A military genius : $b Life of Anna Ella Carroll of MarylandBlackwell, Sarah Ellen
History
A military genius : $b Life of Anna Ella Carroll of Maryland
Blackwell, Sarah Ellen
Carroll, Anna Ella, 1815-1894; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
Colonel Scott says she has "acted very properly in the matter; that
there is no question of her being entitled to the vote of thanks by
Congress; that she has saved incalculable millions to the country,
etc., but that it would not do while the struggle lasted to make a
public claim;" and also states that the War Power pamphlet has done
much good, and he has heard it frequently referred to while in the
West.
Judge Wade discusses the matter and says it greatly adds to the merit
of the author that it was not made known. "Where is there another man
or woman," says Judge Wade, turning to Judge Evans, "who would have
kept silence when so much could have come personally from an open
avowal." Judge Evans says he has reproached himself more than once
that he had not in some way made known what he knew, but was
constrained to silence by considerations of patriotism that were above
all else at that time.
Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the
War, afterward writes to Miss Carroll:
"I have sometimes reproached myself that I had not made known the
author when they were discussing the resolution in Congress to find
out; but Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton were opposed to its being known
that the armies were moving under the plan of a civilian. Mr. Lincoln
wanted the armies to believe that they were doing the whole business
of saving the country."
Mr. Wade also writes to Miss Carroll:
"The country, almost in her last extremity, was saved by your sagacity
and unremitting labor; indeed, your services were so great that it is
hard to make the world believe it. That all this great work should be
brought about by a woman is inconceivable to vulgar minds. You cannot
be deprived of the honor of having done greater and more efficient
services for the country in time of her greatest peril than any other
person in the Republic, and a knowledge of this cannot be long
repressed."
Col. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, to whom her plans
were submitted, informs her in 1862 that "the adoption of her plan has
saved the country millions of money."
Hon. L. D. Evans, justice of the supreme court of Texas, in a pamphlet
entitled "The Material Bearing of the Tennessee Campaign in 1862 upon
the Destinies of our Civil War," shows that no military plan could
have saved the country except this, and that this was unthought of and
unknown until suggested by Miss Carroll, who alone had the genius to
grasp the situation.
How clearly the Confederate leaders recognized the fatal effects of
this Tennessee campaign is indicated by a letter found among the
papers captured by General Mitchell at Huntsville, written by General
Beauregard to General Samuel Cooper, Richmond, Va.:
"CORINTH, _April 9, 1862_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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