The New York herald., 1862-11-19

to think very differently about the mai
ter. Nowadays they learn the plans
Of our generals in time to thwart them; and
nobody now says THAI VIC have no plans; for
everybody knows what our plans are. This is
bad for the army and the country, but excel
lent for the radicals. Loyalty is below par
with the abolition organs Sometimes one Of
their correspondents is arrested; but he is very
soon again at liberty, publishing all he knows
If paper like the HERALD refuses to dvulge
Information of value to the enemy it is laughed
at for its pains and patriotism. By and
by, perhaps, we shall learn enough of the
art Of war not to tell our enemies what we
intend to do. and not TO teach them how to
defeat Us.
McCIcllan's Peninsular Campaign-The
History by the Prince de Joinville.
We publish to-day the conclusion Of the
clear, succinct and impartial history of Nc
Clellan's peninsular campaign from the fruitful
pen Of an eye witness of those memorable
scenes Following so closely upon the removal
Of that distinguished officer from the chief COM
mand Of our armies in the field, this mastery
recital-which is an unsnswerable defence of
his actions-wiil present more than ordinary
interest to the American reader. The Prince
de Joinyille, as well as the Count de Paris and
the Duke do Chartres, accompanied General
Mcclellan all through his magnificent cam
pagn, and the testimony which they now unani-
mously bear to his skill and capacity as a great
leader must forever close the mouths of his
most violent traducers, Having been personal
witnesses of all these occurrences, their testi-
mony is of the highest Importance
The campaign Of the Virginia peninsula will
stand forth in the history of the future as one
of the most extraordinary exploits in the mill
tary history of ancient or modern times; and
the splendid retreat Of the federal army, sur
rounded as it was by the most appalling natural
difficulties, and threatened on all sides BY two
armies, each superior to it in numerical strength
in the very heart Of an unfriendly and rebel
lious country, will rank the name of Mcclellan
among the greatest generals Of this or any
other age. That the army did not escape alto
gether unscathed is not strange; for, as the his
torian Of the expedition sagcly remarks, there
is no army in the world that could
have performed such sn achievement without
serious loss When General Mcclellan first set
out on his march against the rebel capital be had
no doubt of complete success. Ulterior cir
cumstances prevented the full accomplishment
of his plans /; but every one who carefully reads
this graphic account Of the campaign must
confess that Of all men he has been
the least to blame for the failure Of the original
design.
The reasons that prevented his early success
are threefold First, we. have the stupidity of
the naval commander, who would not under
take the task of attacking and destroying the
enemy's iron-clad vessels and river batteries
a work that might easily have been ac-
complished by the exercise Of ordinary skill
and determination. Next we have the inter-
ference in the military plans at Washington;
and, lastly, the inundating rains, flooding the
whole country and destroying the roads so
completely that the army could only slowly
advance by the erection of corduroy roads
under circumstances of the greatest difficulty
But, great as were these unforeseen difficulties.
General Mcclellan would have overcome them
and carried out his purpose had it not been for
the schemes of politicians and the Vaccinations
of his political enemies at home The necessity
for a regular siege of Yorktown only became
apparent when the corps Of Mcdowell
was withdrawn from McClellans command
modore Goldsborough. If that admirable corps
OF Mcdowell had arrived as the commander
had designed and had a right to expect York
town would have been captured almost to
certainty. and the rebel army all but annihi-
lated The withdrawal Of that corps in the
words Of the Prince de Joiaville, destroyed
every plan;" and hence the siege Of Yorktown,
the evacuation of that place by the rebels, the
battles of Fair Oaks and Williamsburg, the
disastrous retreat from White House and the
sanguinary battles of the sevon days.
The engineering difficulties overcome by
Mcclellan during this campaign are not among
the least Of his triumpbs The solid bridges
which he designed and threw across tho Cbicka.
hominy, connecting and uniting his divided
army, an undertaking which the best en-
gineers regarded as next to impossible; the
plank roads which he caused to be built with
magical rapidity, in the midst Of an intermnablc
swamp; the impregnable fortifcahons he
erected and the skill he everywhere showed in
battling and deceiving his powerful antagonists,
stamp him a. one of the first military chief.
tains and engineers of the day. AS General
Mcclellan said himself, on taking leave of the
soldiers he had reared and trained, History
will do justice to the Army of the Potomac if
the present generation does not
We commend this brief history of the cam
paign to every one who would understand the
causes Of the failure to take Richmond. Skill.
bravery, science and soldierly excellence were
ready to accomplish the work. Political in
trigue and natural difficulties rendered them
ahortiye.