The Portland daily press., 1862-10-29

and ardent admirer OF Gen. Mcclellan; he was
SO when he left home to visit the army, but he
has returned with his faith somewhat shaken
General, but in his fitness 10 lead an incadtag
army in an ofensire war. We had enjoyed
with him during the past season many pleas
ant chat, and felt strengthened to hear his
warm, unselfish, disinterested eulogies upon
our beau ideal OF a military commander, and
we were never more taken by surprise than
when he read to us the MISUNDERSTANDING
the portions we have omitted-and when we
listened to his conversation. We have not
deemed it best to publish some portions of his
letter, and we have indicated the omissions by
stars, because we yet hope that all may come
out right, and that Mcclellan may yet vindi-
cate his ability to advance as well as TO re-
treat; to give blows as well as to take them I;
to seize positions as well to defend them. With
these explanations we give the letter:
PORTLAND, Oct. 27.
Editors of the Press.-We learn from the
papers that the reason why Mcclellan does not
advance is that the army is destitute Of cloth
ing especially in "want of shoes"
Permit me as an eye witness, who within
week past has seen the front" Of our army
and visited those portions of it which have
been in the hardest service, aud endured the
severest hardships, to say,-tha. of all the lies
told during this present war, no bigger one
than this has been told, not even by the Sc
cessionists themselves.
There are other reasons than this. Misnan-
agement is everywhere visible. There is a stu
pid Indifference, a total disregard of the
value of time, growing desire for personal
aggrandizement in purse as well as in po-
sition,a want of enthusiasm and earnest
ness which amounts to contempt for the will
of the people; and all this may be verified by
the visit of week to the army of the Poto-
mac.
Perhaps then aword from personal obserro-
tion may be of use confmingly TO the estab-
lishment of the position taken by your paper
in the issue Of Saturday last.
The writer of this went towards the army
strongly in favor of Gen. Mcclellan, but If any
unprejudiced man can spend week with our
armies and not have his views modified, then
such person must be indeed, according TO holy
writ, +" steadfast, immoyable."
The sentiments of the leader soon give tone
to the army. Napoleon's men were never so
Indifferent, or regardless of their cause; and
the lack OF earnestness, and the want of en-
thusiasm, aud the indifference SO marked in the
field, certainly cannot be laid TO "want of
shoes" No army in such holy cause, with
such degree of intelligence as marks our sol
diery, could become so indifferent except they
had come to inherit it from their superiors, l
was in Italy during the Italian war. The sol
diers of Garibaldi were not so. But Brigadier
Generals find no good in fuming and worrying
for what they cannot help; and Colonies take
tone from them, aud the privates from these,
and 1t inlects the ranks like the measles
Would to God we had one week of vigor and
energy; aye, would to God that we had one
week of Gen. jackson, that our holy cause go
not by default in its day of trial.
Doubtless when in danger six weeks ago
most thought the caution Of Gen. Mcclellan
safer than Generals untried, or Generals more
impulsive; and the army shouted for McClel-
Ian. But those who know him best have come
to learn that caution is not always saiety,-at
least caution which is morbid. Those who
were in the battles on the Peninsula, South
Mountain, and Antietam, undertake 10 tell
where and how he did not fight them well,-
and it was more usual to hear them say they
were "badly managed" than to hear them
praise such Leading.
His caution is represented to be so excess
i've that it amounts practically to cowardice.
Were it not for this our battle at Antietam
would have been victory. But what has he
gained for his country? Men may jeer at the
boastfulness of Pope who was left unsustained
because Generals did not like him; but who
has more of these boastful promises on record
than the Major General of the Potomac? He
has been circumvented, out manoeuvered, and
led about by his opponets whithersoever they
will-deieated again and again, losing more by
what he is satisfied to style victories, than his
enemies by their defeats and the soldiers are
beginning TO feel that this is their greatest
source of danger; at least, many expressed
this to the writer. = And it is doubtless
truth they speak when they say that "some of
the thongs of the scourge which we feel are
not In the hands of the Southern army"
The army would be enthusiastic and earnest
If powerful and earnest spirit was at its head
The army is well shod, well fed, and well
clothed. You may see pork enough wasted in
any Division every day to start small soap
factory. Go there and prove it true, and you
will find the worst discipline that may be i'm
agined, among the camps. You may go where
you choose, and mo questions asked" You
may be a traitor, and no paper asked for; you
may pass pickets where picket should not
"pass" you, and still have the passes obtained
from headquarters never used; and you may
return home with them unsoiled by any mper-
tinent challenge or examination; and this, too,
In the land of secessonists, where the enemy
may be expected any day. You may talk
what you choose with the soldiers; go in and
out with none to molest you, or make you
afraid" You may get pass in Washington
with difficulty to cross Navy Yard bridge to
the Virginia side, and pass both sentries. at
each end of the bridge, and return, without un-
folding the paper.
Again, there is another reason more potent
than want of shoes. 1t is want of soul in the