Chapter 19

In the West, everything is action, operation and victory. Grant, Rosecrans, Banks, their officers and soldiers honor the American name; even good Burnside acts and succeeds;--but here the Army of the Potomac is observing and watching Lee's brow! McClellan's spirit seems still to permeate these blessed generals, and then Halleckiana, and then God knows what. The fear of losing won laurels probably palsies the brains of the commanders; at any rate it is certain that the inactivity of the Potomac army throws unsurpassed splendor on the annals of this war. O, the brave, brave soldiers and officers! how they are maltreated!

_September 16._--Matamoras will fall into the hands of the _Decembriseur's_ freebooters, and then Texas will be almost lost. Matamoras ought long ago to have been seized by us, or at least very closely blockaded and surrounded; then all the war-contraband to Texas would have had an end.

In 1861, when microscopical specks began to loom over Mexico's destinies, when the _Decembriseur_ began to feel the pulse of Spain and of England, I most respectfully suggested to Mr. Seward to blockade Matamoras. No foreign country or government could call us to account for such a step, if the Mexican government would not protest. And it was so easy to satisfy and hush the Mexican liberals. Besides, a paragraph in the treaty of Mexico expressly stipulates that any violation of the respective territory will not be considered as a _casus belli_, but the case will be peacefully investigated, etc., etc. Surely the Mexican government would have preferred to see Matamoras in our hands, than in those of that bloody Forey's bands.

_September 17._--"Loyalty," "loyalty," resounds from all sides. Loyalty to principles? Why, no. Loyalty to Mr. Lincoln and to his official crew. If such maxims mark not the downfall of manhood, then I am at loss to find what does. Such a construction of loyalty brings many otherwise honest and intelligent men to foster Mr. Lincoln's re-election.

_September 17._--At the beginning of the war, Lord John Russell issued orders for the regulation of the English ports in cases of belligerents. Our great Doctor of International Law in the State Department mistook such municipal, English regulations; he considers them to be absolute international rules and principles, and concocts instructions for our cruisers, instructions which smell as if written under Lord Lyons' dictation. As always, Neptune stands up for the national interests and for the interests of his tars, because the instructions concocted by the Doctor make it impossible for our cruisers to fulfill their duties. As always, Mr. Lincoln bends rather towards the Doctor, who in his world-embracing _humanitarianism_ defends the interests of all the neutrals at the cost of the interests of the country and of our brave navy. The Doctor was right when, some time ago, he compared himself to Christ.

_September 17._--The border-State politicians establish that the revolted States are not out of the Union. The States are no abstractions, no metaphysical notions, but geographical and political entities. They are States because they are peopled with individuals, free, intelligent, and who, to give a legality to their rebellion, claim to be sovereigns. It is not the soil constituting a State that represents a sovereignty, but the soil or State acquires political signification through the population dwelling in or on it. When the population revolted, the State revolted. From Jeff Davis to the lowest "clay-eater," each rebel who took up arms claims to have done this in the exercise of his sovereign will and choice. The revolt quashed all privileges conceded by the Union to a State, and the Union reconquers its property in reconquering the former States.

_September 18._--Hurrah for Lincoln! He sends an expedition to Texas, say his admirers. He forgets nothing. Well, why has Lincoln forgotten Texas all this time? Notwithstanding all the prayers of the Texans and of the northern patriots, I am not sure that at this moment it is expedient to break up our armies into smaller expeditions instead of concentrating them in Tennessee, Georgia, and here. Strike on the head or at the heart if you wish to kill the monster, but not at its extremities. But perhaps the Government and Halleck have men enough to do the one and the other. But why not put at the head of the Texan expedition a noble, high-minded, devoted patriot, such as General Hamilton, instead of putting a Franklin, unknown to the Texans, who can inspire no confidence, and of whom the best that can be said is, that he never succeeded in anything, and disorganized everything. See Pope in Virginia, Burnside at Fredericksburgh.

