HEADQUARTERS,
Springfield, Ill., November 10, 1862.
Honorable E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War:
I received your order on the 21st ultimo at Washington to
proceed to Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa and take measures for
the preparation of the Mississippi expedition.
Leaving Washington on the morning of the 22nd I arrived at
Indianapolis on the 23d, and on the same day had an interview
with Governor Morton, who responded cordially to the project
of the proposed expedition.
Leaving Indianapolis on the 24th I arrived at this place on
the morning of the 25th, and immediately sought an interview
with Governor Yates, who also responded with similar
assurances.
As soon as the necessary dispatches could be prepared I
immediately sent Major Scates, assistant adjutant-general, to
Iowa, to see and confer with Governor Kirkwood, who also
entered zealously into the project.
When I reached here the impendency of the late election in
this State, and the interest felt in it by State officials, in
some degree impeded my efforts to forward the troops remaining
in the State.
I should also state in explanation of the tardiness attending
enlistments that the scarcity of necessary labor caused by the
very great number of troops sent from this State has hardly
left any of the adult male population behind at liberty to
leave their homes. Yet within the short space of sixteen days
I have completed the organization, mustered, and forwarded
from the different camps in Illinois six regiments of infantry
and one six-gun battery to Columbus, Ky., and six regiments of
infantry and one six-gun battery to Memphis, Tenn.
From Indiana I have forwarded five regiments of infantry, and
from Iowa three, also to Columbus, Ky. In addition to these
there is another regiment of infantry in Illinois now under
marching orders, and three others in the same State will be
mustered by the middle of the current week; and ten more in
Iowa, as I am informed, are only lacking overcoats, which I
hope soon to furnish. Besides these, probably by the 15th
instant twelve or more regiments from Illinois and Iowa may
Page333 Chap.XXIX.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - UNION.
be moved, making twenty regiments of infantry and two
batteries gone and twelve nearly ready to go. Four other
regiments of infantry, six of cavalry, and four companies of
artillery are being enlisted in Illinois, and two other
regiments of infantry in Iowa.
Although enlistments in Illinois are less tardy now than
before the election, yet the probable delay that will attend
the completion of the cavalry and artillery organizations has
induced me to recommend to Governor Yates the consolidation of
all such deficient organizations after the 20th instant, in
order that such as may be completed by this process may be
hastened to the field.
Passing from these details to a subject of a more prominent
character, I wish to add that the avidity with which the
Mississippi expedition is embraced by the people of the
Northwest expose all who are charged with carrying it into
effect to the consequences of popular fury if they should fail
to do so. As for myself I hardly need reiterate the deep and
absorbing interest I feel in the enterprise and my entire
willingness to do all in my power to promote it. Yet if, from obstacles such as opposed you in the beginning or for other causes, the expedition has become an uncertainty or must be long delayed I trust you will cut my supposed connection with it and order me to other duty in the field at once. In the latter case my familiarity with the old troops of General Grant's command and the country in which he is operating would decide me, if I might be allowed a discretion, to prefer duty with him.
The blockade of the Mississippi River has left to the people
of the Northwest but one outlet for their immense surplus of
grains and live stock, and that by the lakes and railroads
alone, to the East. These channels are closed for the greater
portion of the most favorable season for moving these articles
to market, leaving the producers and traders at the discretion
of exclusive monopolists.
By combinations or otherwise corporations controlling these
outlets have raised freights to such high rates as either to
stop shipments or sacrifice traders. This evil operates most
oppressively upon the energies and enterprise of the people of
the Northwest on the one hand and most advantageously to
capitalists in the East owning those roads and the
manufacturing establishments furnishing the various fabrics
required for the use of the Army and Navy on the other. The
latter in a pecuniary aspect are deeply interested in
continuing it.
What is seen? A comparatively insignificant obstruction has
served to continue the blockade of the Mississippi River now
for five months, covering a space during which the products of
its valley are usually borne upon its waters to market, and
the period of the investment of Vicksburg by a strong flotilla
of gunboats.
In view of these facts, and the great addition which has been
made to our armies under the late calls for volunteers, and
the present inertness of the Mississippi Flotilla, the people
so deeply interested are illy disposed to receive any excuse
for further delay in removing that obstacle. Indeed, any
further delay must produce consequences which will seriously
complicate our national troubles by adding another
geographical question to the one which is now undergoing the
arbitrament of arms.
Already are there those who are beginning to look beyond the
pale of Federal authority for new guarantees for the freedom
of the Mississippi River. The late election, in some
instances, affords unmistakable indications of this fact. Not
a few of the candidates preferred to office are represented to
be opposed to the war and the policy that would continue it.
Nor is this altogether surprising, since the earlier
inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley, at one time despairing
of the Government's
Page334 WEST TENN. AND NORTHERN MISS. [Chap. XXIX.
willingness or ability to assert their right to a place for
the deposit of their produce near the mouth of the Mississippi
River, began to look with growing favor to the transferring of
their allegiance to the Spanish Crown, then holding the outlet
of that river.
I am conscious that if something is not soon done to reopen
that great highway that a new party will spring into
existence, which will favor the recognition of the
independence of the so-called Confederate States, with the
view to eventual arrangements, either by treaty or union, for
the purpose of effecting that object.
The resentments of the people will be inflamed by demagogical
appeals designed to array the people of the West against the
people of the East upon the pretended ground that the latter
are in favor of continuing the war and the blockade of the
Mississippi, as a means of fostering the interest of their
trade, their manufactures, and their capital invested in both.
This sentiment is reprehensibly wrong; nay, criminal. Our
first and highest duty under Heaven is to preserve the Union
and the Government. This we must do; yet wise statesmen will
not overlook the difficulties and dangers which surround them,
but will avoid them by timely precautions.
In short, delay may bring another separation, and another
separation will entail endless collisions, which, after
wasting all the States, must sink them in anarchy and
wretchedness, like that which drapes Mexico in misery and
mourning.
Hence, in conclusion, let me appeal to you, and through you to
the President, to do something, and that something quickly, to
avert the rising storm, and insure a safe passage to our good
and beloved Ship of State through the strait that now
threatens her in the distance.
If I have spoken too freely, pardon my boldness. If I have
said too much, charge it to an honest zeal for the welfare of
my country, and forgive it.
Your obedient servant,
JOHN A. MCCLERNAND,
Major-General, U. S. Volunteers.
