Fifty years' observations of men and events, civil and military

Front matter

Years OBSERWvrioN'

I i

; 1

Chapter I

Introduction. — Occasion for writing this book. — My first view of Scott. — Appointment to his staff.— Impressions on Scott during my first service. — My first dinner with him. — His advice. — Description of Scott. — Anecdotes. — His ruling passion ambition. — His opinions of various public men. — Washington City about 1840. — General condition of the country at that time. — Military science and its progress. i

Chapter II

Scott as a man of gallantry and the head of a family. — Scott in the society of ladies. — His general demeanor. — Fond of social visiting. — His conversation. — Anecdotes. — His love of attention. — ^Views of married life. — His own marriage. — Opinion of marriage in the army. 19

Chapter III

Scott as a scholar, and a man of reading. — His education. — His studies of law. — Public men of his time. — His fondness for philology. — Knowledge of French. — Criticisms upon various authors. — Mathematics.— Scott's favorite quotations. — His association with learned men 36

Chapter VII

Puritanism. — Its nature, its benefits, and its dangers. — A study of Puritanism. — Its origin. — The first Puritans. — Result of Puritan instruction. — Puritans and Catholics in the conversion of the heathen. — Puritan beliefs concerning private judgment. — Character of our present government derived from Puritanism 83

Chapter VIII

The evils of foreign immigration. — Scott opposed to foreign immigration.— My study of his opinions. — Overcrowded population in Europe. — Anecdotes. — Future of immigration in the United States. — Foresight of Scott on this question 93

Chapter IX

A review of the autobiography of General Scott. — Scott's character as exhibited in the book. — His comments on events. — Burr's trial. — Wilkinson. — War with England. — The quarrel with Jackson. — ^Anecdotes of Jackson. — ^Van Buren's Administration. — Troubles in Canada.— Anecdotes of a journey with Scott. — Scott in the South. — The Cherokees. — Scott as a politician. — His opinions. — Benton. — The autobiography on the Mexican War 100

Chapter X

Reminiscences of events and characters from the time of my first service with Scott till I rejoined his staff as confidential Military Secretary.— My captaincy. — Farewell dinner from Scott. — Life in Washington.— Ordered to Florida. — W. T. Sherman. — Fort Lauderdale. — George H. Thomas. — Lieutenant Wyse, and other officers. — Service in Florida. — In New Orleans. — General Gaines. — Comparison of Scott and Gaines. — Ordered to Fort Moultrie. — The voyage. — Purchase of a slave. — The officers at Fort Moultrie. — Quan-el with Bragg. — Anecdotes of other officers , 162

Contents

CHAi>TER XI.

PAGE

From my appointment to duty at West Point as Cliief of Department of Artillery and Cavalry.— The West Point board.— Nominations for the post.— My nomination by Lee.— The Military Academy and its merits.— Influence of Colonel Thayer.— His successors.— Delafield, Cullum, and others.— The class of 1846.— McClellan, Foster, Reno, Couch, Sturgis, Stoneman, Palmer. — Thomas J. Jackson, Maxey, Pickett.— Derby ("John Phoenix ").— Classes of '47 and '48. —Miss Scott 18S

Chapter XII

Generals Lee and Grant.— The military career of Lee.— His personal appearance.— My last sight of him.— Scott on Lee.— Foreign opinions of Lee.— Comparison of Lee and Grant.— First sight of Grant. — Grant in 1880. — His early career.— His civil life.— His re-entry into the army. — Actions at Forts Henry and Donaldson. — Trouble with Halleck. — The army in Tennessee under Grant.— Comparison with ancient and modern generals. — E. B. Washburne. — Sherman's recognition of Grant.— Grant in the Wilderness. —Grant the ablest American General * 204

Chapter XIII

My journey to San Francisco. — Life in California. — The voyage via Cape Horn. — Delay at Panama. — Anecdotes of the journey. — San Francisco in 1849. — The discovery of gold. — San Francisco in early days.— Fellow officers. — Expedition to the San Joaquin Indians. — Treaty with them. — Great fire in San Francisco. — California admitted to the Union. — The Vigilance Committee 223

Chapter XIV

Indian campaigns on the Pacific Coast. — Expedition to Fort Vancouver. — Indian Fighting. — Return to San Francisco. — Steptoe's disaster in Washington Territory. — General Clark's move. — At the Dalles. — The march to Walla Walla. — Coeur d'AlJne. — More Indian Fighting.— Colonel Wright. — Harney 250

Chapter XV

Return to San Francisco from the Indian War. — Description of society and individuals. — Condition of California. — The Parrotts, McAllisters, Thorntons, Lakes, Donohues, McKinstrys, Gwins, Bowies, and others. — The Bar of San Francisco. — Leading lawyers 290 vi Contents.

