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action of the President and his counsellors, and it was ominously doubtful whether the navy department, which had never been able to clear the Potomac of the enemy's batteries, would be able to fulfil its promise of neutralizing the Merrimac and opening the James River to the expedition. Mr. Assistant Secretary Tucker, however, was vigorously pushing forward the transportation service, and much might still be done if but an ordinary dependence could be placed upon the good faith and the intelligence of the government.

A council of generals was held at Fairfax Court House March 13th, at which it was agreed that if the Merrimac could be neutralized and the transportation service speedily put in readiness, the operations against Richmond from the base of Fortress Monroe should at once be commenced.

The proceedings of this council were submitted to the new commander-in-chief, the President, by whom they were approved, upon condition that "Washington should be made entirely safe, and Manassas Junction occupied in sufficient force to prevent the return of the rebels;" the said rebels, as General Stoneman had discovered, having burned the railroad bridges, by the help of which they might have returned to Manassas Junction had they been so minded.

Manassas was occupied for the time by a part of General Sumner's corps, and before this force was relieved at the end of March the reconnoissances of its commander had revealed the fact that the Rappahannock bridge had been blown up by the rebels, and the line of the Rappahannock and Manassas Gap Railway thus left secure from any important menace by the enemy.

On the 16th of March General McClellan issued his instructions to General Banks for holding Manassas Junction and covering the line of the Potomac River and Washington.

A force of the enemy under General Stonewall Jackson, which had occupied Winchester at the time of the evacuation of Manassas, fell back before the advance of General Banks's

troops, and pursued by General Shields, had retreated, by the 19th of March, to a point twenty miles south of Strasburg. In accordance with General McClellan's instructions of the 16th, General Banks concentrated on Manassas; Jackson returned upon his steps, and on the 23rd suffered a severe defeat at Winchester, after which he made the best of his way southward again. Had the instructions given to General Banks and Colonel Alexander, of the engineers, by General McClellan been followed out after this, not only would Manassas have been placed in such a condition for defence as to have prevented General Pope's disaster of August, 1862, but the Union forces would probably have been enabled to hold the Shenandoah country completely clear of the enemy. How it came to pass that they were not so followed out we shall presently see. The defences of Washington were committed to Brigadier-General Wadsworth.

The true defence of Washington, as General McClellan maintained, and as the subsequent course of events has abundantly proved lay in the energetic and successful prosecution of the expedition against Richmond. Washington had been surrounded, during the summer and autumn of 1861, with numerous and strong fortifications. It had become, indeed, a fortified capital, such a capital as Napoleon declared could always be defended with a force of 50,000 men against an attack by an army of 300,000 men, or by a force, that is, standing to the assailants in the proportion of one to six.

*

For the immediate garrison of Washington General McClel lan provided a force of 18,000 men with 32 guns.* As the strongest force of the enemy which ever made its appearance in Northern Virginia during the Peninsula campaign, was General Jackson's movable column of, at the most, 20,000 men; and as the forces left by General McClellan in the Shenandoah and at Maryland amounted to between 50 and 60,000

* Report of General Barry, Chief of Artillery, contradicting statement of Hon. Z. Chandler, in the United States Senate.

men, with more than 70 guns, it would seem that the President's anxiety in regard to the safety of Washington might well have been laid to rest.

So in fact it seemed to be until after General McClellan had taken his departure for the Peninsula, when it blazed up anew and with fatal consequences to the cause and army of the Union.

On the 1st of April, 1862, General McClellan embarked, with his headquarters, at Alexandria, and reached Fortress Monroe the next day.

A few days before his embarkation, General McClellan had met the President by appointment, and had been informed by him that a strong "pressure" had been brought to bear at Washington to procure the detachment of General Blenker's division of 10,000 men from the Army of the Potomac, in order that it might be attached to the department of General Fremont. "His excellency was good enough," says General McClellan, "to suggest several reasons for not taking Blenker's division from me." I assented to the force of his suggestions, and was extremely gratified by his decision to allow the division to remain with the Army of the Potomac." The command in the Shenandoah Valley, however, was however now given to General Fremont, who thus became responsible for the fortunes of the startling campaign shortly afterwards carried on against the Union troops in that region by General Stonewall Jackson.

On the very day before he left Alexandria the following note was handed to General McClellan :

MAJOR-GENERAL MCCLELLAN.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,
WASHINGTON, March 31, 1862.

MY DEAR SIR:-This morning I felt constrained to order Blenker's division to Fremont; and I write this to assure you that I did so with great pain, understanding that you would wish it otherwise. If you could know the full pressure of the

case, I am confident you would justify it, even beyond a mere acknowledgment, that the commander-in-chief may order what he pleases.

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To this imperial statement of the "master of all the legions" of the Union what reply could be made?

"I answered in substance," observes General McClellan, “that I regretted the order, and could ill-afford to lose 10,000 troops, which had been counted upon in forming my plan of campaign, but as there was no remedy I would yield, and do the best I could without them. In a conversation with the President a few hours afterwards, I repeated verbally the same thing, and, expressed my regret that Blenker's division had been given to Fremont, from any 'pressure' other than the requirements of the national exigency. I was partially relieved, however, by the President's positive and emphatic assurance. that I might leave, confident that no more troops beyond these 10,000 should, in any event, be taken from me, or in any way detached from my command.'

This was on the 31st of March.

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On the night of the 3d of April a telegram from the adjutant-general reached General McClellan, at Fortress Monroe, to inform him that, "by order of the President," he was deprived of all control over General Wool and his division of 10,000 men at Fortress Monroe, and its dependencies. Besides the reduction of force entailed by this order, it took away from General McClellan the command of his own base of operations.

"Of the causes which led to this order," says General McClellan in his report, "I am to this day ignorant," and as not even Mr. Lincoln's biographer has thought it best to throw any light upon them, the student of this extraordinay history is left to conjectures which can hardly lead him very far wrong.

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One immediate and most disastrous result of this act of the commander-in-chief who could order what he pleased," was to deprive the Army of the Potomac of all accurate and authoritative means of information as to the enemy in its front, their force and their positions. General McClellan could obtain no maps; he learned that General Magruder "held Yorktown, but with how many troops General Wool could not pretend to say.

In the New-York Times of April 5th, 1862, General Wool is made to telegraph to the war department, "The Army of the Potomac will not find many rebels to fight in its front."

In the same journal of April 6th, 1862, General Wool is made to telegraph, that General Magruder "has 30,000 men.” Nothing was known at Fortress Monroe of the formidable lines of the enemy across the Warwick River.

Reconnoissances were pushed forward at once, and the advance began on the 4th of April. The roads were in a terrible state. On reaching Lee's Mills, which he had been instructed to carry, General Keyes discovered the strength of the positions on the Warwick, found they could not be carried, and was brought to a stand.

Almost at this moment the following telegram reached General McClellan :

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
April 4th, 1862.

GEN. MCCLELLAN:

By direction of the President, General McDowell's army corps has been detached from the force under your immediate command; and the general is ordered to report to the secretary of war; letter by mail.

L. THOMAS,

Adj't-Gen.

A new department, that of the Rappahannock, had been cre ated for General McDowell!

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