Banks -- "The Enemy Crippled" -- Count Zeppelin --
Hooker-Stanton -- "Give Him a Chance" -- Mr. Lincoln's Looks --
Rappahannock -- Slaughter -- North Invaded -- "To be Stirred up"
-- Blasphemous Curtin -- Banquetting -- Desperate -- Groping --
Retaliation -- Foote -- Hooker -- Seward -- Panama -- Chase --
Relieved -- Meade -- Nobody's fault -- Staffs, etc., etc., etc.
_June 1._--For some time Banks seems to move in the right direction.
Banks no more intends to destroy slavery, and not thereby to hurt
the slave-holders. So Banks has become himself again, and the
Sewardean creed is evaporated. Banks has under him very good
officers, and intelligent, fighting generals; some of them left by
Butler, others, as for instance, Generals Augur, Stone, etc., who
embarked with Banks.
_June 2._--I hear it reported that Hooker maintains that he has
worsted and crippled the enemy more than if he had taken Richmond.
If the enemy in reality was worsted to that extent, it was not in
the least done by Hooker, Butterfield & Co.'s generalship, but this
time, as always, it was done by the bravery of the troops,
notwithstanding the bad generalship, not by, but _in spite of_, that
bad generalship.
_June 3._--Count Zeppelin, an officer of the staff and aide to the
King of Wurtemberg, came here to observe and to learn how _not_ to
do it! The Count visited the army at Falmouth. He was horror-struck
at the prevailing disorder, and at the general and special
miscomprehension of the needed knowledge and of the duties
prevailing in the staff of the army. The Count says that if this
confusion continues, the rebels may dare almost every thing. Count
Zeppelin is what would be called here, a thorough Union man. He
revolted greatly at witnessing the _nonchalance_ with which human
life is dealt with in the army, and the carelessness of commanders
about the condition of soldiers; the latter he most heartily
admires, and therefore the more pities their fate. He assured me
that rebel agents scattered in Germany tried their utmost to secure
for the rebel army officers of the various arms. This explains the
organization and the brilliant manoeuvrings of the celebrated
Stuart's cavalry, the novel rebel tactics in the use of artillery,
and the attack by columns at Chancellorsville.
_June 3._--Hooker, they say, waits to see what Lee will do. In other
words, we are on the defensive, after such efforts and so much blood
wasted. O, Ezekiel! O, Deuteronomy! help me to bless the leaders and
the chiefs of this people.
I am told by a very good authority, that Mr. Lincoln takes a special
care of his fellow-townsmen in Springfield. What a good, honest,
neighborly sentiment, provided always that the public good is not
suffering by it!
_June 3._--A senator, who urged Mr. Lincoln to dismiss Halleck, was
answered, that "as Halleck has not a single friend in the country,
Mr. Lincoln feels himself in duty bound to stand by him." Admirable,
but costly stubbornness.
_June 3._--Poor Hooker! He is now the laughingstock of Europe. I
wish he may recover what he has lost or squandered. But alas! even
now Hooker makes no attempt to surround himself with a genuine
staff.
I wrote to Stanton, imploring him for the country's and for his own
sake, to compel Hooker to reform his staff, and not to allow science
to be any longer trodden under foot. I implored Stanton that either
the President or he would select and nominate a chief-of-staff for
Hooker, or rather for the Potomac army, as it is done in Europe.
Stanton understands well the disastrous deficiency, and if he could,
he would immediately go at it and change. But, first, the statutes
or regulations, obligatory here, leave it with the commander to
appoint his own staff and its chief. Stupid, rusty, foggyish and
fogyish regulations, so perfectly in harmony with the general
ignorance of what ought to be the staff of an army! Second, Stanton
must yield to another will, and to what is believed here to be the
higher knowledge of military affairs.