Chapter XVI. Page

General Scott's visit to the Pacific Coast. — His conduct and ctiaracter in old age. — His appearance. — Judge Ogden Hoffman. — My appointment as Military Secretary. — Scott's growing fondness for money. — His inactivity. — My own state upon resuming service witii him. — Some general opinions. — Scott's feeling as to sectional politics — Return to Washington. — ^Various social events. — Visit of the Prince of Wales. — Affairs in the beginning of i860 315

Chapter XVII

Events of i860 and '61. — State of the Union and of parties in the autumn of i860. — Buchanan's Cabinet. — Election of Lincoln. — Scott's suggestion of names for Lincoln's Cabinet. — ^Various social events in Washington. — General Cameron. — The first demands from the South. — Hayne's mission. — Petigrew. — Seward's speech. — Scott's views on the situation. — Stanton's appointment to office. — First troops ordered to Washington. — Reports from various parts of the country. — Threats against Lincoln. — Scott's depression 337

CHAPTER* XVIII.

Major Anderson and Forts Moultrie and Sumter. — Description of Anderson. — ^Anecdotes. — Anderson ordered to relieve Gardner. — His vigilance. — His masterly movement from Moultrie to Sumter. — The question of reinforcement.— Expedition of the " Star of the West." — She is fired upon. — First shots from Sumter. — Beginning of civil war

Chapter XIX

Reinforcements of Fort Pickens. — Captain Vogdes. — Gen. Scott on the situation of Fort Pickens. — Interview between Lincoln and Scott. — My interview with the President and Mr. Seward. — The expedition ordered. —Lincoln's letter of authority. — Gen. Butler. — Close of my secretaQTship. — Service under Morgan of Nev/ York. 375

Chapter XX

Arrival of Lincoln at Washington. — Caricatures. — Threatening letters. — Dinner with Stanton. — The retiring President. — The inauguration of Lincoln. — Visit to New York. — Scott's letter to Texas.' — Anecdotes of Lincoln. —Farewell speeches of Benjamin and Davis 410

Contents. vii

Chapter XXI. Page

The War of the Rebellion. — State of affairs at its outbreak. — Letter to the President. — Bull Run. — The Peninsula. — Letter to Senator Harris. — Fair Oaks. — Testimony concerning the battle. — The field revisited. — Conversation with President Lincoln. — Letter from Secretary Chase 4^9

APPENDIX I.

A letter from Col. C. C. Suydam 49^

APPENDIX II Battle of Fair Oaks.— Report of Brig.-Gen. E. D. Keyes, 4th Corps . . 5CX)

MEN AND EVENTS.

Introduction

Occasion for writing this book. — My first view of Scott. — Appointment to his staff.— Impressions on Scott during my first service. — My first dinner with him. — His advice. — Description of Scott. — Anecdotes. — His ruling passion ambition. — His opinions of various public men. — ^Washington City about 1840. — General condition of the country at that time. — Military science and its progress.

IN the month of August, 1881, my attention was called to a controversy, then going on in the newspapers, the occasion for which was an article from the pen of the Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, who was Attorney-General during the administration of Mr. Buchanan.

Mr. Black asserted that the failure to reinforce Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, was due to the delays and reluctance of Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, who was, at the time, the commanding general of the Army.

The statement of Mr. Black was regarded by many as an undeserved accusation, and without foundation in truth.

My former intimate associations with the general, and my friendly feeling toward him and his alleged accuser, gave me an especial interest in the controversy, and I commenced a letter to Mr. Black, with a purpose to relate such facts and circumstances as I remembered in regard to the question in dispute. The subject was so suggestive that I soon found my narrative would transcend the limits of an epistle, and I determined to write my reminiscences of General Scott, and of other distinguished persons and events with which I had been associated.

