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BALL’S BLUFF AND THE ARREST OF GENERAL STONE.
General Stone asked liis commanding general for a court of inquiry; it wasrefused as unnecessary and inexpedient.
Congress met and promptly called on the Executive for information and aninvestigation. Both requests were denied as contrary to the public interests,but the demand being repeated, the President so far yielded as to promise animmediate inquiry. This was not enough to satisfy Congress , which appointedthe Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, and began the investigation
for itself, and in a mood whichmay be inferred from the de-nunciation of the affair, inadvance, as “the most atrociousmilitary murder in history.”
In the meantime, a series ofincidents had taken place, ofa character tending to givepoint to the vague suspicionsentertained against GeneralStone in some quarters. InSeptember, two alleged fugi-tive slaves were returned totheir master, under GeneralStone’s orders, by a subalternof the 20th Massachusetts regi-ment of his division. Not know-ing, or perhaps ignoring, thefact that General Stone’s actionwas in exact accord with theorders, and was sustained bythe approval of his superiors,including the President, as wellas in conformity with the policy of the Government, as then declared by Con-gress, Governor Andrew , upon the first information received, wrote a letterto the regimental commander, reprimanding the lieutenant.
A warm correspondence followed, in which, on the one hand, GovernorAndrew maintained the correctness of his own action, and severely criticisedGeneral Stone’s, while, on the other hand, General McClellan and GeneralStone protested against the governor’s course as an unwarranted interferencewith the discipline of the armies of the United States .
Governor Andrqw sent the correspondence to Senator Sumner, who laid itbefore the Senate , and denounced Stone in unmeasured terms.
Stung to the quick, Stone instantly replied in a letter to Mr. Sumner, forwhich I need seek no better description or criticism than is contained in Mr.
out molestation; fourth, for a treacherous design to 1862, in Vol. IV. of Moore’s “ Rebellion Record,”expose his force to capture and destruction by the published in 1862.] These few lines involve nineenemy, under pretense of orders for a movement distinct misstatements or perversions, only thefrom the commanding general, which had not been single fact embodied in the first paragraph beinggiven.”—[“Diary of Events” for February 9th, correctly set forth.— R. B. I.