_June 3._--"Give to Hooker one chance more," says Mr. Lincoln, and
so say several members of the Cabinet; "McClellan had so
many."--Because they allowed McClellan to waste human life and time,
it surely is no reason to repeat the sacrilegious condescension. A
general may be unfortunate, lose a battle, or even lose a campaign;
all this without being damnable when he has shown capacity, when he
did his utmost, but could not conciliate _fatum_ on his side. But
such is not the case with Hooker, and such _emphatically_ was _not_
the case with McClellan and with Burnside.
_June 3._--During these last fourteen days, the _big men_ have been
expecting a raid on Washington. More fortifications are constructed,
and rifle pits dug. This time the Administration is perfectly right.
All is probable and possible when capacity, decision, and
lightning-like execution are on the one side, and on the other
sham-science, want of earnestness, slowness and indecision.
_June 5._--A very reliable and honorable patriot tells me that
_grandissimo_ Chase _looks down_ upon any advice, suggestion, or
warning. O, the great man! A time must come when all these great men
will be held to a terrible account, will shed tears of blood, and
their names will be scorned by coming generations, and the track to
the White House may become also the track to the Tarpeian rock.
_June 5._--I often meet Mr. Lincoln in the streets. Poor man! He
looks exhausted, care-worn, spiritless, extinct. I pity him! Mr.
Lincoln's looks are those of a man whose nights are sleepless, and
whose days are comfortless. That is the price for a greatness to
which he is not equal. Yet Mr. Lincoln, they say, wishes to be
re-elected!
_June 5._--Mr. Seward makes a speech to the volunteers of Auburn.
All the same logomachy, all the same cold patriotism, all the same
_I_, and all the same squint towards the next presidential election.
_June 6._--Lincoln cannot realize to what extent Seward is and has
been his evil spirit. Even the nearest in blood and heart to Lincoln
know it, feel it, are awe-struck by it, warn him, and he is
insensible.
_June 7._--How I sympathize with Stanton, and admire his
rude--others call it coarse--contempt of all that is said about him.
That impure, lying, McClellan-Copperhead motley crew, accuse Stanton
of all the numberless criminal mistakes committed in the conduct of
the war--committed by the generals, etc. Stanton never interferes
with Mr. Lincoln nor with Halleck in matters that exclusively relate
to pure warfare, as where and how to march the respective armies,
how and in what way to attack the enemy, etc.
Reliable patriots coincide with me, that Stanton as clearly sees
every thing to-day, as he saw it when entering on his thorny duty. I
only wonder that he holds out in such an atmosphere. Stanton's
energy is indomitable. Blair's party says that "Stanton goes off at
half-cock." It is not true; but even if true, better to go off at
half-cock than not at all. Many say that Stanton ought to retire, if
he is hampered by others in the exercise of his duties. But if he
were to retire, he could not at this moment reveal to the people the
causes of such a step, and by remaining at his post, Stanton
prevents still greater disasters and disgraces. He never asks any of
his friends to say or to write a word in his defence, or rather to
dispel the lies with which McClellanites and copperheads poison the
atmosphere all around them.
_June 8._--Alexandria fortified, rifle-pits dug, etc. The third
year of the war is the third terror upon Washington, and upon those
counterfeit penates.
_June 8._--What for--for heaven's or devil's sake--Hooker throws a
division of cavalry across the Rappahannock, right in the dragon's
jaw! All the rebel army is on the other side, and this, our
division, can never be decidedly supported. It cannot be a
_reconnaissance_--of what? It cannot be a stratagem to surprise Lee.
If Lee wants to march anywhere north or west, this demonstration of
Hooker's will not for a minute arrest Lee.
_June 9._--The great Henry Ward Beecher emigrates for a time to
Europe. His parish richly supports him for the trip, and the
preacher sells his choice, and as it is said, beloved picture
gallery. It is not for want of money. Strange! What a curious
manifestation of patriotism!
_June 10._--The demonstration over the Rappahannock turned out to be
a slaughter of the cavalry. What! Was Hooker again stunned, to make
such a deliberate mistake--nay, crime? Such a demonstration never
could prevent Stuart from moving, even if our troops had defeated or
worried him--even if victorious, our cavalry would have been forced
to recross the Rappahannock, and Stuart, having behind him Lee's
whole army, which could easily reinforce him, would then move again.
