhaps the most useful. As a matter of ambition, the sacrifice was great. He was a full major-general, with the largest confidence of the secretary of war, was the idol of the men he commanded, had the entire confidence of the army, save some of the " seven- teen generals" of the army of the Cumberland, perhaps, and at that time the promise of a continuance of the war was of the largest. Easily he saw that no man could in the glitter and splendor of arms, and the names and fames they made and marred, with which the land was filled, make for himself a name in Congress ; that the executive was substantially the government ; that Congress was but a committee of ways and means, and all its powers went but to swell, strengthen, and sustain the executive arm. Mr. Lincoln wanted the aid of his fresh, strong, sagacious intellect in the House. Backed by his fame in arms, he would be a power. He urged and implored him to change his field of labor; and, judge of man as he was, and hopeful of a speedy end of the war, he foresaw that, what- ever might be the aid derived immediately from the young general's turning civilian, his ultimate field was there. Garfield acquiesced. He seems scarcely ever to have controlled his own destiny.

The oft-expressed purpose of this sketch to present a personal view of General Garfield rather than a meagre history must be taken as accomplished here. Few lives present richer or more varied and attractive material to the biographer. The opportunity to write a complete life it is hoped will not be presented to any man of this generation. The people of Geauga and Lake have him with them. His public life is their property, one of their most valuable possessions. They know history as well as I do. I have brought forward, from the early, uncertain past, so much of it as will enable them somewhat to realize his qualities and capacity for service, and help to some appreciative judgment of his stature and position, so difficult to estimate in his presence. Never, till a man can be drawn against a background of the past, when he and all his surroundings have become subject to the law of perspective, and the light about him has become cold and pure, can a historian draw him with accuracy of judgment.

One or two things I may venture further, and mainly in the light of my own narrative, and somewhat in answer to a question asked by friends of the subject of it. " What is the lack in Garfield? What is the thing want- ing ?" Not large and obvious, or what it is, as well as its absence, would at once be seen. Some little thing wanting to completeness ; a lack felt, not seen, hard to define, yet a coming short of the perfection demanded of him. And, then, in- stances are mentioned where he has unexpectedly failed, in that he has not met the demand of the occasion, or of his friends' expectations; and in a most baffling and unsatisfactory way, a half-score of times. It has been defined as a lack of moral courage, and ere the words have ceased came some exhibition of that attribute or quality pure and simple.

More than once it has appeared in the course of this narrative, if such it may be called, that important changes have occurred in Mr. Garfield's career without much intelligent action on his part, when the matter was seemingly within his control. Men are hardly willing to allow that he could be guilty of fault of judgment, or hesitate from not clearly seeing the right. His failures may not be covered with these charities. In his own and in the affairs of the public there is an unwillingness to credit him with common fallibility, and charge it to

the common account of the weakness of human nature. So well endowed is he that he should want in nothing, even that little thing so small and uncertain as to elude identity and escape detection. I do not believe in human perfection. I may only query for this puzzling lack. I go back to this recent remark, that his life, however rich and varied, has lacked the unity of seeming design, or that sort of continuity indicative of plan adhered to, either of which argues possible lack or superabundance.

His one passion was the sea. For its indulgence he toiled and schemed, if this last word will apply to the mental processes of such a man. When that was finally given up, not overcome, he turned himself to acquire an education. Yet why, in the ordinary philosophy of life, is the mystery. The son of wealth may be edu- cated, merely because his father is rich, and desires he should have the polish of culture. Garfield was poor, and must make his own way. What did he propose to do with his learning when acquired ? What use would he make of himself when educated ? It looks much as if, when brought to face this problem, with the stimu- lus of a strong, eager, hungry mind he pushed into and pushed on from that logical sense of completeness which he early exhibited. So it would seem that he became a teacher because it was there to be done; he found pleasure in it, excelled in it, but found in time that whatever his programme was, it did not embrace a college professorship, and so of his preaching. Clearly he studied law by design. If it was with any intention of pursuing it as a calling, it has never in any con- siderable degree been adhered to. He tries cases occasionally, and well, in the Supreme Court of the United States. I do not believe that he entered public life to make of it a trade, a calling, or a profession, and I think he has constantly intended or expected to retire from it. A man often intends the opposite of what he expects. In short, to a superficial observer, his life, rich and varied, seems rather the result of his surroundings, which he has not resisted, but, with a remarkable adaptability, has turned himself largely and readily into the new channels. Why didn't he defeat the salary bill? An answer, two or three of them, can be given without involving any lack of quality or faculty. I am now referring to another thing, which brings this matter of lack to an issue, where some reply is called for. Why don't he lead his party in the House ? Long service, rare ability, complete mastery of all the essentials,-position included, quickness, temper, personal bearing, absence of enmities, all unite. The reins trail carelessly through the hall, are thrown over his desk repeatedly, are some- times in his hands, and admirably used on occasion. Why don't he take them firmly as his, assert himself, be the man he is, and make the most of it? Why, indeed ? That is the question.

