WITH LINCOLN FROM WASHINGTON
TO RICHMOND IN 1865
By JOHN S. BARNES (USN)
I. THE PRESIDENT SEES A FIGHT AND A REVIEW
(from Appleton’s Magazine, vol. 9, no. 5 (May, 1907), pp. 515-524)
WHILE in command of the United States Ship Bat in the month of March, 1865, attached to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Rear Admiral Porter commanding, I received orders to proceed without delay to Washington, and report in person to the Secretary of the Navy.
Fort Fisher had fallen and all accessible ports of the South were in our possession; blockade running had ceased, and the Bat had been employed as a dispatch boat, and had made many trips to Washington and Baltimore on dispatch service, also to points South embraced by Admiral Porter's command.
On the arrival of the Bat at Washington on the 2oth day of March, 1865, I reported to the Navy Department, and was received by Mr. G. V. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, immediately upon ray arrival. Mr. Fox, who had previously been my guest, and had made a trip to City Point, discussed with me her interior arrangements, the unoccupied space below decks, and then Informed me that the President desired to visit General Grant at City Point, Grant's headquarters, and had applied to the Navy Department for transportation, and that he thought the Bat was, or might be made a suitable ship for him to go and return in, or perhaps to live on board of during his visit to General Grant’s headquarters. I replied to Mr, Fox that if he would place the resources of the Washington Navy Yard at my disposal, I could in a few days make such arrangements as to insure the personal comfort of the President as long as he desired to make the Bat his home. Mr, Fox then took me over to the White House, and we were at once admitted to the President. After introducing me as the.captain of the vessel detailed by the department to take him to City Point, Mr. Fox left us with the remark, "Now, Mr. President, you have only to give him your orders as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States." Mr. Lincoln replied, "I'm only a fresh-water sailor and I guess I have to trust to you salt-water folks when afloat." After a few minutes' talk, mainly as to the size and accommodations of the Bat, during which the President said he wanted no luxuries but only plain, simple food and ordinary comfort — that what was good enough for me would be good enough for him. I left him, returned lo the Navy Department, and secured orders to Captain Montgomery, commanding the Washington Navy Yard, to do all things needed to make the vessel ready to receive Mr. Lincoln and to finish the work as soon as possible. The Bat was the highly developed type of "blockade runner" built for the special purpose with several other like vessels, by Messrs. Jones, Quiggan & Co. of Liverpool. She was a side-wheel steamer. long and narrow, drawing about nine feet when loaded, and driven by four oscillating engines, turning huge feathering paddle-wheels; her hull was of steel plates three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness; under full steam she had a speed of eighteen knots. On her maiden trip from Bermuda to Wilmington, in command of a Captain in the English Naval Reserve, laden with army medicines and contraband goods, she was captured in attempting to run the blockade off Cape Fear River. Condemned as a prize, she was hastily converted into a gunboat for blockading duty.
The next morning early I received orders to report at the White House, and on my arrival there I was at once shown to the President's private room— not his office. Mr. Lincoln was there and received me with great cordiality, but with a certain kind of embarrassment and a look of sadness which struck me forcibly and rather embarrassed me. He appeared tired and worried, and after a few casual remarks said that Mrs. Lincoln had decided that she would accompany him to City Point, and could the Bat accommodate her and her maid servant. I was, in sailor's phrase, taken "all aback." The Bat was in no respect adapted to the private life of womankind, nor could she be made so. I ventured to state some of the difficulties — as delicately as I could. "Well," said the President, "I understand, but you will have to see mother," and I was soon ushered into the presence of Mrs. Lincoln.
She received me very graciously, standing with arms folded, and at once opened the conversation by saying that she had learned from one of her friends. Miss Harris, daughter of Senator Ira Harris, of New York, that I was an old acquaintance and relative. I expressed my great satisfaction at the recognition and remarked that Miss Clara Harris was one of my best friends also.
Mrs. Lincoln then said, "I am going with the President to City Point, and I want you to arrange your ship to take me, my maid, and my officer, as well as the President." There was some other desultory talk, the general result of which was that I would confer with Mr. Lincoln and see what I could do to meet her wishes. In great consternation I went to the Navy Department, and explained to Mr. Fox the situation; how utterly impossible it was to make the Bat at all suitable for the reasonable requirements of the wife of the President. Mr. Fox at once recognized the impossibility, and again we went to the White House, were at once received by Mr. Lincoln, when in very funny terms the President translated our difficulties, and Mr. Fox promised the President that be would provide another and more appropriate craft for the transportation of his family.
