on related to "the most atrocious
military murder ever committed in our history as a people. It
relates to a lost field; to a disastrous and humiliating battle;
to a blunder so gross that all men can see it,--a blunder which
cost us confessedly nine hundred and thirty men, the very pride
and flower of the States from which they came." . . . "The Bluff
is a mile in length up and down the river, and the landing and
ascent were made in the middle of it. Behind this was a six-acre
lot skirted by woods on three sides. Into this burial-ground, one
by one, as the boat brought them over, went up the devoted seventeen
hundred. . . . Behind them rolled a deep river which could never
be repassed. Before them and surrounding them on every side was
a tree-sheltered and skulking foe, three or four times their
number. . . . In an hour, in less than an hour, the field was a
hell of fire raging from every side. The battle was lost before
it was begun. It was from the outset a mere sacrifice, a sheer
immolation, without a promise of success or a hope of escape."
. . . "On the same side of the river with Leesburg," said Mr. Conkling,
"within a day's march of that place, lay General McCall commanding
a division containing fifteen regiments which marched fully eleven
thousand men. If Leesburg were to be attacked, or if a reconnoissance
in force were to be made in that direction, one of the first wonders
in this case is, that the work should have been assigned to General
Stone's division, divided as it was from the scene of action by a
great river, when the division of General McCall was within a day's
march of the spot, with neither river, mountain, nor barrier to be
traversed."

--Mr. Richardson of Illinois thought Mr. Conkling's resolution was
calculated "to raise an issue between the House of Representatives
and the army, and divide the country." He thought this would injure
the cause of the Union. In military matters he would "rather trust
the commanding general of the army than a committee of the House."

--Mr. Crittenden of Kentucky protested against "the House interfering
in the conduct of the war and the management of the army by
investigating transactions which are in their nature purely military."
He maintained that "such a policy takes control out of the hands
of men supposed to be competent and puts it in the hands of men
supposed not to be competent." "If," continued Mr. Crittenden,
"we are to find fault with every