Smyrna times., 1862-12-04


under his command. Nor can we recall
with patience the miserable tIcSco Of Young
Napoleon, when, after being almost Literally
driven out of Washington, he advanced on
Manassas, to find its Notifications ridiculous
impostures, with the brilliant concomtant
of wooded guns, and the enemy snugly
quartered in Richmond
Then came the next illustration of Nc
Clellans genius in the advance en- Rich
mond When the bulk of his army land
ed at Fortress Monroe the rebels had but
! 5000 men at Yorktown, prepared for re-
treat, and our army might have walked
over its boaSted tortiticatins without firing Il
gun. Bat the Commander wasted Is
precious days in waiting for the driblets Of
his force to arrive, while the enemy, whose
object, as well as clear policy, was to gain
time, reinforced Yorktown, and reoccupicd
the batteries at Gloucester Point, which they
had abandoned from unnecessary fear Of
Young Napolcons energy and prompitude!
Then came the long siege of Yorktown,
/ i'll which an army of fighters was converted
| into an army of diggers, and the energy
which would have glorifed charge was
! exhausted in the trenches. One cool morn
| ing, while the miniature Napoleon was
planning new parallels, and learning new
! lessons from the mole, calling for more men
and heavier cannon; To- the sun rose on
Yorktown deserted. Aninadequate pursue
! ing force was thrown forward and the main
army kept back, while Gen. Mcclellan tel
egraphed far and wide as q victory what
was practically defeat. Eight hour was
allowed to intervene between the advance
and the supports which should have been
close behind it; and during those eight
hours Was fought the bloody fight of Will
liamS burgh---that bloody and dindecisive fight.
which had Mcclellan known. or acted in
conformity with the elementary rules Of
war, might have been converted into glo-
riOus victory, and sealed the fate Of Rich
mOnd. But Young Napoleon was then as
ever far in the rear and when he did ONE
up, after all was over, he sent forth flame
ing dispatch, which ignored utterly the ter
rible fight Of Hooker and IIeintzelman, and
gloritied the skrmsh-and brilliant one it
was-of his relative Hancock
The enemy, second time within his
grasp, escaped to Richmond, and Mcclellan
planted his army in the reeking and pesti-
lent swamps of the Chicahominy, and kept
it there for two months, after the sole OBJ
stacle to making the James River his base
Of operations 0he -he,7Indc) had ceased to
exist, and until Jackson had fought cam
: paign in the Valley Of the Shenandoah, anC
: Beauregard escaped from IIalleck, and botl
concentrated their forces in his front
There he waited, i'll those deadly marshes
until the rebel army had swollen from rs,
900 to 10000 men, and until disease hac
} decim2ted his own ranks, and sent up
S wards Of 10000 Of his men 10 the hospitals
: There he waited until attacked at Fair Oaks
4 coming in gallantly in person at the close 0
t the fight in the second day. In that fgh
r the National troops, in spite Of their Gener
S al, won a victory, and theroad to Richmond
a was open, through a rapid pursuit O
: the panic-stricken rebels. So said Kcarny
e and so says Hooker, and above all, so sa
4 the soldiers who fought that glorious fight
J, 1t is we'll known how, after prolonge,
J., inaction, to which the ingenuity of hi
c friends have afforded no explanation, an,
after the rebels had been permitted to swe
: their ranks until they became superior il
d force, Gen Mcclellan achieved his "mastel
d ly change Of base" Nor is it forgotten a
e what fearful cost of blood that achievmer
e was effected nor how when effected
J only amounted to imprisonment on the bank
d Of the James River, where the before sper
II did but now wrecked army of the Potoma
IS was paralized, until relieved by the brillian
d advance and persistent fighting Of Ger
: Pope on the Rapidan and RappahannocI
N which, by occupying the enemy, allowe
Is Mcclellan to escape from the militar
er checkmate in which his iucapacity ha
le thrown him.
a How he requitod the services of Ger
Pope, how he betrayed the man who ha
$ rescued him from the consequences Of h
it own ignorance and folly, the world will or
d day learn. He deliberately permitted hin
d directly through his satellites Of whom Fl
= John Porter is chief to be assailed in hi
10 rear, and compelled to fight superior nun
le bers in front, while he sat moodlly at Ale,
re andria, disobeyiag the orders Of his ssprIors
n Washington, and organizing that infamol
IN plot which, by threatening the existence
IN the Government, resulted, through the veal
81 ness Of the President, in his reinstatmer
IL IN command Of the army, and the baniSl
&c lnent of the man who probably saved hi
O. from a Richmond prison to the wilds
en- Minnesota
v Next came the campaign in Maryan
TO in which, after vigorous pursuit of SIT mi
of a day, he ul;ima'ely overlook the main reb
es army in its chosen position at Antietar
id The field of Antietam was won not throug
an but IN spite of Mcclellan, who permitted Il
h. enemy to throw the whole weight of h
he army on each division of the National for,
in detail and, after the field was won, pc
ne mitted him to escape across the the Potomi
of in face of a soldiery eager to fructify the
ch victory, and anxious only to escape the lea
" en- grasp that restrained them. The resu
pit was announced in phrase which tinglt
de every American check with shame, for
/ alara p, n ,,,ool~,a. ~ n,