.

The general confusion which reigned at Washington at this time had to
be seen to be understood. No description can convey my initial
impression of it. The first time I saw General Scott, then
Commander-in-Chief, he was being helped by two men across the pavement
from his office into his carriage. He was an old, decrepit man,
paralyzed not only in body, but in mind; and it was upon this noble
relic of the past that the organization of the forces of the Republic
depended. His chief commissary, General Taylor, was in some degree a
counterpart of Scott. It was our business to arrange with these, and
others scarcely less fit, for the opening of communications and for
the transportation of men and supplies. They were seemingly one and
all martinets who had passed the age of usefulness. Days would elapse
before a decision could be obtained upon matters which required prompt
action. There was scarcely a young active officer at the head of any
important department--at least I cannot recall one. Long years of
peace had fossilized the service.

The same cause had produced like results, I understood, in the Navy
Department, but I was not brought in personal contact with it. The
navy was not important at the beginning; it was the army that counted.
Nothing but defeat was to be looked for until the heads of the various
departments were changed, and this could not be done in a day. The
impatience of the country at the apparent delay in producing an
effective weapon for the great task thrown upon the Government was no
doubt natural, but the wonder to me is that order was so soon evolved
from the chaos which prevailed in every branch of the service.

As far as our operations were concerned we had one great advantage.
Secretary Cameron authorized Mr. Scott (he had been made a Colonel) to
do what he thought necessary without waiting for the slow movements of
the officials under the Secretary of War. Of this authority unsparing
use was made, and the important part played by the railway and
telegraph department of the Government from the very beginning of the
war is to be attributed to the fact that we had the cordial support of
Secretary Cameron. He was then in the possession of all his faculties
and grasped the elements of the problem far better than his generals
and heads of departments. Popular clamor compelled Lincoln to change
him at last, but those who were behind the scenes well knew that if
other departments had been as well