February 10, 1862 (Monday): "It is true".

Colonel A. V. Colburn of McClellan's Staff

POOLESVILLE, February 10, 1862. 

General WILLIAMS:
I have received this moment a dispatch from Colonel Tompkins, chief of artillery in this division, who is now in Washington, that General Stone has been arrested and sent to Fort Lafayette. Is this true? Please reply. 


W. A. GORMAN,
Brigadier-General, Commanding. 

[Answer.]
It is true that General Stone has been arrested and sent to Fort Lafayette.



S. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Adjutant-General. 

[5.] 

POOLESVILLE.

(Received February 10, 1862.)

General WILLIAMS:
I have placed all General Stone's public and private papers and personal effects under strict guard from a sense of duty to the public service and his own defense, and will seal all up in presence of General Burns, Colonel Dana, and Colonel Devens, and await further orders. Have you any orders on the subject? 



W. A. GORMAN,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.


[Answer.] 

Keep them in charge for the present.
By order: 

A.    V. COLBURN.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 51, Part 1, Page 528.

McClellan ordered the arrest of Stone and the lack of notification to that officer’s subordinates may be a good indication McClellan caved to Radical Republican pressure to arrest Stone at the last minute.  The Committee on the Conduct of the War had a bigger target (McClellan) firmly in sight and he sacrificed Stone to expediency.  The war offers few examples of greater cynicism (the Radical Republican’s star chamber persecution of Stone on charges they could not reasonably have believed true) or moral weakness (McClellan’s choice to order Stone’s arrest).  The affair also paints Lincoln as either more subject to pressure from his own party than is usually believed, or callous enough to sacrifice Stone as an object lesson for Democratic generals.