that he was disabled by the shock of a cannon-ball striking a post
or pillar of the house where he had his headquarters. An
interesting entry in Welles's Diary, made soon after the battle,
reflects somewhat the feeling at the time. "Sumner expresses an
absolute want of confidence in Hooker; says he knows him to be a
blasphemous wretch; that after crossing the Rappahannock and
reaching Centreville, Hooker exultingly exclaimed, 'The enemy are
in my power, and God Almighty cannot deprive me of them.' I have
heard before of this, but not so direct and positive. The sudden
paralysis that followed, when the army in the midst of a successful
career was suddenly checked and commenced its retreat, has never
been explained. Whiskey is said by Sumner to have done the work.
The President said that if Hooker had been killed by the shot which
knocked over the pillar that stunned him, we should have been
successful."

[H] General T.R. Tannatt, a graduate of West Point in 1858, is now
(1913) an active and honored citizen of Spokane, Washington.

[I] The criticism of Meade for not attacking Lee before he
recrossed the Potomac is based on the assumption that the attack
must be successful. On this point Meade's words to Halleck, written
in reply to the latter's conciliatory letter of July 28, can hardly
be ignored. "Had I attacked Lee the day I proposed to do so, and in
the ignorance that then existed of his position, I have every
reason to believe the attack would have been unsuccessful, and
would have resulted disastrously. This opinion is founded on the
judgment of a number of distinguished officers after inspecting
Lee's vacated works and position. Among these officers I could name
Generals Sedgwick, Wright, Slocum, Hays, Sykes, and others." In
other words the attack which Meade has been so severely blamed for
not making might have ended in reversing the results at Gettysburg,
losing all we had gained at such terrible cost, placed Washington
and other Northern cities in far more deadly peril, and changing
the whole subsequent issues of the war.

[J] A curious revelation of the estimate of General Halleck held by
at least one member of the Cabinet, and of the relations between
Halleck and the President, is found in Welles's Diary in the record
of a rather free conversation with the President during the anxious
period about the time of the battle of Gettysburg. Says Mr. Welles:
"I stated I had observed the inertness if not the incap