Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1883 — GEN. FITZ JOHN PORTER. [ARTICLE]

GEN. FITZ JOHN PORTER.

Th* Delhi Journal line bc« n c ° n * slderabl© *nlarged. Governor-elect of lexae started life a* * hottler at f« per month. V <3 imbetta, one o t the abllest stettnnuiu Eurore.died in Parts Mons day last. »■#♦»•» The Mexicans veterna will bold theu' annual're-union at Indianapolis on the 17tb. In is now reported that Robertson will %• removed from the Cole lectorehip at Rew Yor* and an out nnd.out Stalwart appointed. John B. Gough, the great temperance apostle does net advocate prohibitory law*. He favor* total abistsnee from stimulating liquors. On Thursday morning ot last week tho lire fiend visited goodlaud* and swept away about one-iourth of the business portion of the town Among the suflerers is Bro. Ritt of o the Herald. We understand the citizens came to his ade and that the Heiald will resnme about the last of thi*" month. John A. Logan, U. S. Senator from 111., a soldier (?) and a patriot (?) is engaged in throwing mud on Gen. Jb’itz Porter. Considering the fact that long ago the irreat Stephen A Douglas denounced this same Logan as a “Dirty Dog," it is very evident that Logan is employed in hi* proper calling. The lcgielature of this State met ana organized yesterday. Albert J. Kellv of Yigo was eleoted principal Secretary of tho Staro. Harry A, Holstetters, of Lawrenco County as> sisfant, Secretary, and Uni"n P‘ Kirk, ol Marshall county,Doorkeeper. In the House, William D. Byram, of Marion CouDty, was elected speakr, S. W. Bdwin, of Madison county (iltrk; Will Peace, of John, son county, assistant Clerk and Henry Fry, of Grant county, Doorkeeper. 4 -*-*» —— Gold that is coined, is coined for the qfoanks and not for the people, at comes from the mlnt» almost exclusively, in S2O pieces. Of the total coinage for November of $3, 272,000, $2,392,000, or 76 4 per cent, of tho whole, was in S2O pieces. Each of these eeias in five times as large as the larggest gold coin in Franco, where there are 51.C00,000,000 In gold These S2O pieces, uasulted by weigh and value for popular common use, naturally become a monopoly of tho banks, and for this purpose they are produced. Tui* whole scheme of “republican’* government is devised and prevented by the few, and is rabberry of the many -Wash. Register.

rhere are no words strong enough to express the absolute contempt in whieh buyers and sellers of the eleoti re franchise should be held. The franchise is of the state, and he who sells the power it confers is a thief. The purchaser may be, '-o far as known, in the rery day transaction of life, a very food sort of man. He may be held as a person of most scrupulous honor. He may have high position In churoh or state. But If he chaffered with the seifs re* apeot of the fallen men, tempting them and finally purchasing them, like so many oattlo—that man is a knave and a traitor, there is no amount of wealth -t no score of acres that can lessen his knavery—that oan heighten their treason. The faot is the trading purchaser is far more gulty than the seller of his own independence, There would be but 1 f«w men ready to sell the eonviotions of their own conscience ifjthe purchasing plunderer did tot stand redy at the door of want and poverty to take the stolen goods.—Exchange.

gjJThe Cincinnati Gazette (Republican) after carefully reading up' the voluminous testimony and arguments of the two trials, with a desire to do justice, giyes its conclusions as follows: The public who have before them this judgment of a board of high officers, on the conduct which was questioned, may be interested in the inquiry, who was Fitz John Porter, and what was hisliistory ? No officer of the army stood higher as a soldier, and no one had been more distinguished by patriotic and valua ole services. Gen, Porter was of a family eminent for services to country in army and navy. A young lieutenant, he seryed through the Mexican war,, twice breveted for gallantry in battles, and wounded in the last battle, at the City of Mexico, in%hich every dther officer of his company was killed. Me served in Kansas during the border ruffian war, and was chief of staff to Albert Sidney Johnston in the (j tab-campaign. Whenlsecession became threatening, he was taken into tho confidence of the political and military author--5 ities. In this, he inspected and reported on the forts of Charleston harbor, and I their need of repairs, supplies and men.— He was sent to Texas, In apprehension of the secession of the state, and the treachery of Qen, Twiggs. He reached Indian ola oh the steamer Webster with 120 reemits, and found that the state had seceded, and that Twiggs had surrendered the public property to the state commissioners. The tr oops refused to be surrendered or seduced . The rebel commissioners demanded of Porter the surrender of the steamer with idl on board, including $40,000 in gold. Porter answered that he would detend the ship, and, if necessary, would throw the gold overboard. While the commissioners hesitated Porter hired the steamship Btar of the West to take such troops andlbatteries as the Webster could not receive, and by night all Were oil. He bro’l off several companies, in all about 500 men, re-entered the forts at Tortuga 3 and Key West, with four companies, and bro’t three to New York. ... Battles are fought and great|victones , and rewards won by commanding generals. with less of sagacity, skill, ana personal danger. * * * * * Bhk... ' ■'C'iti:■.- OJr-JL. • ...

