Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1866-06-23

Under this title Mr.. William Swinton has
issued from the press Of Mr.. c. B. Richard
SOD, of New York, royal octave volume of
e4O pages A cotempcrary, in notice of
this work, says: ----
To the performance of this task Mr.
Swinton brought several important advan.
tages. He shared the vicissitudes Of the
Army of the Potomac from the beginning
to the end of the war. As an army CORE
spondent to the public journals he demon
strated the possession of rare capacity for
delineating army movements, and the still
higher ability of forming an accurate judg-
ment of plans of compaign and the execu-
tion thereof
The judgment pronounced by Mr.. Swim
ton upon Gen. Mcclellan does not war
rant the passionate admiration of his ve'
hement partisans. That judgement is that
his military capacities and aptitudes, con-
siderable in extent and value, are much
better suited to the cabinet than the field
So far Mr.. Swinton confirms the opin-
ions of the radicals, in Congress and out.
But our author is careful to sustain his con-
clusions by proof Take an illustration.
1t will be remembered that when General
Mcclellan lay with his army in front of
Washington during large part of 1862
he insisted he was outnumbered largely by
the enemy opposed to him and that the
in equipment and discipline. It is now
demonstrated that he had 150,000mer at
his disposal for active operation, while the
forces opposed to him never exceeded 62,-
900, and sank as low as $4,000; and these
opposing forces were suffering under lax
ity Of discipline, q decentralization of tenn
per, inferiority in arms, equipment and
transportation, which made it impossible for
them to do anything but retreat if McClel
Ian had made an advance. -.......
So at Yorktown. When General Nc
Clellan began that useless siege he had a
magnificent army of $4,000 men. General
Magruder had only 1900; and of these,
he was able to bring 10 the point of opera.
tions, no more than 5000. Yet there Gen.
Mcclellan remained in the mud, full
month, digging trenches, until the forces
against him rose to $4,000 When Gen
Mcclellan made the assault, the enemy was
gone. ~ ... -.-
Thus is it demonstrated that the charge
against Gen. Mcclellan by the radicals did
not proceed from jealously of his fame, but
from undubitable facts, proving his utter
incapacity for the position he held.
Of Generals Burnside, Pope, Hooker and
Meade, our authors judgement does not
differ from that of most intelligent civilians
throughout the country. a-.. .,.
In respect to General Grant, large abate
ments are made from the popular estimate.
He gives the Lieutenant General credit for
great tenacity of purpose in the pursuit of
the main object, but detracts from his abili-
ty to maneuvre successfully large masses OF
troops. His success in taking and over
throwing General Lee and capturing Rich
mond is attributed to his superior inf1cxi
blity of will, and to the exhaustion of the
Confederate resources of men and material
President Lincoln fell into the mistake OF
cntrusting the chief military authority to
men who did not coincide with him in
opinion as to the ends for which the war
should be waged, and the manner of waging
it. 1t was the first time a government, free
to choose, deliberately elected in time OF
war, to entrust the command of its armies
to its political enemies. 1t was this blum
der of President Lincoln's that protracted
the struggle Perhaps there was provi-
dental ordering in it, however, for the
lengthening af the war caused it more COM
pletely to serve the ends of Liberty any
humanity .fHt. ...