Advance -- Crossing -- Chancellorsville -- Hooker -- Staff -- Lee
-- Jackson -- Stunned -- Suggestions -- Meade -- Swinton -- La
Fayette -- Intrigues -- Happy Grant -- Rosecrans -- Halleck --
Foote -- Elections -- Re-elections -- Tracks -- Seward -- 413 --
etc., etc., etc.
_May 1._--General anxiety about Hooker. If he successfully crosses
the river, this alone will count among the most brilliant actions in
military history. To cross a river with a large army under the eyes,
almost under the guns of an enemy, concentrated, strong, vigilant,
and supported by the population, would honor the name of any
world-renowned captain.
_May 2._--Mr. Seward forces upon the Department of the Navy,
instructions for our cruizers that are so obviously favorable to
blockade-runners, that our officers may rather give up capturing.
Mr. Seward's instructions concede more to England, than was ever
asked by England, or by any neutral from a belligerent of a third
class power.
_May 2._--How could Mr. Adams to that extent violate all the
international proprieties, and deliver a kind of pass to a vessel
loaded in England with arms and ammunition for Matamoras. It is an
offence against England, and a flagrant violation of neutrality to
France. Not yet time to show our teeth to them. And all this in
favor of that adventurer and almost pickpocket Zermann, this
mock-admiral, mock-general, whom twice here they put up for a
general in our army. But for me they would have made him one, and
disgraced the American uniform. This police malefactor was
patronised by some New Yorkers, by Senator Harris and from Mr.
Seward may have got strong letters for Mr. Adams. It is probable
that Zermann sold Mr. Adams to secessionists who may have wished to
stir up trouble by this passport business. I am sure the affair will
be hushed up and entirely forgotten.
_May 2._--Glorious! glorious. Hooker crossed--and successfully. The
rebels, caught napping, disturbed him not. Now at them, at them,
without loss of an hour! The soldiers will perform wonders when in
the hands of true soldiers for commanders, when led on by a true
soldier.
O heaven! Why does Hooker publish such a proclamation? It is the
merest nonsense. To thank the soldiers, few words were needed. But
to say that the enemy must come and fight us on our own ground. O
heaven! Hooker ought not to have had time to write a proclamation,
but ought to pitch into the rebels, surprise and confuse them, and
not wait for them. What is the matter? I tremble.
_May 3._--Rumors, anxiety. The patriots feverish. One might easily
become delirious.... Copperheads, Washington secessionists, spread
all kinds of disastrous rumors. The secessionists here in
Washington, are always invisible when any success attends our arms;
but when we are worsted, they are forth coming on all corners, as
toads are after a shower of rain.
_May 4._--Confused news, but it seems that Hooker is successful.
Still not so complete as was expected. Hooker's manoeuvring seems
heavy, slow.
The Copperheads more dangerous and more envenomed than the
secessionists. And very natural. The secesh risks all for a bad
cause and a bad creed. But the _World_ has no conviction, only envy
and mischief, and risks nothing.
_May 5._--Nothing decided; nothing certain. From what I can gather,
the new generation or stratum of generals fights differently from
the style of the Simon-pure McClellan tribe. They are in front, and
not in the rear according to regulations.
Halleck digs, digs entrenchments around Washington. I meet
battalions with spades. Engineers show their poor skill! and Mr.
Lincoln is comforted to be strongly defended!
_May 5._--Night, storm, rain. News rather doubtful. Stanton said to
me that he believes in Hooker, even if Hooker be unsuccessful.
Bravo! Not want of success condemns a general, but the way and
manner in which he acted; and how he dealt with events.
_May 6._--Seward is bitterly attacked by the _World_, and by other
Copperheads. I could not unite with a _World_ and with Copperheads
to attack even a Seward. They are too filthy.--_Arcades ambo._
_May 6._--Hooker retreats and recrosses the river. Say now what you
will to make it swallow, at the best it is an unsuccessful affair,
if not an actual disaster. I believe not in the swelling of the
river. Bosh! in three days these rivers fell. Have any generals
Franklinized? I dare not ask; I most wish not to know anything.
