Mr. Benjamin to Mr. Slidell, September 26, 1862

Mr. Benjamin to Mr. Slidell.

Sir: Since my No. 5, of
19th July, I am without any communication from you, with the exception
of your No. 2, of 26th February last, which was brought to the
department on the 26th of this month by Mr. Chamberlyn, to whom you had intrusted it. This gentleman
has thus consumed seven months in discharging the trust confided to
him.

Your Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are still missing, and for the regularity of
the archives of the department I beg you to forward duplicates of
them.

Events of startling importance have been crowded so rapidly into the
short period which has elapsed since my last despatch that any attempt
to give them in detail would swell this communication into a volume. I
shall endeavor to send you herewith our files of newspapers, which will
furnish details, and confine myself to a statement of the present
condition of affairs.

On the 19th July the remnant of McClellan’s defeated army was still
encamped at Harrison’s Landing, on James river, fortified in a very
strong position and protected by a formidable fleet of gunboats. His
defeat has been followed by an order of President Lincoln investing
Major General Halleck with the command-in-chief of all the armies of the
United States, headquarters at Washington. Major General Pope was
assigned to the command of the army of the Potomac, which was composed
of the shattered remnants of the armies of Frémont, Milroy, and Banks,
after their rout by General Jackson in the battles of the valley, to
which were added the several armies of McDowell, who occupied
Fredericksburg; of Burnside, who was recalled from North Carolina; and
of Hunter and Stevens, who were recalled from South Carolina. This army
was also increased by troops withdrawn from Norfolk and Fortress Monroe,
and replaced at those points by raw levies. This accumulated force
amounted probably to about ninety thousand effective men, and the old
cry of “on to Richmond” was renewed with the usual accompaniment of
extravagant boasting by the northern journals.

General Lee first despatched General Jackson with a corps d’armée of
about twenty-five thousand men to check Pope’s advance, and having
satisfied himself that a small force would be sufficient to watch
McClellan, (whose army was demoralized and dispirited by the result of
the battles of the Chickahominy, and was being fast worn down by
sickness,) proceeded with the main body of the army as rapidly as
possible to join General Jackson; but the movement was not accomplished
as speedily as was desirable in consequence of our deficiency in means
of transportation. General Lee had hoped with his united forces, which
were nearly equal in number to Pope’s, to crush the army of that general
before McClellan could come to its relief if such a movement were
attempted. The plan was on the eve of successful accomplishment when a
sudden rain-storm so swelled the Rapid Ann river that it was necessary
to wait some days before crossing it, and Pope, in the meantime, taking
the alarm, retired rapidly behind the Rappahannock, thus bringing
himself within supporting distance of McClellan, who had been ordered
round to join him in accordance with the anticipations of General Lee.
The combined forces of McClellan and Pope were, however, met by General
Lee in a series of successful battles on the plains of Manassas on the
28th, 29th, and 30th August, and the total route of the enemy was
followed by the withdrawal of their entire forces into the
fortifications around Washington; by the disgrace of Pope, who has been
banished to an insignificant command in Minnesota; and by the
appointment of McClellan to the command of the army collected “for the
defence of Washington.” General Lee, amusing the enemy by feigned
demonstrations of attack on his lines at Arlington Heights, succeeded in
withdrawing his entire army from their front and entered Maryland by the
fords at Edward’s Ferry, in the neighborhood of Leesburg, without
opposition, and established his headquarters at Frederick.

