FINAL REMOVAL OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN FROM COMMAND.

The restoration of General McClellan to command gave him another opportunity to make himself the hero of the war.

He was no longer called upon to organize a mob, "cowering on the banks of the Potomac," but found himself, beloved by his troops, at the head of a large and well-disciplined army.

In the next three weeks he gained three victories and put an end to all fear of invasion. But unfortunately a spirit of inaction now came over him. The ravages of the battle had been great, and he needed time to repair them; his army had again to be supplied with shoes, ammunition, and clothing; horses, too, were needed for the artillery and cavalry; the old regiments, as a rule, were reduced to a skeleton. But while this was the condition of the Union army, the condition of the Confederates was worse.

On the 1st of October, the President visited and inspected the army, and on the 6th, General Halleck telegraphed as follows:

I am instructed to telegraph you as follows: The President directs that you cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or drive him south. Your army must move now, while the roads are good. If you cross the river between the enemy and Washington, and cover the latter by your operations, you can be reenforced with 30,000 men. If you move up the valley of the Shenandoah, not more than 12,000 or 15,000 can be sent to you. The President advises the interior line between Washington and the enemy, but does not order it. He is very desirous that your army move as soon as possible. * I am directed to add that the Secretary of War and the General in Chief fully concur with the President in these instructions.a

* *

No movement being made on account of a deficiency of supplies which it was supposed could be procured in a few days, the President on the 13th wrote:

You remember my speaking to you of what I called your overcautiousness. Are you not overcautious when you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should you not claim to be at least his equal in prowess and act upon the claim? As I understand, you telegraphed General Halleck that you cannot subsist your army at Winchester unless the railroad from Harper's Ferry to that point be put in working order. But the enemy does now subsist his army at Winchester, at a distance nearly twice as great from railroad transportation as you would have to do, without the railroad last named. He now wagons from Culpeper Court-House, which is just about twice as far as you would have to do from Harper's Ferry. He is certainly not more than half as well provided with wagons as you are. I certainly should be pleased for you to have the advantage of the railroad from Harper's Ferry to Winchester; but it wastes all the remainder of autumn to give it to you, and, in fact, ignores the question of time, which cannot and must not be ignored.

Again, one of the standard maxims of war, as you know, is "to operate upon the enemy's communications as much as possible without exposing your own." You seem to act as if this applies against you, but cannot apply in your favor. Change positions with the enemy, and think you not he would break your communication with Richmond within the next twenty-four hours? You dread his going into Pennsylvania. But if he does so in full force, he gives up his communications to you absolutely, and you have nothing to do but to follow and ruin him; if he does so with less than full force, fall upon and beat what is left behind all the easier.

Exclusive of the water line, you are now nearer Richmond than the enemy is by the route that you can and he must take. Why can you not reach there before him, unless you admit that he is more than your equal on the march? His route is the are of a circle, while yours is the chord. The roads are as good on yours as on his. You know I desired, but did not order, you to cross the Potomac below, instead of above, the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. My idea was, that this would at once menace the enemy's communications, which I would seize if he would permit. If he should move northward, I would follow him closely, holding his communications. If he should prevent our seizing his communications, and move toward

a McClellan's Report, p. 219.

Richmond, I would press closely to him, fight him if a favorable opportunity should present, and at least try to beat him to Richmond on the inside track. I say "try;" if we never try we shall never succeed. If he make a stand at Winchester, moving neither north nor south, I would fight him there, on the idea that if we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage of coming to us, we never can when we bear the wastage of going to him. This proposition is a simple truth, and is too impor tant to be lost sight of for a moment. In coming to us he tenders us an advan tage which we should not waive. We should not so operate as to merely drive him away. As we must beat him somewhere, or fail finally, we can do it, if at all, easier near to us than far away. If we cannot beat the enemy where he now is, we never can, he again being within the entrenchments of Richmond. Recurring to the idea of going to Richmond on the inside track, the facility of supplying from the side away from the enemy is remarkable, as it were, by the different spokes of a wheel, extending from the hub toward the rim, and this whether you move directly by the chord, or on the inside arc, hugging the Blue Ridge more closely.

The chord line, as you see, carries you by Aldie, Haymarket, and Fredericksburg, and you see how turnpikes, railroads, and finally the Potomac by Aquia Creek, meet you at all points from Washington. The same, only the lines lengthened a little, if you press closer to the Blue Ridge part of the way. The gaps through the Blue Ridge I understand to be about the following distances from Harper's Ferry, to wit; Vestals, 5 miles; Gregorys, 13; Snickers, 18; Ashbys, 28; Manassas, 38; Chester, 45; and Thorntons, 53. I should think it preferable to take the route nearest the enemy, disabling him to make an important move without your knowledge, and compelling him to keep his forces together for dread of you. The gaps would enable you to attack if you should wish. For a great part of the way, you would be practically between the enemy and both Washington and Richmond, enabling us to spare you the greatest number of troops from here. When, at length, running for Richmond ahead of him enables him to move this way, if he does so, turn and attack him in the rear. But I think he should be engaged long before such point is reached. It is all easy if our troops march as well as the enemy, and it is unmanly to say they cannot do it. This letter is in no sense an order. a

It was unfortunate for the country that this letter, so earnest and full of wisdom, was not received as an order; but the commander still turned his attention to the wants of his army. It cannot be denied that the supplies asked for were needed. The new troops were suffering from the lack of clothing and tents.

