The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1864-03-15

''I''
lrilifary Feresisht.
aa.Axriter in the Ro..sd Table, evidently
~ anti slavery man, while he finds fault
With Gen Mcclellan for not taking "more
ground on the slavery question" is
by the perusal Of his report, to
pass the following tribute to his military
prescience.
An intelligent and unprejudiced reader OF
this report will be struck with the really
amazing military sagscity OF General NC
CIellan. Upon the very opening OF tne war
he seemed intuitively to have comprenen-
ded lust what was to be done, and now IL
was 20 be accomplished. The war has now
40 educated Us all that we know toleraoiy
we'll the military movements which ougnt
tn have been undertaken to end the reDeil
ion. But when the conflict commenced tue
utmost commission prevailed Is to the plans
to be pursued. Every man had MS theory,
but 1t is not ON record that any one 7Hs.diy
head IN the eountry comprehsnded ms a1Hose
field SAGE alone General McCSsIIdn, when
assigned to command in the West he ut once
projected a campaign or rather two cam
paiens. which, had they been carried out
wit6 success, would have changed the whole
character of the war. His scheme was, at
ter pacifying Kentucky, to seize Nashville
and East Teenessee-a not very difncult
feat at that time. He also proposed to
move an army up the Kanawha valley 80 as
to relieve Washington by threatening the
rebel capital. His communications to Cen
Scott on the subject were not Needed or
even answered. Upon being called to the
city of Washington after the defeat OF Bull
Run, he at once sketched the situation in
a memorandum to the President, dated
Aug, 4th 1861, which showed that he full
" understood it in all its bearings. In this
document, and the subsequent communica-
tions end orders he wrote to subordinate
generals, will be found his grand plan,
which, it will be seen, anticipated all the
successful movements OF the war. A peru
sal of his instructions to Generals Burnside
Buel, Butler, Sherman and Halleek, while
he was in supreme command, is like reading
history in advance. He anticipated all the
military contingencies of the war. and pro
yided for them. Thus, months before it was
attempted, he ordered the taking OF Fort
Pulaski, but at the same time placed upon
record his reasons for not wishing the occu'
patton of Savannah: In General Buffers
instructions he minutely described in ad
vance the impediments to be overcome IN
capturing New Orleans. On no one point
was he mistaken, as the event subsequently
proved. His anxiety to capture Jackson,
Miss, Immediately after New Orleans was
secured, is a marked instance of his militia
nv prescience. Had General Butler obey.
ed bis orders Texas wauld have been cat OH
from the confederacy in the spring of 1867,
and no blood need have been shed at either
Vicksburg or Port Hudson. But the most
remarkable instance of General McClellan's
military provision, and which has 50 far
been strangely overlooked, were the pre-
cautions he took to prevent an attack upon
Washington from the direction of the Shen-
andoah valley. When the President de-
tached General McDoweps corps from Gen.
McClsllan's army, it was upon the ground
that it was required for the defense Of. the
capital; yet the corps was posted ut Fred
cricsburg, from which point Washington
was never menaced, while the Shenandoah
valley, the true back door to the capital, as
Stonewall jackson proved, was entirely
overlooked. At Fredericksburg General Nc
bowels corps was Of no more use than if 1t
had been located in New York city.
To this singular oversight of Mr.. Lincoln
and his military advisers ia not guarding
the side gate to Washington, as had been
by Gen. Mcclellan immedi>
ately before being deprived of the supreme
is to be credited the defeat OF
Banks by jackson during the following
May. large part of the disasters which oc:
Cured to Pope, and the two invasions OF
Maryland by Lee. Yet Notwithstanding,
all these warnings the gaps in The Blue
ridge are to this day uniutrenched and un-
defended; and should General Meade ever
be driven back, it will be through thanking
movements of the enemy upon his rear
through these open gaps in the mountains.
Mrs. Lincoln and her Sister