The Bay State Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 5, May, 1884 | Page 4

to be, like
Caesar's wife, above suspicion."
When the rebel ironclad steamer Merrimac had commenced her work
of destruction near Fortress Monroe, General Arthur, as
engineer-in-chief, took efficient steps for the defence of New York, and
made a thorough inspection of all the forts and defences in the State,
describing the armament of each one. His report to the Legislature,
submitted to that body in a little more than three weeks after his
attention was called to the subject by Governor Morgan, was thus
noticed editorially in the New York Herald of January 25, 1862:--
"The report of the engineer-in-chief, General Arthur, which appeared in
yesterday's Herald, is one of the most important and valuable
documents that have been this year presented to our Legislature. It
deserves perusal, not only on account of the careful analysis it contains
of the condition of the forts, but because the recommendations, with
which it closes, coincide precisely with the wishes of the administration
with respect to securing a full and complete defence of the entire
Northern coast."
Governor Morgan appointed General Arthur state inspector-general in
February, 1862, and ordered him to visit and inspect the New York
troops in the army of the Potomac. While there, as an advance on
Richmond was daily expected, he volunteered for duty on the staff of
his friend, Major-General Hunt, commander of the Reserve Artillery.
He had previously, when four fine volunteer regiments had been
organized under the auspices of the metropolitan police commissioners
of of the city of New York, and consolidated into what was known as
the "Metropolitan Brigade," been offered the command of it by the
colonels of the regiments, but on making formal application, based on a
desire to see active service in the field, Governor Morgan was
unwilling that he should accept, stating that he could not be spared
from the service of the State, and that while he appreciated General
Arthur's desire for war-service, he knew that he would render the
country more efficient aid for the Union cause by remaining at his State

post of duty.
When, in June, 1862, the situation had an unfavorable appearance, and
there were apprehensions that a general draft would be necessary,
Governor Morgan telegraphed General Arthur, then with the Army of
the Potomac, to return to New York. The General did so, and was
requested, on his arrival, to act as secretary at a confidential meeting of
the governors of loyal States, held at the Astor House, on the
twenty-eighth of July, 1862. After a full and frank discussion of the
condition of affairs in their respective States, the governors united in a
request to the President to call for more troops. President Lincoln, on
the first of July, issued a proclamation, thanking the governors for their
patriotism, and calling for three hundred thousand three-years
volunteers, and three hundred thousand nine-months militia-men.
Private intimation that such a call was to be issued would have enabled
army contractors to have made millions; but the secret was honorably
kept by all until after the issue of the proclamation. The quota of New
York was 59,705 volunteers, or sixty regiments, and it was desirable
that they should be recruited and sent to the front without delay.
General Arthur, by special request of Governor Morgan, resumed his
duties as quartermaster-general and established a system of recruiting
and officering the new levies, which proved wonderfully successful. In
his annual report, made to the governor on the twenty-seventh of
January, 1863, he said:--
"In summing up the operations of the department during the last levy of
troops, I need only state as the result the fact that through the single
office and clothing department of this department in the city of New
York, from August 1 to December 1, the space of four months, there
were completely clothed, uniformed, and equipped, supplied with camp
and garrison equipage, and transported from this State to the seat of war,
sixty-eight regiments of infantry, two battalions of cavalry, and four
battalions and ten batteries of artillery."
In December, 1863, the incoming of the Democratic state
administration deprived General Arthur of his office. His successor,
Quartermaster-General Talcott, in a report to Governor Seymour, paid

the following just tribute to his predecessor:--
"I found, upon entering on the discharge of my duties, a well-organized
system of labor and accountability, for which the State is chiefly
indebted to my predecessor, General Chester A. Arthur, who, by his
practical good sense and unremitting exertion, at a period when
everything was in confusion, reduced the operations of the department
to a matured plan by which large amounts of money were saved to the
government, and great economy of time secured in carrying out the
details of the same."
Resuming his professional duties, at first in partnership with Mr.
Gardiner and