Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-10-06


last despatch amid the thuDdes Of the the
evening of the l6ththe evening before Antietam And
Hseck after these daily fits Of tremor and
about McCeans uncovering the capital after despatch
on DESPATCH teggng Mcclellan not get far of from
the capital and leave them to the invasion of the rebels
after dscouragug every step of McClean's advance in
Maryland up TO the hour OF the victory at Anetam hs
same Gen. Halleck complained of the slow advance of
Mcclellan in Maryland talked about the astonishing
fact that he marched only few miles day and wrote
az ocla report assuming the credit OF the campaign,
saying that Mcclellan directed to pursue him the
enemy into Maryland after Popes defeat No such d.
rection was given, but the whole Maryland campaign
because the people in Washington thoroughly
frightened that for they permitted military to
conduct campaign on his own plans
But what is to be said of thu treatment these
gave Mcclellan when he had relieved them from their
fright and saved the capital and The natonl"
1t was with such "a fire in his rear" that Gen.
Mcclellan fought and won the battles of South
Mountain and Antietam. Nobody has forgotten
how these victories electrified the country. They
came at moment when the popular mind was
welteriDg in the Slough of Despond The nation
was again placed on its feet and felt solid ground
beneath its tread where before all had been doubt
and uncertainty.
For a time the enemies of Mcclellan were ST.
fenced. What fear had done for him after the re-
pulse and rout of Pope was now done for him by
this demonstration of capacity and skill too pow
erful to be resisted while its spell was on the pub
lie mind Yet there were those who then blurt-
ed out their censures upon him because he had not
utterly "annihiated" the army of Lee. ct was
and is so common for armies in our war to be " an
initiated. y And when he paused long enough to
provide his worn and destitute troops with the sup
plies rendered necessary by their forced withdrawal
from Harrson's Landing, the dsorderly retreat
under Gen. Pope, md the march to Antietam, with
bloody battles, fresh clsmors were raised against
him by the same insensate faction which had been
the evil genius of the Administration.
On the Goth of October, 1862, Gen. Mcclellan
commenced new forward movement against the
enemy. All things were ready for fresh successes
If with broken and defeated army, whose shat
tered fragments he had consolidated while on the
march to Antietsm, Gen. Mcclellan had wrested
victory from the army of Lee, elated by its recent
successes over Pope, what might not the country
have expected from the gallant Army of the Poto-
mac, under the lead of its favorite commander, now
that with replenished column, and flushed with
triumph it was marching to fresh conflicts with the
discounted fee?
The advance was made by Gen. Mcclellan with
great celebrity. On November 7th Gen. Pleason-
ton, who commanded the van of the army, had sta
toned his pickets on the Hazel river, within six
miles of Culpeper. By the strategy of Gen. Nc
Clellan the army Of Gen. Lee had been effectually
out-generalled, and was in position where, if de-
feated, all retreat its base was impossible. More
over the insurgent army had been cut in two by
the line of Gen. McClellan's advance On this
point Gen. Pleasonton says:
" From the 7th instant November 1862 my advance
pckets Hazel river, within six miles of Culpeper
The information gained by numerous patrols and
also from deseters prisoner conabauds well c
established the fact of with hs command
being at Culpeper, while Jackson with ID. II. Hil with
their respective commands, in the Shenandoah Val
ley, on the western side of the Blue Ridge"
While such was the attitude of the contendng
forces, while Gen. Mcclellan was in the midcareer
-of his rapid forward movement the order came for
his removal-an order emana ing this time not from
Gen Halleck, in the case of the order for McClel
lan's appointment to take command of the forces
routed under Gen. Pope, but from the President
himself 1t was as follows:
WAR DEPARTMENT,
Adjut1nt Generals Office,
Washington, N0pcnlber 5, 1862.
GENERAL ORDER, No. 1872 B, direction of the Presi.
dent of the Uni ed States ordered that Major Gen.
Mcclellan be relieved from the command Of the Army Of
the Potomac aud that Major Gen Burnside take command
OF hat army.
By order of the Secretary of War:
ID. TOWNSEND, Assistant AdJt Gen.
On the Sd of July, 1862, after Gen. McClellan's
mastery Withdrawal of his army to the James river
Withdrawal made necessary by no act of his, but
by the acts of the Administration which had dis
concerted all his plans--the President wrote to
him:
Il am sapfed that yourself, officers and men have
done the best you uld All sccouts say better fighting
never done. Ten thousand thanks for a."
Two days afterwards, when Mr.. Lincoln had re-
ceved fuller information, he addressed the follow
ing just commendation to Gen. Mcclellan:
WAsHITGT, N, July 5, 1862
Major General GEORGE MCCLELLAN, Commanding
Army Of the Potomac thousand thinks for the relief
your dispatches Of 10 and r. M yesterday gave me-
BE assured the beroism Of yourself officers and men
and torc5er sciu be appreciated. A. LINCOLN
On the 18th of September 1862, after he bad
received intelligence of the successes at South
Mountain, the President wrote to Gen. Mcclellan ::
Your despatch of to-day received God bless you and
all with yon Destroy the rebel army, il possible
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