February 8, 1863, The New York Herald
A court martial lately convened at Washington, to consider certain charges brought against General Fitz John Porter, found him guilty, and, upon the verdict of the court, he was dismissed by the President in disgrace from the army, and forever excluded from office under the federal government. It is probable, however, that upon the naked evidence and judgment of the court the punishment of this officer would have been lighter; but the written opinion of Judge Advocate General Holt, with his adroitly drawn presumptions and inferences, did the business. General Porter stands officially condemned and disgraced as having shamefully and repeatedly, disregarded in August last the orders of his superior officer, General Pope, and as having thereby brought defeat and disaster to our arms, when, by proper exertions, he might, with his corps d, have given to General Pope all the advantages of a completely victorious campaign.
Thus officially stands the case of General Porter. But not long ago there was another military court convened at Washington to inquire into the cause of the disgraceful Harper’s Ferry capitulation, and to fix the responsibility upon the guilty parties. This court, after a careful examination of the evidence of numerous witnesses, fixed the responsibility to a great extent upon Colonel Tom Ford, of Ohio, a political mountebank and a military impostor, who had been entrusted with the commanding position of Maryland Heights, and who, without a decent show of resistance, had basely abandoned that position in the face of the enemy. The court accordingly decreed the dismissal of Tom Ford from the army, as guilty of gross incompetency or cowardice; and this verdict was approved by the President, as we understand it. But it now turns out that this military charlatan, Tom Ford, has been working, through a powerful friend at court – Mr. Secretary Chase – for a reversal of this righteous sentence; and, what is more, it appears that Mr. Chase has succeeded in persuading the President to reverse the judgment of the court, in order to cover up the guilt of Ford in an apparently voluntary resignation.
Now let us look for a moment at the respective merits of Fitz John Porter and Tom Ford. The former, it can never be forgotten, covered the splendid retreat of Gen. McClellan from the Chickahominy to the James river. With some twenty-seven thousand men Gen. Porter held in check a rebel column of forty thousand at Gaines’ Mills from noon until nightfall, thereby saving our entire army from destruction. At Malvern Hill he planned and conducted the battle on our side, the results of which were the most terrible slaughter and the most decisive repulse which the rebels have suffered in any engagement since the beginning of the war. Thus our army was moved to a good position and a secure base of operations for another advance upon Richmond, and thus our national capital was saved, and, to a very great extent, by the skill, abilities and intrepidity of Gen. Fitz John Porter, as the Marshal Ney, holding the rear guard of our retreating army. Nor have we any doubt, had our forces in the fight been repulsed at Antietam, that General Porter, in command of the reserves, would have retrieved the fortunes of the day. But, found guilty of insubordination under General Pope, Porter is dismissed the service; and, having no abolition friend at court, his case is without remedy.
Tom Ford, on the other hand, has rendered no other military service to the country than the capitulation of Harper’s Ferry. That important position, and twelve thousand men, and fifty pieces of artillery, and wagons, horses, and military stores almost beyond computation in Confederate scrip, were surrendered to the enemy, and chiefly through the incompetency and cowardice of Tom Ford. Thus the rebel army of General Lee was supplied with abundance of ammunition for the battle of Antietam, and thus General McClellan’s well devised plans for the complete destruction or capture of the rebel army were defeated. We do not entertain the shadow of a doubt of his complete success had not the rebels been supplied with our own cannon, small arms, ammunition, provisions and wagons at Harper’s Ferry.
The amiable and forgiving disposition of President Lincoln has been grossly imposed upon in this business. In strict justice there is hardly any form of military punishment which would have been too severe for the shameful cowardice and incompetency of Tom Ford. Had any competent and courageous officer been in his position on Maryland Heights in September last he would have saved to the Union cause the lives of perhaps a hundred thousand men, and money to the extent of a thousand millions of dollars, in saving Harper’s Ferry, and in thus securing the capture or destruction of the rebel army of Virginia. But, through the degrading interposition of Mr. Secretary Chase, Tom Ford is excused, while Fitz John Porter, who done the State some service, finds no mercy, and hardly the punishment of unbiased justice. We say that the administration has committed a grave mistake in this discrimination in favor of Ford and against Porter. It is one of those mistakes which are seriously calculated to destroy the confidence of the country in the administration, and a blunder involving party favoritism and a partisan hostility which cannot be safely repeated.