The One Hundred and Twenty-First New York, within a month after it joined the Sixth Corps, had 200 men in hospital and on the sick report. By moving, the health of the command would have improved, while by sending the supplies to Warrenton and Manassas on the lines indicated by the President, two weeks, if not a month's, time might have been gained.

Although during the Revolution, Washington repeatedly ascribed the salvation of our cause to the interposition of Providence; nevertheless, as an eye-witness of grave errors which almost daily demanded such interposition, he did not cease in his correspondence to remonstrate with Congress.

Since the Rebellion, with a fatuity pregnant with future disaster, we have settled down to the conviction that our total neglect of military preparation, our defeats, our sacrifices in blood and treasure, were the predestined features of a war protracted through four long years, in order that the minds of the people might be prepared for the extinction of slavery. These views, so comforting now, were not held during the war.

Upon the President more than any other person, rested the burden of the war. Each week, each day the struggle continued, he could see the vestments of mourning increasing in the land. Death did not come alone in the hospital and the field. The sentences by military

a Raymond's President Lincoln's Administration, pp. 281, 282. 34760°-1625

tribunals brought weekly to his feet the mother pleading for the life of her son, the wife for her husband, the child for its father. Politicians on both sides may be accused of a desire to protract the war, but the breath of slander can never reach the great President. He did not care what soldiers might win the final victory, all he wanted was peace. On the 21st of October, General McClellan telegraphed:

Since the receipt of the President's order to move on the enemy, I have been making every exertion to get this army supplied with clothing absolutely necessary for marching. This, I am happy to say, is now nearly accomplished. I have also, during the same time, repeatedly urged upon you the importance of supplying cavalry and artillery horses, to replace those broken down by hard service, and steps have been taken to insure a prompt delivery. * * *

Under the foregoing circumstances, I beg leave to ask whether the President desires me to march on the enemy at once, or to await the reception of the new horses, every possible step having been taken to insure their prompt arrival.

General Halleck the same day replied:

Your telegram of 12 m. has been submitted to the President. He directs me to say that he has no change to make in his order of the 6th instant. If you have not been and are not now in condition to obey it, you will be able to show such want of ability. The President does not expect impossibilities, but he is very anxious that all this good weather should not be wasted in inactivity. Telegraph when you will move and on what lines you propose to march.

Construing this telegram to mean that it was left to his "judgment to decide whether or not it was possible to move with safety at that time," he telegraphed to the President on the 27th:

Your Excellency is aware of the very great reduction of numbers that has taken place in most of the old regiments of this command, and how necessary it is to fill up these skeletons before taking them again into action. I have the honor, therefore, to request that the order to fill up the old regiments with drafted men may at once be issued.c

The same day the President replied:

Your despatch of 3 p. m. to-day in regard to filling up old regiments with drafted men is received, and the request therein shall be complied with as far as practicable. And now I ask a distinct answer to the question: "Is it your purpose not to go into action again till the men now being drafted in the States are incorporated in the old regiments?" d

On leaving Maryland there were two lines of operations for advanc ing into Virginia, both of which had now become beaten tracks. The first was up the Shenandoah; the other was East of the Blue Ridge, toward the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. In case he chose the first line, he could have from 12,000 to 15,000 reenforcements; if he took the inner line this number would be increased to 30,000.

Comparing this latter number with the aggregate of 71,000 for duty in front of Washington, on the 20th of September, it will be observed that the civil authorities had renounced the error that lay at the root of their original opposition to the Peninsula campaign. Recent events had taught them that an army might advance via the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, and yet not cover the capital. Under no circumstances would it be wise to again permit every man to leave the defenses. They were therefore compelled to adopt the recommendation which General McClellan made in the beginning, viz, to make the capital safe it needed

a McClellan's Report, pp. 228, 229.

McClellan's Report, p. 229.

Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, vol. 1, pp. 551, 552. d Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, vol. 1, p. 552.

a special garrison of not less than 20,000 men, independent of any army that might be operating in its front. This was the size of the garrison he indicated in his letter of April 1, which, with the covering force extending from Manassas to the Shenandoah, numbered 73,000 men.

Now that the whole Army of the Potomac was in condition to play the part of a covering force, a garrison from 20,000 to 30,000 men at last gave the Government what it so long aimed at, a sense of security. The means it adopted, however, operated upon the Confederates in the same manner. Their capital was made secure for the further term of three years. It was General McClellan's first design to adopt the line of the Shenandoah, but as a retreat of the Confederates would compel the army to cross the Blue Ridge, he abandoned this plan in favor of the other.

