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martial that he had in fact preferred none. In hisletter to General Halleck of September 30th,1862, General Pope speaks of “having laid be-fore the Government the conduct of McClellan,Porter , and Griffin,” and of being “not disposedto push the matter farther unless the silence of theGovernment . . . and the restoration of theseofficers without trial to their commands, coupledwith my banishment to a distant and unimportantdepartment, render it necessary as an act of justiceto myself.” In his reply, October 10th, Hallecksays : “Again yon complain that Porter and Griffinhave not been tried on your charges against them.You know that a court was ordered for their trialand that it was suspended because all officers wererequired in the field. A new court has been ordered,and they are to be tried and the grounds of yourcharges to be fully investigated.”
On November 25th, 1802, the military com-mission, having simply met and adjourned, wasdissolved and the court-martial appointed. Gen-eral Porter was now placed in arrest.
As finally constituted the court consisted ofMajor-Generals David Hunter andE. A. Hitchcock,and Brigadier-Generals Rufus King , B. M. Pren-tiss, James B. Ricketts, Silas Casey, James A.Garfield, N. B. Buford, and J. P. Slough , withColonel Joseph Holt, Judge-Advoeate-General ofthe Army, as Judge-Advocate.
The charges exhibited to the court were foundto have been preferred by Brigadier-General Ben-jamin S. Roberts, Inspector-General on GeneralPope’s staff at the time of the occurrences. Thefirst charge, laid under the ninth article of war, al-leged five instances of “disobedience of orders”;the second charge, laid under the fifty-second arti-cle of war, contained four allegations covering twoacts of misbehavior in the presence of the enemyon the 29th and 30tli.
The court found the accused guilty of havingdisobeyed three of General Pope’s orders — thatof August 27th, to march on Bristoe at 1 A. M.;the “joint order” on the morning of the 29th, to“ move toward Gainesville ” ; and the order dated4 :30 that afternoon, “to push forward into actionat once on the enemy's right flank ”; guilty, also, ofhaving “ shamefully disobeyed ” the latter order, andof having retreated without any attempt to engagethe enemy; but not guilty of having permitted Grif-fin’s and Piatt’s brigades to leave the battle-fieldand go to Centreville. The charge of having feeblyattacked the enemy on the 30th was withdrawn.
In substance the charges on which Porter wasconvicted were two,— that he disobeyed GeneralPope’s order to march at 1 A. M. on the 28th, andthat, in disobedience of orders, he failed to attack,but retreated, on the 29th. Upon the former weshall not dwell, since even upon the first trial itwas shown that Porter delayed only two hours,on account of the darkness of the night, that hemarched at 3, that nothing turned upon his delay,
The orders to Generals Heintzelman, Reno , and Sigel atthe same hour (not produced before The court or board) were:“If you find yourselves heavily pressed by superior num-bers of the enemy, you will not push matters further. FitzJohn Porter and King’s division of McDowell’s corps are
that McDowell, Kearny, and Reno , w’ith less dis-tance to cover, under orders substantially similar,were similarly delayed. The vital point remainswhether Porter did or did not disobey his ordersand fail in his duty by not attacking on the 29th,and by retreating.
The sentence of the court-martial delivered onthe 10th of January, 1863, was that GeneralPorter “be cashiered and be forever disqualifiedfrom holding any office of trust or profit under theGovernment of the United States .” On the 21stof January this sentence was approved by Presi-dent Lincoln.
During the next fifteen years General Porter continually applied for a rehearing, in the lightof evidence newly discovered or not available atthe time of his trial.
On the 12th of April, 1878, President Hayes ap-pointed a board of officers, consisting of Major-Gen-eral John M. Schofield , Brigadier-General AlfredII. Terry, and Colonel George W. Getty, to exam-ine the new evidence in connection with the old.
The new evidence consisted largely of the testi-mony and the official reports of the Confederateofficers serving in the Army of Northern Virginiaat the second battle of Bull Run, supplementedby new and accurate maps of the field of battle.None of this information, from the nature of theease, was, or could have been, before the court-martial. By it, if established, an entirely newlight was thrown upon the circumstances as theyexisted in Porter ’s front on the 29th of August.
General Pope’s orders of the 29th, which Porter was charged with disobeying, were as follows,the first, known as the “joint order,” havingreached him about or shortly after noon :
“ Generals McDowell and Porter : You willplease move forward with your joint commands towardGainesville. I sent General Porter written orders to thateffect an hour and a half ago. Heintzelman, Sigel, andReno are moving on the IVarrenton turnpike, and mustnow be not far from Gainesville . % I desire that assoon as communication is established between thisforce and your own, the whole command shall halt. Itmay be necessary to fall back behind Bull Run at Cen-treville to-niglit. I presume it will be so, on account ofour supplies. If any considerable advantages are tobe gained by departing from this order it will not bestrictly carried out. One thing must be had in view,that the troops must occupy a position from which theycan reach Bull Run to-night or by morning. The indica-tions are that the whole force of the enemy is moving inthis direction at a pace that will bring them here by to-morrow night or the next day.”
General McDowell almost immediately withdrewKing’s division, marched it round in the rear by theSudley Springs road, did not connect or again com-municate with Porter during the day, and onlybrought King’s division into action, on the right, at6:15 P. M.
Porter ’s right was not in connection or commu-nication with Reynolds, who held the left of themain line. Between them was a very wide gap, hid-
nioving on Gainesville from Manassas Junction, and willcome in on your left. They have about twenty thousandmen. The command must return to this place [Centre-ville] to-night or by morning on account of subsistence andforage.”