_May 7._--_Nocte pluit tota (not) redeunt spectacula mane_; grim,
dark, cold, rainy night. Are the Gods against us? Or has imbecility
exasperated even the merciful but rational Christian God to that
extent, that God turns his back upon us?
_May 7._--Hiob's news come in, confused to sure, but still one finds
something like a foothold. I am thunderstruck, annihilated. I
listened to Hooker's best friends but can hardly help crying. Hooker
is a failure as a commander of a large army. Hooker is good for a
corps or two, but not for the whole command and responsibility. From
all that I can learn, Hooker fights well, courageously, but he, like
the others, _has not the greatest and truest gift_ in a commander:
_Hooker cannot manoeuvre his army._ All that I hear up to this
moment strengthened my conclusion, and I am sure that the more the
details come in, the stronger the truth will come out. Hooker can
not manoeuvre an army. Hooker may attack vigorously, stand as a
rock, but cannot manoeuvre.
Hooker seems to have committed the same faults and mistake as his
predecessors did. He kept more men out of the fire than in the fire.
And this from Hooker who accused his former chiefs of that very
fault. But poor Hooker was unsupported by a good staff. This check
may turn out to be a great disaster. At any rate, a whole campaign
is lost, and one more commander may go overboard. Hooker will raise
against him a terrible storm. God grant that Hooker could be
honestly defended.
--_La critique est aisee, mais l'art est difficile_ is perhaps again
illustrated by Hooker. If Hooker is in fault, then he ought not to
survive this disaster. After all that he said, after all that we
said and repeated in his favor, to turn out an awful mistake!
_May 8._--Worse and worse. I do not learn one single fact
exculpating Hooker. I scarcely dare to look in the people's faces.
The rain is no justification. Hooker showed no vigor before the
rain. After he crossed, and had his army in hand, instead of
attacking, he subsided, seemingly trying to find out the plans of
the rebels instead of acting so as not to give them time to make
plans or to execute them.
_Tel brille au second rang qui s'eclipse au premier_, is almost all
to be said in Hooker's defense. I tremble to know all the minute
details. A paroled prisoner returned from Richmond said to me that
terror was terrible in Richmond--that Lee and his army had no
supplies. No troops in Richmond--Stoneman cut the bridges. The
rebels were on the brink of a precipice, and extricated themselves.
_May 8._--Boutwell, Member of Congress, told me that the district of
St. Louis paid more new taxes to January than any other district in
the United States. Bravo, Missourians. That is loyalty.
_May 8: Evening_--More details about this unhappy Chancellorsville.
Lee and the rebel generals have been decidedly surprised--in the
military sense--by the crossing of the river, and by Hooker coming
thus in part in their rear. But we lost time, they retrieved and
_manoeuvred_ splendidly; better than they ever have done before. Lee
showed that he has learned something. Lee showed that, by a year's
practice, he has at length acquired skill in handling a large army.
The apprenticeship on our side is not so successful; our generals
have no experience therein, and McClellan was worse at Harper's
Ferry in November than at Williamsburg in the spring. McClellan
learned nothing. Will it be possible to find among our Potomac
generals one in whom revelation will supply experience?
The more I learn about that affair the more thoroughly I am
convinced that Hooker's misfortune had the same cause and source as
the misfortunes of those before him. No military scientific staff
and chief-of-staff. Butterfield was not even with Hooker, but at
Falmouth at the telegraph. If it is so, then no words can
sufficiently condemn them all.
If Kepler, or Herschel, or Fulton, or Ericcson had violated axioms
and laws of mathematics and dynamics, their labors would have been
as so much chaff and dust. War is mechanism and science, inspiration
and rule; a genuine staff for an army is a scientific law, and if
this law is not recognized and is violated, then the disasters
become a mathematically certain result.
_May 8._--The defenders of Hooker call the result a drawn battle.
Mr. Lincoln calls it a lost battle. I call it a miscarried, if not
altogether lost, campaign.
_May 9._--The poorest defence of Hooker is that the terrain was
such that he could not manoeuvre. If the terrain was so bad, Hooker
ought to have known it beforehand, and not brought his army there.
