ly different
ways in which this warning could be given: one completely effective
without being provocative, the other provocative without being in
the very least degree effective. The only effective way was to win
the war; and the best way to win the war was to strike straight at
the heart of the South with all the Union forces. The most ineffective
way was to withdraw Union forces from the heart of the war, send them
off at a wasteful tangent, misuse them in eccentric operations just
where they would give most offense to the French, and then expose
them to what, at best, could only be a detrimental victory, and to
what would much more likely be defeat, if not disaster.

Yet, to Grant's and Farragut's and every other soldier's and sailor's
disgust, this worst way of all was chosen; and Banks's forty thousand
sorely needed veterans were sent to their double defeat at Sabine
Cross Roads and Pleasant Hill on the eighth and ninth of April, while
Porter's invaluable fleet and the no less indispensable transports
were nearly lost altogether owing to the long-foretold fall of
the dangerous Red River. The one success of this whole disastrous
affair was the admirable work of Colonel Joseph Bailey, who dammed
the water up just in time to let the rapidly stranding vessels
slide into safety through a very narrow sluice.

Even the Red River lesson was thrown away on Stanton, whose interference
continued to the bitter end, except when checked by Lincoln or countered
by Grant and Sherman in the field. When Grant was starting on his
tour of inspection he found that Stanton had forbidden all War
Department operators to let commanding generals use the official
cipher except when in communication with himself. There were to
be no secrets at the front between the commanding generals, even
on matters of immediate life and death, unless they were first
approved by Stanton at his leisure. The fact that the enemy could
use unciphered messages was nothing in his autocratic eyes. Nor
did it prick his conscience to change the wording in ways that
bewildered his own side and served the enemy's turn.

When Grant took the cipher Stanton ordered the operator to be dismissed.
Grant thereupon shouldered the responsibility, saying that Stanton
would have to punish him if any one was punished. Then Stanton gave
in. Grant saw through him clearly. "Mr. Stanton never questioned
his own authority to command, unless resisted. He felt no hesitation
in assu