Our force of nine thousand men, distant from support, attack a
superior force of fifteen thousand, who besides have within
supporting distance a whole army! This demonstration prevents
nothing, decides nothing, beyond the worst, the most damnable
generalship. General Hooker and his chief-of-staff are personally
responsible for every soldier lost there.
_June 11._--Again visitings to the army. Senators, ladies, magnifico
Chase leading on. O, if the guerrillas could sweep them!
_June 12._--Crippled men are to be met in all directions, on all the
streets. One-third of the amputated limbs undoubtedly could have
been saved by the Medical Department, were it in better hands, and
above all, if surgeons had been called in from Europe--the domestic
surgeons not being sufficient for the demand.
_June 13._--The principle of election, the only true one, a principle
recognized and asserted as well by antiquity as by the primitive
Church, recognized by rationalists, by Fourier, by radical, or any
democracy whatever--that principle must undergo an immense improvement
before it shall act in all its perfection. The elector must be
altogether self-governing, and not governed or influenced by anybody
in his choice and vote. The elector himself must stand on an elevated
level before by his vote he raises one or several above that level.
When the people's vote confers the highest trust to one rather below
than in the level, and still less one above the level, then even the
most intelligent people in the world, being thus misdirected,
misconducted, confused, in a very short time become almost enervated,
and, so to speak, loses its self-possession, and its sense of duty and
of right becomes shaken, its intellectual light dimmed. _Exempla sunt
odiosa._
_June 14._--The cavalry expedition over the Rappahannock was to
arrest any further offensive movements of the rebels. But lo! the
rebel army, so to speak, spreads in all directions, and takes the
offensive. We do not even know positively where Lee is going, where
he will appear and strike. We are shaking in, and for, Washington.
"Weh, Messina! wehe, wehe, wehe!"
Mr. Lincoln is unshaken in his confidence in Hooker and Butterfield.
_June 15._--By a bold and rapid manoeuvre Lee has thrown his troops
over the valley, over the Potomac, into Maryland, and God alone
knows where Lee will stop. Lee's advance must have been already on
the Potomac when the slaughter of our cavalry over the Rappahannock
was planned at the various head-quarters. How splendidly Lee's
movements have been arrested by that demonstration! Lee is on the
Potomac, and it seems that his movements have been ignored. His
armies, to be sure, have not been surrounded by a cloud, as the
Jews were in their exodus from the land of bondage, but the cloud
was hanging over the head-quarters in the army and in Washington.
_June 16._--The North invaded--threatened, shaken to the marrow! The
audacity of the rebels is stimulated by our sluggishness. If the
accounts in the War Department are true, then from Fortress Monroe
to the Potomac, including Baltimore and Maryland, we have about two
hundred thousand men, and the rebels dare! O, the rebels! what a
desperate conception, what a lightning-like execution! Dutifully
re-echoing the words uttered by their masters, the partisans of the
Administration console themselves by saying that "this invasion of
the North will have the effect of stirring up the North from its
lethargy." O, you blasphemers! worse blasphemers than ever have been
stoned or burned alive! Is the North not pouring forth its blood and
its treasures, and are they not all squandered by counterfeits?
_June 16._--The draft is not put in motion, because for weeks and
months Mr. Lincoln adjusts the appointments to be made under this
law, adjusts them to the exigencies of politicians. Jeff Davis
executes the draft with an iron hand. Mr. Lincoln thus gives time to
the Copperheads, to the disciples of the Seymours, of the Woods, of
the _World_, to organize a resistance. Bloodshed may come!
_June 16._--This invasion of Pennsylvania ought to be investigated.
Light must be brought into this dark, muddy, stinking labyrinth.
Weeks ago, honest, clear-sighted, patriotic Governor Curtin asked
authority to arm the militia of his State, and was snubbed in
Washington. Will this new disgrace serve to strengthen the
Administration? Quite possible.