If Hamilton, the Texan, is to participate in this expedition, not Lincoln and his advisers put Hamilton there--the pressure exercised by the combined efforts of the governors of New England States did the work.

Hurrah for Lincoln and for his crew.

_September 19._--Governor Andrew's activity and initiative are admirable. More than any body in the country, Andrew has done to clear up, and to firmly establish the condition of Africo-Americans as soldiers, and to push them up to the level with other men.

_September 19._--_Hurrah for Lincoln_, who hurries the organization of Africo-American regiments! Oh yes! he hurries them; _festina lente_. And how many regiments have been organized in Norfolk, which ought to have been established as _the_ central point to attract and to organize contrabands? Is not Virginia the first in the slave States for the number of slaves? In the hands of a clear-sighted man, Norfolk ought to have been used as a glue to which the slaves would have wandered from all parts of Virginia, and even from North Carolina. Norfolk ought to have to-day an army of fifty thousand Africo-Americans born in Virginia, and not a few regiments of them raised in the North. An Africo-American army in Norfolk doubtless would have more impressed Jeff Davis and Lee, than they are impressed by the marches of the commanders of the Potomac army. And what is done? Oh, hurrah for Lincoln! A General Naglee, or of some other name, appointed by Halleck, sustained by Lincoln, and by, who knows whom--commands in Norfolk. This general so appointed, and so sustained is the most devoted worshipper of slavery. This favored general hob-nobs with the slave-making, slave-breeding and slave-selling aristocracy of Norfolk and of the vicinity, looks down upon the _nigger_ with all the haughtiness of a plantation whip, and haughtily snubs off the not slave-breeding Union men in Norfolk, the mechanics, and the small farmers. Mr. Lincoln knows this all and keeps the general. Rhetors roar, Hurrah for Lincoln.

_September 19._--Massachusetts and New England men and women! you true apostles! your names are unknown but they are recorded by the genius of humanity. These men and women feel what is the true apostolate. They follow our armies, take care of the contrabands, take care of poor whites, establish schools for the children and for the grown up of both hues, and thus they reorganize society. O sneer at them you fashionables, you flirts, you ...; but such men and women, and not you, make one believe in the highest destinies of our race.

_September 20._--Grant is the only general who accomplished an object, showed high, soldier-like qualities, organized and commanded an excellent army. But scarcely had _Grant_ taken Vicksburgh, when his army was broken up and scattered in all directions, he himself was neutralized and reduced to inactivity. It could be considered a crime against the people's cause--but--hurrah for Lincoln.

After the shame of Corinth, 1862, the Western army disappeared in the same way. But it was nobody's fault, oh no! So it is nobody's fault that Grant is shelved. Will a man start up in the next Congress and call the malefactors to account?

_September 20._--This day, General Meade has about eighty thousand men. General Meade himself estimates the enemy's forces in front of him at no more than forty thousand men, and General Meade does nothing beyond feeling his way. O, cunctator!

_September 20._--The partisans of Mr. Lincoln admit that he came slowly _to the mark_, but he came to it. Of course, better late than never, but in Mr. Lincoln's case, the people's honor and the people's blood paid for Mr. Lincoln's experimental ways. Mr. Lincoln may now be serious in a great many matters, but if he could have been serious a year ago--how much money would have been economized?

Hurrah for Lincoln!

_September 21._--Rosecrans worsted. Burnside joined him not. They say that Burnside disobeyed orders. I doubt it, and would wish to see what orders have been given. Meade or Halleck quietly allow a third of Lee's army to go and help to crush Rosecrans.

_September 21._--General Franklin was, in his own way, successful at the Sabine Pass, as every where. But how could the government entrust him with this expedition? He graduated _first_ at West Point. Washingtonians and tip-top West Pointers speak highly of Franklin. Enough!--

_September 22._--The rebels concentrated every available and fighting man on Chattanooga; we scattered our forces to all winds. The rebels march on concentrating lines, we select radii running out in the infinite, or in opposite directions. That is the head quarters paramount strategy.

