Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-04-09
THE WAR COMMITTEES" REPORT.

the Conduct Of the War"
In prefacirg these extracts we stated that SO
much of the Report as is already before US would,
if inserted at large, fill nearly if not all the four
pages of our paper. Three-fourths Of it is occu-
pied with the military services of Gen. Mcclellan,
commencing with his appointment as the successor
Of Gen. Scott, and coming down to November last,
when he vas relieved of the command Of the Army
of the Potomac. The plumber Of his forces, bis
movements, his delays, his repeated calls for REIN
forcemepts, his differences with the President aud
General in-Cbief, bis alleged failure to provide pro
per protection for the national capital, 90, with
much of which our readers are already familiar, are
passed in review more or less at large, and inter
speIsed with unfavorabe views of his operations in
the field, based upon the opinions of other officers
who were called before the committee.
wesuppose 1t is understood by every intelligent
reader, in advance Of the perusa of the report that
1t isa digest made by the Committee, according to
their own views Of its bearing from the large mass
of the testimony they have taken in the prosecution
Of their protracted Investigations
The committee state that they have taken the
testimouyof nearly two hundred witnesses, almost
entirely men in the military service of the Govern
ment, including about one hundred Generals"
and that while they have not failed to take the tes
tmony of witnesses in relation to military opera
tons in other parts of the country, and also upon va
rious subjects to which their attention has been
specially directed by Congress and the War Depart
ment, the principal part of the testimony taken by
Al ;ah nd 70 he volunnln-
GUS, relates to the Army Of the Potomac and those
subjects more Immediately connected with its ope-
rations
On reading the report compiled by the commit
tee from the great of testimony that has natu,
rally accun ulated under the examination of two
hundred witnesses, almost entirely men in the mill.
tary service of the Government including about
struck US with surprise is the remarkable fact that
among them all, go far as appears from the digest
made by the committee there is nothing that does
not bear more or less hardly against Gen. McClel-
Ian. 1t seems to US very extraordinary that two
hundred men should be SO unanimous in their opin-
IONS if the digest Of the committee be, as it should
be, an exhaustive reduction of the whole evidence
rather than Selectlon OF 30 MUCH Us tenus III
single line of direction.
The committee modestly state that, in express
ing opinions on military operations in the field
they do not undertake to form and express opin
ions of their own, but content themselves with set
ting forth those expressed 10 clear testimony BY
military men whose education and experience en-
title them to speak confidently on those subjects
pertaining to their profession" Since, then, the
members of the committee have no opinions OF
their own to express on these subjects, we could
wish that in giving their compilation of the testi-
mopy, they had more frequently enabled US to per-
oeive In whose words they were speaking, or by
whose authority they we're Influenced in pgonouno-
ing certain judgments on the military events which
form the subject Of their review. So greatly have
we felt this want, and SO numerous are the tacuna
which With the official papers elsewhere attains bic
BY us, we have been able to detect in this expos
ton, that we prefer to suspend the publication OF
so much Of the Report as relates to the campaign
in the Virginia Peninsula until We can have the
advantage of comparing the committees report
with the mass Of the evidence from which 1t is re
duced provided We ascertain that the testimony
will soon be placed within our reach. II, however,
We find that the testimony is to be long held In
reserve, we may feel it necessary to give the ver-
dict OF the committee in advance Of the publication
of the facts ON which it purports to be based for
little as such course COMFORTS with our views of
propriety or justice it may be rendered necessary
by the priority which the committee have given to
their +" verdict" rather than to all the facts Of
the case.
1t Is also source Of regret to US that tho COM
mittee, in undertaking to give a history Of the
Peninsula Campaign, should have been SO destitute
Of the intelligence to be derived from official
reports detailing the transactions Of that campaign.
They state that the report Of Gen. Barnard 10
the only report of the officers engaged in the cam
paigu Of the Peninsula which they have obtained"
This is very surprising when it is known that
several other reports have been published by the
press from Generals Hooker, Heintz slman, and
others, relating to interesting parts Of that cam
paign and when, moreover, the committee state that
for long time they were in constant communion
ton With the President and his Cabinet, and ne
elected no opportunity Of at once laying before him
the information acquired BY them in the course o.
their Investigations, we wonder that gentlemen &C
eager to mpart useful information to the " Presi