_June 16._--Pennsylvania invaded, the country disgraced, and our
helmsmen, our Secretaries of State and of the Treasury, give
banquets! O, what a stoicism! a stoicism _sui generis_. The homes of
the farmers whose sons bleed on fields of battle, are invaded, their
hearths threatened with desolation, and the helmsmen sip Champagne,
paid for by the people!
_June 17._--_Halleckiana._ Rosecrans telegraphed to head-quarters
that he cannot send any troops to Grant, and that if he, Rosecrans,
is to attack Bragg, he must have reinforcements. Answer: "Do what
you like, on your own responsibility."
_June 17._--Hooker seems to have lost his former _dash_. He must
have known that the rebels extended from Gordonsville to
Pennsylvania, and he, moving in almost a parallel direction to that
line, ought to have cut it, or at least its tail.
General Ewell at Winchester. Hooker seems to doubt what he can do.
The soldiers of his army can do anything ever done by any soldiers
in the world--but lead them on, O Generals! Hooker has ninety-four
thousand men, and, McClellan-like, waits for more; laments that he
is outnumbered. A good general, having such a number, and of such
troops, would never hesitate to attack an enemy numbering one
hundred and twenty thousand, and the more so, as Hooker's command
is massed, while Lee's is not. And I'll risk my head that Lee's
whole army, all over the valley, and over Pennsylvania, and over
Maryland, is smaller than Hooker's. It is the same old trick of the
rebels and of their friends, to throw dust in our eyes by magnifying
their numbers. The trick is always successful, because on our side
it is wished to extenuate incapacity by the supposed large numbers
of the rebel armies.
_June 18._--The North rises. New York sends its militia. The people
fails not, but how about the helmsmen?
The Democrats--the Copperheads roar for McClellan. Well! the like
Democrats glorifying McClellan, show their patriotism, their metal
and their judgment. These Copperhead-Democrats may insist upon
calling McClellan a captain and a hero, but history will give
another verdict, and history will credit to the Democrats the fact
that they have adroitly poisoned and perverted the good faith of the
honest but credulous Democratic rank and file.
_June 18._--The Administration's _simon pure_ echoes, politicians,
etc., try to persuade everybody that the invasion of Pennsylvania is
nothing, a mere tempest in a tea-pot. Whom do they hope to humbug in
this way? The disgrace is nameless, only they are callous enough not
to feel it. Their cheeks can no more redden.... However, Stanton is
not so optimist. It would look so farcical if it were not so deadly
to witness. Hooker groping his way after Lee; Lincoln and the
all-knowing head-quarters in the utmost darkness about Lee, his
army, his movements, and his plans. And all this while the country,
the people, is kept officially ignorant of its honor, of its fate.
All publicity and communication is suppressed--not to inform thereby
the enemy of our movements. How idiotic, how silly! As if the march
and the movements of an army of one hundred thousand men could be
kept secret from a vigilant and desperate enemy, and the enemy
wanted to read the papers for it. Good for us!
I cannot hope against hope, and expect that Hooker, Butterfield,
Lincoln, Halleck will out-manoeuvre Lee, bold, quick, and desperate
as he is.
_June 19._--The jobbers, the contractors, the gold, stock, and
exchange speculators wish for the prolongation of the war. For this
reason, disasters are rather welcome to them. Oh! to crush those
ignoble and demoniac monsters.
_June 20._--I cannot comprehend how Lee could have dared such a
desperate movement, even if relying on the confusion and
senselessness prevailing in _our_ military movements. Lee must have
had some kind of encouragement from the Copperheads before he risked
a step, which ought to end in his utter destruction, even with a
Halleck, Hooker and Butterfield as our commanders.
_June 20._--Hooker has more than ninety thousand men in hand--his
rear, his supplies, his _depots_ covered by Heintzelman, and by the
defences of Washington. This alone is equal to fifty thousand more.
