I had listened to the debate in the House--especially the masterly speech of William Walter Phelps--without attaining a clear understanding of the many points at issue.

I said as much to General Grant.
"Why," he replied, "the case is as simple as A, B, C.Let me show you." Then, with a pencil he traced the Second Bull Run battlefield, the location of troops, both Federal and Confederate, and the exact passage in the action which had compromised General Porter.
"If Porter had done what he was ordered to do," he went on, "Pope and his army would have been annihilated.

In point of fact Porter saved Pope's Army." Then he paused and added: "I did not at the outset know this.

I was for a time of a different opinion and on the other side.

It was Longstreet's testimony--which had not been before the first Court of Inquiry that convicted Porter--which vindicated him and convinced me.".