HOW HANNAH CARROLL SAVED THE AMERICAN UNION.

White Ribbon, Volume 18, Issue 212, 18 February 1913, Page 3

HOW HANNAH CARROLL SAVED THE AMERICAN UNION.

(Bv S. I). Shallard.) Let those who would deny women their citizenship because “they cannot light” ponder this, one of the strangest stories in modern history, the story of Anna Ella Carroll, of Maryland, whose political genius prevented the intervention of Europe in the American Civil War, and whose military genius rescued her country from ruin at the darkest hour of its misfortunes. That “women cannot fight,” in the sense of giving personal military service, is a myth long exploded by thousands of cases provng the contrary. But warfare is above all a matter of strategy. Bv strategy a small force may outwit a greater, dividing it and defeating it in detail. Now, it is in strategy that women excel, and it will never be known to what extent male patriots—like male politicians and business men—owe their most successful ideas to the penetration <ind quick wit of women. There are. however, certain authenticated cases, and one of tln-se is the story of how Anna Klla Carroll saved the American Union, how she was sworn to secrecy, how American men received ali the credit, honours, and pensions for her work, and how the conspiracy to prevent any recognition of her services was Maintained until she lay, in sickness and poverty, upon her deathbed. Miss Carroll, who was a leading Maryland landowner, and daughter of the late Governor Carroll, after having freed all her slaves, set herself to keep Maryland and the adjacent Border States from throwing in their lot with the South, by which piece of diplomacy she kept the South divided agamst itself to the last. The European Chancellories. anxious to regard the war as one between two nations—their

only excuse for intervention—were hampered by this division. Moreo\er, the Federal Government was aide to justify to the world on historical and constitutional grounds its right to declare war on its own States. This document had been drawn up by Miss Carroll, a brilliant historical student, as a justification of her own position in Marvland. It was adopted bv Lincoln and published by the Government as its own declaration, Miss Carroll being then asked bv the Government to deline its position towards the relH‘l States and its powers as to future action. This she did, and Lincoln afterwards admitted that then steps from that time onward were largely based upon her views. So far Lincoln was able to call cluck to England and France. Hut the South was consolidating, the Federal army had made one blunder after the other, and in the autumn of iKhi there came a moment when the War appeared to be virtually over and the dissolution of the Union assured. One more serious reverse to the Federal army, a nd the wavering Border States, perhaps Maryland itself, would have gone over to the (. onfederates, a nd with the Declaration of the Independence of the South a new nation would h a vc come into existence with whom France and England could have entered into an alliance. A National Crisis. The Federal forces were costing the nation two million dollars or more per day, the national exchequer was empty, its paper selling ai ~n increasing discount, and no possibility of rais ng a loan in sight. The military commanders were ignorant both of the geography and topography of the vast country in which thev were operating : military and n ival commanders alike appear to have been too arrogant and opinionated to seek sound advice, and neither were able to formulate any intelligent rlan to release themselves from their impossible situation. With the declaration of Southern Independence, the fleets of France and England, which were lving near by. would intervene to raise the blockade maintained by the North along the Southern coastline ; whilst v>,<k>o British troops were only waiting the word to cross the Canadian frontier and invade the States from th«; North. The Government, then, was at

its last extremity, the country in the helpless apathy of despair, and not one of the suggested military plans ollered the least solution of the difficulties which were paralysing the national forces. Vet it was clear that unless some immediate blow were dealt at the resources of the Confederate power the Union was lost. Anv movement seeming better than stagnation, the Government was being driven to enter upon an attempt to carry the Mississippi. Aided bv the gun-boat fleet, the army was to descend this river in the vain hope of carrying its series of formidable fortifications and opening up the way to an attack upon the Confederate base. This ill-timed expedition was being arranged under the supervision of Lincoln himself, when suddenly the whole plan of campaign was changed, the army ordered to a new base and a strange course, which no one lor the moment could gr.isp, entered upon. The Mississippi expedition was seen to be abandoned ; then it was realised that the ..rinv was to penetrate the enemy’s territory, cut its forces in two, and outflank its ma»n bodv bv a simple and audacious plan, based upon an advance bv the Tennessee river. The European strategists gasped, and the Southern leaders knew that anv declaration of independence would In* a mockery. W hat had happened ? Simply this : that the problem which had baffled the united brains and experience of the national leaders and commanders had been solved bv a civilian and that civilian a woman. Nor had she been content with her own certainty as to the soundness of her scheme. At her own expense, an 1 under her own .supervision every detail of the scheme had been probed, and she was able to give a plan of the r.ver, its fortifications, fords, currents, depths at various places and seas ns. and other details. Writing years afterwards, Chief Justice Evans, then engaged under the President, declared : “There was but one line which the National arms could have taken and maintained to avert disaster, and that was unknown and unthought of but for Miss Carroll.” The President W on Over. Vet it was “touch and go” whether the President would adopt this scheme of an “outsider.’’ He

broached it to his military advisers, not daring to name the author as being a woman. They rejected it with scorn a s a will, impossible idea for which they w ould take no responsibility. Miss l arroll urged the danger of the Mississippi campaign, its futility, a n<l the complete ruin which must follow on the first disaster. Colonel Scott, the Assistant War Secretary. was converted, and he won over his chief, Secretary Stanton, and B. F.

Wade, Chairman of the Committee lor the Conduct of the War. These, with Lincoln appear to have been the only persons then in the secret of the authi rship. Thev sought to win over the President to their view. Colonel Scott writes : “I said to Lincoln, ‘ You know* wv arc now in the last extremity, and you have to choose berween adopting and at once executing a plan that you believe to be the right one and save the country, or defer to the opinions of military nun in command—and lose the country.’

The President’s position was no easy* one. Treasurer Whittlesey, who afterwards copied the plans, and also the subse juent letiers in wlTch their author “coached” til? Government through the campaign, wrote of them : “They are virv extraordinary papers. . . . Her views were as broad and sagacious as the field tv be occupied. In selecting the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, instead of the Mississippi, she set at naught the opinions of civilians, of military and na' il men.” At this moment the fate of a nation hung in the balance. At last Lincoln took his courage in I oth hands, demanded and received s ipreme power over the military and nival fereps, and sent Colonel Scott to see through the new plans in detail. From its commencement the campaign changed the whole situation completely. One hitch occurred when Colonel Scott hesitated for a moment to follow up his first blow. Miss Carroll wrote him, pointing out his error, and urging him forward. He accepted her advice, and from that time went forward from one success to another. Southern “Independence’’ receded from possibility. Slavery was doomed. The French and English fleets rode idly in the Atlantic. The Union was saved, and Europe sullenly reconciled itself to the inevitable.