- Porter was taken into the confidence ot j the Lincoln administration, as he contio- j ued in that oi Gen. Scott. When the Baltimore riot broke out. Secretary Camerou and Gen. Scott sent him to protect the Baltimore & Harrisburg railrosd from the rebels. Getting from Gov. Curtin, at Harrisburg, a body of the ninety day volunteers, and hastily arming them from wherever he could get|arms, he stopped the destruction of bridges, and was preparing to open communication with Washington when all the troops were ordered by the president back lo York, Pennsylvania. The authorities at VI aehington had weakened, and agreed that tne troops •koukl come around by water to Annapolis' While communicitioo with Washington was cut off. Gov. Curiia beard of the danger that the arsenal and public property ot Si. Louis would be seized by a ; ( ,v! Jackfon'# militia. Porter tenstm.ed >,<e responsibility, sad m the name ot the Cretan of v.ar and Gen. Hcoe telegraphed orders to C'apt.. Lyon to muster in »ti,* volunteers, arm them and pro.ect the public properly. By this means did the gallant Capt. Lyon, seconded t>y Frank Blair, save the at ms aud public property from the rebels and save the state of Missouri to the Union. * * . * # The war generation will reiuembor that Porici was esteemed one of the most gallant generals of the army of the Potomac. The tilth corps had that confidence in their commander which gives invincibility. It had a record in the battles of New Bridge, Hanover court house, Mechanicsuille, Gaines’s-Mill, Turkey Bridge. At Gaines’s Mill Potter’s corps ot 27.0C0 men was left on the east side of the Chicahominy to meet the attack of Lee and Jackson’s united armies ot 65,000 men, while MeClellai v on the w est side was starting the retreat to the James!

This situation, which Poiter fully understood through the night of the 26th of. J une, was oue to test tho moral courage. One-third of his corps fell in that bloody battle, but it repulsed every assault thro’ the long day, and in the night withdrew across the river. Passing to the adraaee of the fighting and retreating army be timely seized the position at Malvorn Hill, from which Lee’s army, flashed with the confidence of pursuit, was repulsed with terrible slaughter. He understood that McGlellan and his command were to be transferred to join Pope, and his soldierly mind comprehend td the dangers of the operation, ami in aj] he acted with corresponding energy. At Harrison’s Landing, at 6 p- m., Augugt 14, be received the orddr to march, and at 7 o’clock his corps was on the way to Fort Monroe, inarching all night. Ordered to wait .at \Villiams6ure till all the rest of the army had passed, and then to guard the rear, he learned on the 16th from letters taken from refugee slaves that all the available troops at Richmond had marched north. He took in the situation with a soldier’s intui•tiOD.

He telegraphed this at once to McGlellan on tbeChickahoininy, and to ilalleck it Washington, adding to McClellan that, if not forbidden, he should move at once to Fort Monroe to embark for Aquia Greek. Hal leek and Stan ten did not believe this, thinking it a stratagem to hold McClellan’s army on the peninsula. Had he believed it, and made Pope act upon it, the outcome had been different, But while they suspected Porter to delay. He was expediting the transit ofhis troops by farced marches Monroe, and by eaery exertion to overcome the obstacles of want oi transports and lack of mean 3, and by midnight of the 20th the corps was mainly embarked. From Aquia he marchea south to Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg, and reported to Gen. Burnside late on the 21st, and that night sent Reyonald’s division and Griflin’s brigade of Morrell’s division up the river to the aid of Pope. He was assigned to the duty of guarding the lower fords under orders from Halleck through Burnside,, whom he was to keep in communieatior, and with Pope at Rappahannock Station. Porter was prostrated by dysentery three days at Falmouth, but dictated his energetic orders from a sick bed.