Rosecrans is worsted. Hurrah for Lincoln, who believes in Halleck!

And to know, as I know, that our army and country has young men who could carry on the war better in darkness than Lincoln-Halleck do in broad daylight!

_September 22._--By depleting the banks by means of loans, by establishing the so-called National Bank, by creating an army of officials, by taking into his hands the traffic in the great staple of the rebel States, by providing the South with the various Northern products, by holding all the money in his hand, Mr. Chase concentrated into his hand a patronage never held by any secretary, nay, scarcely if ever, held by a president. Mr. Chase has more patronage than even any constitutional king. It is to be seen how all this will end.

_September 22._--On all sides I hear the question put, Who is Gilmore? It seems to me that Gilmore is one of the men generated by new events and not by Washington or West Point estimation. It seems to me that Gilmore may be one of the representative men of the better generation, so luxuriant here, and whose advent to power would save the country; a generation who alone can give the last solution, and whose advent I expect as the Jews expected the Messiah, and I shall hail it as did Anna, Elizabeth, Simeon, etc. put together.

_September 23._--As a result of the Meade-Halleck combined military wisdom, a part of Lee's army fought Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and may in a very short time be again in Virginia, and it is nobody's fault. O strategy! thy name is imbecility!

_September 23._--Better news from Rosecrans. The stubbornness of the troops, the stubbornness of General Thomas saved the day. Reinforcements join Rosecrans now. But why not previous to the battle? If Rosecrans had had men enough on the 19th and 20th, then Bragg would have been broken, and the rebels almost on their last legs. But perhaps such glory and victory are not needed! Hurrah for Lincoln!

_September 24._--Many of Mr. Lincoln's partisans admit that at the most favorable calculation, the results obtained up to to-day by the war and by emancipation, could easily have been obtained by a smaller expenditure of life, blood, money and time, if any will, and foresight, and energy presided at the helm. And, nevertheless, hurrah for Lincoln! And the highest destinies of the principle of self-government to again be trusted in such hands!

_September 24._--How could Meade let Lee send troops to Bragg, and why Meade attacked or attacks not? Those rebel generals show but little consideration for our commanders, and it would be curious to know what Lee and his companions think of our Marses. It seems that a conception of a plan of campaign or of a military operation is altogether beyond the reach of Meade's _cerebellum_. As commander of a division, of a corps, Meade had _dash in him_--he lost all when elevated above the level.

I am sure that Stanton urges or urged Meade to do something, without telling him how or where. Had Lincoln, had Halleck meddled? If so, Meade ought to tell it. The best to do for a commander of the Army of the Potomac is to keep his secrets to himself and have in his confidence only his chief-of-staff--not to tell them to any one in the camp, and still less to any one in Washington. But it seems that Meade had no plan whatever in view, and had no secrets to keep or to tell.

_September 25._--It is to-day exactly a week since Rosecrans was attacked. At the head-quarters they ought to have known Rosecrans' force, and the imperative, the paramount necessity of reinforcing him in time, as they _ought_ to have known that Lee sent to Bragg a part of his army. But probably the precious head of the head-quarters is confused by some translation, or by reading proof-sheets instead of reports. By simply looking on the map, the head-quarters--perhaps headless--ought to have found out that Chattanooga and Atlanta are the keys of the black country, and that the rebels--who neither write silly books nor translate--will concentrate all available forces to stop Rosecrans's advance, and eventually to crush him. Weeks ago the head-quarters ought to have reinforced Rosecrans; it is done to-day, a week after the defeat. Hurrah for Lincoln, who sustains a Halleck!

One of the most cautious men that I met in life, and who is in a position to be well informed, in the most cautious and distant manner suggested to me that Rosecrans is obnoxious to the head-quarters, and that in G street, Washington, they may have wished to see Rosecrans worsted.

Hurrah for Lincoln! Halleck is his true prophet!

Shake an apple tree, and the foul fruit falls down; and so it is with Halleck's western military combinations. All the army of Grant running dispersed on centrifugal radii, Burnside sent in a direction opposite to Rosecrans. Bravo, Halleck! You outdo McClellan!

