Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1861-08-23
Gen. Mcclellan

From the Washington Correspondence Of the n. Y Post
Few persons in Washington know this man
by oversight, but he is the stronghold in
which all hearts assemble He never reviews
regiments on parade--hc goes through their
quarters thrice in forty-eight hours--and at
the expiration Of that time they are grumb-
ling because he has never given them sight
of him. Perhaps he dances badly. He is
not brilliant object in saloons. He might
be likely to break fans OH a large scale if
asked to hold them during the waltzes. He
does not blossom in stars and shoulder straps.
But if you happen to be stopping to per-
spire under the shadow of broad white oak
on the road between the Potomac tete-du-
pont and Arlington House, you may see
man about the size of our gallant col
or-rescuer Stedman, with significant high
bridged nose, keen blue gray eyes, mouth
not unlike that Of generous mastih,, who
bites on no small provocation, but when he
does, bites immediately, and leaves soupenir
Clad in blue blousc-like that of Partisan
carpenter-and pantaloons that might have
been any color before the sacred soil in pull
verified form was half an inch deep on them );
you may see this man, say, rushing his
horse through cloud Of dust, and an aide.
de-camp putting twenty rods behind him, in
the vain endcavor to keep up with rider
who, to quote his acquaintances, "rides like
the devil.' As he pulls his brown mustache
to wipe away the honest sweat of a man in
earnest, he may turn his face towards YOU
be sure he will see you, at any rate, for there
is nothing he does not see-and you will have
glimpse Of George B. Mcclellan.
WHAT CLELLAN HAS DONE FOR WASHINGTON
In the first place, be the fact morally de-
tensiblc or not, the effect of a ne,c name is
wonderful in this world. Still more so, new
name which is synonymous with invarable
success. Then, again, men like the incog-
nlto under which Mcclellan travels-all the
more as it is not assumed, but inevitable from
the necessities of his character 1t is impos.
sible to imagine Mcclellan done in pipe
clay. he cannot, in nature, sit for his statue
to any other artist than worker in granite
lie knows very well what we boys used to
know at boarding. school, when the principal
on examination day got up a magnificent
dinner and put the youngsters in their best
clothes, addressing the younger classes with
an lnvariable suave "my dear" and pattern
ally pressing the astonished lads to second
,nstaliment of semi,annual plum pudding
That examination days arc the exception to
dreary rule OF daily life. He will have no.
body gotten up to receive him. lie wants
the habitual condition of the boys--not their
holiday sham appearance Hence that blouse,
that unheraldcd approach to camps who have
10 idea of his personnel, who suppose that they
see sapper and miner cccentrically on
horseback, or at the farthest one of the Stur-
ges Rifles, who are McClcllan's body qua,
and so devoted to him that they would go
this day to Manassas behind him, an unsup-
ported corps.
The fact Of McClellan's having brigadcd
the army has now become an old tale to the
public. iie unostentatiously goes on after
the same method with the great bodies of
troops who are constantly arriving. But for
the implied parole of honor above mentioned,
| should like to state the exact numerical
Of work enjoined upon him by the
necessities of this method as applied to the
various importing
1t is only possible to say that nothing on
so gigantic scale in the shape of military
disposition has ever been demanded of a man
on this continent-scarccly on the European.
And though the fact of this new arrange
ment be now well known, its results are to
be immeasurablc. For the knowledge of
their field officers, by sight, and still more
by personal confidence-the position of the
right field officer over any given body-the
discipline of the brigade as distinguished
from that of the issolatcd regiment these
desidcrata are of the utmost Importance in
our future advance. We may add, that it is
the conviction of some of the ablest comman-
ders with whom our editorial delegation con-
snItnI in nv achinntn, th.x H., 4
made Bull Run victory after as well as be-
fore three o'clock, r. n of July 21st.
Washington. since Mcclellan, is no longer
a field for target shooting, with an after pic
mic under the marquee of WiliarTs and
Browns. 1t is now possible to reach the
door from the clerk desk or bar of either
without clbowing epaulettes or getting tang
led in dress swords. Let not these words
be thought to indicate decentralization of the
army before Mcclellan came. Up to that
day we had heard the sermon of Bull Run in
eloquent cannon-yoice, but the fist of the
preacher had not come down on the desk in
personal application.
We said: The panic happened equally
to the French at Solferino it was only a
chance; it may never happen again." So
we took our cobblers at Wiliard's when we
should have been in our camps on the hills,
over the straw at midnight about
. remarkable Providences," forgetting that
our soldiers needed an eye to their comfort
and discipline, if that eye would be their tai
sman and iDspirer of victory. Mcclellan
came and said, not there may be-" but
. there shall be" no more panic. And he
has taken the means. He has made the Off
Ger as responsible for the men as the men to
the officer.
Without his pass, neither bands nor stars
can junket at midnight. But night or two
ago sergeant approached gentlemen high
in military rank, taking his hook and soda,
1t the spout Of the little drug store under
He asked him for his pass and re-
ceived the indignant answer that he was ad-
dressing an officer. My instructions said
the sergeant, "are to see you to your quar-
ters." II give you my word of honor that
will 60 there" replied the officer. 81 am
obliged, sir" replied the sergeant. "to give
you my word of honor that | will see You
there" And they marched away together.
1t is this broad ad-mindedness-th view Of
rank as honorable more for its grave respon-
sibility than its cloth and metal, and which
makes every true soldier, be he commissioned
Or in ranks, idolize Mcclellan, without even
having seen him. AS for the loyal people of