The Arkansaw traveler. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1882-1???, 1889-02-16

mistakes proved how utterly incapable he was of
leading great army In grand war. No general
had ever been offered such wonderful opportunities
and they continued TO be offered to him TO the end
When Pope had drawn away the enemy from
Richmond, and given him unmolested embark
ment, and had fought with undaunted valor against
Lees army, before which at last he was forced to
give way for the want of relief, which he had the
right TO expect from Mcclellan, the president,
magnanimously ignoring all his own causes of
quarrel, gave TO Mcclellan once more his old
army, re- enforced by Pope's and sent him against
an enemy who, in q contempt of his antagonist
acquired in the Peninsula, had crossed the Potomac
and then divided his army in half. AS q browning
favor OF chance, this was made known TO Mcclellan
and even this incalculable advantage he frittered
away, and gave Lee forty eight hours in which 20
call in his scattered battalons After Antietam,
for six long weeks Of beautiful autumn weather,
he fingered the north bank of the Potomac,
under the constant pressure of the presidents per-
suasons and afterward under the lash of his orders
and reproaches, unable to make up his mind to
pursue the enemy so long as he could find excuse
for delay in q missing shoe-lace or a broken lin
Der.
The devoted affection which he received from his
army was strange when we consider how lacking
he was in those qualities which generally excite
admiration of soldiers. When Sumner, swinging
his hat, char ed in front OF his lines at Savage's
Station, his white hair blowing In the wind ;
When Phil. Kearney, who had lost his bride arm
in Mexico, rode In the storm of bullets, with his
reins in his teeth, his sword in his right hand,
there was something which struck the imagination
of their troopers more than far serious merits
would have done. But one ever saw General
Mcclellan rejoicing in battle. At Williamsburg
the first Peninsula fight, while Hooker and Kearney
and Hancock were in the thick of the conflict, he
was at the wharf at Yorktown, very busy, doing
an assistant quartermasters duty the day of Fair
Oaks ne spent on the north side of the river !;
when at Beaver Dam creek aud Gaines Mill the
ptnrr fpfx llaA IN ho ell h.
on the south bank during the retreat TO the James
he was far in advance selecting with his intelligent
engineers eye the spots where Sumner, Franklin
and the rest were to fight their daily battles; and
even in the fury and thunder of Malvern Hill
the most splendid feat OF arms ever performed by
the Army of the Potomac, a sight which a man
with the true soldier blood in his veins might give
his life to see-he spent the greater part of those
glorious hours the dapaskn of his greatest victory
booming in his ears, in his camp at Haxalls or on
board the gunboats, coldly and calmly making his
arrangements for the morrow's retreat and for the
cooperation of the navy ; and at Antietam, the
only battle where he really saw his own troops
attacking the enemy, he enjoyed that wonderful
sight "al day." says General Palfrey, "till toward
the middle of the afternoon, when all the fighting
was over, on the high ground near Fry's house,
where he had some glasses strapped to the fence,
so that he could look in different directions"
We make no imputation on his courage; he was q
brave man but he was too much numbered with
other things to take part in his own battles.
With such limitations as these it is not likely
that posterity will rank him among the leading
generals of our war. The most his apologists ask
for him Is a place among the respectable pains
taking officers OF the second order of talent, the
"middle category of meritorious commanders"; but
when we such ardent friends and admirers Of
his person General Webb and General Palfrey
brought by conscientious and careful ttudy Of
his career to such a conviction of his continuous
mistakes as they have expressed, we may well con-
~ A. l.
have no sentiment but wonder when he comes to
tell the story OF McClelan's long Encouragement
of great, brave and devoted army, backed by q
government which strained every nerve to support
him, and by people whose fiery zeal would have
made him the idol of the nation if he had given
them the which their sacrifices deserved,