Hamilton states that "the great battle was won in one day's fight, routing the late victorious enemy."

Brigadier-General Francis Winthrop Palfrey, United States army, a friend of McClellan, writes in the Scribner Series Campaigns of the Civil War, page 64:

"General Lee reported his forces as less than 40,000, while his adjutant-general, Colonel Taylor, gives the exact number as 35.255;" and on page 65: "McClellan states in his official report that he had 87,164 men. Fourteen thousand of these, making a charge, were repulsed, staggered, reeled and recoiled in great disorder.”

On page 83, General Sumner writes:

"Hooker's Corps was not only repulsed, but gone, routed, dispersed. General Ricketts, the only officer we could find, said that he could not raise 300 men of the corps. Hooker had been wounded."

On page 69:

"There were six corps and the cavalry division of 4.320 men, in all 87,164 men. The First, Second, Ninth and Twelfth Corps did most of the fighting. The Fifth and Sixth (page 120) lost less than 600 men, while the total (page 117) loss in killed, wounded and missing was 12,469, which, with the exception of the 600, fell upon the First, Second, Ninth and Twelfth Corps (page 69), which had engaged a total of 56,614 men, McClellan reporting their loss as being 20 per cent."

General Hamilton states that "the Confederate loss was more than 18,000 men (an absurd estimate), with great loss of cannon, ammunition and colors; that they were routed at the bridge, which was held by Burnside."

On page 116, Palfrey states:

"The truth is that the Confederate batteries were extremely well taken care of by their infantry; as a rule they seldom lost a gun." Colonel Long's Life of General Lee states:

"About I o'clock the battle on the left ceased. The Federals had

been repulsed at every point. Then Burnside with 20,000 fresh troops forced the passage at the bridge and at the ford below. A. P. Hill, arriving with 4.500 men, delivered such destructive volleys that the Federals were forced to retire as suddenly as they appeared, recrossing the Antietam. Thus closed the battle. General Lee remained in position during the 18th prepared for battle."

Finally, Palfrey writes, page 119:

"Tactically the battle of the Antietam was a drawn battle, with the advantage inclining slightly to the side of the Federals, who gained some ground and took more trophies than they lost.

Confederates, however, held most of the ground on which they fought, and held it not only to the close of the battle, but for more than twenty-four hours after, and then retired unmolested and in good order."

Whether intentionally or not, the omission of all mention of General McClellan in the recent event at Antietam was most impolitic from a military, political or social standpoint. He was the general in command. It was his battle, and history will never permit a subordinate commander or any one else to steal the glory. He acted wisely in not attacking Lee on the 18th, for his defeat would have been certain. The position held was a strong one.

ALEXANDER ROBERT CHISHOLM,

Formerly Aid to General Beauregard.

[From the Baltimore Sun, January 11, 1904.]

MCCLELLAN FOR PEACE.

For the Restoration of the Union Against the Political Horde at Washington.

[The following is of interest in connection with the preceding articles.-ED.]

The following communication addressed to a gentleman in Baltimore, makes a very interesting contribution to the political history of the Civil War, to the effect that General McClellan in 1862 sought an interview with General Lee with the supposed purpose of making peace over the heads of the governments at Washington and Richmond :

BISHOP'S HOUSE, 222 EAST HARRIS STREET,
SAVANNAH, GA., January 3, 1904.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-Your letter of the 1st instant to hand. recollection of the conversation to which you refer is clear.

My

General Longstreet told me more than once that immediately after the battle at Sharpsburg, or Antietam, while he was in General Lee's tent, the General handed him a letter which he had just received from General McClellan, the commander of the Federal armies. General Lee gave General Longstreet a copy of the letter and asked him to give it his serious attention, and on the following morning advise him (General Lee) what he ought to do in the matter. The letter from General McClellan proposed an interview between himself and General Lee. General Longstreet said to me: "I told General Lee that in my judgment there was no other construction to be placed on it save one, and that was that General McClellan wanted to end the war then and there."

General Lee said: "That idea occurs to me also, but President Davis, and not General Lee, is the one to whom such a message must be sent."

General Longstreet took the letter to his own quarters, where he found General T. R. R. Cobb, of this State. He gave it to General Cobb, pledging him to observe secrecy with regard to it, but not saying a word as to the construction he placed on it.