Why did he not carry off the Seventh Ohio Regiment? Why did he permit himself to be appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Forty-second, when he might as well have been full colonel ? Why has he not grasped the Ohio senatorship, or done half a score of things for the not doing of which he is complained of?

He is not a self-seeker, never has been. By nature he cannot be. His lack is egoism, if the absence of that quality is a lack ; and whenever or wherever that element, if such it is, of men's nature enters into the subject of action, he will be apt to take that course from which it is absent, or the least involved. If, other things being nearly equal, a course is open to him which he can take without self-assertion, he will take it. So of that notable case of the salary bill. If all the other considerations were equal, self-assertion, not courage nor firmness, for they were rather needed for the course he pursued ; but self-assertion, egoism, the thing I, was the thing to defeat it, and hence the bill passed. That setting of oneself up above all others is not much in his nature, no vestige of arrogance. Courage of the chivalrous order-spirit abundant, but to set himself up, claim for himself, which this involves-is certainly not much in him.

Let his party, formally or informally, elect him leader, and see what will come of it. They would have to do it spontaneously.

As bearing on this delicate matter, which I touch with gentle hand, one inci- dent in Mr. Garfield's early congressional career may be mentioned. The Wade- Davis manifesto of 1864, containing so much truth, yet so actually revolting to the Republican masses, was a sore thing with them, and for a time cast a cloud even on Mr. Wade.

The Republican convention in Garfield's district had assembled in Warren to nominate his successor in Congress. It wanted to nominate him. It was said that he had not condemned the manifesto; on the contrary, quite justified it. If there was anything predetermined in that body, it was a unanimous condemna- tion of that paper. And Garfield, and no other man who upheld it, could receive a nomination at its hands. It was troubled. It loved him. It would compromise, would do any thing but approve that paper. It sent a committee to his hotel, and respectfully asked his views, certain that he would in some way accommodate himself to their requirements, at least enough to permit his re-nomination. There were not wanting friends to advise some little show of concession. Here was a chance for that luck in the man to help him out. The

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

general went in looking a little grave, took the stand, and, in a ringing, proud, half-defiant speech of twenty minutes, approved the manifesto and justified Wade. Amid the silence of the blank amazement of the convention he strode haughtily out. A spirited young delegate, seeing the silent dismay of the elders, arose with " By George ! the man that has the courage to face a convention like that, deserves a nomination," and moved it by acclamation. Ere the feet of the retiring Congressman had passed the outer threshold, the building shook with the thund- ering acclaim that declared him the nominee. That people has little faith in his lack of courage of any kind.

Rare and varied as has been the career of this gentleman, one phenomenon has attended both himself personally, and the estimation of him by the public,-a steady, rapid, uninterrupted growth. Not only has he been tried in many fields, in all of which he has easily and assuredly excelled, but the man himself has steadily developed, broadened, deepened, and risen in intellectual qualities and excel- lence, and now, at forty seven, is evidently making as steady an advance in health- ful mental growth as at any time since known to the public. Mental old age will come late to him. Probably not at all. He may even overcome the un- known defect in character or mind, or what it proves to be by sheer growth.

Compare him with any man who entered public life at about the same time, with all of them for that matter, or with any man at the period of his career corresponding with the years of Garfield's public life, and who of them have ever attained a wider regard and confidence, and with so few drawbacks, forfeit- ures, and blemishes of record ? Has there ever been a time when his position before the country was so steadily and rapidly growing as now ?

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 28

Author: Williams Brothers Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages: 443

Author: Williams Brothers
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 443