The rebels have not been prevented from marching and manoeuvring on
the same ground, and not prevented from attacking Hooker, all of
which ought to have been done by our army.
_May 9._--All is again in unspeakable confusion. All seems to crack.
This time, more than ever, a powerful mind is necessary to
disentangle the country. If all is confirmed concerning Hooker's
incapacity, then it is a crime to keep him in command; but who after
him? It becomes now only a guess, a lottery.
The acting Chief-of Staff on the battle-field was General Van Alen.
Brave and devoted; but Van Alen saw the fire for the first time, and
makes no claims to be a scientific soldier.
_May 10._--I wrote to Stanton to call his attention to, and explain
the reasons of Hooker's so-called miscarriage. The insufficiency,
the inadequacy of his staff and of chief-of-staff. Hooker attempted
what not even Napoleon would have dared to attempt, to fight an army
of more than one hundred thousand men, literally without a staff, or
without a thorough, scientific and experienced chief-of-staff. I
directed Stanton's attention to evidences from military history.
Persons interested in such questions read Battle of Ligny and
Waterloo, by Thiers.
Cobden, Cobden the friend of the Union, can no more stand Mr.
Seward's confused logomachy, and in a speech sneers at Mr. Seward's
dispatches. The New York _Times_ _dutifully_ perverts Cobden's
speech; other papers _dutifully_ keep silent.
_May 10._--To extenuate Hooker's misconduct, his supporters assert
that he was struck, stunned, and his brains affected. Hooker was
stunned on Friday, and his campaign was already lost on Tuesday
before, when he wrote his silly proclamation, when he subsided with
the army in a _semi-lunar_ (the worst form of all) camp, and
challenged Lee to come and fight him. Lee did it. Hooker was
intellectually stunned on Tuesday. Further: the results of the
material stunning on Friday could never have been so fatal if the
army had been organized on the basis of common sense, as are all the
armies of intelligent governments in Europe. The chief-of-staff
elaborates with the commander the plan of the action; he is
therefore familiar with the intentions of the commander. When the
commander is disabled, the chief-of-staff continues the action. At
the storming of Warsaw, in 1831, Prince Paschkewitsch, the
commander, was disabled or stunned, and his chief-of-staff, Count
Toll, directed the storm for two days, and Warsaw fell into Russian
hands.
No more effective is the defence of the defeat, by throwing the
fault on the Eleventh Army Corps. The Eleventh Corps was put so much
in advance of a very foggishly--if not worse--laid out camp, that
it was temptingly exposed to any attack of the enemy. The Eleventh
Corps was separated from the rest of the army, as was Casey's
division in the Chickahominy. The laying of a camp, the distribution
of the corps, in a well organized army, is the work of the staff and
of its chief; but Butterfield was not even then in Chancellorsville.
Lee, who if caught napping, quickly awoke, wheeled his army as if it
were a child's toy, cut his way through woods which amazed Hooker,
and arrived before Hooker's semi-lunar camp. We, all the time, as it
seems, were ignorant of Lee's movements. A good staff, and what Lee
did, we would have accomplished. Lee quietly found out our
vulnerable point; and struck the blow. That, if you please, _was_ a
stunner. Finally: the Eleventh Corps was eleven or twelve thousand
strong. The weakest in the army, equal to a strong division in a
European army of one hundred thousand men. The breaking of a
division or of twelve thousand men posted at the extreme flank,
ought not and could not have been so fatal to the whole campaign. A
true captain would have been prepared for such eventuality. Battles
are recorded in history when a whole wing broke down and retreated,
and nevertheless the true captain restored order and fortunes, and
won the battle.
I am told that the rebels attacked in columns, and not in lines. The
rebels learn and learned, and are not conceited. The terrain here in
Virginia is specially fit for attacks in columns, according to
continental European tactics. We will not learn, we know all, we
have graduated--at West Point.
_May 11._--I have it from a very reliable source, that Mr. Lincoln
considers Sumner to be not very entertaining.
_May 11._--The confusion is on the increase. Statesmen, politicians,
honest, dishonest, stupid and intelligent, all huddled together.
