Report.
"Mr. Wilson, on behalf of the Committee on Military Affairs, laid before the Senate the memorial of Anna Ella Carroll, of Maryland, setting forth certain valuable military information given to the Government by her during the war and asking compensation therefor, which was ordered to be printed, together with a bill rewarding her for military and literary services"—twice read in United States Senate—amount left $——, to be filled by this body. Then Congress again quietly dropped a recognition that might interfere with party plans, and so that Congress adjourned.
And so the weary work went on of presenting new memorials and meeting with the same neglect, Congress never denying the claim and none of the military commanders making any claim or denying the facts.
Miss Carroll gave extracts from every known historical work showing the surmises made, endeavoring to attribute the plan to one and another, and no evidence found to establish such surmises.
Miss Carroll wrote to Hon. J. T. Headley, the distinguished historian of the Civil War, and received the following letter:
Newburgh, N. Y., February 6, 1873.
My Dear Madam:
I am much obliged for the pamphlet you sent me. I never knew before with whom the plan of the campaign up the Tennessee river originated. There seemed to be a mystery attached to it that I could not solve. Though General Buell sent me an immense amount of documents relating to this campaign I could find no reference to the origin of the change of plan. Afterwards I saw it attributed to Halleck, which I knew to be false, and I noticed that he never corroborated it. It is strange that after all my research it has rested with you to enlighten me.
Money cannot pay for the plan of that campaign. I doubt not Congress will show not liberality but some justice in the matter.
Yours very sincerely,
J. T. Headley.
So matters went on. New memorials presented for the most part met with "leave to withdraw." Then Miss Carroll gathered herself up for a supreme effort, presented fresh testimony, and in 1878 sent in a memorial that is a mine of wealth and the most interesting memorial she has ever presented. It is labeled—