r at
least two days, and then collapsed. We were told that the orders had
been countermanded; we unloaded our tents, pitched them again on the
old sites, and resumed battalion drill. It was then gossiped around
among the boys that we actually had been under marching orders for
Virginia to reinforce the Army of the Potomac! Personally I looked on
that as mere "camp talk," and put no confidence in it, and never found
out, until about fifteen years later, that this rumor was a fact. I
learned it in this wise: About nine years after the close of the war,
Congress passed an act providing for the publication, in book form, of
all the records, reports correspondence, and the like, of both the
Union and Confederate armies. Under this law, about one hundred and
thirty large volumes were published, containing the matter above
stated. When the law was passed I managed to arrange to procure a set
of these Records and they were sent to me from Washington as fast as
printed. And from one of these volumes I ascertained that on June 28,
1862, E. M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, had telegraphed Gen. Halleck
(who was then in command of the western armies) as follows:

"It is absolutely necessary for you immediately to detach 25,000 of
your force, and send it by the nearest and quickest route by way of
Baltimore and Washington to Richmond. [This] is rendered imperative
by a serious reverse suffered by Gen. McClellan before Richmond
yesterday, the full extent of which is not known." (Rebellion
Records, Series 1, Vol. 16, Part 2, pp. 69 and 70.)

In obedience to the above, General Halleck wired General McClernand on
June 30 as follows:

"You will collect as rapidly as possible all the infantry regiments
of your division, and take advantage of every train to transport
them to Columbus [Ky.] and thence to Washington City." (Id. p. 76.)

But that same day (June 30) a telegram was sent by President Lincoln
to Gen. Halleck, which operated to revoke the foregoing order of
Stanton's--and so the 61st Illinois never became a part of the Army of
the Potomac, and for which I am very thankful. That army was composed
of brave men, and they fought long and well, but, in my opinion, and
which I think is sustained by history, they never had a competent
commander until they got U. S. Grant. So, up to the coming of Grant,
their record, in the main, was a series of bloody disasters, and their
few victories, like Antiet