Their name is legion--and what a stench. It is abominable! And many
think, and many may think, that I find pleasure in dwelling on such
events, on such men as are here. When I was a child, my tutor
ingrained into my memory the _Cum stercore dum certo_, etc. But at
any cost, I shall try to preserve the true reflection of events, of
times, and of the actors.
_May 12._--Jackson dead. Dead invincible! and therefore fell in time
for his heroic name. Jackson took a sham, a falsehood, for faith and
for truth--but he stood up faithfully, earnestly, devotedly to his
convictions. Whatever have been his political errors, Jackson will
pass to posterity, the hero of history, of poetry, and of the
legend. His name was a terror, it was an army for friend and for
enemy. For Jackson
_O selig der, dem er in Siegesglantze,
Die blutigen Lorbeer'n um die Schlaefe windet._
_May 12._--_Sewardiana._ Lord Lyons, or rather the English
government, objects and protests against the instructions given to
our cruisers, which instructions are intrinsically faultless. Mr.
Lincoln jumps up and writes a clap-trap dispatch, wholly contrary to
our statutes. Mr. Seward promises what he cannot perform, and this
time the upshot is that his dispatch came before the Cabinet and was
quashed, or, at least, recast.
The Morning _Chronicle_, of Washington--_magnum_ Administration's
_excrementum_--attacks SCHALK and his military reasonings. Oh! great
politician.
_Sus Minervam docet._
_May 13._--The defenders of Hooker affirm that Sedgwick was in
fault, and disobeyed orders.
1st. I have good reasons firmly to believe that Sedgwick heroically
obeyed and executed orders sent to him. No doubt can exist about it.
2d. The orders written by _such_ a staff as Hooker's might have been
written in _such_ a way as to confuse the God Mars himself. Marshal
Soult could fight, but as a chief of Napoleon's staff at Waterloo,
could not write intelligible orders.
3d. Setting aside Sedgwick's disobedience of orders, it does not in
the least justify Hooker in hearing the roar of cannon, and knowing
what was going on, and at the head of eighty thousand men allowing
Sedgwick to be crushed; and all this within a few miles. Fitz-John
Porter was cashiered for a similar offense. Hooker's action is by
far worse, and thus Hooker deserves to be shot.
_May 13._--Rumors that Halleck is to take the command of the army,
together with Hooker. I almost believe it, because it is nameless,
and here all that is illogical is, eventually, probable.
Poor Hooker. Undoubtedly, he had a soldier's spark in him. But
adulation, flunkeyism, concert, covered the spark with dirt and mud.
I pity him, but for all that, down with Hooker!
If Hooker or Halleck commands the army, Lee will have the _knack_ to
always whip them.
_May 14._--Wrote a paper for Senators Wade and Chandler, to point
out the reasons of Hooker's failure. Did my utmost to explain to
them that warfare to-day is not empiricism, but science, and that
empiricism is only better when sham-science has the upper hand.
Hooker's staff was worse than sham-science, and was not even
empiricism.
I explained that such evils, although very deeply rooted, can,
nevertheless, be remedied. An energetic government can, and ought to
look for and find, the remedy. The army, as it is, contains good
materials for every branch of organization; it is the duty of the
government to discover them and give them adequate functions.
Further: I suggested to these patriotic Senators that as in the
present emergency, it is difficult to put the hand on any general
inspiring confidence, the President, the Secretary of War and the
Senators, ought immediately to go to the army, and call together
all the commanders of corps and of divisions. The President ought
to explain to the difficulty, nay, the impossibility of making a new
choice. But as the generals are well aware that there must be a
commander, and that they know each other in the fire, the President
appeals to their patriotism, and asks them to elect, by secret
ballot on the spot, one from among themselves.
_May 14: One o'clock, P. M._--The President, Halleck and Hooker in
secret conclave. Stanton, it seems, is excluded. If so, I am glad on
his account. God have mercy on this wronged and slaughtered people.
No holy spirit will inspire the Conclave.
