A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [140]
General McClellan was embarrassed that Joe Johnston, whose timely arrival at Bull Run had caused the Federals to flee, had now succeeded in moving to a new, unknown position. The Confederate’s actions led McClellan to alter his plans and adopt a far more radical strategy involving the transportation by sea of a hundred thousand soldiers, plus supplies, horses, and equipment, to Fortress Monroe on the tip of the Virginia peninsula. From there, the army would march seventy miles east to capture Richmond. The first troops began to be shipped out from Alexandria on March 17. Edward Dicey was able to join a group of observers that included Nathaniel Hawthorne, who had become a great friend, but Russell was once again forced to stay behind. On March 24, he wrote in his diary, “One of the saddest days I have had in all my life, and Heaven knows I have had some sad ones, too.”39 Russell was referring to an article in the New York Herald that accused him of having speculated on the stock exchange using information obtained from the British legation during the Trent affair. The paper printed a copy of a telegram sent by Russell to his friend the lobbyist Sam Ward that appeared to support the allegation. But it was false. All Russell had done was telegraph Ward in New York ahead of the official announcement that the commissioners were being released. This was perhaps unwise, yet Russell claimed that the news was all over Washington by the time he sent the notice. Ward had a copy of the real, undoctored telegram, which proved Russell’s innocence of any financial dealings, but no newspaper would print his explanation.
Russell was mortified by the slur on his character, especially after Lord Lyons let it be known that he regarded the telegram as a gross breach of trust. Not surprisingly, Francis Lawley sympathized with Russell’s predicament and tried to smooth his relations with the legation. Russell found Lawley’s earnest attempts to help almost as humiliating as the original slander. It was not comfortable to be told to stay “as far as you can, from the British legation, during the next five or six weeks” and to refrain “from any step which, however remotely, has the appearance of a desire to push yourself into the old relations.” Although the attachés claimed they believed Russell’s protestation of innocence, he feared they would never fully trust him again. He was lonely and fed up. His friend William W. Glenn, a Southern journalist, offered to provide him with safe passage to the Confederacy. Russell was tempted, but decided he could not, “with honour or propriety go South immediately after so long a residence among the Northern armies.”
Lord Lyons forgave Russell and, at the end of March, invited him back to the legation for dinner. Russell was doubly grateful, not only for the rehabilitation of his character, but also because it gave him the opportunity to corner Edwin Stanton and embarrass him into writing out a pass then and there. Stanton was, however, determined to confine Russell to Washington even if it meant revoking the pass of every war correspondent in the country. On April 2, 1862, the War Department announced that it would no longer recognize press passes, and all reporters currently following the army in Virginia were to return to Washington or be arrested.40 After two days of uproar, the department clarified its stand so that only foreign journalists were affected. Russell wrote to Stanton on the second, pleading with him to reconsider: “I can not conceive Sir, the object of such conduct.” What, he asked, was the “cause for the change on your part towards me.”41 Stanton never replied. By now Russell had written to Lincoln, four generals, Seward, Sumner, and “innumerable Senators,” all without success.
“In the South,” Russell wrote ruefully, “the press threatened me with tar and feathers … the Northern papers