Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-09-15
From the New York World, Sept. s.
Strategy vs.. POpe-ry.


Letter the Model of Pope's address to his Ar
my-"The President, the Army, the Country,
Stand A9hast at the System into Ichich He De
Uiqted under The Pressure of the Radicals against
Mcclellan.
The change in the command of the army con-
sequent on the disastrous failure of Gen. Pope,
brings to an abrupt termination the predo ominance
of a certain set of ideas which have for the last
seven months held ascendency in the executive
councils. We do not now go into the question of
the military capacity of General Mcclellan; that
is subordinate to the larger question whether the
particular order of military ideas with which his
name is connected is to prevail in the future con-
duct of the war. Gen. Mcclellan may or may
not be an able strategist; but it will at least be
granted that he is the leading personal represen-
tatiye among our army officers of the principle
that good strategy is an indispensable element OF
military success. We wish to call attention to the
fact that the persistent persecution of this COM
mander has been equally persistent attempts to
bring the whole idea of strategy into derison.
lt has been not so much insisted that Gen. Nc
Clellan is strategst as that strategy itself is
humbug and delusion. The radicals have at
tempted to sink him in public estimation very
much as they would an astrologist who undertook
to read their destiny in the stars or an alchemst
who pretended to transmute the baser metals into
they have decried the professor.
The idea that strategy was OF any value in the
conduct of great war was discarded by the
President soon after the appointment of Secre-
tary Stanton; the opposite idea prevailed in the
War Department 1t until the disgraceful defeat OF
Gen. Pope gave signal demonstration of its
utter absurdity and folly. The anti-s strategic
doctrine was publicly and formally enunciated
first by the Secretary of War while vet new to
his office, and more recently by its most distin-
guished personal embodiment in the army, in the
address of Gen. Pope to his soldiers. Both of
these very remarkable enunciatIOns were under
stood by the country and meant by their authors
slurs ON Gen. Mcclellan and his mode of con-
Quoting the They were indorsed with the
warmest applause by all the radical journals and
accepted with great gusto in all radical circles.
The inexorable logic of events has made sweep
ing work with those supremely silly and crack
Drained productions Posterity will read with
amazement and shame that for the seven most
important and critical months of a great war
they formed the chart and compass of our mill
tary administration. The following letter, writ
ten by Secretary Stanton, in January to the
head organ of the radicals, embodies the anti
strategic doctrine in accordance with which the
plans of Gen. Mcclellan were thwarted and
upset:
"7o the Editor fthe ~ Y Tribune:
cribed to my official action. The glory of our
recent victories belongs to the gallant officers
and soldiers that fought the battles. No share
of it belongs to me.
Much has recently been said of military comb-
nations and organizing victory. | hear such
phrases with apprehension. They commenced in
infidel France with the Italian campaign and re-
suited in Waterloo Who can organize victory?
Who can combine the elements of success on the
battlefield? We owe our recent victories to the
Spirit of the Lord that moved our soldiers TO rush
into battle and filled the hearts of enemies with
terror and dismay The inspiration that con-
quered in battle was in the hearts of the soldiers,
and from on high, and wherever there is the
same inspiration there Will be the same results.
Patriotic spirit, with reSOute courage in officers
and men, is military combination that never
failed.
1--WE may well rejoice at the recent victories.
for they teach us that battles are to be won now
and by us in the same and only manner that they
were ever won by any people or in any age since
the days of Joshua, by boldly pursuing and strk-
ing the foe. What, under the blessing of Proyi-
dence, | conceive TO be the true organization of
victory aud military combination to end this war
was declared in IA few words by General Grants
message to General Buckner-"I propose to move
Immediately Jon your works!'
'Yours truly,
"EDwIN NJ. STANTON"
Gen. Pope'S address to his army was merely a
repetition, with great deal of stilted gasconade,
of the staple idea of this preposterous but much
applauded letter. Gen Pope had been summoned
from the West because he considered fit
representative of these anti-strategic ideas I'm
fortunately for the country, they have been too
faithfully adhered to and have borne their bitter
fruits The large portion of an intelligent letter
to the Tribune, which we transfer to our columns
this morning, gives vivid but most appalling
picture of the results of this policy, which was
thrust upon the President by the clamor of the
radicals, and the pressure of public opinion
which they created
What Gen. McClellan's strategy would have
resulted in if he had been interfered with, is,
of course, mere matter of opinion, like all posS-
bilites which have not been carried out of the
realm of conjecture by she actual march of
events But what the anti-strategy which was
set up in opposition to him has resulted in, is,
unhappily for the country, not a subject of spe-
culation and conjecture, but terrible and dis
graceful accumulation of disasters. The prema-
ture advance in the West ordered by the Pres-
dent in opposition to the judgment of General
Mcclellan, caused the concentration of effort
and the sweeping military conscription by which
the rebels have acquired their present strength.
Had we permitted them to remain they were
until the Eastern and Western armies could
move upon them simultaneously, their whole
six weeks of this combined advance. When at
a later period, the Government refused to allow
McDowell's corps to be placed where il could
have intercepted the rebel army in its retreat
from Yorktown, the direct consequence of this
interference was the failure of the campaign
against Richmond. When, after this failure, the
President undertook to organize new campaign
against the rebel capital, to be conducted on the
anti-strategic principle, and summoned Gen.
Pope from the West command it, he entered
upon an experiment which demonstrated the
positive, as the interference with Mcclellan
proved the negative, dement's of the anti strate-
gic system of warfare lauded by Secretary STAN
ton and the radicals
The President, the army, the whole country
stand aghast at the results of the system into
which he deviated under the pressure of the radi-
Gals against General Mcclellan Even if the fail
ures of particular Generals should again raise the
question where strategy is to be found, the Presi-
dent is not liberty to be again deluded ino the
notion that strategy is of no value 1t is only by
the superior strategy of the rebels that we have
been dsastrously beaten. They are inferior to
US i'm every kind of material resources. they have
succeeded by the mastery maneuvers of their
really able Generals Pope has been so disgrace
fully repulsed, because he was constantly out
witted and out-generaed. Experience teaches a
dear SCHOOL, but we are hereafter safe against any
such public renunciations of military strategy as
were made by Secretary Stanton and Gen. Pope.
Hereafter the attempt will at least be made to
conduct the war on sound military principles.
Democratic state Conventions IN New
Jersey and Delawarc-The Nomsna-
tfons and Resolutions.