Again making deceptive demonstrations of an intention to march, at one
time into Pennsylvania and at another time against Baltimore, General
Lee disposed his army in such manner that by a rapid movement he
enveloped the whole federal force of over eleven thousand men stationed
at Harper’s Ferry, and forced it into an unconditional surrender. The
fruits of this movement were
over eleven thousand prisoners, including more than four hundred
officers, twelve thousand stands of arms, ninety pieces of artillery,
and an enormous quantity of stores, principally munitions of war,
together with two hundred wagons, &c. General McClellan, becoming
aware too late of the danger, moved from Washington in great haste with
the view to relieve the troops invested at Harper’s Ferry, and on the
day before their surrender attacked with his whole force of eighty
thousand men General D. H. Hill, who, with a rear guard of fifteen
thousand men, had been left to resist his advance, and who held his
position with unconquerable firmness, but was finally compelled to give
way for a short distance, under the stress of those overwhelming odds,
until Generals Lee and Longstreet, arriving with re-enforcements,
re-established his lines, and repulsed the enemy. The rapid arrival of
re-enforcements for General McClellan induced General Lee to withdraw
his troops to Sharpsburg, for the purpose of effecting a junction with
the corps of Generals Jackson and A. P. Hill, who had not yet returned
from the capture of Harper’s Ferry. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the 16th
and 17th instant, General McClellan, with his entire army, amounting
probably to one hundred and fifty thousand men, attacked General Lee
with great fury, while the latter was still separated from the corps of
Jackson and Hill, and had not more than forty thousand men to meet the
assault. Incredible as it may appear, our unconquerable soldiers met the
shock with unyielding firmness, fought with desperation, although
terribly outflanked on both wings, and, slowly retiring, maintained an
unbroken front, until the arrival of Jackson at noon, followed by that
of A. P. Hill at four p.m., enabled them to turn the tide, to drive back
the advancing columns of the enemy, and to regain their first position,
when the approach of night put an end to the most desperate conflict of
the war, each party sleeping on its arms in the respective positions
occupied by them when the battle began. General Lee prepared to renew
the engagement next morning, but the enemy had disappeared from his
front, and left him the master of the field.

After occupying the day in providing for his wounded and the burial of
the dead, General Lee withdrew his army across the river to
Shepherdstown for rest, and for the purpose of gathering a large number
of stragglers yet on the road from Richmond; and no sooner was this fact
known than General McClellan claimed a victory, and was tempted by the
frantic exultation of the northern papers into what he called a pursuit
of a flying foe. His temerity met with severe punishment. On the 21st
instant a division of his army, in attempting to cross the river, was
decoyed by a feigned retreat of Jackson until they were too far advanced
for retreat, and were routed with appalling slaughter. The river was
choked with their dead, who fell by thousands; and out of one regiment
of about fifteen hundred men who attempted the passage, but about one
hundred and fifty are believed to have escaped. General Lee, at the last
accounts, was about to recross into Maryland at Williamsport, and has
probably already established his headquarters at that point.

General Loring, in western Virginia, has just concluded a perfectly
successful campaign, (with the aid of General Jenkins,) by which the
enemy, after being beaten in a series of battles, with heavy loss in
killed, wounded, and prisoners, had reached in their flight the lower
waters of the Kanawha, and the remnant of their forces is probably by
this time on the other side of the Ohio river, thus leaving western
Virginia perfectly free from any other invading force than some small
parties in the extreme northwest in the neighborhood of Wheeling.

Signal triumphs have illustrated our arms in the valley of the
Mississippi. My last despatch announced that General Bragg had commenced
a movement which was expected to liberate Tennessee from the presence of
the invaders. After a long and laborious march of over 400 miles he
crossed, uninterrupted by the enemy, from Tupelo, in Mississippi, to
Chattanooga, in Tennessee. Cavalry expeditions, under the daring
leadership of Colonel Morgan and General Forrest, were despatched into Kentucky and Tennessee, which
attacked the enemy at their different encampments and depots of
supplies. Their communications were intercepted, railroad bridges
burned, tunnels destroyed, camps captured, and several thousand of their
troops made prisoners. The enemy’s army at Cumberland Gap, about 10,000
strong, was closely invested, its supplies cut off, and they were forced
to abandon their position in the night, and are now fleeing through
Kentucky hotly pursued by our forces under General Carter Stevenson, who
is capturing their straggling bands as fast as he can reach them. This
army of the enemy may be considered as nearly annihilated. Major General
Kirby Smith, in the meantime, advanced rapidly into Kentucky, reached
Richmond, defeated and utterly routed an army of 10,000 men under
General Nelson on the 30th August, (the very day of General Lee’s grand
victory at Manassas.) The enemy’s army was absolutely destroyed, not
more than two or three thousand fugitives escaping from the
battle-field. The whole of the arms taken in this battle were used to
arm the Kentuckians who are joining us in mass, and no doubt is
entertained that that great State is at last permanently joined to our
confederacy. General Bragg advanced into Kentucky by another line, and
leaving Nashville and Bowling Green to his left arrived at
Mumfordsville, where he forced a body of 5,000 men to a capitulation,
thus providing arms for further re-enforcements of Kentuckians. These
operations, by cutting off General Buell from his base, have forced that
officer to evacuate Nashville, and thus not only is the whole State of
Tennessee restored to our possession, with the exception of a small
district around Memphis, but the seat of war has been removed from the
line of the Memphis and Charleston railroad to the banks of the Ohio. We
are in daily expectation of the news of the capture of Louisville.

