was Assistant Secretary of War
when Stanton was Secretary, and was sent by Stanton
to inaugurate the Tennessee campaign which saved
the Union.]

A letter from Judge Evans, who chanced to be in St. Louis on other
business, at the time gives a precisely similar account of this
interview with the pilot, and the ideas then suggested by Miss Carroll
uttered, as he relates, "in a very earnest and animated manner!"

Even though it involves some repetition, we will here give also an
account written by Miss Carroll in the winter of 1889. It will possess
an especial interest, as it may be the last literary exertion that the
invalid authoress will ever be asked to make.

It was called forth by a wish expressed by a leading magazine to have
a fresh account written directly by Miss Carroll. With fingers lamed
by paralysis the following account was written, showing the clearness
of Miss Carroll's memory in her seventy-fifth year.

"In the beginning of the rebellion public opinion gave the victory to
the Southern cause, and no one shared in this conviction to a greater
extent than President Lincoln and the War Department. The first effort
made by me was in an unpretentious pamphlet, which fell into the hands
of Mr. Lincoln and so pleased him (it did not appear with my name)
that he suggested its adoption as a war measure, and the satisfaction
it gave was so general that Governor Bates, then Attorney General,
urged that I should continue to write in the interest of the
Government. Fired by enthusiasm in a noble cause, I accepted the
suggestion, and followed soon with what some have considered my best
work, "The War Powers of the Government," and other pamphlets. About
this time I had thought of visiting St. Louis, and mentioned my
intention to Col. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War. He
urged me to go, asking me to write him fully of every point and fact
investigated. These facts I communicated as requested, both to him and
to Governor Bates.

The clouds were dark and lowering. Despair had well nigh possession
of the bravest hearts. After my arrival I soon saw and felt that the
sentiment of the West was decidedly against the Union, or rather in
favor of the Southern cause.

I visited the various encampments en route and in St. Louis and found
but little difference among leading minds as to the result
anticipated. All in a measure believed the struggle useless.