Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862 Part 15

The more the events complicate, the more they require a powerful, all-embracing mind, but in the same proportion subside Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Seward, Mr. Weed, and all the rest of the great men. Alone the people and their true men subside not.

Poor McDowell suffers for the sins of others-above all, for those of Mr. Lincoln and of his aulic council. He is internally broken down, but behaves n.o.bly; not as does this poor Fremont, whose disappearance from the military scene cannot and must not be regretted. He is not a military capacity; he was again badly surrounded, and his last battle was fought at random, without any unity. I spoke about it with various foreign officers serving under him, and all agree in the incapacity of Fremont and of his staff.

Gen. Pope, a man for the circ.u.mstances, acted well in the West; at last a new man.

McClellan inaugurated new tactics. It is to approach the enemy's army by parallels and by trenches. He will not take or scare the enemy, but he will immortalize his name far above the immortality of all not great generals.

Night and day ambulances are conveying the sick and wounded here, and large numbers, thousands upon thousands, going north. One must cry tears of blood to witness such destruction, such a sacrifice of the n.o.blest people on the shrine of utter military incapacity. And the traitors, the imbeciles, and the intriguers sing hallelujah to McClellan, and daily throw their slime at Stanton.

From time to time rumors and complaints are made concerning the ill-will or disloyalty of some of the employes in the Departments. The explanation thereof may be that some of the thus called old fogies, above all in the War Department, may be unfriendly to the war without being disloyal. Such venerables took root in comfortable situations; they slowly trod in the easy path of rusty and musty routine, and at once the war shook them to the bone, exposing the incapacity and the inefficiency of many; it forced upon them the horror of cogitandi about new matters, and an amount of daily duties to be performed in offices which formerly equalled sinecures. Further, these relics dread to be superseded by more active and intelligent men; and inde irae.

JULY, 1862.

Intervention - The cursed fields of the Chickahominy - t.i.tanic fightings, but no generals.h.i.+p - McClellan the first to reach James river - The Orleans leave - July 4th, the gloomiest since the birth of the republic - Not reinforcements, but brains, wanted; and brains not transferable! - The people run to the rescue - Rebel tactics - Lincoln does not sacrifice Stanton - McClellan not the greatest culprit - Stanton a true statesman - The President goes to James river - The Union as it was, a throttling nightmare! - A man needed! - Confiscation bill signed - Congress adjourned - Mr. Dicey - Halleck, the American Carnot - Lincoln tries to neutralize the confiscation bill - Guerillas spread like locusts.

When at epochs of great social convulsions events and circ.u.mstances put certain individuals into an eminent or elevated position, their names become intertwined with the great epoch. In the eyes of the ma.s.ses and of the vulgar observers, such names acquire a high importance on account of the commonly made confusion between circ.u.mstances and personal merit, and, moonlight-like, such names reverberate not their own, but a borrowed splendor. Thus much for the official pilots of this great people.

The usual paroxysm of the foreign intervention fever. It ought to be so easy to understand, that out of self-respect foreign powers will not risk any intervention on paper; and to make an effective intervention a hundred thousand men will be necessary, as the first course. For such a service no foreign power is prepared. Intervention is silly talk. McClellan and all kinds of his supporters do more for the South than could England and France united.

It was a poor trick to gather by telegraph the signatures of the governors for an offer of troops to the President. It was done for effect in Europe; but events seem to have a grudge against Mr. Seward; the same steamer carried over the Atlantic the news of our defeats in the Chickahominy swamps.

To attempt a change of such an extensive basis as was occupied by our army under the eyes of a daring, able, skilful enemy, in a country wooded and marshy, and without roads! This movement was perhaps necessary, and could not be avoided; but why at the start had such a basis been selected? Such a selection made disasters inevitable, and they followed.

