They were in a cruel snare, and
suffered terribly in killed and drowned, wounded and captured. The
affair was, and the country at once saw that it was, a gross blunder.
The responsibility lay upon General Stone and Colonel Baker. Stone, a
military man by education, deserved censure, but he was treated in a
manner so cruel, so unjust, and so disproportionate to his deserts, that
his error has been condoned in sympathy for his wrongs. The injustice
was chargeable chiefly to Stanton, in part to the Committee on the
Conduct of the War. Apparently Mr. Lincoln desired to know as little as
possible about a wrong which he could not set right without injury to
the public interests. He said to Stanton concerning the arrest: "I
suppose you have good reasons for it, and having good reasons I am glad
I knew nothing of it until it was done." To General Stone himself he
said that, if he should tell all he knew about it, he should not tell
much. Colonel Baker, senator from Oregon, a personal friend of the
President, a brilliant orator, and a man beloved and admired by all who
knew him, was a favorable specimen of the great body of new civilian
officers. While brimming over with gallantry and enthusiasm, he was
entirely ignorant of the military art. In the conduct of this enterprise
a considerable discretion had been reposed in him, and he had, as was
altogether natural, failed in everything except courage.
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