-
3. Colonel of the 6th Illinois Cavalry
- Southern Illinois University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
60 3. Colonel of the 6th Illinois Cavalry The weak and vacillating policy of the government, while being gradually drawn under the influence of politicians, was discouraging and deplorable. When efforts were put forth to turn the army into slave catchers for the South, there was unmistakable evidence of coming trouble. Had Halleck’s order been strictly enforced, there would have been serious opposition by officers and soldiers, who never could be forced into such a mistaken and ignoble occupation. There was a general reaction against the manifest change of policy. And, although Fremont’s removal had for some time been foreshadowed for both political and military reasons, the efforts put forth by McClellan to impress upon the people of the so-called neutral states of Missouri and Kentucky that we were fighting solely to uphold the integrity of the Union and power of the national government did not satisfy the people throughout the East and North, who saw clearly that much more was involved in the conflict; that not only would the rebellion have to be put down, but that slavery, the real cause of the war, must necessarily be destroyed before peace could be restored. General Fremont, upon relinquishing command of the Western Department on November 2, 1861, bid farewell to the army in a short, manly, and feeling address, and with his staff, departed for St. Louis, passing Jefferson City on November 8, where I had the pleasure of again meeting him. He looked careworn and appeared to be considerably depressed in spirits at being deprived of his command and the opportunity, as he thought, to move onward and force the enemy into action and gain a victory, which he then believed to be within his reach. Had he been as capable of equipping, commanding, and maneuvering an army in the field, as he was in grasping the keynote of the problem, which was finally solved by striking off the shackles of nearly 4,000,000 slaves—the only feasible measure which made success for the Union cause possible—the end of the terrible conflict might have been hastened, and thereby thousands of lives and millions of dollars saved. Although premature and inoperative, his bold attempt to confiscate the property and free the slaves of those found in arms against Colonel of the 6th Illinois Cavalry • 61 the government of the United States was correct in theory, as subsequently fully demonstrated, and possibly might have been successfully inaugurated at an earlier date than that established by the Emancipation Proclamation, which proved so humane, beneficent, and far-reaching in its results.1 Let this be as it may, it was at the time referred to a great satisfaction for me to meet the general, as I considered him in the midst of his misfortunes as being, with all his failings, head and shoulders above many of his enemies and traducers. I believed then that he merited, and still think he deserved, a warm place in the hearts of all lovers of freedom, of which he was an earnest, constant, and fearless advocate. His reception at St. Louis, upon return to that city, was a grand affair and must have proven a source of great gratification to the general in the face of his deprivation of an important command. Major General David Hunter2 succeeded temporarily to the command of the Western Department, but soon after assumed that of the Department of Kansas, being relieved at St. Louis by General Halleck, who was given the “Department of Missouri,” as at that time designated in orders, of which he took command on November 19, 1861. About that time, the receipt of letters from Mrs. Grierson was a source of great comfort, and only those who have been similarly situated can fully realize the pleasure and benefit they afforded me. Had I been unfortunate enough to have had a complaining, fault-finding, and disconsolate wife, I would have been driven to despair and out of the army. But nothing came to me from home but the clearest manifestations of patient endurance and loving kindness, which encouraged and enabled me to successfully cope with disappointments and deprivations. The contents of such communications were devoured with avidity and responded to instanter, when the opportunity was afforded. Usually at such times, for the amusement of the younger ones of the family, I had a way of making words, either double or...