Year: 1863

The recent campaign on the Rapldan
Judged by comparison with the achievements
of our armies elsewhere. is most dlscred-
liable failure, and disgrace to all the per-
sons concerned in it or responsible for IT.
Undoubtedly this is but another OF those
enormous blunders that originate in the
War Department Upon the War Depart
ment depends the choice of the soldiers VINO
shall command our armies and it General
Meade were incompetent for his position tue
War Department should have known 1t ey
this time and chosen his successor for we
have now plenty of men able and ready TO
to lead our armies, and possessed OF all the
requisites of ability and courage. But we
shall not believe that General Meade Is
wanting in any of those requisites until
there is some goJd evidence OF the fact'
which there is not In this lamentaole
failure we see the War Department and the
War Department only and since the war
began we have seen enough of the War De
partment's work to be able to recognize 1t
at the slightest glance.


Since the wise men at Washington as
sumsd the control of the Army OF the 70
tomac it's history has been series of disas
ters. General McClellan's we'll Judged
plans failed through their Interference
Burnside's advance, and the sconsequent
fight at Fredericksburg, was forced by the
same power, and Hooker complain bit
terly of its blighting influence. Gettys-,
burg, fought by tho corps commanders, and
won by the soldiers-wthout plan almost,
and without even the knowledge Of the
War ofice-showed what the army could
do when left alone and the failure to de
stroy Lee on the Upper Potomac indicated
again the return and reinstatement OF that
malign Washington influence tbat-like the
Fate of the old Greek drama-hungers fol
destru. .tion, originates allevi counsels, anc
recognizes the existence OF good ones only
as it can oppoae pervert or absolutely de-
stroy their effect.


Look at our armies elsewhere removed
from the sphere of this influence. Success
is as constant with them as success ever wa:
in war. Grant, Rosecrads, Banks. succeed
in the exact degree of their removal from
an indepenpence of this power. How mus
the men of the Army of the Potomac
just now returned to camp from the fifth
onward movement by that overland route
upon the superiority of which Gen. Halleck
has "staked his military reputation"-hoW
must they envy the men who went out West
with Howard and Slocum, with Steinwehr
with that rough old fighter Williams, and
with the impetuous. passionate and magnlh
cent old Geary2 For out there our armies
achieve victory-which is more delightful
to the soldier than it can possibly be to any
one else. But in Virginia, under the shadow
of the War Department influence, our men
have only the constant chagrin OF defeat
and failure.


We regard this latest failure, therefore,
as entirely caused by that bad influence, that
emanates from Washington City; but those
who Judge of these events abroad are not
able to fix their causes so nicely. In France
or England it is merely another Northern
failure; and unless the House of Represent
atives at its earliest session, appointsa com
mittee to inquire into, explore and ventll,
ate this whole matter foreign ignorance and
malice will rate the failure on the Rapldan
as an Offset to our Southwestern victories,
and the country will be disgraced by it,