The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1870-03-31
WHO KILLED THE CON-
FEDERACYp
A Slashing Article From E..
A. Pollard.
To the Editor of The Tribune

TO the Editor Of the Tribune:
srR-The following paragraph, taken
from the letter of Washington CORES
pondent, more lively than didactic, Zone
Dom Piatt,) has been going the rounds of
Southern newspapers, with strong marks
Of their appreciation and assent:
The suspicion is gaining ground that
had we put in the war Grant Il Co., at the
time we did Mcclellan, they would in ali
human probability have come out as we'll
plucked as he was, Those last great he
roes of the war had the good luck to be in
command when the Confederates had no
longer the fierce armies that sent them
whirling back into Washington. The war
had ended in the South nearly year be-
fore we learned the fact at the North
The statement is one made either in
gross ignorance of historical facts of the
late war, or in reckless desire to support
the preference of a certain person at the
expense of another. But before proceed
ing to correct statement so utterly at
variance with the truth, let the present
writer DO understood. lie is no panegy-
rist Of General Grant, and politically he
dissents from him, i is, then, from no
personal admiration of General Grant
that he attempts to extricate him from an
unjust comparison, but from the simple
and irrepressible desire which every hon
est man feels to correct false statement
made in his presence, and where his own
knowledge furnishes him with means of
contradiction, he has undertaken the pre-
sent explanation, forcing an Indifference
to persons named in the comparison, and
careful only for the truth of history.
To those at all acquainted with the COM
parative condition of the Southern Confe-
deracy at different times of the war, the
fact is certain that with reference to the
inferiority of numbers opposed on the
Confederate side, General Mcclellan had,
in the year 1852, advantages greater than
Grant or any Northern commander ever
had. He had these advantages steadily
inviting him for six months and that he
did not avail himself of them, and that
there was at last an accumulation of Con-
federate numbers allowed by him suffici
emit to whip him. so far from furnishing
an excuse, but gives to his condemnation
the additional charge of torpor and imbe-
cility. In February, 1862, when urged by
President Lincoln to advance, when the
Federal troops in Virginia, and about
Washington numbered 1893, 142, and W hen
Mcclellan himself hoasted that his Grand
Army was magnificent In material, ad-
mirable in discipline and instruction, ex
cellently equipped and armed }" he had on
his front, to dispute his passage to Rich.
mond, force which numbered of all armt
a little more than twenty seven Thousand
meni This estimate of the Confederate
army at Manassas is from q staff Officer
of General Joseph E. johnson, its com
mander, and must be taken as authentic
More than this, that little army was, il
the early months of 1862, in the saddest
state of disorga nization, having beer
turned into an " electioneering camp
by the folly of the CohEederate Congress
and says a staff officer of General Stone
wall jackson, had Mcclellan then ad
vanced, he would have found little els,
than demoralized men, disgracing tn
uniform Of soldiers, covering the way t
Richmond"
Did Grant ever have such chance
And if Mcclellan did not use il, is not tn
act of omission in military commands
to be taken as proof of inferior general
ship quite as well as that OF commits
sion?
Again, when Mcclellan went down t,
Yorktown, and opened another campaign
there, the fierce army that then opposes
him was exactly seven thousand five han,
bred men. General Magrauder command
ed all that was then in the pathway o
Mcclellan, while the bulk Of the Confede
rate army was still in motion in the neigh
borhood Of the Rappahannock and the Rs
pidan, and he had no assurance of rein
forcements. Tho force of Mcclellan wa
then ten times his own; they had oommen
ced cannonading upon his lines and
council of general officers was con vene
TO consult whether the little army of !, so
men should maintain their position in th
} face of ten-fold odds, or retire before th
enemy. The opinion of the council wa
unanimous for the latter alternative ex
cept one officer, who declared that ever,
man should die in the intrenchments be
fore the little army should fall back. "B
Cd, it shall be So" was the sudden ez
clamation Of General Magruder. in sym
pathy with the gallant suggestion. An
so Richmond was saved.
Mcclellan was defeated at last by an al
my not greatly inferior in number whicl
he had supinely allowed To be drawn il
from the ends of the Confederacy. But 9
far from its being heree army "
report the fact as it came from the lips Q
General Lee: g Nearly two-t thirds wer
conscripts, who had never been under fire
and were only half instructed"
/ If any balance Of generalship is to b
held between Mcclellan and Grant as t
the number of forces which opposed then
in their respective campaigns in Virginia
or as to the veteran material Of thes
forces, their condition OF discipline, and