as to the adoption of a general plan of operations. Of course I do not mean by this a plan which is to embrace the whole course of a campaign, tie down the generals to that course, and so inevitably lead to their being beaten. I mean a plan which shall determine the objects of the campaign, decide whether offensive or defensive operations shall be undertaken, and fix the amount of material means which may be relied upon in the first instance for the opening of the enterprise, and then for the possible reserves in case of invasion. It cannot be denied that all these things may be, and even should be, discussed in a council of government made up of generals and of ministers; but here the action of such a council should stop; for if it pretends to say to a commander-in-chief not only that he shall march on Vienna or on Paris, but also in what way he is to manœuvre to reach those points, the unfortunate commander-in-chief will certainly be beaten, and the WHOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF HIS REVERSES WILL REST UPON THOSE WHO, TWO HUNDRED MILES OFF FROM THE ENEMY, PRETEND TO DIRECT AN ARMY WHICH IT IS DIFFICULT ENOUGH TO HANDLE WHEN ACTUALLY IN THE FIELD.”

CHAPTER VI.

GENERAL MCCLELLAN AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

HOLDS THAT POSITION

FOR ABOUT TWO MONTHS. GENERAL PLAN OF CAMPAIGN AND POLITICS OF THE WAR.

WHEN General McClellan accepted the formal command of the armies of the Union on the 1st of November, 1861, of course he accepted that most responsible position with the understanding that he was to enjoy in the discharge of its duties "the confidence and cordial support, thus by fair implication promised, and without which he could not" (it is President Lincoln, be it remembered, who speaks) "with so full efficiency serve the country."

The meaning of the words "confidence" and "cordial support," as we shall now see, must undergo a serious modification before either of these terms can be fitted to the treatment which General McClellan did actually receive from the executive of the Union.

From the moment when General McClellan was thus made responsible for the general progress of the war, the campaign of the Potomac necessarily ceased to be the exclusive subject of his care. The more extended power now conferred upon him authorized, and indeed required him, to devote himself to perfecting and developing, in a systematic plan of operations, those suggestions of movements to be made on many other points of the circle of hostilities, which he had before thrown out at the request of the President, and in a merely advisory

way.

Still regarding the capture of Richmond, and the defeat of

the main rebel army in Virginia, as the leading object to be aimed at, and determining to conduct in person that part of the operations he was about to direct, the new commander-inchief undertook a complete review of the political and military elements of the problem before him. The results of this labor are fully presented in the letters of instructions which he addressed to the different generals by whom the different parts of the general scheme of operations upon which he had resolved were intended to be carried out.

We give these letters in full, for a fair understanding of the whole history of the war subsequently to the first of November, 1861, can only be obtained by a careful perusal of them.

It will be observed that three of these letters bear date from the 7th to the 11th November, 1861, while the two others, and these not the least important, are dated on the 14th and 23d of February, 1862, respectively. The instructions comprised in them all belong to one system of action; but it is of vital consequence for the reader to bear in mind that the position of the writer had become materially modified by circumstances, which will be fully considered in the progress of this sketch, during the interval between the 12th of November, 1861, and the 14th of February, 1862.

The operations of the armies in the departments of the Ohio and of Missouri, which are treated of in the letters written in November, 1861, and the operations of the armies on the South Atlantic and on the Gulf, which are treated of in the letters written in February, 1862, were intended to be actively begun at one and the same time, when the general plan of operations was drawn up by General McClellan in November, 1861. The position of affairs in the departments of the Ohio and of Missouri, however, was such, in the month of November, 1861, the whole region embraced in those departments being then substantially under the control of our arms, that a judicious political administration of our military force was the imperative need of the moment there.

In the departments of the South Atlantic and the Gulf, on the contrary, we had our whole way still to make; and it was altogether undesirable therefore, from a military point of view, that any important directions should be issued, or any important movements undertaken in that part of the scene of action, until the opening of the season for general and combined operations.

Before the opening of that season came, General McClellan, as we have seen, had been virtually deprived of the authority necessary to the execution of his plans. On the 23d of February, 1862, he still retained indeed the nominal command of the armies of the Union, but he had been publicly notified, and the armies and the people of the Union with him, that he no longer enjoyed the "confidence," and could no longer expect the "cordial support," without which it was impossible for him to discharge the duties of command.

The President, who had seen fit thus to violate his pledged faith to the commander-in-chief within less than three months from the day when it was given, proceeded to deal with the plan of operations adopted in November, 1861, according to his pleasure.

In so far as concerns the politics of war, the principles of the plan laid down by General McClellan in his letters of instruction were entirely abandoned by the President. General McClellan, in his memorandum presented to the President on the 4th of August, 1861, had recognized the new and dangerous character likely to be impressed upon the war of secession by the results of the Confederate victory at Manassas. "The contest," he had then said, "began with a class, now it is with a people; our military success alone can restore the former issue." In his letters of instruction to the commanders of departments he dwelt earnestly upon the importance of taking all possible pains to prevent the complete and permanent impression of this new and dangerous character upon the war. "National wars," observes Baron Jomini, "are of all wars

the most formidable. This name can only be given to those which are carried on against a whole population animated with the fire of independence. In such wars every step is contested with a combat. The army which enters such a country holds only the ground on which it encamps: it can only supply itself at the point of the sword: its trains are everywhere threatened or destroyed."

"To succeed in such a war," continues the same authority, "is always difficult. To display, in the first place, a mass of force proportionate to the resistance and the obstacles to be encountered; to calm popular passions by all possible means; to let them wear out with time; to display a great combination of policy, of gentleness, and of severity; but above all things the greatest justice: these are the first elements and conditions of success."

Of the truth of these sage counsels, the condensed results of the experience of civilization, General McClellan was profoundly convinced. To be convinced of them, indeed, it was only necessary to understand the principles on which the Union of these States had been formed, and to see with unclouded vision the successive departures from those principles on the part of extreme and passionate, of ignorant and reckless men in both sections, by dint of which secession and the war had been made possible.

In his instructions to the commanders of departments the general-in-chief had accordingly endeavored to infuse into those commanders the spirit of these counsels, as their supreme rule of conduct in dealing with the population around around them.

But no such rule of conduct could be observed if the violent destruction of the social institution of slavery was to be considered either a legitimate means or a legitimate end of the warfare to be waged in the name of the Constitution and the Union. And President Lincoln therefore completely abandoned the military politics of General McClellan's plan.