The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-06-19
GENERALS DIARY
 GIVES INSIDE OF 1ST MEXICAN WAR
General McLellan's Notes Show He Scorned Vol
 unteer System

A very human and und1gnl11e0 document is Gen. George B. McClel- lans diary of the Mexican war. It was not written for publication, but Will liam Starr Myers. professor of history at Princeton, has dug it up and the Princeton University Press has pub lished it. Mcclellan was second lieutenant .in the Engineering Corps of the United States army at the time, and all the enthusiasm and inn patience of youth are manifest in his diary. He was peevish a good deal of time and annoyed by his superior
 officers, and he ragged against the in- efficiency and bad discipline of the volunteer troops with whom he had came in contact.
 "He was in a way" says his editor,
 lone of the worst subordinates and best superiors that ever lived. As a subordinate he was restless, critical. often i'll at ease, He seemed to have 1 the proverbial chip always on his | shoulder and knew that his com manding officers would go out of their way to knock it off; or else he | imagined it, which amounted to the same thing. AS a commanding off, cer, he always was thoughtful con- siderate and deeply sympathetic with. his men, and they knew this and lov- 1 ed him for it."
 Mcclellan and a young first lieu tenant named G. w. <Smith-playfully | referred to as "Legs''-were in charge of a. company of engineers that was sent first to Matamoras, a place which I did not please them at all.
 'sThe ranches" wrote Mcclellan, l are rather sparse, but some of them are very prettily situated. They all consist of miserable huts made of
 mesquite logs and canes placed up- right, the interstices filled with mud.
 The roofs are matched, either with canes or the leaves of the cabbage tree. Cotton appears. to grow quite plentifully on the banks, but is not cultivated at all. The Mexicans ap- | pear to cultivate nothing whatever but a little Indian corn. They are
 certainly the laziest people in exist l ense-living in rich and fertile
 country (the banks of the river, at least)-they are content. to roll in the
 mud, eat their horrible beef and tor
 tillas and dance all night at their fandangos. After being sick in Mata-
 moras for two weeks I left with the
 company for Camargo, on the White vile, where we arrived two weeks ago | tomorrow, and have been in hospital
 quarters ever since until day before l yesterday.- Now I am in camp, the
 wind blowing the dust in such perfect
 clouds that it is perfectly horrible
 one can hardly live through it.''
 Mcclellan was keenly disappointed
 to learn that the navy had taken
 Tampicoi without firing a shot. He
 had hoped for fight there. The bat
 tie of Monterey had been fought, too, l without his having a, chance to take | ay-f iy7 T,.
 ments the fact that he is ranked by
 every. confounded. voluntario in;the
 continental army--to be put aside for
 a soldier of yesterday, a miserable
 thing with buttons on it that knows l nothing whatever, is indeed too hard
 a case.'' ~
 T have learned some valuable lessons in this war;" says this sage
 and bitter young man. q am q hope and believe) pretty we'll cured of cas-
 tle-building. came down here with
 high hopes, with pleasing anticipa- ltions of distinction, of being in hard fought battles and acquiring a name and reputation as a stepping-stone to I a still greater eninence in some fu-
 ture and greater war; We hay been lodging about waiting a week here 1.-two weeks there for the pontoon
 train-a month in the dirt somewhere
 else-7doing nothing-half the com
 pany sick-have been sick myself for
 more than a month and a half-and
 here we are going to Tampico. What
 will be the next thing it is impossible 4 to guess at. We may go to San Luis i've may go to Vera Cruz-we may go home from Tampico-we may see
 a fight or dozen of them, or we may
 not see shot fired. I have made
 up my mind to act the philosopher
 to take things as they come and not
 worry my head about the future-to try to get perfectly well-and, above
 all things, to see as much fun as can } scare up in the country"
 , Both Mcclellan and George Gordon
 Meade, the victor of Gettysburg , whose letters are quoted. joined in
 hearty contempt for the volunteers , who were called in the Mexican war 'I have seen more suffering since came out here than I could have , imagined to exist" declares McClel. :. Han. ''It is really awful. I allude tc 5 the 'sufferings of the volunteers. They , literally die like dogs Were it all , known in the states, there would be
 no more hue and cry against the Ir-- .