And with all this, the treble head-quarters, in the White House in
G street, and in the army cannot find Lee, and therefore the rebels
are not attacked, and lay Pennsylvania waste. O, staffs, O, staffs!
_June 20._--More than any other army in the world, the American army
requires to have a thoroughly organized staff, with very intelligent
staff officers. Such staff officers carry orders to generals and to
colonels who, although brave and devoted, may often not altogether
comprehend certain sacramental technicalities of an order delivered
by mouth, or written briefly in the saddle.
The officer ought to be able to explain the order. Think of it, you
wiseacres and organisers of American armies.
_June 21._--Small cavalry skirmishes without signification. The
curtain is not rended, and the enemy rolls towards the heart of
Pennsylvania. How will it end?
_June 22._--Nobody of the various upper and lower Chiefs can find
Lee. Give twenty thousand men to a bold man even not a general, and
in twenty-four hours he will bring you positive news about Lee's
army.
_June 23._--It seems that Lee waits, if we divide our army, to
strike a blow on Washington. Thus he will be baffled; there is a
limit even to our military blunders.
_June 24._--Incorrigible Seward. France invites our Government to
participate in the diplomatic coercion against Russia. Of course,
Americans refuse. Mr. Seward, in harmony with the feeling of the
people politely snuff off France. But O, Mr. Seward, why pervert
history or show your ignorance, even of the national events and of
Congressional records. The United States, Adams II., President, sent
commissioners to the Congress of Panama, and the United States
Congress did it after a discussion of several days. What is the use
to deny it now? Then Mr. Seward is insincere to both parties.
Speaking of "_a temporary transient revolt here_" he seemingly
insinuates, that but for this _transient revolt_ he would perhaps
try his hand at the European game. It would look so grand to be in
company with the _Decembriseur_. Then the only impediment would be
the people's will different from yours, oh, Seward! _The refusal_ in
the dispatch re-echoes the convictions of the American people; its
shilly-shally conditionality is exclusively Sewardism and only fit
to catch a Russian diplomat in Washington.
_June 25._--Hooker crosses to Maryland with nearly one hundred
thousand men. Lee is still on both sides of the Potomac. By a blow
Hooker could cut Lee's army, break it, and retrieve what he lost at
Chancellorsville. Oh, how I wish he may do it. But since Hooker has
refused to mend his staff, all hope is lost. Stanton sees the
condition very clearly, but Butterfield is in good odor in the White
House.
_June 26._--Lee's movements and invasion puzzle me more and more.
The raid into Pennsylvania is the move of a desperate commander,
almost of a madman, playing his whole fortune on one card. If Lee
comes safe out of it, then doubtless he is the best general of our
times, and we the best nincompoops that ever the sun looked upon and
blushed for.
_June 26._--The reports give to Lee an army of two hundred thousand
men. Impossible! Where could the rebels scrabble together such a
number? The old trick to frighten us. If, however, Lee should have
even only from one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand, then
relying on the high capacity of our various head-quarters, the rebel
chiefs may have gathered what they could take from Charleston and
from Bragg, and massed it to try a decided blow on Washington. But
this cloud, this dust cannot last long; whatever be our
head-quarters, light must come, and the cloud burst with blood and
thunder.
One meets in Washington individuals praising sky-high Mr. Lincoln's
military capacity, and saying that he alone embraces all the
extensive line of military operations, combines, directs them, etc.
Pretty well has all this succeeded, and why cannot the younger
generation seize the helm in this terrible crisis? How I ardently
wish to see there an Andrew, Boutwell, Coffey, and more, more of
those new men.
_June 27._--From a very reliable, honest, and _not conspiring_
secessionist in Washington, I learn that a Northern Copperhead
visited Jeff Davis in Richmond, and stimulated the rebel chief to
carry into the north a war of retaliation by fire and sword, but
that Jeff Davis refused to instruct Lee for devastation. I instantly
told Stanton my news; and now I doubt not in the least that the
invasion is concerted with Northern Copperheads.
