The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1864-10-04
= desired that none of them should lesss

ba desired that none of them should lesse
the city. ~,
BEFORE leaving the President, the Re
corder of the Council approached the Sec
rotary and said: IF you please, Ms: o.an -
ton, permit me to have the procseolHss y,
the council of war, that they may 90 copied
in q fair hand, and General sumner: 'ne
President of the Council, will Sign Them !.
and they will then be- in proper form /"
"Pm lust as good a judge f4the foIm- as
YOU are" was the reply Of your friend; i,
= Other incivilities have been attempted
nv Mr.. Stanton towards me, the manner
and result of which he has neither forgot
ten nor forgiven, and which he may relate
to you whenever he ray feel so disposed.
On the following morning, at the appoint
ed hour, when all of the officers OF the
council of war has assembled, Mr.. Lincoln
said: II have slept better than Tor TWO
weeks. 81 feel relieved of an immense re-
sponsibility. l have determined upon the
following programme" which he Submitted
verbally, and which was substantially as
follows:
81 will permit General Mcclellan to car
~ out his campaign. He shall leave sums
Gent force to defend the works before
Washington He shall embark fifty thou
sand men from Annapolis, and then, unless
the batteries on the Potomac, which you
assure me will necessarily be abandoned,
are withdrawn or silenced, shall reserve
nv authority to embark other troops" He
then said: 81 have determined to divide
General McClellan's army into four corps,
and | shall appoint the commanders of
them" And afterwards he promoted the four
officers pho had opposed Gen. MeCleAan's
campaign, three of phom he appointed to the
command Of corps, and, with the exception
of Gems. Franklin and Smith, who have
been the subjects of constant annoyance
and iDdgnities since, the Others haze all been
dismissed from the army.
The Peninsular campaign was proposed
by General Mcclellan whilst commander
in.chief of the armies Of the United States,
and was intended to be made with the
forces under bis command in Eastern Vir
GINA, estimated at over two hundred thou>
sand men. 1t was so accepted by the Pres
ident, and the movement was commenced
on that basis General Mcclellan had
scarcely left Washington to take the field
when the Secretary Of War relieved him Of
all the armies not under his immediate
command, and assumed command of them
himself. The troops left in Northeastern
Virginia were placed under the command
of Mcdowell, Banks, Fremont aud Sigel,
each being independent of the other, and
Of General Mcclellan, and all subject to
h. of he
above division of our army was taking
place, the Confederates concentrated theirs
until, on the 26th day of June, Gen. Nc
Olellan found himself before Richmond
with $4,000 men, including McCall's divi'
: sion, and was attacked by the concentrated
Confederate force of 10000 at the very
moment when Mcdowell, under protest,
withdrew his assistance from Mcclellan,
by the orders of the President and Score
tary of War
The campaign of General Grant did not
commence until the 4th of May, 1864
That of Charlottesville, in which the cas-
ualties were estimated at 10000 men, and
which, but for the providential killing of
Stonewall Jackson, would have been ami
hilated, was planned by the President and
Gen. Hooker, or, to use the Presidents own
words, by "Joe and l." of which the Sec
rotary of War and Gen. Halleck were kept
profoundly ignorant, aud was not com>
menced until May 2, 1862, whilst that of
the Peninsular, for the delay of which Gen.
Mcclellan was so much censured, was COM
menced on the 25th of March, 1862, forty
days in advance Of either Of the others
Why this bitter enmity and persecution
of General Mcclellan, why in the begin>
ming of March was the President pressed
had made his first trial in command of the
Army ofthe Potomac? Why did distin>
guished 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? Whatpossible chance
had General Mcclellan to succeed, when
his own government did every tUing in their
power to embarrass his movements, and
break him down? One would think his
task sufficiently onerous, laborious and re-
spnnsible, when, without experience, after
the first disastrous rout at Bull Run, be
reorganized the armies of the United States
duu was ptepdTlpS W uSht tUetn, without
the additional conviction being forced upon
him at every step that his own government
were determined "to crush him.
Judge, you and l met within ten days
after the dreadful battles before Richmond.
You attacked General Mcclellan with a
bitterness and feeling that i'll becomes a
Christian gentleman. then begged you
not to break down Gen Mcclellan until
you had given him fair trial, and until
you had found better man, aud challenged
you to namo better general. 1 now do
the same thing, and appeal to the record of
the past thirty months and to the rivers of
blood that have flown siuce to sustain what
then asserted. | refer you to the opin.
ions OF foreign officers, and l assure you that
among the old officers of the army shall
be fully sustained.
The preference of Gen. Mcclellan for the
peninsular campaign and the condemnation
OF the Presidents plan have been fully sus
tanned. The families and friends of the
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