The contrast between our present condition and that which existed ninety
days ago seems almost magical. Instead of having the invader in the
heart of our country, with our capital closely invested by an arrogant
and confident foe, our entire frontier, from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi, with a few insignificant exceptions, is reposing in peace
behind the protection of our victorious forces. The cry of “On to
Richmond” and of “waning proportions of the rebellion” is changed into a
discordant clamor for protection arising from Ohio and Pennsylvania, and
terror and confusion reign in Cincinnati, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia.
No greater or more striking proof of the change of spirit at the north
can be presented than is shown in the official despatch of General
McClellan, in which, after falsely claiming a victory on the 17th
instant, he actually felicitates his government that “Pennsylvania is
safe !” The newspapers of New York, too, are demanding the transfer of
the mint of the United States to that city, on the ground that it is
exposed to capture in Philadelphia !

Herewith you will receive the President’s message and accompanying
documents, including the measures taken for the repression of the
enormities threatened by the enemy, under the command of General Pope. I
am gratified to inform you that some seventy of General Pope’s officers,
including General Prince, were captured by General Jackson, at the
battle of Cedar Run, soon after the issue of the President’s retaliatory
order, and were excepted out of the exchange of prisoners of war and
held in close custody. This wholesome severity produced the desired
effect, and on official assurances received from the enemy that General
Pope’s order was no longer in force, and that he had been removed from
his command, the captured officers were paroled for exchange. As I have
observed in some of the English journals the facts have been strangely
perverted and the acts of the President censured as wanting in humanity,
it is desirable that some proper means be adopted by you for giving
publicity to the facts. The confinement of the officers, notwithstanding
the threat of great rigor, was the same as that of all the other
prisoners of war, and no other severity was exercised towards them than
a refusal to parole them for exchange till Pope’s murderous orders were
set aside.

It may not be improper to call your attention, for such use as may occur,
to the enormous losses suffered by the enemy during the present
campaign, and to which history furnishes no parallel except the
disastrous retreat from Moscow. I give you the following estimate,
which, without any pretension to exact accuracy, is reduced much below
what is believed to be the real state of the case, from sources of
information derived mainly from the enemy’s own confessions. The list
includes not only the killed, wounded, and prisoners, but the losses of
the enemy by sickness (which was truly terrible) and desertion:

In this enormous number I am not now able to state what general officers
were included, but in the single battle of Sharpsburg, on the 16th and
17th instant, eleven generals of the enemy were killed or wounded, among
them four major generals.

I enclose you, for information, copy of a despatch sent to Mr. Mann on
the subject of a recent convention between the United States and the
King of Denmark, relative to Africans captured from slavers at sea. It
may be well to have an eye to the movements of the enemy in the disposal
of slaves captured from our people, and you will perceive, by the
instructions to Mr. Mann, what are the president’s views on this
interesting matter.

I received, on the 29th July, the duplicate of a
letter of Mr. Rost, resigning his office, and informing the department
that he was about to leave Madrid, and had confided the books and papers
of the legation for safe keeping to Mr. Bauer, the agent and partner of
the Rothschilds, in Madrid. This letter is dated on the 28th May, and as
nothing is said in it in relation to Mr. Walker Fearn, the secretary of
legation, I infer that the original was
accompanied by a letter of resignation from Mr. Fearn also, but no such
letter has reached the department. You are requested to ascertain
whether Mr. Fearn has resigned, and, if contrary to the inference drawn
from Judge Rost’s letter, he has not done so, the president desires that
you intimate to him, in the manner best adapted to avoid wounding his
feelings, that the departure of Mr. Rost, under the circumstances, and his closing up of the
legation at Madrid, have put an end to Mr. Fearn’s functions as
secretary to Madrid, and that his office has thus been vacated.

I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant,