John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[290] assured him of the great anxiety he had felt about him for several days, directed him not only to make his arrangements to remain in the field during the winter, but to continue his reports as frequently as possible, “always noting the hour.”

Nothing could show better than these words the value attached by the President and the Secretary of War to Dana's despatches, unless it be one a few days later from Watson, who in the absence of Stanton was acting Secretary of War. After notifying him that the President was sick and the secretary absent, he added: “But both receive your despatches regularly, and esteem them highly, not merely because they are reliable, but for their clearness of narrative and their graphic pictures of the stirring events they describe. The patient endurance and spirited valor exhibited by commanders and men in the last great feat of arms, which has crowned our cause with such a glorious success, is making all of us hero-worshippers.”

And what a splendid privilege it was that Dana enjoyed! With robust health, faculties acute and fully aroused, trusted by the generals with all their plans, passing rapidly from place to place, and participating in the councils and dangers as well as in the triumphs of the army, it was both his pleasure and his duty to know everything, see everything, and report everything just as it was to the anxious authorities who had sent him out as their representative. He was, indeed, a commissioner of the government, not vain, empty, and pretentious, like those sent out by the French government in the early days of the Revolution, but modest, wise, and tactful, and in every way worthy of the mission with which he was intrusted. From whatever point of view they are considered, it must be admitted that the ability and success with which he discharged his delicate but important duties are worthy of high praise. They afford an example for imitation in future wars, and