All kinds of accounts pour in from these cursed fields of the Chickahominy. Foreign officers-whose veracity I can believe-speak enthusiastically of the undaunted bravery of the volunteers and of their generals; but a general generals.h.i.+p was not to be found during those t.i.tanic fightings. What I gathered from the suite of the Orleans is, that Gen. McClellan was totally confused, was totally ignorant of the condition of the corps, was never within distance to give or to be asked for orders, and was the first to reach the banks of the James and to sleep on board the gunboat Galena. At Winchester, Banks in person covered the retreat.

The Orleans left. I pity them; they will be hooted in Europe. They shared some of McClellan's fallacious and petty notions, and very likely they have been gulled by the McClellan-Seward expectations of taking Richmond before July 4th.

Gen. Hunter's letter about fugitive slaves, and rebels fugitive from the flag of the Union, is the n.o.blest contra distinction. No rhetor could have invented it. Hang yourselves, oh rhetors!

July 4th.-The gloomiest since the birth of this republic. Never was the country so low, and after such sacrifices of blood, of time, and of money; and all this slaughtered to that Juggernaut of strategy, and to the ign.o.ble motley of his supporters.

Oh you widows, bereaved mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, cry for vengeance! Cry for vengeance, you shadows of the dead of the malaria, or fallen in the defence of your country's honor. Stupidity has stabbed in the back more deadly wounds than did the enemy in front. This is the 4th of July. Oh! my old heart and my, not weak, mind are bursting with grief.

The people, the ma.s.ses, sacrifice their blood, their time, their fortune. What sacrifice the official leaders and pilots? All is net gain for them. Thousands and thousands of families will be impoverished for life, nay, for generations. It is those nameless heroes on the fields of battle who alone uphold the honor of the American name, as it is the people at large who have the true statesmans.h.i.+p, and not the appointed guardsmen.

Rats, hounds, all the vermin, all the impure beasts, are after Stanton, for his not having sent reinforcements to McClellan; but none existed, and McClellan has exhausted and devoured all the reserves. Not reinforcements, but brains, were wanted, and brains are not transferable.

The people, sublime, runs again to the rescue, and Mr. Seward is so sacrilegious, so impious, as to say that the people is generally slow. He is fast on the road of confusion.

I am sure that the whole movement and attack of the rebels was made, as it could be made, at the utmost with 60,000 to 70,000 men, if even with such a number. The rebels never attacked our whole line, but always threw superior forces on some weak and isolated point. This the rebels did during the last battles. The rebels showed great generals.h.i.+p. Jackson is already the legendary hero, and deserves to be.

McClellan never attacked, but always was surprised and forced to fight, so the rebels were sure that he would not dare anything to counteract and counter-manuvre their daring; so the rebel generals had perfect ease for the execution of their bold but skilful plans.

Lincoln sacrifices not Stanton, not even to Seward, to Blair, and to the slaveocrats in Congress. That is something.

McClellan publishes a pompous order of the day for the 4th of July, and apes the phraseology of Napoleon's bulletins from times when by a blow Napoleon overthrew empires.

What I can gather from the accounts of the seven days' fighting is, that during the battle at Gaines' Mills (to speak technically), positively the whole army was without any basis. But traitors, imbeciles and intriguers rend the air and the skies with their praises of the great strategy and of the brilliant generals.h.i.+p.

I am aware how difficult it will be to convince the heroic army-that is, its rank and file-that their disasters result from want of generals.h.i.+p, and not from any inferiority in numbers. All over the world incapable commanders raise the outcry of deficiency in numbers to cover therewith their personal deficiency of brains. Similar events to McClellan's wails, and the confusion they create in the armies and in the people, are nothing new in the history of wars.

A fleet of gunboats covers the army on the James river. Once McClellan condescendingly boasted that he would take care of the gunboats. The worst is, that these gunboats could have done service against Charleston, Mobile, Savannah, etc.

