roposed we would commend to the committees
Mr. Cockrell on "huckstering."

The true description of such a report would be "admission of the
incontestable nature of the services rendered."

Then followed the report of the Military Committee of 1881--the last
report, so far as I have been able to ascertain, "printed by order of
Congress."

It is as follows, verbatim:

46th Congress,\ House of Representatives. / Report
3d Session. / \ No. 386

* * * * *

ANNA ELLA CARROLL.

* * * * *

March 3, 1881.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and
ordered to be printed.

E. S. Bragg, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the
following

_Report._

(To accompany bill H. R. 7256.)

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom the memorial of Anna Ella
Carroll was referred, asking national recognition and reward for
services rendered the United States during the war between the States,
after careful consideration of the same, submit the following:

In the autumn of 1861 the great question as to whether the Union could
be saved, or whether it was hopelessly subverted, depended on the
ability of the Government to open the Mississippi and deliver a fatal
blow upon the resources of the Confederate power.

The original plan was to reduce the formidable fortifications by
descending this river aided by the gunboat fleet then in preparation
for that object.

President Lincoln had reserved to himself the special direction of
this expedition, but before it was prepared to move he became
convinced that the obstacles to be encountered were too grave and
serious for the success which the exigencies of the crisis demanded,
and the plan was then abandoned and the armies diverted up the
Tennessee river and thence southward to the center of the Confederate
power.

The evidence before this committee completely establishes that Miss
Anna Ella Carroll was the author of this change of plan, which
involved a transfer of the national forces to their new base in north
Mississippi and Alabama, in command of the Memphis and Charleston
railroad. That she devoted time and money in the autumn of 1861 to the
investigation of its feasability is established by the sworn testimony
of L. D. Evans, chief justice of the supreme court of Texas, to the
Military Committee of the United States Senate in the 42d Congress
(see pp. 40, 41 of