OCR Text |
Show "flow forterwlll be Acquitted. New York, 10. It is a seriouB misapprehension mis-apprehension to suppose that Fitz John Porter's claim to acquittal of the charge of disobedience of orders rests upon the proposition that a sub ordinate officer may fail to obey an unconditional order, because his own judgment is against its wisdom. Pope's dispatch to Porter was in terms based upon Pope's supposition that Porter had in his front ouly an insignificant body comprising the enemy's Hank. Porter being on the ground had later aod better information, and knew Longstreet's whole corps had come up. He was ordered to attack the enemy's fiauk, but the flank was not tiiere, consequently the order could oot be literally obeyed, and to attack at all would result in the capture of all of Pope's command. Porter's friends claim that the order was conditional, con-ditional, and that it was bis duty to exercise the discretion which subsequent subse-quent events have shown was wise and patriotic, but only on the ground that Pope's order depended upon the i condition regarding the position ol the enemy about which he knew Porter would have the best information. |