_May 15._--The English Government shelters behind the Enlistment
Act. The Act is a municipal law, and a foreign nation has nothing to
do with it. We are with England on friendly terms, and England has
towards us duties of friendly comity, whatever be the municipal law.
To invoke the Enlistment Act against us, is a mean pettifogger's
trick.
A good-natured imbecile, C----, everybody's friend, and friend of
Lincoln, Seward and the Administration in the lump, C---- asked me
what I want by thus bitterly attacking everybody.
"I want the rebellion crushed, the slaves emancipated; but above all
I want human life not to be sacrilegiously wasted; I want men, not
counterfeits."
"Well, my dear, point out where to find them?" answered everybody's
friend.
_May 15._--On their return from Falmouth, the patriotic Senators
told me that they felt the ground for my proposed election of a
commander by his colleagues, and that General Meade would have the
greatest chance of being elected. _Va pour Meade._ Some say that
Meade is a Copperhead at heart. Nonsense. Let him be a Copperhead at
heart, and fight as he fought under Franklin, or fight as he would
have fought at Chancellorsville if Hooker had not been trebly
_stunned_.
_May 15._--Much that I see here reminds me of the debauched times in
France; on a microscopic scale, however; as well as of the times of
the _Directoire_. The jobbers, contractors, lobbyists, etc., here
could perhaps carry the prize even over the supereminently infamous
jobbers, etc., during the _Directoire_.
_May 15._--"Peel of Halleck, Seward and Sumner," exclaims Wendell
Philips, the apostle. Wendell Samson shakes the pillars, and the
roof may crush the Philistines, and those who lack the needed pluck.
_May 16._--The President visited Falmouth, consoled Hooker and
Butterfield, shook hands with the generals, told them a story, and
returned as wise as he went concerning the miscarriage at
Chancellorsville. The repulse of our army does not frighten Mr.
Lincoln, and this I must applaud from my whole heart. It is however
another thing to admire the cool philosophy with which are swallowed
the causes of a Fredericksburgh and a Chancellorsville--causes
which devoured about twenty thousand men, if not more.
_May 16._--Strange stories, and incredible, if any thing now-a-days
is incredible. Mr. Lincoln, inspired by Hitchcock and Owen, turns
spiritualist and rapper. Poor spirits, to be obliged to answer such
calls!
_May 17._--A high-minded, devoted, ardent patriot, a general of the
army, had a long conversation with the President, who was sad, and
very earnest. The patriot observed that Mr. Lincoln wanted only
encouragement to take himself the command of the Army of the
Potomac. As it stands now, this would be even better than any other
choice. I am sure that once with the army, separated from Seward &
Co., Mr. Lincoln will show great courage. If only Mr. Lincoln could
then give the _walking papers_ to General Halleck!
On the authority of the above conversation, I respectfully wrote to
the President, and urged him to take the army's command, but to
create a genuine staff for the army around his person.
I submitted to the President that the question relating to a staff
for the Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy [the President] and
for the commander-in-chief of the Army, Major-General Halleck, has
been often discussed by some New York, Boston and Washington
dailies, and the wonted amount of confusion is thereby thrown
broadcast among the public. The names of several generals have been
mentioned by the press as a staff of the President. I doubt if any
of them are properly qualified for such an important position. They
are rather fitted for a military council _ad latus_ to the
President. Such a council exists in Russia near the person of the
emperor; but it has nothing in common with a staff, with staff
duties, or with the intellectual qualification for such duties. The
project of such a council here was many months ago submitted to the
Secretary of War. A Commander-in-chief, as mentioned above--one
fighting and manoeuvring on paper--making plans in his office,
unfamiliar with every thing constituting a genuine military,
scientific or practical soldier--to whom field and battle are
uncongenial or improper--to whom grand and even small tactics are a
_terra incognita_--such a chief is at best but an imitation of the
English military organization, and certainly it is only in this
country that obsolete English routine is almost uniformly imitated.
Such a Commander-in-chief might have been of some small usefulness
when our Army was but thirteen thousand to sixteen thousand strong,
was scattered over the country, or warred only with Indians on the
frontier. But all the great and highly perfected military powers on
the continent of Europe consider such a commander a wholly
unnecessary luxury, and not even Austria indulges in it now.
