Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-01-19
ADARK STORY.
Grants ION to Richmond Char
acferiXed as UmSOfd5erRfker Tn
StatesInanEiHke,an and Resulting
in the Unnecessary SquaM-
dering of Human
[Fronn the Soc York World |

than acknowledged that the cam
paign which began with the adj
vance of the army ofFhe Potomac,
under General Grant, May 3, 1864,
was unsOldierlike and unstateSman-
like, and resulted only in the squan-
dering of costly human lives. Even
the ultimate success ut AppomattOX
has never reconciled the country to
and hopeless fianking marches
through which our army was moved
from the Rapidan to the James,
baffied by a foe it outnumbered
three to one, and leaving ON its
bloody way as many men as Lee
commanded. Those who have
looked at events with the purpose
of finding their true meaning, and
not with the design of interpreting
them to fit partisan theories, long
ago perceived that the transfer of
the army of the Potomac to the
James was confession ON the part
of General Grant that the overland
route was failure, and Vindica-
ton of the soundness of General
McClellan's original plans for the
capture of the rebel capital and the
overthrow of the rebellion. When
Grant departed from the course of
Mcclellan, he met with disaster
when he put himself in McClellan's
footsteps, he met with success. The
superiority of the former as a fight
ing soldier has generally been con-
coded, but the superiority of the
latter in strategy is beginning to be
acknowledged, and, as a conse-
quence, the righteousness of his
quarrel with the administration
which recalled him from Richmond
and insisted upon a direct advance
from Washington. These are
themes which now have chiefly a
historical interest, but a statement
made by some "reminiscences of
the Civil War;" contributed by
General Richard Taylor, one of the
foremost of the Confederate COM
manders, to the current number of
the North American Review, re-
wives them as if by the incarnation
of wizard. 1t puts them, also, we
are sorry to say, in new and most
painful light. Everybody knew
that either the administration or
its chosen general had Numbered in
the unfortunate campaign in the
Wilderness, but few have supposed
that the responsibility of either
went any further. General Taylor
now clears the military reputation
Of Grant by an assertion which in
wolves the administration in down.
right crime. He states that the
overland campaign was adopted in
the face of Grants explicit declara-
ton that it would involve the sac
rifice of one hundred thousand more
human lives. These are his words /:
"After the battle of Chickamauga,
in 1868, General Grant was promo
ted to the command of the armies
of the United States and called to
Washington. In a conference at
the war office between him, PreSi-
dent Lincoln and Secretary Stanton,
the approaching campaign in Nir-
ginia was discussed. Grant said
the advance on Richmond should
be made by the James river. 1t
was replied that the government
required the interpOsitiOn of an ar
my between Lee and Washington,
and would not consent at that late
day to the adoption of plan that
would be taken by the public as a
confession of previous errors. Grant
observed he was Indifferent as to
routes, but if the government pre-
ferred its OWn-sO often tried-tO
the one he suggested, it must be
prepared for the additional loss of
one hundred thousand men. The
men were promised, Grant accepted
the governmental plan of campaign
and was supported to the end. The
above can be we'll authenticated,
and | have no doubt of its correct
ness.
This is certainly horrible story.
The immOlatiOn of one hundred
thousand men to avoid a confession
of error on the part of an admins
tratiOn matches anything in the
annals of the most despOtic govern
ments on earth. To believe that
the long agony which the nation
endured in 1864 was borne to make
good the blunders of civilians in
wolves so much that is revolving
that nothing but the reputation of
the soldier who VOucheS for the
tale could make US entertain it.
General Taylor expressly and sig
nificentlY says that it came to him
on good authority. No authority
for such an accusation can be good
which is less than that of one
of the men directly concerned.
| President Lincoln was dead before
General Taylor came north after
the war. Edwin NJ. Stanton was
probably capable of the atrOcious
calculation charged, but he is not
likely ever to have had an OppOrtu-
nifty of communicating it to General
Taylor. There remains, therefore,
but one source from which it could
have reached General Taylor. This
consideration will make our read
ers shudder with us at the proba-
bility of its truth.