Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to Henry Adams

H.Q. 5th Mass. Cav’y
Point Lookout, Md., October 15, 1864

I wrote to the Minister yesterday, but this morning I received this batch of photographs, so I forward them in the hope of amusing you, and, at the same time, write a few additional lines. The photograph of the mortar, which I send you, is of course the most generally interesting one of all. It gives a better idea of real military operations than any one picture I ever saw. Here you see no fuss and feathers, no empty show; all is hard work by working men. In point of appearance and bearing the soldiers in this picture are fair specimens of men in the work of the field. The man in dark trousers and waistcoat is evidently an officer, though officers actually wear their coats and insignia of rank, and the rest are the crew of the gun — rough, wiry, intelligent looking men. The pictures of my camp will be more interesting to you, but these require no comment. . . .

So old Taney is at last dead. The result of last Tuesday as a day seems tolerably significant. The election would seem to secure to us for the future the Executive and the Legislative departments of the Government. Taney’s death, on the same day, gives us control of the Judiciary, and already the Army, as that day’s vote showed, was in harmony with the Government. And so the result works out. These fatal ides of November bid fair to see the Executive, Legislative, Judiciary and Army of this country working in one harmonious whole like the four strands of a cable. It is a pleasant vision. I, at least, feel confident it will be realised. However that election may result, one thing is settled: the darling wish of Taney’s last days is doomed not to be realised. It was not reserved for him to put the veto of the Law on the Proclamation of Emancipation. I suppose Chase will succeed him and I do not know that we have any better man. If he does, he will have a great future before him in the moulding of our new constitutional law.

Speaking of the elections I have got a new glimpse at Grant’s plans; whether correct or not, you will soon know. A heavy naval expedition is fitting out at Fortress Monroe against Wilmington, and the 22d is named as the date of its departure. Whether a land force will accompany it or not I am not informed, but I hear that the 6th Corps is returning from Sheridan to join Grant, and I am told (unreliable) that a cooperative force to act with Sheridan is moving from Tennessee against Lynchburg. This is my last budget of rumors. If reliable, you need not expect any momentous news from these parts until after the 22d. Between that and election day things bid fair to be lively. If a land force co-operates against Wilmington I shall expect to hear of its capture, if a dashing General is in command — say Warren. In Wright I should feel no confidence. Whether true or not, this rumor accounts for Grant’s not now pushing against Richmond. He wishes to get Wilmington first. If Lee were to leave Richmond before Grant secures that place, he would himself garrison it, and it would be a second Richmond to us. If however Grant can secure it before he drives Lee out of Richmond, I do not see where Lee could go, as the line of the Roanoke would be turned and Lee would apparently be forced out of North Carolina. Things grow absorbing. I shall not hope much from a pure naval attack on Wilmington, but on the issue of the coming struggle depends the question whether the November election is still to be a struggle, or whether Lincoln is to be swept in on an irresistible wave of success. Thank Heaven! all doubt will in a short three weeks be over and once more we can settle down on some assured policy, checkered only by the variable fortunes of war. . . .