The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-10-14

on the, 10Th OF March, 1867, lorty days
in advance, of ether the others.
., Why this bitter, enmity and persecution
Of, Gen, Mcclellan, why in the beginning
Of March was the President pressed to
death to remove him, even before he had
made his first trial in command of the ar
my Of the Potomac? Why did a 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 p What pos
sible chance had Gen. Mcclellan to sue
coed, when, his own Government did every.
thing in their power to embarrass his
movements and break him down ? One
would think his task sufficiently onerous,
laborious and responsible, when, without
experience, after the first disastrous rout
at Bull Run, he reorganized the armies of
fhe United States and was preparing to
fight them, without the additional conyic-
ton being forced upon him at every step
that his own Government were determined
"to crush him.
Judge, you and | met within ten days
after the dreadful battles before Rich
moad, !, You attacked General Mcclellan
with bitterness Of feeling that-il becomes
a Christian gentlemen. l then begged
you, not to break down General Mot lellan
until you had given him fair trial, and
until you had found better man, and
challenged you to name a better General
I 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 maintain what l then asserted. Irefer
you to the opinion of foreign officers, and
| 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 condem-
natien of the Presidents plan, have been
fully sustained. The families and friends
of the 10000 men lost south of the Rap
idan since the 4th of May last, proclaim
it everywhere. Mr.. Stanton told the
country, at that time, he had hundred
thousand men more than he wanted, and
now he tellsyo he wants hundred thou
sand more men. '@1@ .s
General Grsnt crossed the Rapidan with
an army variorsly estimated from one
30 hundred and eighty thousand to....... 120 900
He afterwards added Butler s............. 40 600
He Was reinforced. ................. 45, 600
. Making, exclusive of Sigel's men -. 205 900
On the9lst of September our forces were,
estimated, exclusive of Sheridan's 3d. .
900, at. "...".................-.. go 900
Gen. Lee had on the Rapidan, after he
had Concentrated his army .............. 81, 900
Beahregard Joined him at Richmond with .-
bis forces from the South, which, with
. those near Petersburg, amounted to-. &c, 900
Breckenridge brought. ................... TO- 900
And Lee reinforced probably ............. 30, 900
Making in I55, 900
On the LIST of September his forces were
estimated, at Richmond, at.............. 45, 900
Exclusively Of Early's command .......... 80, 900
Showing the discharges and loss from
5Grantito be-. 1856, 900
And that of Lee to be.....-..............S So, 900
Judge Kelly, were the records of the
counoifof war and that of "the strict course
of examination" made by Mr.. Stanton,
indicating the very difficulties and dread
fulslosses Gem Grant has lately sustained,
ever placed before him !? And why not
And who irresponsible for the hundred
thousand men unnecessarily and wickedIy
sacrificed south Of the Rapidan, in the ex-
pertinent made to prove that General Me-
Clellan and the council of war were wrong,
and that the Presidents plan was right !?
NJ The army of the United States, as you
found it at the commencement of this
war, was composed of a heightened, intel
ligent, honorable, gallant set men, fully
equal to the contest before them they
had always studiously avoided all political
connections of them had been thir-
ty years 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 a
rule been adopted requiring that no po-
litical subject should be introduced into
the army, but that all political rights
should be respected, and had army officers
only been held responsible for the conduct
of the var, it would have terminated long
ago. ~ .-.
Why have Mcclellan, and Sedgewick,
and Mcpherson, and Rayard, and Frank
lin, and Buell., and Meade, and Averill,
and a 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 exclamation,
an arbitrary act unknown in Great Brit
ain, whilst Pope, aud Burnside, and Hook
er, and Butler, aud Hunter, and Banks,
and Sigcl, and Sickles, and hundreds Of
others, certainly no better than the for
'mer, have been pr ferred ? Why was
Gen. Stone, than whom there is not 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 President, nor Secrea-
ry of War, nor Secretary of State, or 9TH
err persons at Washington would assent to
Gany knowledge or apy particlpation in the