The alterations to the Bat were stopped and the steamer River Queen was chartered for Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln's accommodation. She was a river passenger side-wheel boat, with the ordinary civilian officers and crew, without armament.
By the orders of the Department, I was directed to accompany her, and keep her in convoy, and was placed under the immediate direction of the President and charged with his safe conduct to City Point and return.
During the term of Mr, Lincoln he was constantly threatened with assassination. From the moment of his election before he left Springfield, during the journey to Washington, after his inauguration, and up to the time of the great disaster, threatening or warning letters were constantly received.
He was in constant danger of assassination or abduction. This danger was very seriously impressed upon me both by Mr. Fox and Mr. Welles. Mr. Fox particularly felt that the President was incurring great risk in making the journey and living on board an unarmed, fragile river-boat, so easily assailed and so vulnerable. Plots and conspiracies were then known or believed to exist against the person of the President. The steamboat Greyhound, almost a sister vessel to the River Queen, employed by General Butler as his headquarters boat, had lately been destroyed by the explosion of an "infernal machine" while passing from Fortress Monroe to City Point, and General Butler and Admiral Porter, passengers, very narrowly escaped with their lives from the burning ship. The machine in this case — and there were several similar explosions on army transports — consisted of what was an innocent-appearing lump of coal, but was in reality a block of cast iron with a core containing ten or fifteen pounds of powder, or high explosive. Covered with a mixture of tar and coal dust, it was difficult to detect its character. The Confederates had an organized body of men who were charged with the placing of these machines in coal piles, or coal barges, from which our vessels took their supplies.
Mr. Fox laid great stress upon the care to be taken in coaling, and the protection against bombs and infernal machines, poisons, and treachery. It was plain that he was apprehensive, and expressed great regret that the determination of Mrs. Lincoln lo accompany the President had made the Bat an impossible home for him and his family party. On board of the Bat he would have been comparatively secure, and I was confident that he could be surrounded by every possible protective care.
While probably not oblivious to the danger of his position. President Lincoln was much less disturbed by it than many others. During the journey and upon several occasions after its accomplishment this was a matter of conversation between officers at headquarters, and among naval men. A tremendous and most destructive explosion of a mechanical bomb had just occurred at City Point, upon the dock, wrecking some of the shipping and ruining vast quantities of army stores. The President expressed great contempt for cowardly assaults of such nature, and lived and moved about in utter disregard of them. Unlike the high officers of all governments today, there were no private detectives guarding his person. From time to time, so-called despots on foreign thrones had been threatened or attacked by anarchists and socialistic mad-men, but such political crimes were not or publicly apprehended in this country. But of course, owing to the condition of affairs, precautions were to be taken in Mr. Lincoln’s journeyings and were provided by the escort of the Bat, and by his military surroundings at General Grant's headquarters at City Point. Whatever uneasiness existed in the minds of the Navy Department officials, however, found no reflection in Mr. Lincoln's mind, and I can assert most positively that during the period of my service in the character of guardian he never exhibited the slightest concern for his personal safety. He lived and moved about as freely and unconcernedly as the least conspicuous citizen, and as I reported to him for orders, with the usual salute and compliments of the morning and evening, he would lay out his plans for daily excursions to scenes or places of interest with Mrs. Lincoln, his sons, and some invited guests or acquaintances, and waive with great gentleness but firmness all suggestions of escort which had even the appearance of personal protection.
The River Queen, closely followed by the Bat, left Washington on March 23, 1865, Mr. Lincoln embarking at the Sixth Street wharf at 1 p.m., and anchored off City Point very late on the evening of March 24. Communication was had with General Grant, and it was proposed to hold a general review of the troops before Petersburg the next day at about noon. I reported to Mr. Lincoln early in the morning on the 25th, was invited to breakfast with the family, and escorted Mrs. Lincoln to the breakfast room on the lower or main deck of the Queen. Mr. Lincoln, who was not looking well, had been indisposed the day before, and attributed it to the drinking water furnished the Queen at Washington; indeed we had stopped at Fortress Monroe the day before and taken on a supply of fresh water in demijohns, for Mr. Lincoln's special use. The only persons present at the breakfast were "Thad," the youngest son, and Captain Penrose, of the Commissary Department. Mr. Lincoln ate very little, but was very jolly and pleasant. While at breakfast, Captain Robert Lincoln came in from General Grant and said that there had been a fight that morning at the front and the action was then going on; that the reports at General Grant's headquarters were meager, but that our troops were successful in repelling an assault upon our lines, and that the proposed review would have to be postponed. Mr. Lincoln sent a dispatch to Mr. Stanton, which he wrote at the table and gave to Captain Lincoln to have sent. He spoke of the fight, made light of it, calling it a "rumpus at the front." After breakfast several officers, including Admiral Porter, called to pay their respects; there was a general conversation, and we all walked up to General Grant's headquarters. There it was learned that the fight at the front had been quite serious, but at that time was practically over, resulting in a decided victory for our men. After some discussion, Mr. Lincoln expressed a great desire to visit the scene of the action, the particulars of which were still wanting, nothing being known except the general result.