After all, McClellan is not the greatest culprit. It is not his fault that he is without military brains and without military capacity. He tried to do the best, according to his poor intellect. The great, eternally-to-be-d.a.m.ned malefactors are those who kept him in command after having had repeated proofs of his incapacity; and still greater are those const.i.tutional advisers who supported McClellan against the outcry of the best in the Cabinet and in the nation. A time may come when the children of those malefactors will be ashamed of their fathers' names, and-curse them.

I have not scorn enough against the revilers and accusers of Stanton. If Stanton could have had his free will, far different would be the condition of affairs. Stanton's first appearance put an end to the prevailing lethargy, and marked a new and glorious era. But, ah! how short! The rats and the vermin were afraid of him, and took shelter behind the incarnated strategy. Stanton embraced and embraces the ensemble of the task and of the field before him. And this politician, Blair, to be his critic! If Stanton had been left undisturbed in the execution of his duties as the Secretary of War, McClellan would have been obliged to march directly to Richmond, and the brainless strategy in the Peninsula would have been crushed in the bud. If Stanton had not been undermined, not only the people would have been saved from terrible disasters, but McClellan, Lincoln, Seward, and Blair would have been saved from reproaches and from malediction.

Stanton likewise shows himself to be a true statesman. A Democrat in politics, he very likely never was such a violent and decided opponent of slavery as the Sewards and Blairs professed to be throughout their whole lives. But now Stanton pierces the fog, perceives the unavoidable exigencies, and is an emanc.i.p.ationist, when the Sewards and the Blairs try to compromise, nay, virtually to preserve slavery.

July 10th.-The rebels won time to increase and gather their forces from the south. McClellan's army may not prevent their turning against Pope, who has too small a body to resist or to cover the whole line from Fredericksburg to the Shenandoah. If the rebels attack Pope he must retreat and concentrate before Was.h.i.+ngton; and then again begins the uphill work. The people generally pour in blood, time and money; but brains, brains are needed, and, without violating the formulas, the people cannot inaugurate brains. Whatever the people may do, the same quacks and bunglers will over again commit the same blunders. Nothing can teach a little foresight to the helmsman and to some of his seconds. Rocked by his imagination, Mr. Seward never sees clearly the events before him and what they generate.

The call for three hundred thousand men will be responded to. The men will come; but will statesmans.h.i.+p and generals.h.i.+p come with them? I am afraid that the rebels, operating with promptness and energy, may give no time to the levies to be fully organized; the rebels will press on Was.h.i.+ngton.

McClellan reports to the President that he has only 50,000 men left. The President goes to James river, and finds 83,000 ready for action. Was it ignorance in McClellan, or his inborn disrespect of truth, or disrespect of the country, or something worse, that made him make such a report? And all this pa.s.ses, and Mr. Lincoln cannot hurt McClellan, although a gory shroud extends over the whole country.

A secretary of the French consul is here, and confirms my speculations concerning the numbers of the rebels in the last battles on the Chickahominy. The current and authoritative opinion in Richmond is, that from the Potomac to the Rio Grande the rebel force never exceeded 300,000 men. If so, the more glory; and it must be so, according to the rational a.n.a.lysis of statistics.

Mr. Seward writes a skilful dispatch to explain the battles on the Chickahominy. But no skill can succeed to bamboozle the cold, clear-sighted European statesmen.

No doubt Mr. Seward sincerely wished to save the Union in his own way and according to his peculiar conception, and, after having accomplished it, disappear from the political arena, surrounded by the halo of national grat.i.tude.

But even for this aim of reconstruction of the Union as it was, Mr. Seward, at the start, took the wrong track, and took it because he is ignorant of history and of the logic in human affairs. To save the Union as it was, it was imperatively necessary to strike quick and crus.h.i.+ng blows, and to do this in May, June, etc., 1861. Mr. Seward could have realized then what now is only a throttling nightmare-the Union as it was. But Mr. Seward sustained a policy of delays and not of blows; the struggle protracts, and, for reasons repeatedly mentioned, the suppression of rebellion becomes more and more difficult, and the reconstruction of the old Union as it was a mirage of his imagination.

