General Bragg prepared and suggested the following bill to accompany the report:
[36]"Be it enacted, That the same sum and emoluments given by the Government to the major generals of the United States Army be paid to Anna Ella Carroll from the date of her services to the country, in November, 1861, to the time of the passage of this act; and the further payment of the same amount as the pay and emoluments of a major general of the United States Army be paid to her in quarterly installments to the end of her life, as a partial measure of recognition of her services to the nation," and recommend its passage.
To suggest a bill that should rightfully mark the preëminently military nature of the services rendered without giving offense to the class accustomed to monopolize the sounding titles and to wear the glittering plumes was a wonderfully difficult thing to do. Here at least was a brave and honest effort to accomplish what no previous committee had even attempted. The other committees had left the award a blank, to be filled in by a puzzled and unwilling Congress, who preferred to do nothing at all.
In England probably there would not have been the same insuperable difficulty, a sovereign lady holding high military office as a matter of course; but we have thrown aside some noble traditions, and America never has a sovereign lady.
There was something noble and fitting in this recommendation of award by General Bragg. Considering how great public services have been formerly rewarded, it was certainly not extreme.
To go back to English history:
"The Duke of Marlborough, who commanded the allied armies of England, Austria, and Germany, received the most flattering testimonials in all forms. A principality was voted to him in Germany, while the English Government settled upon him the manor of Woodstock, long a royal residence, and erected thereon a magnificent palace as an expression of a nation's gratitude. On the Duke of Wellington honors, offices, and rewards were showered from every quarter. The crown exhausted its stores of titles, and in addition to former grants the sum of £200,000 was voted in 1815 for the purchase of a mansion and estate, etc. The rank of field marshal in four of the greatest armies in the world was bestowed by the leading governments of Europe.
"In England it has for a long time been the custom to reward and honor those illustrious in the realms of science and literature as well as of military success. Though with less demonstration and expenditure of wealth, our own country has not overlooked signal services in its behalf. The government of Pennsylvania in the days of the Revolution voted £2,500 for the political writings of Thomas Paine, and New York a farm of 300 acres in a high state of cultivation, with elegant and spacious buildings. Washington himself gave a woman a sergeant's commission in the army, who stood at the gun by which her husband had fallen, and on his recommendation she was placed on the pay-roll for life.
"Congress, in pursuance of this feeling, has not been unmindful of Anderson's heroic defense of Fort Sumter, of Farragut's capture of New Orleans, of Rawlins, etc., of Stanton, and of Lincoln, in conferring tokens of recognition for their services upon the families who survived them. Many instances might be cited where public-spirited women have been rewarded for services rendered in individual cases during the late struggle and in other forms since."
And was it not fitting that the author of such influential pamphlets and the designer of the remarkable plan of the Tennessee campaign should be honorably recognized and rewarded?