CHAP. V. Scouting in the snows and cutting winds of the Missouri hills and prairies, we must call attention to other events of the Western Department. While Halleck was gratifying the Government and the Northern public by the ability and vigor of his measures, one point of his administration had excited vehement criticism. His military instinct and method were so thorough that they caused him to treat too lightly the political aspects of the great conflict of which he was directing so large a share. Frémont's treatment of the slavery question had been too radical; Halleck's now became too conservative. It is not probable that this grew out of his mere wish to avoid the error of his predecessor, but out of his own personal conviction that the issue must be entirely eliminated from the military problem. He had noted the difficulties and discussions growing out of the dealings of the army with fugitive slaves, and, hoping to rid himself of a continual dilemma, one of his first acts after assuming command was to issue his famous General Order No. 3 (November 20, 1861), the first paragraph of which ran as follows: "It has been represented that important information respecting the numbers and condition of our forces is conveyed to the enemy by means of fugitive slaves who are admitted within our lines. In order to remedy this evil, it is directed that no such persons be hereafter permitted to enter the lines of any camp or of any forces on the march, and that any now within such lines be Vol. VIII, immediately excluded therefrom." W. R. p. 370. This language brought upon him the indignant protest of the combined antislavery sentiment of 66 Blair, Halleck to Dec. 8, 1861. H. J. Raymond, Life of Lincoln," p. 330. the North. He was berated in newspapers and CHAP. V. denounced in Congress, and the violence of public condemnation threatened seriously to impair his military usefulness. He had indeed gone too far. The country felt, and the army knew, that so far from being generally true that negroes carried valuable information to the enemy, the very reverse was the rule, and that the "contrabands " in reality constituted one of the most important and trustworthy sources of knowledge to Union commanders-a medium of communication which, later in the war, came to be jocosely designated the grape-vine telegraph." Halleck soon found himself put on the defensive, and wrote an explanatory letter which was printed in the newspapers. A little later he took occasion to define officially his intention: "The object of these orders is to prevent any person in the army from acting in the capacity of negro-catcher or negro-stealer. The relation between the slave and his master, or pretended master, is not a matter to be determined by military officers, except in the single case provided for by Congress. This matter in all other cases must be decided by the civil authorities. One object in keeping fugitive slaves out of our camp is to keep clear of all such questions. . . . . Orders No. 3 do not apply to the authorized private servants of officers nor the negroes employed by proper authority in the camps. It applies only to fugitive slaves. The prohibition to admit them within our lines does not prevent the exercise of all proper offices of humanity, in giving them food and cloth- 1861 W. R. ing outside, where such offices are necessary to prevent suffering." Halleck to Vol. VIII., p. 465. CHAP. V. Convention Ibid., p. 33. It will be remembered that the Missouri State Convention in the month of July appointed and inaugurated a provisional State government. This action was merely designed to supply a temporary executive authority until the people could elect new loyal State officers, which election was ordered to be held on the first Monday in November. The Convention also, when it finished the work of its summer session, adjourned to meet on the third Monday in December, 1861, but political and military affairs remained in so unsettled a condition during the whole autumn that anything like effective popular action was impracticable. The Convention was therefore called together in a third session at an earlier date (October 11, 1861), when it wisely adopted an ordinance postponing the State election for the period of one year, and for continuing the officers of the provisional government until their successors should be duly appointed. With his tenure of power thus prolonged, Governor Gamble, also by direction of the Convention, proposed to the President to raise a special force of Missouri State militia for service within the State during the war there, but to act with the United States troops in military operations within the State or when necessary to its defense. President Lincoln accepted the plan upon the condition that whatever United States officer might be in command of the Department of the West should also be commissioned by the Governor to command the Missouri State militia; and that if the Presi1861. WR. dent changed the former, the Governor should Vol. VIII, make the corresponding change, in order that conflict of authority or of military plans might be Lincoln, Endorsement, Nov. 6, p. 456. |