Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-01-08
REPORT OF GEN. MccLELLANi.
Abstract and Analysis in Advance
OF Publication.
The Campaign OF the PenInsuln and
OF Maryland. l5---lTl

|
The Campaign OF the Peninsula and
q. OF Maryland. l5-l-G7
WA'hingt Correspondence of the New York Com.
mercial Advertiser.
The report is dated New York, Aug a
1858. 1t begins with an allnsion to the
results ofthe victories ia Western Virginia,
which, we learn, were not at all in con
nection with any general co. operative plan
OIL actlonj and then goes on to recite the
arrival OF the General at Washington after
Bull Run; the organization OF the Army of
the Potomac; the grand plan laid out for
the general campaign of ls6l-2; the final
invasion of Virginia in 1862; the Peninsula
movements the seven days battles; and the
short but glorious Maryland campaign of
4 September, 1862, On the Isti Of Noyem-
Der, Gen. Mcclellan was appointed 10 the
chief command of all the forces of the
Union and at once began active opera
tions. The theatre OF the war had now
extended about the whole circumference
OF the Sonth; and it became necessary, as
well as practicable, to plan large aud
| sweeping combination of military opera
tions. An organization of New England
troops for occupying the coast line of the
Sonth on the middle Atlantic, which had
| been selected by Gen. Mcclellan in SEN
Il y,
as an expedition under Gen. Burnside, de.
signed to facilitate the movements of the
main body in Eastern Virginia by an oc.
cupation of the coast line of North Caro-
| INA, Gen. Burnside being ordered, when
be should have seized Newbern, to occupy
and destroy the Weldon and Wilmington
Railroad as far west as Goldsboro'. aud.
should circumstances favor, to push as far
as Raleigh, Wilmington being, however,
his ultimate objective point. "Caution
ABOUT proclamation" was Recommended,
the General being urged ITO say as little
as possible about politics or the negro, !"
and to state merely that the true issue for
which we are lighting is the preservation
of tue Union and 1upholdiug the laws of
General Government" At the same time
letters were semitic Gen. nAlleck, (appoint-
ed to the command of the Department of
Missouri. to Gen. Buell., Tin command of
4 the Department of the Ohio, J to Gen. Sher-
mau, (commandiug in South Carolina and
Georgla, and 10, Gen. Butler, Command
s!ng the Department of the Gulf.) Gen.
HRlleck was charged with the duty of
t''reducing chaos to order'' in his Depart
ment, In respect to military operations
he was ordered to hold the State by forti.
\ ned posts and concentrate his force on the
MlssisspPi. General Buell. was instruc-
led as to the vast Importance OF the mill
tary occupation of Eastern Kentucky and
Tennessee. In Kentucky itself he was ad-
vised The conduct of our political affairs
lisnperhRps more important than that of
our military operations" and he was urged
to bear In mind 'tthat we shall most read-i
lIy suppress this rebellion and restore the
authority of the Government by reIigiously
respecting Unconstitutional rights of ali. ~
l,In naccordance 'with the feelings and
1 opinion of the President" Gen. Mcclellan
requested Gen. Buell. to assure wthe ueople
ot Kentucky that their domestic institu-
litlous will in no manner be interfcred With"
and ITO allow nothing but the dictates of
military necessity" to cause him to 'sdepart
from the spirit of his instructions "ARinl
respect to Tennessee, Gen, BuelE T2g
iS'by rapid marches by Cumberland or
Walkers Gap, tu Knoxville, in order to.
occupy the railroad at that point" and
''cut the communication between Eastern
i Virginia aud the Mississippi5S Gen Buell.
was tnrther cbuusefed to olAvoid twidening
the breach existing between us and the
REBELS by ''causeless arrests aud persecu-
i tons of individuals 'I have ALWAYS
found" adds Gsn. Mcclellan, '.that it is
the tendency Of subordinates to make vex-
Eatious arrests on mere suspicion" Gen.
i Sherman was advised that the favorable
momeut for a eOupsde main against Savan.
nah had been lost, and that tue best course
n before Kim would be $40 isolate and reduce
Fort Pulaski" But the reduction of
Il Charleston and its defeuses'' was held up
as the grestsmoral advantage to be sought
a forraud this was stated 10 be an object for
which Gen. Mcclellan was actively matur-
ing his combinations. s-ltsi
Gen Butler WIS Instructed as to the oh.
stacles togbe eencounterrd in reducing New
y Orleans, aud was ordered, as soon as pos
4 sihte after the fall of that city, to "seize
all the approaches leading TO it from the
east" and particularly jackson, in Mis-
sissippi," with al ultimate view as we'll
to ths-caPtnre of Noble as to the OPENING
Z of the Mississippi.I The Instructions thus
issued to the Generals named c6nprehepd
the entire scope of the plans of General
Mcclellan, of which plans the movement
of the, Army of die Potomsc, uuder his
town ORDERS Was 1.-The central feature II
vas considered by him necessary TO the
success of these plans that they should be
carried out simultaneously, or as nearly
SO as possible, and the adTEnce of the Pc.
tomac army upon Richmond by the lower
RappahanhockJ was Kept in hand By him
Il to BIZ delivered as the decisive blow in con.
junction with all the rest of the general
fmotetneut. Passing over Gen McCIelIau's
full and; elaborate account of the consul.
tattous aud UP6raIiohs which preceded the
Iadysucs to Manassas, March 3, E4s63, Ne
dnd that this advance Was,intanded by him
merely TO occupy the troops during the
preparations for the Peninsula campaign
then fully decided upon. The enemy's
: force at MauRsSRS WAS estimaiafyAt 115