Some of these missionaries were high officials, both military and civil, and I recall among others a visit made me in 1866 by a distinguished friend of the President, Mr. Thomas A. Hendricks.  The purpose of his coming was to convey to me assurances of the very high esteem in which I was held by the President, and to explain personally Mr. Johnson’s plan of reconstruction, its flawless constitutionality, and so on.  But being on the ground, I had before me the exhibition of its practical working, saw the oppression and excesses growing out of it, and in the face of these experiences even Mr. Hendricks’s persuasive eloquence was powerless to convince me of its beneficence.  Later General Lovell H. Rousseau came down on a like mission, but was no more successful than Mr. Hendricks.

During the whole period that I commanded in Louisiana and Texas my position was a most unenviable one.  The service was unusual, and the nature of it scarcely to be understood by those not entirely familiar with the conditions existing immediately after the war.  In administering the affairs of those States, I never acted except by authority, and always from conscientious motives.  I tried to guard the rights of everybody in accordance with the law.  In this I was supported by General Grant and opposed by President Johnson.  The former had at heart, above every other consideration, the good of his country, and always sustained me with approval and kind suggestions.  The course pursued by the President was exactly the opposite, and seems to prove that in the whole matter of reconstruction he was governed less by patriotic motives than by personal ambitions.  Add to this his natural obstinacy of character and personal enmity toward me, and no surprise should be occasioned when I say that I heartily welcomed the order that lifted from me my unsought burden.

CHAPTER XII.

At fort Leavenworth—­the treaty of medicine lodge—­going to fort
Dodge—­discontented Indians—­Indian outrages—­A delegation of chiefs
—­terrible Indian raid—­death of Comstock—­vast herds of buffalo
—­preparing for A winter campaign—­meeting “Buffalo bill”
—­He undertakes A dangerous task—­Forsyth’s gallant fight—­rescued.

The headquarters of the military department to which I was assigned when relieved from duty at New Orleans was at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and on the 5th of September I started for that post.  In due time I reached St. Louis, and stopped there a day to accept an ovation tendered in approval of the course I had pursued in the Fifth Military District—­a public demonstration apparently of the most sincere and hearty character.