Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-10-06

Clellan, by the orders Of the President and
Secretary of War. H"H
The campaign under General Grant did
not commence until the 4th Of May, 1854.
That of Charlottesville, in which the cas-
lialties of that army were estimated at
thirty thousand men, and which but for the
Providential killing of Stonewall Jackson
would have been annihilated, was planned
by the President and General Hooker, or
to use the Presidents own words, "by Joe
and l." of which the Secretary of War and
General Halleck were kept profoundly ig-
norant, and was not commenced until May
2, 1868, whilst that Of the Peninsula, for the
delay of which General Mcclellan was so
much censured, was commenced on the 18th
of March, 1862 forty days in advance of
either of the others.
why this bitter enmity and persecution
of General Mcclellan, why inthe beginning
of March was the President pressed to
death to remove him, even before he had
made his first trial in command of the Army
of the Potomac? Why did distinguished
member of the Senate, on the 18th of March,
write to me "The cry against Mcclellan is
| increasing; every effort is being made to
crush him." What possible chance had
General Mcclellan to succeed when his own
Government did everything in their power
| to embarrass his movements and break him
| down? One would think his task sutfi-
ciently onerous, laborious and responsible
when, without experience, after the first
disastrous rout at Bull run, he re-organized
the armies of the United States, and was
preparing to fight them, without the addi-
| tional conviction being forced upon him at
every step, that his own Government were
| determined ito crush him." . ...,.I
Judge, you and / met within ten days
| after the dreadful battles before Richmond.
You attacked General Mcclellan with Bit
| terness and feeling that i'll becomes Chris
tian gentleman. l then begged you not to
break down General Mcclellan until you
had given him fair trial, and until you
had found a better man, and challenged you
to name better Genera. / now do the
same thing, and appeal to the record OF the
past thirty months, and to the rivers OF
| blood that have flown since to sustain what
| | then asserted. 1 refer you to the opinions
of foreign officers, and assure you that
among the old officers OF the army shall be
fully sustained.
The preference of General Mcclellan for
the Peninsular campaign and the condem-
nation of the Presidents plan have been
fully sustained. The families and friends
of the one hundred and thirty thousand
men lost south of the Rapidan since the
4th of May last proclaim IL everywhere.
Mr.. Stanton told the country at that time
he had hundred thousand more men than
he wanted, and now he tells you he wants
a hundred thousand more men.
| General Grant crossed the Rapidan with an
army variously estimated from llSOOO to-. l20 ,OOO
He afterwards added Buffers. 40ooO
He was reinforced" 4o,OVo
Making, exclusive of Sigcs 80. O.OOO...... .9OSIOOO
On the 1st of September our forces were
estimated, exclusive of Sheridan's 10000, at
$4,000. ....... ........ ..........
General Lee had on the Rapidan, after he had
Besuregsrd eS,ip ioined ned him at Richmond with his
forces from the South, which, with those - ma
near Petersburg, amounted to............, 3o,0OO
TeifnspiaSs S nsa GSs rsussreei probably $1,000
Making in all. 600
On the 1st of September his forces were
estimated at Richmond at $4,000, exclusive
of Early's command, 30000-showing the
| discharges and loss from Grant to be 10000,
, and that of Lee to be $1,000.
Judge Kelley, were the records of the
council of war, and that of the ''strict course
of examination" made by Mr.. Stanton, in
; dicating the very difficulties and dreadful
: losses General Grant has lately sustained,
ever placed before him? And why not!
And who is responsible for the one hundred
thousand men unnecessarily and wickedly
sacrificed south of the Rapidan, in the ex-
; pertinent made to prove that General Nc
Clellan and the council of war were wrong
, and that the Presidents plan was right.
The army of the United States, as you
found it at the commencement of this war,
was composed of high-toned, intelligent,
honorable, gallant set of men, fully equal
! to the contest before them. They had al
i ways studiously avoided all political con-
f nections; many of them had been thirty
} wears in the service of their country and
, had never voted. They held their country
and the honor and integrity of it before
every other consideration. Had rule been
adopted requiring that no political subject
should be introduced into the army, but
that all political rights should be respected,
: and had army officers only been held re-
sponsible for the conduct of the war, it
: would have terminated long ago.
Why have Mcclellan, and Sedgwick, and
Mcpherson, and Bayard, and franklin, and
{ Buell., and Meade, and Averill, and Porter,
and score of other general officers, with
: hundreds if not thousands, of officers of an
inferior grade, been offended and held back,
and many of them dismissed from the army
| without word of eXplanation-an arbi-
trary act unknown in Great Britain
while Pope, and Burnside, and Hooker, and
, Butler, and Hunter, and Banks, and Sigel
/ and Sickles, and hundreds OF others, GER
} tainly no better than the former, have been
preferred? Why was General Stone, than
, whom there is not O more loyal man and
accomplished gentleman and gallant soldier
; in the country, confined in prison for fifteen
months? And when released by an act OF
: Congress, why was it that neither the Presi-
dent, nor Secretary of War, nor Secretary
of State, or other persons at Washington,
would assent to any knowledge or any par
: ticipation in the arrest? Such outrages are
, calculated to break down the honor and
esprit du corps of any army, and all have
looked on with disgust and horror and pain
/ at the shameful injustice and outrages that
| have been continually heaped upon so many
of their old friends and comrades in arms
, whom they know incapable of an ungen-
} tlemanly, dishonorable, unsoldierly or dis
= loyal act.
. Why did the committee on the Conduct
/ of the War investigate and falsify with
, such nice precision The conduct of McClel-
, Ian and his friends, and overlook the vol
umes of charges filed in the War Depart
ment against Fremont, and Sigel, and Hun
7. ter, and others, and entirely overlook the
: immense slaughter at charlottesville, and
Fredericksburg, and south of the Rapidan?
) Why did a secret political inquisition, with
no other pretext than that they suspected
: him of political ambition, sit over five hun
dred days and manufacture over seventeen
hundred pages OF e1 pdrte testimony against
/ young officer, Christian gentleman, an
honest man, who, Heaven only knows, never
had but one purpose, and that to serve his
country and his God