Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-10-01


would just court martial forty or fifty officers
who are notorious towards, or drunkards, or
traitors, and have the worst dozen of them
shot, we think the Union armies would be
more effectively strengthened than by the
raising of forty new regiments" This asser-
ton is strong, but there is good reason for it.
There are officers in the army who are unfit
for the places they occupy. We have a spec
linen of one clrss of them in Col. Miles, who
was killed by his own men, it is said, while in
the act of surrendering Harper's Ferry to the
rebels Had he been what an officer entrusted
with a command SO important should be, that
place would have been held against any
two hundred thousand men that could
have been brought against it. Mary
land Heights would not have been en-
trusted to the care of Col. I. H. Ford, and,
of course, would not have been evacuated
without reason. Miles was hopeless drunk
ard, and Ford was fit associate for him.
Between them Harper's Ferry was surrendered
almost without struggle, and thereby Gen.
McClellan's army was seriously embarrassed
and menaced with disaster. If Harpers Fer
ry had been retained and used as base of OPP
erations on the Virginia side of the river,
Lees army would have been well nigh de-
stroyed.
In the measures taken to strengthen our
armies and increase their efficiency, some
thing should be done to remove from COM
mand to merited disgrace all the notorious
towards, drunkards, and traitors" among the
officers. The country cannot afford the en-
barrassments and disasters they occasion in
the military service. The removal of one in
competent officer like Miles and Mcdowell
will strengthen the army as much as the adj
dition of many regiments, while the persecu-
ton and removal of one such leader as Sigel
or Mitchell will greatly weaken it. There
are other means of increasing the force
and success of an army besides the adj
diton of ''more men," to its masses. Let
us have in the field all the men that may be
necessary, aud let us have also none but COM
petent, earnest, and faithful leaders. Crush
out that conceited and exclusive "West Point
ISM that seeks to organize and keep in oper-
alton domineering military clique to uphold
such men as Miles and prosecute and pro-
scribe such brave and accomplished generals
as Sigel.
The present military situation in Kentucky
and Tennessee shows what may be lost by
lack of competent leadership. A detestible
clique of military officers drove away Cen
,Ion pI 4l,o
liant Colonel Turchin, meanwhile suspending
active operations against the rebels. Our ar
mics have constantly lost ground there, since
Gen. Mitchell left. The movement towards
East Tennessee was arrested and matters
went from bad to worse, until now the rebels
occupy large portion of Kentucky and
threaten to invade Ohio. A larger army I'M
der such management would not have pre-
vented this disastrous change in the situation |;
but Sigel and Mitchell at the head of the
troops already there would have made it i'm
possible, while on the other hand, they would
have gained additional advantages.
General Mcclellan has shown promptness,
skill, and power, as leader, in his campaign
against lle TeDel army III haIyldnu; anu ne
has under him some admirable generals and
yet there are officers in his command who
have sometimes hindered rather than helped
the service, by allowing their conduct to be
controlled by unworthy prejudices antipathies,
and jealousies, and by lack of eafnestness in
the cause for which the army fights. 1t is
probable that their number and influence will
constantly grow smaller; but the report that
Sigel has been compelled to tender his resign
alton shows that somewhere around Wash
ington or on the Potomac, West Point cliquism
is still quite as active as a sincere desire to
crush the rebellion.