The first time I ever saw General Scott was in the year 1 83 1, when he was the President of the Board of Visitors at the West Point Military Academy, and I was a cadet under examination. I was called to the blackboard and required to work out the barometric formula as in Francoeur's Mechanics. I remember the time with perfect distinctness, as there was in the course a problem relating to the precession of the equinoxes, that I had not been able to review, and I feared it would be given to me and that I should fail, or " 'fess," as the cadets would say. The announcement of my task made me happy, and I had time to observe the general without pre-occupation. He was much taller than any other member of the Board, but not very stout. His complexion was light, his eyes large, clear, and blue, and it appeared to me that his face was marked with more lines than I observed at a later date. His whole appearance was that of a convalescent nearly restored to good health. As I proceeded with my demonstration, I noticed that he looked at me as though he was my teacher, and I expected he would question me, but he did not, and as he gave the same attention to all the others in the class, I

First Impressions of Scott, 3

could boast of no special distinction. I did not speak to the general during the three or four weeks he remained on the Point, and when I went to report to him as acting aide-de-camp, on the 29th day of October, 1833, he did not recognize me.

I owed my selection for the Staff to the influence of my very dear friend, Lieutenant Hugh W. Mercer, who was the second aide. He was the son of General Mercer, of the Revolutionary Army, and a gentleman of the purest type. He was a model of elegance and grace, and his talents were of a superior order.

General Scott esteemed Mercer so highly as to take me into his military family upon his sole recommendation.

I arrived at the office in Lispenard Street, New York, at

I I o'clock in the morning, and was then first introduced to my future chief. He received me with a coldness that chilled the marrow in my bones. Looking up from his writing, he asked me how long I had been out of the Military Academy ? I replied sixteen months.

Then turning to Mercer he remarked : "How happened it that General Jones allowed this young officer to leave his regiment so soon ? "

Nothing more was said. The general wafted his eye over me in a way that was not encouraging and resumed his writing, while I withdrew to a desk in the rear office, there to await the bidding of my superiors.

From my seat I could always see and hear the old chief, and I was not slow to learn that his temperament was irritable, and that he was easily bored. I was told that the young officer who was ray predecessor brought himself into disfavor and lost his place because he would every morning question the general about his health, how he slept, how his family were, etc.

I concluded, therefore, to ask no questions, and only to speak to. him when he addressed me, which was seldom, as I received my orders mostly through the Assistant Adjutant-General.

I took good care to be punctual, and as the mail arrived at lo o'clock A.M., that was the hour I was expected to be at my post, and 1 made it a point invariably to be entering the door while the clock of Saint John's Church was striking ten. I finished everything I had to do neatly, and with despatch, and in that way I gained approval and secured to myself the reward that follows unofificious usefulness.

It was often required of me to go to the general for orders, and to show him papers, but he never said anything that denoted the slightest personal interest in me till I had been with him four months.

One day at the end of that time, after finishing his writing, he turned in his chair and said, " Mr. Keyes, I wish you to come and dine with me at four o'clock this afternoon." I accepted his invitation, which I considered an order, and at the appointed hour found myself at his house, No. 5 Bond Street, which at that time was one of the most fashionable streets in the city.

Lieutenant William C. De Hart, who was first aide-de-camp and assistant adjutant-general, and I were the only guests, and the dinner, though simple, was good. Although I took little part in the conversation at that dinner, I gained without design a strong point with my host. Wishing for the salt, which stood nearer to De Hart than to me, but nearer to the general than to either of us, I said, " Mr. De Hart, will you please pass me the salt?" He did so, and I helped myself. Then the general turned and said, "Young gentleman, you showed tact in asking Mr. De Hart for the salt instead of me, as he is more nearly your own age," and his eye rested upon

Funeral of Lafayette. 5

me with a bland expression that was cheering, and ever afterwards when I went to him for orders he would look up at me.

Nevertheless I was so much awed in the presence of my chief that I seldom said a word to him except in reply to his questions, until after the funeral ceremonies of La Fayette, which were celebrated in New York in the month of July, 1834. During the night preceding that solemn event it rained, and the cobble pavements were covered with mud and were very slippery.