After reading the letter attentively General Cobb said there was no doubt in his mind that General McClellan wanted General Lee to help in the restoration of the Union by marching to Washington with the combined forces. General Longstreet told me of the circumstances more than once, and always added that he thoroughly coincided in General Cobb's views, but that General Lee, for the reason stated, declined to meet General McClellan.

The copy which General Lee gave General Longstreet was sent, after the war, to Colonel Marshall. I tried to get it from Colonel Marshall, who told me he had mislaid it and could never find it. I do not know, of course, what became of the original letter.

I forgot to say that General Longstreet strongly advised General Lee to meet General McClellan in order that he might know definitely what McClellan wanted.

I have this moment heard of Longstreet's death Saturday at Gainesville. He often came to visit me when I lived in Atlanta, and we often talked of the war and its sequel.

I recall very distinctly a reply he made to me one day when I asked: "Well, General, you and I are both glad to-day that we have a united country, and perhaps in God's providence it is well that we were defeated, even though we were clearly in the right.”

"I do not believe in placing the blame on the Lord," said Long

street. "We ought to have whipped the Yankees, restored the Union and settled the negro question ourselves, but we are a big load to carry in some of our own leaders."

Very sincerely, your friend,

BENJAMIN J. KEILEY,

Bishop of Savannah, Ga.

[The conjecture to which the receipt of a letter by General Lee from General McClellan gave rise that it was desired by the latter to end the war by forcible means, ousting the politicians in control at Washington-is a very suggestive one. It is well-known that General McClellan distrusted the patriotism and good faith of the administration. He had not been supported with reinforcements at the critical moment in the operations in front of Richmond, and the failure of his peninsula campaign was due, in his opinion, to the unwillingness of the designing politicians at Washington to see a Democrat gain the prestige and political influence that a decisive victory at Richmond would have given him. His army had been virtually taken away from him after the "change of base" to James river, and given to Pope, with the result that it was badly beaten in the second battle of Manassas. Only when General Lee crossed the Potomac into Maryland and his advance upon Washington was feared, was General McClellan again placed in command to save the situation-which he did at Antietam by causing General Lee to recross the Potomac. Soon after that action General McClellan was again deprived of his command, for the reason, it was believed in 1862, that a general was wanted who preferred the success of the Republican party to the restoration of the Union. Whether this belief was or was not correct it is unnecessary to consider, but it is undeniable that in the presidential campaign of 1864 General McClellan was prevented by force and fraud from receiving the votes cast for him. In the earlier elections of 1862 on the "stop-the-war' issue a number of the leading Northern States gave large Democratic majorities. It was, therefore, not difficult for General Cobb and General Longstreet in 1862 to believe that in proposing an interview after the battle of Antietam General McClellan had it in mind to restore the Union by united action of the two chief armies, in defiance of politicians who were supposed to have only party interests in view.

General Lee, it will be noted, is said to have declined to meet General McClellan, so that it was not definitely ascertained what the

latter meant to discuss. The Confederate general was averse to dealing with political topics. General Sherman is said to have similarly declined an offer of a Governor of Georgia to initiate negotiations for the restoration of peace.-ED. Sun.]

[From the New Orleans Picayune, November 15, 1903.]

A CHAPTER OF HISTORY.

Written by Lieutenant-General Richard Taylor, a Short Time Before His Death.

HIS MEETING WITH GENERAL CANBY.

To write an impartial and unprejudiced account of exciting contemporary events has always been a difficult task. More especially is this true of civil strife, which, like family jars, evokes a peculiar flavor of bitterness.

But slight sketches of minor incidents, by actors and eye-witnesses, may prove of service to the future writer, who undertakes the more ambitious and severe duty of historian.

The following memoir pour servir has this object.

In the summer of 1864, after the close of the Red river campaign, I was ordered to cross the Mississippi and report my arrival on the east bank by telegraph to Richmond.

All the fortified forts on the river were held by the Federals, and the intermediate portions of the stream closely guarded by gunboats to impede and, if possible, prevent passage. This delayed the transmission of the order above mentioned until August, when I crossed at a point just above the mouth of the Red river.

On a dark night, in a small canoe, with horses swimming alongside, I got over without attracting the attention of a gunboat anchored a short distance below.

Woodville, Wilkinson county, Miss., was the nearest place in telegraphic communication with Richmond. Here, in reply to a dispatch to Richmond, I was directed to assume command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, etc., with headquarters at