During the campaign against Napoleon in 1813-14 the allies were
commanded by a generalissimo, the Prince Schwartzenberg; but he
moved with the army, actively directed that great campaign.
The Continental sovereigns of Europe are born Commanders-in-chief of
their respective land and naval forces. As such, each of them has a
personal staff; but such a personal staff must not be confused with
a general, central staff, the paramount necessity of which for any
military organization is similar to the nervous system and the brain
for the human body. Special extensive studies as well as practical
familiarity with the use of the drill and the tactics of infantry,
cavalry and artillery, constitute absolutely essential requirements
for an officer of such a staff. The necessary military special
information also, as well as the duties, are very varied and
complicated (see "_Logistics_" by Jomini and others.) This country
has no such school of staff. West Point neither instructs nor
provides the Army with officers for staff duties; and of course the
difficulty now to obtain efficient officers for a staff, if not
insurmountable, is appalling, and is only to be mastered by a great
deal of good will, by insight and by discernment.
Many months ago, I pointed out, in the press, this paramount
deficiency in the organization of the Federal Army. The Prince de
Joinville ascribes General McClellan's military failures to the
paramount inefficiency of that General's staff. Any one in the least
familiar with military organization and military science is
thunderstruck to find how the Federal military organization deal
with staffs, and what is their comprehension of the qualification
for staff duties.
It deserves a mention that engineers and engineering constitute what
is rather a secondary element in the organization of a special or of
a general central staff.
Plans of wide comprehensive campaigns are generally elaborated by
such general staffs. In the campaigns of 1813-14, the sovereigns of
Russia and Prussia were surrounded by their respective general, and
not only personal staffs. With the Colonels Dybitsch and Toll, of
the Russian general staff, originated that bold, direct march on
Paris, whose results changed the destinies of Europe. Other similar,
although not so mighty facts are easily found in general military
history.
Finally, I pointed out to the President, the names of Generals
Sedgewick, Meade, Warren, Humphries, and Colonel J. Fry as fit for,
and understanding, the duties of the staff.
_May 17._--I record a rumor, which I supposed, and found out to be,
without much foundation; it is nevertheless worth recording.
The rumor in question says that the President wished to dismiss
Stanton and to take General Butler; that Mr. Seward was to decide
between the two, and that he declined the responsibility. Seward and
Butler in the same sack! Butler would have swallowed Seward, hat,
international laws and all--and of course Seward declined the
responsibility.
But now a story comes, which is a sad truth. William Swinton,
military reporter for the _Times_, a young man of uncommon ability
and truthfulness, prepared for his paper a detailed article about
the whole of Hooker's Chancellorsville expedition. Before being
published, the article was shown to Mr. Lincoln; and it was
telegraphed to New York that if the article comes out, the author
may accidentally find himself a boarder in Fort Lafayette. Almost
the same day the President telegraphed to a patriot to whom Mr.
Lincoln unbuttoned himself, not to reveal to anybody the
conversation. Both these occurrences had in view only one object--it
was to keep truth out of the people's knowledge. Truth is a
dangerous weapon in the hands of a people.
_May 19._--The President repeatedly refuses to make General Butler
useful to the country's cause, notwithstanding the best men in the
country ask Butler's appointment. I am only astonished that the best
men can hope and expect anything of the sort; for, when a Butler will
come up, then Sewards and Hallecks easily may go down--but--_pia
desideria_.
_May 20._--From many, many and various quarters, continually unholy
efforts are made to excuse Hooker and Butterfield; the President
seemingly listens and excuses. Well, I know what a Napoleon, or any
other even unmilitary sovereign, would do with both.
_May 21._--O, for light! for light! O, to find a man! one to prize,
to trust, to have faith in him! It is so sickening to almost hourly
dip the pen in--mud! I regret now to have started this _Diary_. I go
on because it is started, and because I wish to contribute, even in
the smallest manner, towards rendering justice to a great people,
besides being always on the watch, always expecting to have to
record a chain of brilliant actions, accomplished by noble and
eminent men. But day after day passes by, page heaps on page, and I
must criticise, when I would be so happy to prize.