At last, on the 25th of October, a bridge was laid at Berlin, below Harper's Ferry, and by the 2d of November the whole Army was again south of the Potomac. But its movements by no means responded to the expectations of the President. Six weeks had elapsed since the battle of Antietam. After crossing the river there was no enemy in front, yet on the 7th of November, eleven days after the cavalry had crossed, its advanced pickets were on the Hazel River, but 50 miles from the Potomac.

Arithmetic now was less deceptive, than in determining the blame for the surrender of Harper's Ferry. There were several parallel roads favorable for the movement of troops, while the right flank was protected by the line of the Blue Ridge. The Ninth Corps, which crossed on the 26th of October, did not reach Waterloo till eleven days thereafter-a distance of 50 miles. The Sixth Corps, which crossed on the 2d of November, reached New Baltimore on the 9th, a distance of 40 miles. It is not at all probable, however, that these distances were taken into account. The golden days of autumn were nearly over. The correspondence subsequent to Antietam showed that the commander of the Army of the Potomac was neither in harmony with the President nor the General in Chief. Worse than all, his personal enemies accused him of protracting the war in furtherance, not of the plans of the Confederates, but in the interest of their political allies, who were openly hostile if not dangerous to the Government.

APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL BURNSIDE TO COMMAND.

The Secretary of War matters of command.

There was but one way out of the situation. had withdrawn from active interference in There were still two months of good weather in prospect. The enemy might yet be struck a fatal blow, but it must be done under a new commander. Such were the arguments which led the President, on the 5th of November, to issue the following order:

By direction of the President of the United States, it is ordered that MajorGeneral McClellan be relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac, and that Major-General Burnside take the command of that army.

The General in Chief wrote him at the same time:

On the receipt of the order of the President, sent herewith, you will immediately turn over your command to Major-General Burnside, and repair to Trenton, N. J., reporting on your arrival at that place, by telegraph, for further orders. a

a Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, vol. 1, p. 565.

The manliness of the President's order, as compared with the communication which effected McClellan's removal on the 30th of August without any apparent authority, will not escape observation. The General made no complaint, but turning over the command to his successor, bade adieu to the army, and at once repaired to the point designated by the General in Chief. Whatever mistakes the constitutional Commander in Chief may have committed in his relations with his military subordinate, the latter always had reason to feel that the President was his friend. In his official report, dated August 4, 1863, General McClellan expressed his gratitude, and explained his misfortune in the following language:

I cannot omit the expression of my thanks to the President for the constant evidence given me of his sincere personal regard, and his desire to sustain the military plans which my judgment led me to urge for adoption and execution. I cannot attribute his failure to adopt some of those plans, and to give that support to others which was necessary to their success, to any want of confidence in me; and it only remains for me to regret that other counsels came between the constitutional Commander in Chief, and the General whom he had placed at the head of his armiescounsels which resulted in the failure of great campaigns. If the nation possesses no generals in service competent to direct its military affairs without the aid or supervision of politicians, the sooner it finds them and places them in position, the better it will be for its fortunes.a

The consequences of General McClellan's political sentiments involved several of his friends. Treason was charged at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Gen. Fitz John Porter was relieved from his command, put on trial for disobedience of orders, and on the 21st of January, was cashiered and forever disqualified from holding any office of profit or trust under the Government of the United States. In the meantime, the Administration was made to see that delays might occur in spite of a change of commanders. The army, under General Burnside, moved from Warrenton to Falmouth, but when it arrived there the pontoons which were to have been sent down from Washington were a week behind time. This gave the enemy the opportunity to select his own position. On the 12th of December, the army crossed the Rappahannock, deployed in the amphitheater formed by the fortified heights of Fredericksburg, and on the 13th was hurled by General Burnside against Marye's Heights, defended by a double tier of guns on the top and musketry at the base, and was repulsed with the loss of 10,108 killed and wounded.

The depression which settled over the army after this needless butchery is not easily described. The officers and men, patriots who had enlisted to save the Union, saw that they were shedding their blood to but little or no purpose. Desertions increased to the startling proportion of nearly two hundred per day. As was the case during the

a McClellan's Report, p. 239.

General Porter was cashiered January 21, 1863; he was re-appointed a colonel of infantry August 5, 1886, to rank from May 14, 1861, by an act of Congress approved July 1, 1886; he died May 21, 1901.-EDITORS.

It is stated in Henderson's Campaign of Fredericksburg, that the Confederates had 250 pieces of artillery, about 100 of which were held in reserve by General Lee. On Marye's Heights were 9 guns of the Louisiana Washington Artillery in gun pits. To the left of the road was Maurin's battery of 4 guns, with 6 guns in support in the depression behind the right shoulder of Marye's Hill. This made at least 19 pieces of artillery on Marye's Heights. In addition, there were 21 guns in position on Lees Hill, with 17 smooth bores in reserve, and 34 guns guarding the Confederate left flank.-EDITORS.