General Grant was rather opposed to such a trip for the President, as possibly being an exposure, but the reports from the front, coming in constantly, being reassuring, a special train was made up at about noontime, and with a large party we slowly proceeded over the Military Railroad, roughly constructed between City Point and the front, to General Meade's headquarters. On our arrival there, and indeed before we reached the scene, while we were passing through a portion of the field of battle, the very serious nature of the conflict of that morning was apparent. The Confederates under General Gordon, at early daylight, had made a swift and sudden assault upon our lines of investment of Petersburg, had captured Fort Stedman and several other batteries, with many persons, including a general officer, and driven our men back close to and over the railroad embankment upon which our train was then halted. The ground immediately about us was still strewn with dead and wounded men. Federal and Confederate. The whole army was under arms and moving to the left, where the fight was still going on, and a desultory firing of both musketry and artillery was seen and heard.
Mr. Lincoln was taken in charge by General Meade, and mounted on horseback rode to an eminence near by, from which a good view of the scene could be secured. Horses had been sent out on the train, and I was fortunate in securing one. We passed through the spot where the fight had been most severe, and where great numbers of dead were lying, with burial parties at their dreadful work. Many Confederate wounded were still lying on the ground, being attended to by surgeons and men of the Sanitary Commission, distributing water and bread. We passed by two thousand rebel prisoners of war, herded together, who had been captured within our lines only a few hours before. Mr. Lincoln remarked upon their sad and unhappy condition, and indeed they were as sorry and dirty a lot of humanity as can be imagined, but they had fought desperately, and no doubt were glad to be at rest. Mr. Lincoln was quiet and observant, making few comments, and listened to explanations in a cool, collected manner, betraying no excitement, but his whole face showing sympathetic feeling for the suffering about him. Before returning to the train a flag of truce was flying between the opposing lines, now each reoccupied, and ambulances were moving and burial parties from the Confederate lines occupied in taking off the wounded and burying the dead lying between the lines where the slaughter of Confederates had been greatest. Once again on the train, to which cars filled with our wounded men had been attached, Mr. Lincoln looked worn and haggard. He remarked that he had seen enough of the horrors of war, that he hoped this was the beginning of the end, and that there would be no more bloodshed or ruin of homes. Indeed, then and many times after did he reiterate the same hope with grave earnestness.
I related to him an incident of that day when, having received a haversack of crackers and a canteen of water, I employed a half hour in going among the wounded lying on the ground, and came across a little red-headed boy in butternut clothes, moaning, and muttering over and over, “Mother! Mother!” I asked him where he was hurt, when he looked up at me and turned toward me the back of his head, where a bullet had plowed a ghastly furrow, and then with the effort expired. Mr. Lincoln's eyes filled with tears and his voice was choked with emotion, and he repeated the well-known expression about "robbing the cradle and the grave."
We returned slowly by train to City Point. Mr. Lincoln, overcome by the excitement and events of the day, desired to rest on the Queen with his family, and, declining the invitation to take supper at General Grant's headquarters, saw no one again that evening. Briefly, what he had that morning telegraphed to Mr. Stanton and described as a "rumpus at the front" was a most sanguinary battle and almost the last of the war. The losses on the Confederate side were as reported the next day, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, nearly five thousand men, and on the Federal side over two thousand. On the following day, the 26th, many dead and some wounded still lay unburied and unattended between the lines of intrenchment only a few yards apart. On the 26th, on reporting to Mr. Lincoln, I found him quite recovered from the fatigue and excitement of the day before; reports from the front were wholly reassuring, our troops back in their original positions, with some material advantages gained along the lines. The President, while lamenting the great loss of life and the sufferings of the wounded, expressed the greatest confidence that the war was drawing to an end. He read me several dispatches from Mr. Stanton, expressing anxiety as to his exposing himself, and draw-ing contrasts between the duty of a "general" and a "president"; also several dispatches from the front sent him by General Grant. He was greatly pleased to hear that General Sheridan had reached the bank of the river at Harrison's Landing, and that his cavalry would that day cross and join General Grant's army. After breakfast Mr. Lincoln went to Grant's headquarters and sent some dispatches to Mr. Stanton, saying that he would take care of himself.