As a watchdog faithful to the people's cause, I try to stir up the
shepherds--but alas! alas....
_May 22._--Wrote a letter to Senator Wade explaining to him how
incapable is Hooker of commanding a large army, how his habits and
associations are contaminating and ruinous to the spirit of the
army, and that Hooker is to return to the command of a corps or two.
_May 23._--Vainly! vainly in all directions, among the helmsmen,
leaders and commanders I search for a man inspired, or, at least, an
enthusiast wholly forgetting himself for the holiness of the aim.
Enthusiasm is eliminated from higher regions; is outlawed, is almost
spit upon. Enthusiasm! that most powerful stimulus for heart and
reason, and which alone expands, purifies, elevates man's
intellectual faculties. Here the people, the unnamed, have
enthusiasm, and to the people belong those noble patriots so often
mentioned. But the men in power are cold, and extinguished as ashes.
Jackson the President, Jackson the general, was an enthusiast.
Enthusiasts have been the founders of this Republic.
Whatever was done great and noble in this world, was done by
enthusiasts. The whole scientific progress of the human mind is the
work of enthusiasm!
_May 24._--Grant and the Western army before Vicksburgh unfold
endurance, and fertility of resources, which, if shown by a
McClellan and his successors, having in their hands such a powerful
engine as was and is the Potomac Army, would have made an end to the
rebellion. Happy Grant, Rosecrans and their armies! to be far off
from the deleterious Washington influences and adulations.
Influences and adulations ruined the commanders and many among the
generals of the Potomac army. Adulations, intrigue, and helplessness
fill, nay constitute the generals atmosphere. In various ways every
body contributes to that atmosphere--participates in it. Every body
influences or intrigues in the army. The President, the various
Secretaries, Senators, Congressmen, newspapers, contractors,
sutlers, jobbers, politicians, mothers, wives, sisters, sweethearts
and loose crinolines. Jews, publicans, etc., and the rest of social
leprosy. All this cannot thus immediately and directly reach the
Western armies, the Western commanders, when it reaches, it is
already--to some extent--weakened, oxygenated, purified. Add to it
here the direct influence and meddling of the head-quarters. I pity
this fated army here, and at times I even pity the commanders and
the generals.
_May 25._--Grant is an eminent man as to character and as to
capacity. To Admiral Foote and to him are due the victories at Fort
Henry, of Donelson, and the bold stroke to enter into the interior
of Secessia. Had Halleck not intervened, had Halleck and Buell not
taken the affairs in their hands, _Foote_ and _Grant_ would have
taken Nashville early in the spring of 1862, and cleared perhaps
half of the Mississippi. After the capture of Fort Donelson, Foote
demanded to be allowed at once to go with his gunboats to Nashville,
to clear the Tennessee; but Halleck caved in, or rather comprehended
not. Grant and Rosecrans restored what Halleck and Buell brought to
the brink of ruin.
_May 28._--Mr. Seward, omnipotent in the White House, tries to
conciliate the public, and in letters, etc., whitewashes himself
from arrests of persons, etc. Mr. Seward is therefore innocent,
thereof, as a lamb. But who inaugurated and directed them in 1861? I
know the necessities of certain times, and am far from accusing; but
how can Seward attempt to throw upon others the first steps made in
the direction of arrests?
_May 28._--Hooker still in command, and not even his staff changed.
I am certain that Stanton is for the change in the staff.
_May 28._--I am assured that the Blairs (I am not sure if General
Blair is counted in) are the pedlars for Mr. Lincoln's re-election,
as stated by the New York _Herald_. If Mr. Lincoln is re-elected,
then the self-government is not yet founded on reason, intellect,
and on sound judgment.
_May 31._--I am assured by a diplomat that four hundred and thirteen
is the last number of the correspondence between the Department of
State and Lord Lyons. Oh, how much ink and paper wasted, and what a
writing dysentery on both sides. The diplomat in question added that
it was only from January first--of course it was a joke.