CH. XXIV. full sympathy with the President and Cabinet, in the proceedings they thought proper to adopt for the suppression of the rebellion. He had even entered heartily into some of the more extreme measures of the Government. His orders to General Banks directing the arrest of the secessionist members of the Maryland Legislature might have been written by a zealous Republican. "When they meet on the 17th," he says, "you will please have everything prepared to arrest the whole party, and be sure that none escape." He urges upon him the "absolute necessity of secrecy and success"; McPherson, speaks of the exceeding importance of the affairof the "If it is successfully carried out it will go far towards breaking the backbone of the rebellion." This was in September, 1861. Later in that year he was repeatedly urged by prominent Democratic politicians to declare himself openly as a member of their party. They thought it would be to his advantage and to theirs to have the Generalin-Chief of the Army of the Potomac decidedly with them. At this time he declined their overtures, but they were pressingly repeated at Yorktown and afterwards; and he appears finally to have yielded to their solicitations, and the foregoing letter was the result. "History Rebellion," p. 153. It is not at all probable that this document was prepared during the flight from the Chickahominy, or during the first days of doubt and anxiety at Harrison's Landing. It had probably been prepared long before, and is doubtless referred to in the general's dispatch of the 20th of June, in which he says, Vol. XI., "I would be glad to have permission to lay before your Excellency, by letter or telegraph, my views as W. R. Part I., p. 48. to the present state of military affairs throughout CH. XXIV. the whole country." He had at that time some indefinite hope of taking Richmond; and such a manifesto as this, coming from a general crowned with a great victory, would have had a far different importance and influence from that which it enjoyed issuing from his refuge at Harrison's Bar, after a discrediting retreat. But the choice of occasion was not left to him; the letter could not be delayed forever, and such as it was, it went forth to the country as the political platform of General McClellan, and to the President as a note of defiance and opposition from the general in command of the principal army of the United States. Though more moderate in form, this letter was as mutinous in substance as the dispatch from Savage's Station. He assumes to instruct the President as to his duties and the limits of his constitutional power. He takes it for granted that the President has no definite policy, and proceeds to give him one. Unless his advice is followed "our cause will be lost." He postures as the protector of the people against threatened arbitrary outrage. He warns the President against any forcible interference with slavery. He lets him know he can have no more troops, except on conditions known and approved. He tells him plainly that "a declaration of radical views, especially upon slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present armies." Finally, he directs him to appoint a commander-in-chief of the army, and thinks it necessary to inform him that he does not ask the place for himself. The President, engrossed with more important affairs, paid no attention, then or afterwards, to this CH. XXIV. letter.1 He simply passed it by in good-natured silence. General McClellan continued his dispatches, constantly announcing an impending attack upon his position, and constantly asking for reënforcements. He continued this until General Lee withdrew his army to Richmond, a movement which General McClellan at once characterized as "a retreat." July 20. McClellan's During all the time McClellan remained at Harrison's Landing his correspondence with the Government was full of recrimination and querulousness; and his private letters which have been published since his death show an almost indecent hostility to his superiors. He writes: "I have no faith in the Administration. . . I am tired of serving fools. . . Marcy and I have just been discussing people in Washington, and conclude they are a mighty trifling set.'. . I begin to believe they wish this army to be destroyed. When you contrast the policy I urge in my letter to the President with that of Congress and of Mr. Pope, you can readily agree with me that there can be little natural confiAugust 2. dence between the Government and myself. We are the antipodes of each other. I am satisfied August 10. that the dolts in Washington are bent on my destruction... My communication with Halleck was August 14. unsatisfactory in the extreme. He did not even 1 McClellan in his memoirs ("Own Story," pp. 444, 446, 487), says he wrote this letter intending to send it by General Marcy to Washington, but as the President visited the army the next day, he handed it to him in person. He says Mr. Lincoln read it, "but made no comments upon it, merely saying when he Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., had finished it, that he was obliged to me for it, or words to that effect. I do not think that he alluded further to it during his visit, or at any time after that." He sent a copy of the letter to his wife, asking her "to preserve it carefully, as a very important record," showing the political significance he attached to it. behave with common politeness; he is a bien mau- CH. XXIV. vais sujet- he is not a gentleman." "The Grand We need not multiply these utterances. They have already been judged by the highest authority. General Sherman says, referring to this period, Strategy "The temper of his correspondence, official and private, was indicative of a spirit not consistent Magazine," with the duty of the commanding general of a great army." The President had been much disturbed by the conflicting reports that reached him as to the condition of the Army of the Potomac, and he therefore resolved by a personal visit to satisfy himself of the state of affairs. He reached Harrison's Landing on the 8th of July, and while there con- One thing that enormous numOn returning to to General Mc I am told that over 160,000 men have gone into your army on the Peninsula. When I was with you the other of the Rebellion." "Century Feb., 1888, p. 589. CH. XXIV. day we made out 86,500 remaining, leaving 73,500 to be accounted for. I believe 23,500 will cover all the killed, wounded, and missing in all your battles and skirmishes, leaving 50,000 who have left otherwise. Not more than 5000 of these have died; leaving 45,000 of your army still alive and not with it. I believe half or two-thirds of them are fit for duty to-day. Have you any more perfect knowledge of this than I have? If I am right, and you had these men with you, you could go into Richmond in the next three days. How can they be got to you, and Vol. XI., how can they be prevented from getting away in such numbers for the future? July 13, 1862. W. R. Part III., p. 319. W. R. Vol. XI., Part III., p. 321. To this note the general replied in a letter which can hardly be regarded as a satisfactory answer to the President's searching questions. He says, in general terms, that there is always a difference between the returns and the effective force of armies. He thinks, but is not certain, that the force given to him is not so much as 160,000, but admits that he has at that moment, present for duty, 88,665; absent by authority, 34,472; without authority, 3778. This is very far from the "fifty thousand with their colors" which he reported a few days before; and he gives no adequate reason for the vast aggregate of those absent by authority. But another question, far more important and more grievous, was, what was to be done with the Army of the Potomac? General McClellan would listen to nothing but an enormous reënforcement of his army, and another chance to take Richmond. Many of his prominent officers, on the contrary, thought that an advance on Richmond under existing conditions would be ill-advised, and that for the army to remain in its present position during the months of August and September would be |