But it is not Thurlow Weed, and others of that stamp, who could enlighten Mr. Seward on such subjects-far, far above their vulgar and mean politicianism. It is now useless to accuse and condemn Congress for its so-called violence, as does Mr. Seward, and to a.s.sert that but for Congress he, Mr. Seward, would have long ago patched up the quarrel. The Congress may be as tame as a lamb, and as subject as a foot-sole. Mr. Seward may on his knees proffer to the rebels a compromise and the most stringent safeguards for slavery; to-day the rebels will spurn all as they would have spurned it during the whole year. The rebels will act as Mason did when in the Senate hall Mr. Seward asked the traitor to be introduced to Mr. Lincoln.

The country is in more need of a man than of the many hundreds of thousands of new levies.

Some time ago Mr. Seward gathered around him his devotees in Congress (few in number), and unveiled to them that n.o.body can imagine what superhuman efforts it cost him to avert foreign intervention. Very unnecessary demonstration, as he knows it well himself, and, if it gets into the papers, may turn out to be offensive to the two cabinets, as they give to Mr. Seward no reason for making such statements. Should England and France ever decide upon any such step, then Mr. Seward may write as a Cicero, have all the learning of a Hugo Grotius, of a Vattel, and of all other publicists combined; he may send legions of Weeds and Sandfords to Europe, and all this will not weigh a feather with the cabinets of London and of Paris.

Further, no foreign powers occasioned our defeats in the Chickahominy, but those who were enraptured with the Peninsula strategy.

Mr. Seward's letter to the great meeting in New York shows that not his patriotism, but his confidence in success, is slightly notched.

n.o.body doubts his patriotism; but Mr. Seward tried to shape mighty events into a mould after his not-over-gigantic mind, and now he frets because these events tear his sacrilegious hand.

After much opposition, vacillation, hesitation, and aversion, the President signed the confiscation and emanc.i.p.ation bill. A new evidence of how devotedly he wishes to avert any deadly blows from slavery,-this national shame.

The Congress adjourned after having done everything good, and what was in its power. It separated, leaving the country's cause in a worse condition than it was a year ago, after the Bull Run day. Many, nay, almost all the best members of both houses are fully aware in what hands they left the destinies of the nation. Many went away with despair in their hearts; but the const.i.tutional formula makes it impossible for them to act, and to save what so badly needs a savior.

Intervention fever again. The worst intervention is perpetrated at home by imbeciles, by intriguers, by traitors, and by the-spades.

Mr. Dicey, an Englishman who travelled or travels in this country,-Mr. D. is the first among his countrymen who understands the events here, and who is just toward the true American people;-Mr. D. truly says that the people fight without a general, and without a statesman, and are the more to be admired for it.

Mr. Seward tries to appear grand before the foreign diplomats, and talks about Cromwell, Louis Napoleon, coup d'etats against the Congress, and about his regrets to be in the impossibility to imitate them. Only think, Cromwell, Napoleon I., Napoleon III., Seward! Such dictatorial dreams may explain Mr. Seward's partiality for General McClellan, whom Seward may perhaps wish to use as Louis Napoleon used Gen. St. Arnoud.

Halleck is to be the American Carnot. But any change is an improvement. If Halleck extricates the army on the James river, and saves it from malaria,-this enemy more deadly than Jackson and McClellan combined,-then for this single action Halleck deserves well of the country, and his Corinth affair will, at least in part, be atoned for.

Mr. Lincoln makes a new effort to save his mammy, and tries to neutralize the confiscation bill. Mr. Lincoln will not make a step beyond what is called the Border-States' policy; and it may prove too late when he will decide to honestly execute the law of Congress. Mr. Seward gets into hysterics at the hateful name of Congress. Similar spite he showed to a delegation from the city of New York, upbraiding some of its members, and a.s.suring them that delegations are not needed,-that the administration is fully up to the task. Yes, Stanton is, but how about some others?