When he joined hist command and reached Rappannock Station on the 26th, he learned that tne railroad in Pope’s rear at Catlett’s Station had been raided on the 23rd, and his baggage and papers captured- Pope had goDe from Rappahannock Staton taking Reynolds’ division and leaving to Porter no information of his wherabouts. Although Porter was under orders to keep the river below, he understood the situation, which neither Halleck nor Pope did, and he resolved to follow and leport to Pope, which he did by letter at W ar~ rentou Junction at 11 a. m. of the 26th. Reynolds’ division had been attached to McDowell’s command. Porter’s corps, by various separations, was now reduced to loss than 9,ocd. Suppostng he was still oi McClellan’s command, as he was now departing from Halleck’s orders to he'p Pope, Porter said in a dispatch to Burnside: “Pleasepnform McClellan, that I may know I am doing rignt.” This evidence of his zeal to help Pope was perverted to insubordination to Pope. This is an|e\ample oi the way Porter’s dispatches for Burnside’s information were perverted to prove a bad “animus.” His animus was shown by his forced marches to Pope’s relief, while Pope and tho Washington authorities continued unoware that he needed relief, even after Jackson had struek his line of communications During the next four days and nights Porter received from Pop® changing orders to march and countermarch as follows: To march west to form lip® of battie at Warrantou, for a general engagement with the Confederate army, supposed by Pope to be in line to the southwest, but in fact then' on the march to the north. Next to march to Warrenton Junction and thence north to Gainesville on the Warrenton & Alexandria pike, which Jackson had taken in his route from Thoroughfare Gap to the east. This also was for a general engagement. Next to march at 1 o’clock a. m. of the 28th north east of Bnstoe, in order to “drive the enemy from Manassas, and clear the country between that piaco and Gainesville.” To this was the whole army now ordered. Next on the 29th to march from Bristoe through Manassas, north to CeuterVille, to “bag Jackson,” who in fact had not gone there, but had returned west to the pike at Grove ton, two miles northeast of Gainesville. QOn this march, having passed thro Manassas, Torter received an order to eoun termarch and take a road back to strike tho pike at Gainesville, to intercept Jackson’s retreat. But Jackson was not retreating, and Lee was joiuing him on the pike, this side of Gainsville. The n«xt order was to.make anight march back from Logstreet’s frdnt by a circuit to the rear ,to join Pope. The next was a fatal order on the 30th, which, under the delusion that Lee and Jack, son were retreating, sent Porter’s corps, unsupported, to assult a strong position, where he was intiladed and a third of his men slaughter. All lhi» forced and night marching separated the army from its trains, and consumed it with fatigue and hunger To all these dreadful orders Porter responded with unfaltering promptness, although he knew that most of them were ignorant of the situation. The charge that when ordered to march at la. m. of the 28 h, in a dark night, on a poor and obstructed road, and he waited till 3, it was disobedience or disloyalty, is • Upon ground so frivolous aato be shameful, ft fs .plain that at the time of the conclusion o the military operations, no thought o r default in Porter was entertained* and that it was a subsequent invention. What shall be the reparation for this great wrong to the soldier whose services merited the highest hoarar ? What the government can do to repare it should be done. ~ There can be no sufficient compensation for such an injury, suflered through twenty years. A great nation will not higgle in Repairing injustice to a soldier who has done such brave service. No barter of Justice should be thought of, That

i —~ which will restore Gen. Porter to the army, wich the rank which lie would have it he had remained it it, and with all which implies, is the least that a just nation can do to repair this great wrong. Offioer Delaney, es New Yerk, who killed a desperate bar-tender named McGowan, was ©xoonarated and presented with a gold watch and chain by the Coroner’s jury. Several companies of Union volvuQteere from Rhode Irian i were only mustered out last month, and an officer of the command claims pay to the date of charge. A Vermont regiment is similarly situate d. Bangs are going out and wavy | hair is coming in. Waves will not com* out of a spirited courting expedition or a. kissing party with as innocent an apperanee as bangs, but a lady with waves will look nicer. So long may she way*. Detectives in Cleveland recently recovered some watches from a pawn shop and obtaimed a clew which led to the arrest of James Wilson a plaster from Detroit. H© has since been indentified »s th© darring fellow who walked out of PL. Miles Jewelry store with SB,OOO worth of diamons.