The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1862-11-26

eral has nothing to do but push ahead.--
But great battle, such Is Antietam, leaves
regiments without officers, and officers
without regiments, and reorganization be-
come imperative. If there are reserves
which have not been used, attacks may bs
renewed, notwithstanding great losses-but
| where, a. at Antictam, after Mcclellan had
helped Hooker, with Mansfield in vain,
with Sumner in vain, and when, efter hx
sent away Franklin, who carried the woo1'
and held it, he had to say to Burnside, thA9
he had no help to give him but Mille1s
battery, six cannon, six caisOns and forge,
some one hundred and fifty men and eighty
horses, and that now against an enemy
whose center was still firm, pause be-
comes necessity. ...
But if the public do not know al this,
Gen. Mcclellan does and ignorance should
so far be fair towards knowledge as to give
general in McClellan's place, to whom
victory is rs his life's blood, to whom fame
reasons for what he does; if he is found
on great occasions, such as the seven days
fight, to be equal to the greatest; and es-
pccially when, taking defeated and demo-
ralzcd army in hand, on the I'd Of Sep.
:ember, he makes it in week competent
to meet the army that had routed but
week before; organises its details with uu-
exanpled rapidity, crosses the eastern
bounds of the Monacacy with it, sweeps
across the valley like wrathful wind,
climbs the opposite mountains, fights, de-
feats, drives before him and follows veteran
troops whom he d,slodged from their rocks
defiles, and rolling down the western slope,
engages in q contest like that which res.
cued Maryland and saved Pennsylvania at
Antietam. Talk of McClellan's want Of
activity! Talk Of the public impatience.
the public ignorance and conceit, but find
no fault with the man who, in such brief
space, has accomplished such results. And
then who fought at Antietam: Who but
Sumner and others whom he had saved
from destruction before Richmond, when
the retention of Mcdowell at Fredericks-
burg had left him 10 a fate which unequall.
ed skill alone saved him from. The pub
lie have tried Mcdowell twice, alas They
have had Pope with his headquarters in tho
saddle They have had Fremont. Which
of them do they want back again Let
them have common charity for Mcclellan,
and let them have it all the more, because.
he is silently doing his duty, whether as
Gencralin chief Of the Republic, or as 4
mere quarterMastcr at Alexandria, with his
veterans in the hands Of those who are in.
competent to wicld them.
1t is said, why did he linger so long On
the Chickahominy Because he could ad.
vance no faster by reason Of the weight he
had to take with him, and the roads over
which it was to be borne. An impatient
captain from the Potomac will tell you that
he delayed. The captain was ready to
move, Why should not the general be ready
too? This is the argument. The general
time to start. So, with Colonel. So with
he is not the leader Of the host. But the
man who is the leader is brave, he possess
es all the facts his reputation is in the re.
| suit; so are the lives o. tens Of thousands;
he has the skill Of educated knowledge,
the skill Of previous battles. Why not
trust him? 1t is the height Of folly not to
do so. Witness Manassas! Did McClel-
Ian delay on the ChickahomiDy was tho
question lately put to an impartial man,
with no leaning to Mcclellan, one OF the,
cleverest of the Adjutant Generals Of the
army, and Of fighting division too. "No:
an hour" was the reply. "How the man
lived through the work he did was the
wonder" ibid Mcclellan delay ?' was
asked Of Colonel Of cavalry, as impatient
spirit as was on the Peninsula, and .
brave, cool man. mot one day." was in
like manner the answer. "You should
have seen the roads, he added, to remova
all doubt" So much for general views;
now for the actual campaign.
If interested, take a. man Of the seat Of
war Lloyds is good. Put your finger on
Yorktown, next find Urbanna on the Rap
pahannock now fredericksburg; you sec
the three places; McClellan's plan was to
have an army advance from Old Point, an
army from Fredericksburg, an army from
| Urbanna, all upon Richmond. Look
again at the map, and you will see that the
Confederate army, if it remained to fight
at Yorktown, would be taken in the rear
by an army advancing f.'om Urbanna. This
the Confederates would not have allowed,
and yet there was but one way to prevent
it, which was to retreat without fighting,
from Yorktown, far enough to place the
Yorktown and Urbanna armies both in
front. Look at the map and be sure Of
this. But no army was to be sent from
UrbanHa, and so Mcclellan had to get to
Richu.ond as the best he could and as he
wanted men, and had none to spare, in.
stead of storming the intrenchments Of the
Con(tdcrates, he planted batteries, and
made it essential for them to r,teat. Had
they fought behind entertainments at York
town as they fought in the open field at
Wiliiamsbursh, the Potomac army would
have been crippled at the beginning. Nc
Clellan forced them away without fight,
and Congress wisely thanked him for the
saving Of human life.
Finally, he got to the Chickahominy.
Instantly he began to make its swamps
passible to great army in the face of U
brave enemy and when his bridges and
roa ds were ready, he stretched out his
| right hand as it were, to Mcdowell, at Fred
ericksburg; and fighting the battle at Han.
over Court House, was to break up the
railroads by which troops would have been
sent, otherwise, from Richmond to prevent
| it; waited for Mcdowell to advance; when,
the two marching upon it from the cast and
from the north, would unquestioacbly have
taken the capital Of the Confederatcs.--
Mcdowell had 10000 men and 80 pieces
of artillery, but he did not bulge: orders
from Washington retained him, until the
con:ederates nicknamcd him, (see the news.
papers Of the day. the standing joke
Disappointed in aid from the Urbanna, dis
appointed in McMcDowell, what was Nc.
Cleilan to do. No reinforcements to help
him in the work alone prevented from
advancing, as was his purpose, after Fair
Oaks, by the tempest which flooded the
Chickahominy. what was he to do? AS he
told Burnside at Antictan,, so he was told,
we presume, from Washington, ave have
no infantry" Tho President has said so
much in one of his speeches. What was
he then to do in the face Of an army, in