Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1863-04-10
The Peninsular Campaikn..Gen. Me-
Clellan's Preliminary Report - The
Charges Against Him.

t OhuAoOo %AoWAupt
We lay before our rsaders 10 this paper the
brief but lucid preliminary report Of General
MCCLELLAN on the Peninsular Campaign. II
will be noted that the report is dated in July
Last, and has consequently, for reasons best
known to the officials at Washington, been
withheld for nine months from the public eye.
But ID will now soon be followed by more full
and detailed report from the pen Of the Cen
eEal.
The high terms in which General McCLEL-
Lam speaks Of the determination, coolness and
bravery Of the officers and men In the Army of
the Potomac, during those seven terrific days
before Richmond, Can but strike every patriotic
heart with emotion. No wonder that he was
believed, as no other General was ever beloved,
by an army before.
IL go happens, apparently designedly, that the
two preliminary reports Of Gen. MCMILLAN on
the Peninsular and Maryland campaigns, and
the report Of the Wade Congressional: commit
tee on the Conduct Of the War;" are placed
before the country at the same time. Tho OBJ
ject In delaying for six or nine months the pub
lication Of the two former until the appearance
OF the last, would seem to be to nullify any ef.
feet the publication of MoCLKLLAs's reports
separately might be supposed TO have upon the
public mind Il is noticeable, too, that the ap.
pearance of the Wade committee's report has
been the signal for the Abolition curs, "of
high and low degree" 10 join in general yelp
at MACMILLAN. Charges of gross incompeten-
cy and bad conduct as a general are made in all
possible ways, and exaggerated far beyond what
the statements IN the report, one-sided as these
may be, will justify.
General McCLELLAN can we'll afford to wait
In regard to all bis movements, az he expresses
10 In respect to q single one, "the calm judgment
of history and of the future" But aside from
all question as to their justice, these attacks
upon General MCCLELLAN, emanating as they
evidently do from partisan spleen and malice,
are, to say the least, highly iDjudicioua and i'm
polite. They tend to divide the sentiment of
the country upon the question OF the merit or
demerit Of a single individual, when IL should
be concentrated upon he grand object for which
the war Is, or should be prosecuted. The enc
mics, not the friends OF MCCLELLAN, are alone
responsible for this division aud the bitter con-
sequences that may flow from ID, for they began,
aud have recently, with more partisan viruence
than ever, revived the assaults.
We have, 10 previous article, alluded to
some of the features of the voluminous report
of the Wade committee. The New York World
in an article headed "Four Words with the
Wade committee, - thus briefly disposes of some
of the charges made by that junto of Abolition
politicians against General MCCLELLAN
The Wade committee have made themselves
responsible for the repetition of number OF
charges against General Mcclellan which his
worst enemies had some time since abandoned
az absurd and untenable. To point out and
reply to all these charges would be equally tedi
ous and useless; but these four instances Of
slanderoua misrepresentation stand out so sail
emily from the report as TO merit brief eI-
posure.
The committee accuse General Mcclellan
of refusing to aid the Navy Department to oc-
cupy Matthias Point and to clear the Potomac.
The truth is that General Barnard whose ore.
mort" the committee quote with admiration,
distinctly protested against any attack on Ma
,hias Point, and laid his reasons before the
Commanding General, who decided not to risk
general action ct point seleoted by the enc
nv, and as which the asssulting army must
have been disemharked under an overwhelming
fire.
The com mmittee accuse General Mcclellan of
failing to attack Yorktown as General Msgru-
der called upon bis men to attack us "st once
and furiously." General Barnard, In the dis
charge of his duty, reported to bis comma der
against the feasibility of such an attack. Had
Il been made we should probably have had no
Army of the Potomac for the Wade report to
insult.
The committee ipsnuste that General Nc
Clellan never appeared on the battlefield of
the Seven Pines "till the fighting was over" It
is fact well known to the army that General
Mcclellan was present in the hottest fire Of the
action, ss the committee, had they thought fit
to make their inquiries of Brigadiers who took
part in the baltic, would have learned.
The committee declare that Fitz John Porter
was held 10 reserve with twenty thousand men
at Antietam. The evidence is In the hands Of
the Government which proves that Fitz John |
Porter's corps was not reserve at Antietam;
that IL was the center of the line Of battle; |
that Il was weakened both early In the day and
afterward by successive reinforcements sent to
Hooker, to Burnside, and to Pleasanton, till 1t |
was left about four thousand strong to hold
position which was the key Of the whole line.
Had Il been moved to the aid Of the retreating |
force of Burnside, Lee would have been en-
abled to pierce our army precisely 81 1t wasin- |
tended that his own should have been pierced
had the advance of our right and lefs wings |
been made o. they were ordered BY Gen. Nc
Clellan to be made, simultaneously. In making |
these statements the Wade committee bave elm |
ned not only against the spirit but the light of
truth. They have arraigned, in making them,
their own characters, not only as Senator's but
% reporters and as men.
The Ohio Legislature.