The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-10-24

CrayonIs 'Recollections Of the War"
bringing his chronicles down TO the
scenes and disasters of the second bat
tie OF Bull Run. and giving many in
terestipg details of the manRuvreing
and msrshaIling OF the two armies from
the l6;h OF August up to the Sd day Of
September, 1868. Being attached to the
headquarters staff of General Pope,
Porte Crayon (COl. Strother) had I'M
usual opportunities to observe and note
The mistakes, blunders, and short
comiDgs that eliminated in the defeat
and almost disgrace Of our arms in
those memorable and bloody days. he
seems to have kept his diary from day
TO day, and to have revised II since
the war by the light of 1ell-established
official data. It has, therefore,
all the interest of personal adventure
and Of REVISED history. The reader
cannot but feel how terribly imPeriled
was tine fate of the nation at that time
owing to the disaffeetion existing in the
army towards General Pope. General
Fitz john Porter, who has lately been
asking for a new trial, figures in no en-.
yiable light in these notes Of Col. stro-
ther. Il is painful to read Of the heart
sickening anxiety caused during the
heat and crisis OF the struggle by his
delays. And still more painful to be-
lieve that his acts were the results Of a
deliberate and recreant purpose to hu-
initiate General Pope even at the risk
of our army and our cause. And
worse still and more melancholy than
the rest, is the conviction that we had
in the service at that time, men who,
while wearing our uniform, were actu-
ally sympathizers with the rebels. Al
first thought, such an incongruity
would seem altogether improbable
Why should men light on the Union
side, whose hearts were sympathetic
such Il question involves an inquiry
into the composition of the old army
and the antecedents of its officers. A
Southern and pro-slRyery bias in the
days before the war Was almost pro-
fessionaI among the army officers. 1t
Pointers, even among those of North
ern birth and education. The National
Government and he"peculiar institu-
ton" were convertible terms in their
estimation. When Mr.. Lincoln and the
Republican party succeeded to power
their accession was sort of usurpa-
ton against the natural order OF things
in the eyes OF the army officers. They
could hardly persuade themselves that
they owed allegiance to the new au-
thOrity at Washington. Their minds
seemed perpetually to halt and hesitate
even when mechanically performing
service under the new regime. Appa-
rentIy they felt in doubt whether the
changed order of things was not all
wrong, all fnnHtical, and all vulgar and
visionary. Do not many OF us remem-
Der to have seen officers seemingly
thus affected during the war,
and volunteer officers AT that,
in some instnnces2 Aud outside of the
army did we not see and hear hundreds
OF men thus demean and express them
selves? The actual prestige of nation
atty, consututionality and regularity
seemed to attach in the minds of thou
sands to the Southern cause. Such an
impression conspicuously pervaded the
leaders and multitudes OF the rank and
file of the Democratic party. And that
is the trouble with many a man to-day
who considers himself true Unionist.
lie fails to discern what his real ami
mus is and has been all the while to-
wards the party in power. He has sim
ply held fast all the time to the fact that
the Democracywere displaced by the Re-
publicans, and that the South as u part
of the Democracy forcibly resisted Il
ianatical displacement. Hence 1t will
not he untiI tens and hundreds ofthou-
sands OF men die of and give place to a
generation that "knew not JOSEPH"
thut the political atmosphere of this
country will be purged and purihed
from this pro-slavery malaria. We
need not wonder, though most of us did
all the while, how it could be that men
outside OF the slave States, who never
owned slaves, could be so deeply under
the influence of the institution. The
truth was they had, Just as
they have to-day, party and per-
sonal ties connected with it. Those
ties were second nature when the re-
bellion took place. And they were part
OF thegeaeralidea eta national admins
tration of the government in the minds
OF thousands OF people. What wonder
then that the army officers, thus deeply
impregnated, were almost willing, as
Fiiz John Porter was, to see the Union
cause fail in order to crush or iarnish q
rival who was supposed to be the mill
:ary representative in the field of a pc.
litical empiric at Washington. Well
might C,l Strother conclude his nara
tive OF the events OF September Sd, 1868,
by observing that it was evident "that
while the slavocracy was at open war
with the government and the nation its
subtle spirit and malign influences
were still felt in the councils, the camps
and through northern society,"" And
well may we say the same thing to-day
in reference TO the political Affiliations
of thou sands OF persons who seem will
ing, under the same malign influence,
TO thwart any plan OF reconstruction
that docs not bring uppermost the rebel
element at the South. In the minds OF
such persons there is no disquaIifying
status rIghtfully attaching to even
prominent participants in the rebellion.
They view the South, as Fitz John Por.