A dozen or more officers of the army, headed by Generals Scott and Brady, joined in the procession, and marched on foot six or seven miles in the blazing sun of one of the hottest days known. Near the end of the route, the column halted, and the officers closed around the two generals. Remarks were made about the heat, the mud, the length and slowness of the march, and several complained of exhaustion. Old General Brady said, " Mr. Keyes, you don't appear to be tired." " No," interrupted Dr. Mower, " the blood meanders calmly in the veins of this youth." Those simple remarks, and the friendly attention of those two venerable men — General Brady appeared very old, and was a captain in 1792 — won my heart, and to this day I feel an affection for their memory. It was nearly dark when the ceremony ended at the City Hall, and General Scott called a carriage, took me in with him, and drove slowly to Bond Street.

During the whole passage he was giving me advice. " You are now," said he, " beginning life — you are green and ignorant of society and of yourself. You appear to be industrious and studious enough to fit yourself for high exploits in your profession, and your next object should be to make yourself a perfect man of the world. To do that, you must carefully observe well-bred men, like Mr.

Charles King, Lieutenant Mercer and others. You must also learn to converse and to express your thoughts in proper language, like Mr. Ogden Hoffman and Dr. Havvkes. You must make acquaintances among the best people, and take care always to be respectful to old persons and to the ladies ! "

No young man was ever more surprised and astonished than I was while I listened to the foregoing homily. It was a manifestation of interest in me that he had never shown before. The impression it made upon me can only be understood by knowing how I then felt, and how the speaker appeared to me.

The value of my opinion of the hero of my work will be better estimated if I give my observations upon him when I was untutored as well as when experience and time had qualified my judgment. I must therefore describe myself as I was, and him as he seemed at the time I first joined his staff.

My mother was a puritan of the severest type, but my father was not a puritan ; consequently there was a possibility of my being something else. My father had a strong will and my mother was the climax of virtue, although her disposition was saddened by the views she entertained of religion and accountability.

She read the works of Petrarch, Zimmerman's book on solitude, Young's Night Thoughts, and every species of dismal sentimental literature. During all my youth it appeared to me that my mother spent her evenings poring over the five folio volumes of Scott's Commentaries on the Bible. She sought a reason for her faith, which was of the darkest, coldest shade of Presbyterianism. My grandmother, from whom my mother derived her peculiar cast of mind, was endowed with the most extraordinary memory I ever witnessed in a woman. It

Description of Scott. 7

appears to me that she could recite all the poetry ever conceived by human brains to express every emotion of sorrow that can arise from discontent, life-long despondency, and despair. Even Madame de Stael, who surprised ■the world by the genius with which she depicted the various forms of anguish that oppress the human breast, could not drape this vale of tears in more sombre weeds than could my grandmother Corey.

As I had a supreme affection and reverence for my mother and grandmother, I could not fail to participate in a large degree in the anxiety and doubts with which their lives were environed. I had scruples which not even the military training and new associations at West Point had removed, and the general's advice to me to become a perfect man of the world sounded like a lesson in deviltry. But for the darkness that concealed the expression of my face, he would have seen that I did not fully accept his teachings ; nevertheless, they have been verified by time, and I have repeated them to my sons.

At the period referred to General Scott was a little past the middle life, but still in the perfection of his bodily and mental powers. He was six feet four and a quarter inches tall, erect as an Indian chief, with an eye of wonderful force and expression. His features were regular, his nose nearly straight, although a slight curve added essentially to the air of command which is peculiar to the masters of slaves, whether they be white or black. His martial bearing was enhanced by the remembrance of past exploits, by constant adulation, by self-content, and many feasts. Instead of estimating his prominent traits at a less value because I saw him every day, I valued them more highly, so that I must have pleased him better by what I thought than what I did. I listened to his voice with attention, and accepted his counsels with the docility of Kaled when he stood in the presence of Omar the Prudent.