_September 25._--It seems that with a little, a very little dash, we could go in the rear of Lee, who is weakened by sending troops to crush Rosecrans. But we have given Lee time to fortify his position, and of course we will wait until Lee is again strong, either by position or by numbers. Then we march a few miles onwards, more miles backwards, and what not? What splendid combinations coruscate from the head-quarters here, or in the army! Cæsar, Napoleon, Frederick, bow your heads in dust before our great captains!

_September 26._--It seems that at Chattanooga the rebels massed their infantry in columns _per_ battalion, and Crittenden's and McCook's troops could not withstand the attack. It was not at West Point that the rebel generals learned the like continental tactics. It seems that the rebels like to learn.

_September 27._--In defence of the _Franklinade_ at the Sabine Pass, it is alleged that the expedition had bad old vessels, and was poorly fitted out. Then why make it? It is a crime in this country to complain of any want of material and of bad vessels--provided no one steals thereby. In America, not to have an adequate material? What an infamous slander on the most industrious people! Not material, but brains, or something else are not adequate. But, of course, it is nobody's fault, and nobody will be taken to account.

_September 29._--Hooker is to have a command, and to supersede Burnside. Probably again a separate command. If generals refuse to serve under each other, under the plea of seniority, at once expel such _recalcitrant_ generals from the service; better and younger men will be found. The French Convention beheaded such generals, not on paper, but physiologically. The French Directory was not a master of honesty or energy, but it had sufficient energy to select Napoleon, twenty-six years old, over the heads of older generals, and put him in command of the Army of the Alps, which in his hands became the Army of Italy. And as long as the world shall stand, the consequences of that violation of the rule of seniority will not be forgotten.

_September 29._--General Thomas ought to have the command, if Rosecrans failed, but not Hooker or Butterfield.

Halleck's _officina_ of military incongruities and to unmilitary combinations ought to be shut up, and the occupants sent about the world. The War Department and the President would get better advice from the young Colonels in the Department, and around Stanton, than it gets from all that concern in G street.

_September 29._--The papers say that all over Europe and the rest of the world Seward _ex officio_ scatters Sumner's Cooper Institute oration. Well may Seward do it. Sumner suppressed true events, not to hurt Seward.

Now Sumner will find Seward an admirable statesman.

_September 30._--The suspension of the _habeas corpus_ makes great noise. It was emphatically necessary. But it would not have been emphatically, indeed not in the least necessary, if the domestic and war policy were different. Then the people would not have been disheartened. If the people's holy enthusiasm--so dreaded in Washington--were not so sacrilegiously misused and squandered, volunteers would be forthcoming.

_September 30._--If Lincoln-Halleck could create a military department on the moon, they would instantly send thither some troops and a major-general, so strong is their passion to break up the armies into fragmentary bodies.

_September 30._--If this war has already devoured or destroyed three hundred thousand men in dead, crippled, and disabled in various ways, then the responsibility is to be divided as follows:

_a_ 100,000 lost by the policy initiated by Lincoln, Seward, Scott.

_b_ 100,000 to be credited to McClellan and Halleck's military combinations; Halleck by half with Lincoln.

_c_ 100,000 to be credited to the war itself.

_September 30._--England mends her ways, and stops the arming of vessels for the rebels. The _Decembriseur_ more and more treacherous--as a matter of course.

_September 30._--I understand now, what I never could understand in Europe. I understand how an all polluting power can force into alliance men of strong convictions, but of the most deadly opposite social and political extremes. Such extremes meet in the wish to put an end to a power whom they hate and despise.

OCTOBER, 1863.

Aghast -- Firing -- Supported -- Russian Fleet -- Opposition -- Amor scelerated -- Cautious -- Mastiffs -- _Grande guerre_ -- Manoeuvring -- Tambour battant -- Warning, etc., etc., etc.

