Committee on the Conduct of the War
COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR
COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR. Established on 10 December 1861, this joint committee of the House and Senate was empowered to examine all aspects of the war, with authority to subpoena witnesses and papers. In 1864 its jurisdiction was expanded to include investigation of war contracts and expenditures. The committee consisted of five Republicans and two Democrats, with Radical Republicans in the majority. A total of eleven senators and representatives served over the committee's life of three and a half years. Its most important Republican members were its Radical chairman Benjamin F. Wade, senator from Ohio, who attended nearly all of its 272 meetings and wrote nearly all of the committee's reports; the Michigan senator Zechariah Chandler; and the Indiana representative George W. Julian. The Democratic senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee and the Democratic New York representative Moses F. Odell were also active.
Created because congressional Republicans believed the Lincoln administration was too timid in its war policies, the committee pressured the administration into appointing military commanders who advocated aggressive measures against the South. Its members uncovered corruption and mismanagement, but they also engaged in partisan warfare against generals whom they saw as too sympathetic to Southerners and too accommodating of slavery. Publicizing Southern atrocities and the maltreatment of Union prisoners of war, the committee rallied Northern support for the struggle. However, the committee members had little knowledge of tactics or strategy. They saw delays and defeats as the result of pro-Southern sympathies, often loading the witness list to support the conclusions they had already reached. Investigating aspects of campaigns of every leading commander but Ulysses S. Grant, they were easily used by officers to shift the blame for defeats and mistakes from themselves to others. This problem was exacerbated by the commit-tee's loose procedures, which welcomed hearsay testimony, permitted badgering and leading questions, and denied that the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination applied to its investigations. The committee's leaders were suspicious of officers trained at West Point and were partial to amateurs who shared Radical Republican political commitments. As a result the committee fostered resentment among military professionals, dissension among commanders and subordinates, suspicion between military officers and civilians, and pressure on commanders to act prematurely and even rashly. On some occasions the committee's bitter attacks on military officers led to real acts of injustice.
President Abraham Lincoln cooperated with the committee, although he must have resented its tendency to demean his acumen, to blame him for defeats and misadventures, and to pressure him to make dubious military appointments. However, Lincoln also understood that the committee's criticism of his generals, especially George B. McClellan, provided political cover for his decisions to replace them. Persistently pressing for a radical antislavery policy toward the South, the committee tried to influence Reconstruction near the close of the war. Its members unsuccessfully urged Lincoln to acquiesce in the Radical Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill. Fearing that Lincoln was sacrificing the rights of African Americans, the committee took testimony designed to undermine his efforts to reestablish loyal government in Louisiana. However, with the surrender of the Confederate armies, the committee lost its influence and adjourned for the last time on 22 May 1865. When Congress created a new Joint Committee on Reconstruction in December 1866, not one of the members of the Committee on the Conduct of the War was appointed a member.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Doyle, Elisabeth Joan. "The Conduct of the War, 1861." In Congress Investigates: A Documented History, 1792–1974. Edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Roger Bruns. New York: Chelsea House, 1975.
Tap, Bruce. Over Lincoln's Shoulder: The Committee on the Conduct of the War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
Michael L.Benedict