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Surely it may be said of Mr. Swinton somewhat as Sheridan said in his reply to Dundas, that he is indebted to his prejudices for his arguments and "to his imagination for his facts."

The animus of the book, to which I have thus called the reader's attention, so far as General Burnside is concerned, is one of contempt or malevolencesometimes expressed directly, sometimes by innuendo. The cause of the author's spitefulness dates back to the time when he was a correspondent of the New York Times. In the issue of that paper of January 16, 1863, he characterized General Burnside's letter of December 17th to General Halleck as one "in which there is nothing his but the signature, and to which his good nature, not his conscience, consented." Mr. Swinton being questioned as to his authority for such an extraordinary declaration, gave, after some delay and with great reluctance, the name of General Sedgwick. But General Sedgwick, on being confronted with the correspondent at General Burnside's headquarters, declared the statement utterly unfounded. A friend of Mr. Swinton requested that the matter might be overlooked, and General Burnside was content, after such an exposure, to let the crestfallen writer go with an admonition to refrain from such unworthy practices in the future. Since that time, Mr. Swinton's animosity against General Burnside has been so strikingly marked through the public press, and now through his "Critical History," as to give but little value to his opinions.

33

THE DELIVERANCE

OF

EAST TENNESSEE.

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THE DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO.

FTER an interval of rest for a few weeks in Providence,

Department of the Ohio, which comprised the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Eastern Kentucky, with the prospective addition of East Tennessee. Headquarters were at Cincinnati. General Burnside was assigned on the 16th of March, 1863, reached Cincinnati on the 23d, and on the 25th, assumed command, relieving Major General Horatio G. Wright. Affairs were not in a particularly flourishing condition in that quarter. Rebel raids were devastating portions of the State of Kentucky, and causing considerable alarm and anxiety

**

*To the officers of the commissioned staff of the corps, there were several additions at the time that General Burnside was appointed to the command of the Department of the Ohio. Among these are especially to be mentioned Mr. Daniel R. Larned, appointed March 13th, 1863, Assistant Adjutant General, with the rank of Captain, and Mr. W. Harrison French, who was appointed Commissary of Subsistence, with the rank of Captain, February 19th, 1863. Captain Larned had been General Burnside's private secretary from the beginning of the North Carelina expedition, and continued to act in that capacity until the end of the war, when he retired with the brevet of Lieutenant Colonel. Captain French Lad been assistant secretary.

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