General Sheridan and General Ord were there, also several other generals and Admiral Porter. It was suggested that, as the President had seen a "fight instead of a review" the day before, he should employ the day in an excursion to see Sheridan's troops crossing the river at Harrison's Landing, review the naval flotilla, and then review General Ord's division then encamped on the left bank of the James, near Malvern Hill, the scene of the bloody battle between Magruder's and General McClellan's armies.
Horses and ambulances for the ladies were placed on the River Queen as Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant were to attend these ceremonies, and soon we were passing down the river to the point of the crossing of Sheridan's troops. General Sheridan was of the party, and the President very kindly insisted that I should "come along," as he expressed it.
The scene was a lively one, and the President enjoyed it hugely. A pontoon bridge had been thrown across the river, over which were passing, in a stream, Sheridan's cavalry, while the bank of the river was lined with them, some bathing and watering their horses, laughing and shouting to each other and having a fine time. They soon found out that the President was watching them and cheered vociferously. A few moments were given to this, and then the River Queen turned and passed through the naval flotilla, ranged in double line, dressed with flags, the crews on deck cheering as the River Queen passed by. Admiral Porter had sent his orders ahead before starting, and the ships made a brave show and the President was apparently delighted and the Admiral naturally very proud of his command. Mr. Lincoln as he passed each vessel waved his high hat as if saluting old friends in his native town, and seemed as happy as a schoolboy. On reaching the Malvern Admiral Porter's flagship, the Queen went alongside, and we found there spread out in her spacious cabin a grand luncheon. How the Admiral could have gotten up such a repast on so short a notice was a source of wonder and surprise to Mr. Lincoln, as it was to everyone who enjoyed it. It was the cause of funny comments and remarks by the President, contrasting army and naval life, as was witnessed by the laughter among the group immediately about him, of which he was the moving spirit. Luncheon over, we all re-embarked on the Queen, and she proceeded to Aitken's Landing, where the horses and ambulances were put ashore. Many officers of General Ord's division were in waiting to accompany and escort the President to the field review, which was to be reached over a rough corduroy road leading to the pontoon bridge close by, connecting the right and left wings of the army.
The arrangements were that Mr. Lincoln should go on horseback, accompanied by General Grant and General Ord with their respective staffs (I am not certain that General Sheridan also was with the President), then Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant were to be conducted to the ground in an ambulance, under the special escort of Gen. Horace Porter and Colonel Badeau. General Porter very kindly but reluctantly, and with some misgivings as to my horsemanship, and jocular remarks about sailors on horseback, lent me his own favorite steed. There was some delay in starting, owing, it was said, to the unreadiness of the ladies, but at last the cavalcade got off, General Grant and General Ord, riding on each side of the President, leading. The ambulance with Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant was to follow. Just as we left, General Ord introduced me to his wife, who was also on horseback, saying, "Captain, I put Mrs. Ord in charge of the navy"; so Mrs. Ord and I closed up the rear. She was a remarkably handsome woman, and a most accom-plished equestrienne, riding with extreme grace a spirited bay horse. General Ord also referred to the horsemanship of sailors, but added that Mrs. Ord would look out for me.
There were probably twenty or thirty officers and a few orderlies in the party, all in their best uniforms, and as brilliant a squadron as could be expected from an army in the field. The President was in high spirits, laughing and chatting first to General Grant and then to General Ord as they rode forward through the woods and over the swamps on the rather intricate and tortuous approach to the pontoon bridge. The distance to General Ord's encampment was about three or four miles. The President was dressed in a long-tailed black frock coat, not buttoned, thick vest, low cut, with a considerable expanse of a rather rumpled shirt front, a black carelessly tied necktie, black trousers without straps, which, as he ambled along, gradually worked up uncomfortably and displayed some inches of white socks. Upon his head he wore a high silk hat, rather out of fashion, and innocent of a brush for many days, if ever it had been smoothed by one. He rode with some ease, however, with very long stirrup leathers, lengthened to their extreme to suit his extraordinarily long limbs. His horse was gentle with an easy pacing, or single-foot, gait, and our progress was rapid; but owing to the luncheon and delay in starting we reached the parade ground at a late hour.