As soon as I became planted in his favor, I took care that my growing should not be retarded by negligence. I set myself to study the expression of his face and his, habits, when influenced by various emotions, and I was not slow to learn that to know when to stop speaking was a capital point. Often would I break away in the middle of a sentence and be out of his sight in a second. When I went to his private office or his room, which it was my duty to do often, if I saw his face did not invite discourse or company, I would turn and be gone before he could open his mouth.

Until I knew General Scott's true character, and when I pictured him from report, I concluded he was a great soldier and a very vain man. When I became better acquainted with him, I discovered new proofs of his excellent soldiership, and my opinion of his vanity was essentially modified. Old Captain Jock Munro of the artillery defined him truly when he said : " The jinral thinks well of himself and is fond of a compliment, but he is willing to give a compliment now and then in exchange. He is not like some men we know, who want all the compliments to themselves and never give any." He mentioned the names of two army officers, which I omit.

The general was often extravagantly ironical and exaggerated in his expressions on many subjects, vanity included. One evening when I returned from a dinner party, he asked me what I had to eat. Among other things I mentioned veal. " Veal !" said he ; " did you ever know a gentleman to eat veal ? " The next day I dined with him, and he gave me veal and no other meat.

There can be no doubt that the general was vain of many things, and especially so of his person. For that

Scott s Vanity. 9

there was good reason, since I was often sickened by hearing persons of all degrees remind him of his stature and symmetry, but he was never offended. He referred to it himself on all occasions, and sometimes under strange circumstances, as in the following example which I heard him relate several times. It was, I think, in the year 1830 — the general was always minutely particular in naming the exact date of every event he described — when travelling in the northern part of Ohio, he stopped at a country store where they sold liquor by the glass. He had on a common travelling cap and a plain overcoat that concealed his buttons. The landlord having stepped out, he went behind the counter upon v/hich the glasses stood, to a desk, and was busy writing a note, when a farmer came in and called out, " Give me a glass of rum toddy." The general straightened up, and turning full upon the man, he exclaimed : " Did you ever know a man six feet four and a quarter inches tall to sell rum toddy ? "

He told me that when he received his first commission in the army, which was that of captain, he immediately ordered a new suit of uniform — sword, sash, cap — everything complete, and had it carried into the largest room in the house, in the diagonal corners of which he placed two looking-glasses. Then he cleared away all the furniture, let in as much light as possible, put on his new uniform, and strutted back and forth between the mirrors for two hours. " But," said he, " if any man had seen me, I should have proceeded at once to put him to death."

He never forgot any allusion or reference to any deficiency or fault in his person, dress, or carriage. Colonels Bankhead, Lindsay, and Eustis used to relate that, when Scott was a young man, he had a healthy, active appear, ance, but owing to his extraordinary height he looked thin, and that he only weighed 140 pounds. The general lo Fifty Years' Observation.

himself more than once recalled to me the impression made upon others by his youthful figure. He told me that a man who envied him circulated a story, that before visiting his lady-love he would have his coat padded, and put on false calves ! Forty years had not subdued his wrath when he exclaimed, " The idea of me with false calves !"

As my narrative proceeds, I shall have occasion to relate other incidents to show the pride and satisfaction with which he regarded his own person.

He was equally content with the excellence of his mental qualifications, as the following incident will prove: One day I was reading to him a newspaper article in praise of Henry Clay. The writer described the distinguished Kentuckian as a man of commanding presence, with a lofty forehead and a large, loose mouth. He referred also to several other renowned orators — Burke, Mirabeau, and Patrick Henry — whose mouths were of extraordinary size, and he concluded his article with the remark, " All great men have large mouths." "All great men have large mouths ! " exclaimed the general ; "why, my mouth is not above three-fourths the size it should be for my bulk ! "

The foregoing citations clearly indicate that General Scott had a good opinion of himself, and it is certain that most people thought him excessively vain. Nevertheless, after my long service and intimacy with him, he did not leave on my mind the impression of the mean, selfish vanity in all things which characterized two or three other men with whose domination I have been cursed. On the contrary, his vivid fancy and animated utterances in regard to himself seemed but responsive to the good qualities he had recognized in others. A vast number of men and women had secured his friendship by their respect

Scott's Ambition. ii

and kindness towards him, and he found great pleasure in describing their virtues to me. He would unfold tlie wisdom of the old, the valor of the young, the gentleness of matrons, the tenderness of maidens of various ages, the bounties of some and the prudence of others, with such a genial flow of words that I listened to him with delight. But I confess I often wondered why I had not met more characters like those he described to me !