_June 28._--The following is this morning the military condition of
the city with the forts and defences: Hooker took all he could and
all he met on his way. To defend the works around Washington
Heintzelman has six thousand infantry, and not two hundred cavalry.
The rebels have cavalry all around, within six or eight miles. A
dash of twenty thousand infantry, and Washington is done!
_June 28._--Admiral Foote dead. Irreparable loss. Foote was of the
stamp of Lyon, of the stamp of patriot-heroes. He died of
exhaustion, that is, of devotion to the country. Foote was an honor
to the navy and to the American people.
_June 28._--Yesterday, Friday, the candidate for presidency,
splendid Chase, stood up mightily for Hooker. Oh, Mr. Chase! you may
be a great or a doubtful financier, but keep rather mute on military
matters. You know as much about them as this d---- mosquito that is
just now biting my nose.
_June 28._--At last, Hooker relieved. I pity Meade to receive a
command at such a critical moment. But now or never, to show his
mettle, his capacity! The army thinks very highly of Meade. Will
Halleck soon be sent to California? Then the country's cause will be
safe.
_June 29._--Yesterday a rebel cavalry raid captured an immense
train of provisions, cattle, etc., worth about five hundred thousand
dollars, and within eight or twelve miles of Washington! Of course,
it is nobody's fault. In other armies and countries, such a large
train would have a very strong convoy--here it had scarcely a small
squadron of cavalry. The original fault is, first, with Hooker's
chief-of-staff, who is responsible for providing the army, and for
the security of the provision trains. So at least it is in European
armies. Second, with the head-quarters at Washington, who ought to
have known that the enemy, ant-like, spreads in the rear of Hooker.
The head-quarters ought to have informed the quartermaster thereof,
and provided a strong convoy. This train affair is the younger
brother of the Fredericksburg pontoons.
Third, the head-quarters of the army and the quartermasters ought to
have inquired at the head-quarters of the defenses of Washington, if
the roads are safe. But of course it was not done, as the _big men_
here possess all the prescience, and need no valuable information.
All of them appear to me as ostriches, who hide their heads and
eyes, not to see the danger.
_June 29._--General Heintzelman is as thorough a soldier as any
to-day in Washington--a soldier superior to head-quarters of the
army. Heintzelman commands the military district which south, west
and north touches on the theatre of the present campaign. In similar
conditions and circumstances, any other government, sovereign,
commander-in-chief, etc., would consult with the commander of the
defences of the capital and of the military district around the
city; here Heintzelman is not noticed.
_June 30._--How will Meade compose his staff? All depends on that.
In the present positions of Meade's and Lee's armies, even a
Napoleon could not do much without a very good staff.
Were the staffs of the American armies organized as they are in
Europe, no difficulty would exist. In Europe the staffs of the
armies are independent from the persons of their commanders. When a
commander is changed, the staff and its chief remains, and thus the
new commander at a glance and in a few hours can become thoroughly
familiar with the position and condition of the army, and with the
plans of his predecessor, etc., etc. Often such commanders are
changed and sent from one end of the country to the other. In 1831,
PASCHKEWITSCH was ordered from the Caucasus to Poland, to supersede
DIESBITSCH.
_June 30._--Since Calhoun, the creed of the _simon pure_ Democratic
party intrinsically marked a degradation of man and of humanity. Its
logical, unavoidable and final outlets must have been secession,
treason, and copperheadism; its apotheosis, South, the rebels;
North, the Woods, the Seymours, the Vallandighams and the _World_.
The creed of the Republican party is humane. The _simon pure_
democratic rank and file, North and South, intellectually and
morally constitute the lowest stratum of American society. Progress,
civilization, intellectual, healthy activity principally are
embodied in the Republican rank and file. True men, as a Marcy, a
Guthrie, and some few similar, throw a pure and bright light on the
Democratic party; many from among the official and political
Republican notabilities throw a dismal and dark shadow on the
intrinsically elevated and pure principles of the party.