The division was under arms drawn up in a wide field at parade rest, and had been so for several hors. After hurried conferences with the commanding officer, General Ord reported to General Grant, who referred to the President, with the statement that the soldiers' mealtime was long past, and asked should the review be delayed to await the coming of Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant, not yet arrived — in fact, as it turned out, the ambulance under charge of Porter and Badeau had either missed the route or was en-tangled in the maze of the rough approaches to the pontoon. Mr. Lincoln exclaimed against any further postponement, and in a few minutes the review commenced; the President, with General Grant and General Ord leading, proceeded to the right of the line and passed in front, the bands playing, colors dipping, and the soldiers at present arms. Mrs. Ord asked me whether it was proper for her to accompany the cavalcade, now very numerous. I replied that I was ignorant of army usages and ceremonies, but a staff officer, to whom I referred the matter, said, "Of course! Come along!" and gladly enough we fell in the rear and followed the reviewing column. Halfway down the line the ambulance with the ladies drove in upon the field. Seeing it, Mrs. Ord exclaimed, "There come Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant. I think I had better join them." Reining out of the crowd, we galloped across the field and drew up by the side of the wagon. Our reception was not cordial; it was evident that some unpleasantness had occurred. Porter and Badeau looked unhappy, and Mrs. Grant silent and embarrassed. It was a painful situation from which the only escape was to retire. The review was over, and Mrs. Ord and myself with a few officers rode back to headquarters at City Point.
After visiting the River Queen I retired early, rather tired with my unwonted horseback exercise; but about eleven o'clock I was awakened by the orderly, with a message from the President saying that he would like to see me on the River Queen. I dressed as quickly as possible, repaired on board, and found Mr. Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln awaiting me in the upper saloon. The President seemed weary and greatly distressed, with an expression of sadness that seemed the accentuation of the shadow of melancholy which at times so marred his features. He took little part in the conversation which ensued, which evidently followed some previous discussion with Mrs. Lincoln, who had objected very strenuously to the presence of other ladies at the review that day, and had thought that Mrs. Ord had been too prominent in it, that the troops were led to think that she was the wife of the President, who had distinguished her with too much attention. Mr. Lincoln very gently suggested that he had hardly remarked the presence of the lady, but Mrs. Lincoln was hardly to be pacified and appealed to me to support her views. Of course I could not umpire such a question, and could only state why Mrs. Ord and herself found ourselves in the reviewing column, and how immediately we withdrew from it upon the appearance of the ambulance with Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Grant.
It was a very unhappy experience, the particulars of which need not be gone into, nor would I here refer to it, but that it has been referred to by others in various publications and bears upon the cause of the vein of sadness which ran through the naturally cheerful disposition of the greatest and noblest man this country has produced. I extricated myself as well as I could, but with difficulty, and asked permission to retire, the President bidding me good night sadly and gently.
The following morning I reported as usual to the President, who received me with marked kindness, read to me, in the small stateroom converted into an office, his dispatches from Mr. Stanton and the news from the front, particularly the reports of the casualties of the battle on the 25th, which greatly increased the numbers previously reported on both sides. Thad was about, demonstrative as usual, clinging to his father and caressed affectionately by him. I inquired for Mrs. Lincoln, hoping that she had recovered from the fatigue of the previous day. Mr. Lincoln said that she was not at all well, and expressed the fear that the excitements of the surround-ings were too great for her, or for any woman. After a few minutes thus passed, Mr. Lincoln said he was going to General Grant's headquarters and asked me to go there with him, which we proceeded to do afoot.
City Point was a busy place; the river crowded with gunboats, monitors, transports, and colliers; the quartermaster's docks lined with vessels of every description unloading stores and munitions for the Grand Army; large storehouses filled to repletion covered the docks and approaches; innumerable teams were going and coming to and from the front every hour of the day and night For convenience in landing and returning, the River Queen had been placed alongside the dock and a gangplank connected her with the wharf. The Martin, a similar steamboat to the Queen, was also fastened to the dock. She was General Grant's headquarters boat, and upon her Mrs. Grant and her family were living. It was sometimes a question as to precedence as to which boat should lie inside — a question not raised by Mr. Lincoln. But Mrs. Lincoln thought that the President's boat should have place, and declined to go ashore if she had to do so over Mrs. Grant's boat, and several times the Martin was pushed out and the Queen in, requiring some work and creating confusion, despite Mr. Lincoln's expostulations. The boats came to be called “Mrs. Lincoln's boat” and "Mrs. Grant's boat" and the open discussions between their respective skippers were sometimes warm. Of course, neither Mr. Lincoln nor General Grant took any notice of such trivialities.
(see PART TWO HERE)