Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-10-02
HALsTEAD's LETTER.
Here Is the Monstrous Document
In Cold Type.
From the Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. q.
OFFICE CINCINNATI DAILY AND
WEEKLY COMMERCIAL,
FOURTH AND RACE STREETS,
CINCINNATI. Feb, 10, 1863,

WEEKLY COMMERCIAL,
FOURTH AND RACE STREETS.
CINCINNATI, Feb. 10, 1868.
Gov. Chase:
MY DEAR SIR-I wrote you a some
what fantastic letter the other day
But that l suppose is not now strange
l write this morning to send you
copy of a private letter l have from
our army in front Of Vicksburg. 1t il
from a close observer, who endeavor!
to tell the truth.
There never was a more thorough
ly disguised, disheartened, demoralizet
army than this is. and all because it il
under such men as Grant and Sherman
Disease is ~decimating its ranks, and
while hundreds Of poor fellows are
dying from smallpox and every other
conceivable malady, the Medical De
parTment is afflicted with delirium ire
mems. In Memphis smallpox patients
are made to walk through the streets
from camps to hospitals, while drunk
en- doctors ride from bar-rooms to
warehouses in Government ambu-
lances. y y X How is it that
Grant, who was behind. at Fort Henry,
drunk at Donelson, surprised and
whipped at Shiloh, and driven back
from Oxford, Miss, is still in COM
mand?"
Gov. Chase. these things are true.
Our noble army of the Mississippi is
being wasted by the foolish, drunken,
stupid Grant. He can't organize or
control or fight an army. l have no
personal feeling about it, bus l know
he is an ass.
There is not among the swhole list
OF retired Major-G Generals Il man who
is not Grants superior. Mcclellan,
Fremont, Mcdowell, Burnside, Frank
lin, even Fope or Sumner, would be
an improvement upon the present
commander of the Army of the Mis-
sissippi. Win you wake up some of
these days and find we have no Army
of the MississippiP II.
Then, there is awful disbursement
at the way the foolish old hunter, who
is thought to be a great mar because
he is not insane in his ~preiudices on
the negro question, is doing. In Gods
name, what is he waiting for? More
reinforcementsI Pity he can't die and
get out of the way as Mitchell did.
But to stop this sort of growing,
and come to something more practical.
The army West and East is being
weakened hourly by assertions. 1t is
the great evil. The thing needful to
stop it is for the President to give each
commander of departments power to
shoot deserters. They must be shot
by the dozen. The Presidents weak
pulling, piddling humanitarianism is
death and hell to the army. Can't you
take him by the throat and knock his
head against a wall, until he is
brought to his senses on the war bust
ness? l do not speak wantonly when
l say there are persons who would feel
that it was doing God service to kill
if it were not feared that Hamlin
8 a bigger fool than he is.
And yet the pitiful Congress twad-
lies weekly in private caucus about
matters, as If a little more
would do everything. Why
lon't they pass your finance measure,
md the conscript act, and mind their
'wn business?
The proclamation is a positive nuts.
nee to every truly loyal man in the
Vest. 1t is a weapon in the hands of
he B%utternuts. If it is made a party
est Vallandigham would be elected
Governor of Ohio. Do not think l am
t random. Alas! l know what l am
about. What is wanted:
/. A General for u Army of the
Hiss.
2. Deserters shot by order Of COM
landers of departments.
8. Less dependence upon the niger,
nd more on the white man.
4. The consolidation of the frag-
tents of regiments.
5. Arrest and try Henry May and
Wendell Phillips for treason.
6. Suppress the New York Tribune
nd New York World.
NJ. HALSTEAD.