The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1863-06-20

STANTON AND HdLLEoK's MILITARY STRATEGY
The New York Tines yesterday drew terrible
picture OF the failure Of the war, whose climax
Is that latter two years, with every advantage
on our side in men, money and material, with
our ports open, our trade fourishing, our credit
good, our people pertinacious and determined
beyond example. we find the enemy threaten
ing our own territory with an army equal if not
superior to our own and within days march
OF Washington. We have no better protection
against invasion than levy en- nasse and a tu-
multuous rush to the field of half armed civil
ians-undrilled, unofflcered and unorganized."
Whose fault is thatf The Times says it is the
plan Of raising troops by States and by the vol
unteer system, instead of by draft, and permit
ting the Governors to appoint the officers in
stead of the President. This system, however,
Is that prescribed in the constitution, and which
worked very we'll in the Mexican war, and in
all our wars, and would have worked well now,
too, II 1t were not for tho strategy of the twin
Napoleons, Halleck and Stanton, directing
campaigns from Washington. The troops have
fought we'll, and 80 have the regimental officers
who have led them. Armies OF volunteers are
surely better than armies of conscripts; and 80
numerous were the volunteers who offered that
Stanton and Senator Wilson stopped enlistments,
saying they had too many men. A million and
q quarter of troops have been raised-amply
sufficient for the purpose Of crushing the rebel
lion if there were any capacity or even COM
mon sense at WashingtO.
The source of the failure Is not In the subor.
dinate officers who are appointed by the Gov
ernors-the highest being colonel--but rather
in the superior officers, appointed by the Presi-
dent, by the advice Of the General-in- Chief and
the Secretary Of War. No Governor Of State
appointed Burnside or Hooker. And what
guarantee is there that President would ap-
point better regimental officers than Governor,
who is more likely to be acquainted with the
character and capacity Of the men Of his own
State than the Chief Magistrate!
But it is not the want even of good COM
manding generals that has prevented success
We had an excellent general leading the Army
of the Potomac, and be was Sc lnterfered with
by the imbeciles at Washington that his cam
paign was ruined. The first great blunder
committed was that Of yielding to the intrigues
Of the radicals. The military authorities at the
federal capital, scared by the raid of Stone
wall Jackson down the Shenandoah valley,
prevented the army Of Mcdowell effecting a
junction with Mcclellan on the peninsula before
Richmond. The second blunder of the same
imbeciles, Influenced by the same malignants,
consisted in not reinforcing Mcclellan at Har-
rison's Landing after the disastrous seven days
battles, instead of ordering him to retreat.
From these two radical errors have followed
all the other misfortunes, including the defeat
of Pope's army, the knocking of Burnside's
head against the wall at Fredericksburg, the
overthrow of Hooker at Charlottesville, the
recent turning of his flank by Lee, and the
present invasion Of Western Virginia, Mary
land and Pennsylvania.