_October 1._--Rosecrans, Bragg, Lee, Meade, Gilmore, Dahlgren and the iron-clads keep the nation breathless aghast. A terrible and painful lull. The politicians furiously continue their mole-like work; election, re-election is inscribed on the mole hills.

_October 2._--Chase men fire into Blair's men, and Blair's men are supposed to be Lincoln's men. The skirmishing, the scouting before the battle. But the day of battle is yet far off, and the proverb, "many a slip," etc., may yet save the nation from becoming a prey of politicians.

_October 3._--News arrives that reinforcements sent from here reached Rosecrans. For the first time the troops have been forwarded with such rapidity. The War Department has brought almost to perfection the system of transportation of large bodies. The head-quarters, who combine, decide and direct the movements, the distribution, and the scattering of troops all over the country could have therefore ordered the troops to Rosecrans, and the War Department would have rapidly forwarded them there. And if Grant's army was not broken, and he himself virtually shelved or neutralized--if he had marched towards Georgia, Secession would have been compressed to two or three States; Bragg crushed, Alabama and Georgia rescued! Hurrah for Lincoln-Halleck.

_October 4._--The Russian fleet evokes an unparalleled enthusiasm in New York, and all over the country. _Attrappez_ treacherous England and France! The Russian Emperor, the Russian Statesman Gortschakoff, and the whole Russian people held steadfast and nobly to the North, to the cause of right and of freedom. Diplomatic bickerings here could not destroy the genuine sympathy between the two nations.

_October 4._--The probable majority in the next Congress is the great object of present calculation and speculation. The Administration seems to be of the opinion, that a small republican majority will do as well, because it will be more compact and more easily to be played upon. God save the country from a majority _twistable_ by the Administration! If the majority is small, then it may be unable to drag such dead-weight as was the Administration directed by its master spirit.

The Administration ought to be dusted and pruned. This Administration especially needs to be shaken and kept always on the _qui vive_ by an honest and a patriotic opposition. The opposition made by Copperheads is neither honest nor patriotic. Opposition is a vital element of parliamentary government; and as by a curse, the opposition here is made not to acts of the Administration--the Copperheads wish to throttle the principle which inspires the best part of the people. If it was possible to have an opposition strong enough to control the misdeeds of the Administration, to serve for the Administration as a telescope to penetrate space, and as a microscope to find out the vermin: if such an opposition could be built up, it would have forced the Administration to act vigorously and decidedly, it could have preserved the Administration from repeated violations of the rules of common sense, and in certain Administrative brains the opposition could have kindled sagacity and farsightedness:--such counterpoise would have spared thousands and thousands of lives, and thousands of millions of money.

_October 6._--Meade will retreat or already retreats. The choice of the army, Meade, has not yet greatly justified itself. And Meade, too, builds up in the army a clique of generals, and therein Meade begins to imitate McClellan. Likewise McClellan seems to have been Meade's model at Williamsport, and, McClellan-like, Meade has wasted precious time.

And thus the month of October sees us on the defensive on the whole line, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. After two and a half years of military misdirection, of rivers of blood, of mines of money--there we are.

Hurrah for Lincoln and for his apostles!

_October 6._--How the world's history is handled, twisted, and _bungled_. Wiseacres put history on the rack to evidence their own ignorance. The one invokes England's example during Wellington's expedition to Spain, as if that war in the Peninsula had been a civil war, and England's integrity, national independence, and political institutions had been endangered. And another compares this war to the civil wars of Rome, and censures the impatience of those who wish for more energy in the Administration. Do the wiseacres wish for an

Altera jam teritur bellis civilibus ætas.

Others point to Cæsar, and forget that Cæsar fought almost in person everywhere, in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Great commanders-in-chief point out to their subordinates the example of Napoleon and of Frederick visiting their pickets. Yes, great military scholars! Frederick and Napoleon visited the pickets when their armies faced--nay, when they almost touched the lines of the enemy. But Frederick and Napoleon were with the armies--they were in the tents, and directed not the movements of armies from a well warmed and cosy room or office.