The chief ruling passion of the general was ambition and its uniform attendant, jealousy. In matters of rivalry he was easily vexed, and when the thing pursued was of great distinction, he seemed to go out of his own skin into that of an angry porcupine with every quill standing fiercely on end. Wild Medea could not rage as he would against all men who obstructed the way to the prize he coveted. He would pour out his venom against his rivals in terms which showed him skilled in the jargon of obloquy; and after two or three years in his company, if I had credited his descriptions of the superior ofiScers of the Northern armies in the War of 1812, I must have concluded that not one of them was above mediocrity and that several were far below.

He had also many things to say in disparagement of every aspirant to the Presidency who competed with him. He thought Harrison was equally insignificant, and weak in person and mind, and could never find fit words to describe his loathing for Franklin Pierce, who he believed was the meanest creature that ever aspired to be President !

One day when he, IVIr. Joseph Blunt and I were dining together at the Union Club, New York, the general swooped upon Daniel Webster. Blunt, amazed at his violence, dropped his knife and fork, looked up and sought to expostulate, but to no purpose. Scott kept on till he had made the great expounder as bad as Belial and in the same line, and Belial, as Milton informs us, was

" The dissolutest spirit that fell, The sensualest, and after Asmodai, The fleshliest incubus . . ,"

The antics of military and political jealousy, like the follies of love, are beyond the scope of prose, and if we could uncover the hearts of all rising generals and politicians, we should find them about equally black, and quite as fully charged with hatred against their rivals as that of my angry, outspoken chief.

On a former occasion, and before they came into direct competition for the Presidency, I often heard General Scott speak in terms of admiration of Mr. Webster's extraordinary abilities. I was with the two gentlemen on a journey from New York to Philadelphia shortly after Mr. Webster returned from England in the autumn of 1839. They were wedged together iri the same seat, and I sat in front of them. Both the great men were in a cheerful mood, and Mr. Webster did nearly all the talking, while the general listened attentively, thus paying to him an unusual compliment. Mr. Webster's conversation was more interesting to me than one of his speeches in the Senate. He had much to say about the Duke of Wellington, Lords Brougham, Palmerston and other distinguished Britons. I was astonished at what he said of the Duke of Wellington, whom he thought the ablest man he met in England. He spoke of Wellington's orders and despatches, many of which he had read, and he commented on their force and clearness. He also praised the elegance of the Iron Duke's manners and the graces of his conversation, and there can be little doubt that his judgment of Wellington was correct. No order

Webster's Memories of England. 13

the Duke ever wrote contained a superfluous word, or could by possibility have been misunderstood. If he had framed laws, and he would never have framed one on a subject he did not fully understand, they would have been equally clear, and no lawyer, however astute, could have driven through them with his coach and four. A statute drawn by a legal gentleman to regulate business he does not comprehend is usually a nest of law-suits. Mr. Webster's remarks upon Lord Brougham's character, writings, and speeches were not so flattering — he found many flaws, and his general opinion of the Scotchman was disparaging, as compared with Wellington. He considdered Palmerston a very able statesman, and purely English in character. Mr. Webster discoursed at length upon English agriculture, and described his visit to Mr. Cook's model farm, of which he gave many interesting particulars. He had much to say concerning English railroads and their management, which were at that time in all respects vastly superior to those in America. I remember he said that from London to Liverpool signal men with flags were placed in sight of one another throughout the entire line I I recollect the very words he used to describe our railroads in America. " They are made," said he, " of two stringers of scantling notched into ties that often get loose in the ground. Upon the stringers two straps of iron the width and thickness of wagon tires are nailed. These straps of iron frequently get detached at the ends, which turn up like snakes' heads and pierce the floors of the cars." (Such a thing actually occurred in a car in which General Scott was seated on his way from Elizabeth to New York.) " Then," said he, " the wheels slip on the iron straps, in winter especially, so much that no dependence can be placed upon the time of arrival, and many people think it is not certain that railroads will be a success."