A military genius

by Sarah Ellen Blackwell

Dear Miss Carroll:

Your "Reminiscences of Lincoln" (a work suggested by Mrs. Hussey) should, as far as possible, bring out the words and own thoughts of the man. The subject, the man, and the occasion are the points to be treated, and in this order, perhaps.

Again, my old and dear friend, I am very glad and hope the award will meet all your expectations—mental, pecuniary, and of every kind. The hope of the award to yourself and friends must be as satisfactory as the judgment of the court.

Yours,
ERASTUS BROOKS.

Miss Carroll showed this letter to Mrs. Hussey, who copied and immediately published it.

Miss Carroll, who had always been on friendly terms with General Grant, spoke to him of her claim. They conversed together concerning her work. He assured her that he had not been aware of its extent, and advised her by all means to continue to push her claim. I have seen the draft of a letter, written by Miss Carroll at this time, to General Grant in which she alludes to the advice he had given her to push her claim before Congress. The letter is written in the friendliest spirit and in a tone of touching modesty. It should be here noted that there never was any antagonism between these two who had done such great work for the salvation of their country.

Cassius M. Clay wrote to the editor of the New York Sun the following letter, as published in that journal:

White Hall, Kentucky, March 3, 1886.

In 1861, as soon as I could get General Scott apart from his staff of rebel sympathizers, I advised him to reach the Southern forces by all the water-ways, as the shortest and most practical lines of attack. This advice was hardly necessary as every tyro in the Union Army would probably have done the same. But it belonged to Miss Anna Ella Carroll to project and force upon the bewildered army officers—Halleck, Grant, and others—the cutting in two of the Confederacy by way of the Tennessee river by means of the gunboats, and of our facilities of thus concentrating troops and supplies. It was the great strategical coup of the war.

I call the attention of the American nation to Miss Carroll's article in the April number of the North American Review of 1886. It appears that the splendid conception of this project called for the immediate reward of a grateful Congress as the representative of the whole people. But when it was found that it was neither Grant, nor Halleck, nor Buell, but a woman, who showed more genius and patriotism than all the army of military men, the resolution was suppressed and the combined effort of many of the ablest men of the Republican party could never resurrect it. Miss Carroll merely states her case. There is no event in history better backed up-with impregnable evidence.