in the document itself. Two or three paragraphs in this letter (dated July 7, 1862, and published at length in the writer's last official report) will serve to show its quality:

Our cause must never be abandoned; it is the cause of free institutions and self-government. The Constitution and the Union must be preserved, whatever may be the cost in time, treasure, and blood. If secession is successful, other dissolutions are clearly to be seen in the future. Let neither military disaster, political faction, nor foreign war shake your settled purpose to enforce the equal operation of the laws of the United States upon the people of every State. The time has come when the Government must determine upon a civil and military policy, covering the whole ground of our National trouble..

This rebellion has assumed the character of a war; as such it should be regarded, and it should be conducted upon the highest principles known to Christian civilization. It should not be a war looking to the subjugation of the people of any State, in any event. It should not be at all a war upon population, but against armed forces and political organizations. Neither confiscation of property, political executions of persons, territorial organization of States, or forcible abolition of slavery should be contemplated for a moment.

...

Unless the principles governing the future conduct of our struggle shall be made known and approved, the effort to obtain requisite forces will be almost hopeless. A declaration of radical views, especially upon slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present armies. The policy of the Government must be supported by concentrations of military power. The National forces should not be dispersed in expeditions, posts of occupation, and numerous armies, but should be mainly collected into masses, and brought to bear upon the armies of the Confederate States. Those armies thoroughly defeated, the political structure which they support would soon cease to exist.

From time to time, Gen. McClellan continued to urge the policy of preparing his army to advance on Richmond from its present position. He called for reënforcements, asking a concentration under his command of "every thing we can possibly spare from less important points, to make sure of crushing the enemy at Richmond, which seems clearly to be the most important point in rebeldom." The President visited Harrison's Landing on the 8th of July, and in company with the Com

manding General, reviewed the Army of the Potomac. For an entire month, scarcely so much as a reconnoissance in force occurred to break the monotony of life in that unhealthy locality. On the 30th, Gen. Halleck suggested that the enemy at Richmond be pressed, to ascertain the strength of his force there. Finally, on the 4th of August, one day after being ordered to prepare for a prompt withdrawal to Acquia Creek, the divisions of Hooker and Sedgwick, by order of Gen. McClellan, advanced and turned Malvern Hill, causing the Rebel force which had occupied that position to retreat toward Richmond. Col. Averill, on the evening of the 5th, returned from a cavalry reconnoissance in the direction of Savage's Station, and McClellan announced: "Our troops have advanced twelve miles in one direction, and seventeen in another, toward Richmond to-day." Meanwhile, he had commenced sending off his sick and disabled soldiers, as directed by Gen. Halleck, on the 30th of July-the order being repeated, with emphasis, on the 2d of August. On the 6th, he was ordered to send, "immediately," a regiment of cavalry and several batteries of artillery to Burnside's command at Acquia Creek. Instead of promptly complying with this order, Gen. McClellan returned a dispatch offering reasons for non-compliance, and promising to "obey the order as soon as circumstances permit." It was partly complied with a day or two later.

From the 3d of August, when he was directed to take "immediate measures" for withdrawing his army from the Peninsula, Gen. McClellan earnestly resisted this order, until, on the 6th, he was definitively informed: "The order will not be rescinded, and you will be expected to execute it with all possible promptness." Gen. Halleck, who had not determined on this course, until he had visited Gen. McClellan in camp, respectfully considered the views presented against it, and wrote him at length, assigning the following, among other reasons, for the policy adopted:

You and your officers at our interview estimated the enemy's forces in and around Richmond at 200,000 men. Since then, you and others report that they have received, and are receiving, large re-enforcements from the South. Gen. Pope's army,

covering Washington, is only about 40,000. Your effective force is only about 90,000. You are thirty miles from Richmond, and Gen. Pope, eighty or ninety, with the enemy directly between you, ready to fall with his superior numbers upon one or the other, as he may elect; neither can re-enforce the other in case of such an attack.

-If Gen. Pope's army be diminished to re-enforce you, Washington, Maryland and Pennsylvania would be left uncovered and exposed. If your force be reduced to strengthen Pope, you would be too weak to even hold the position you now occupy, should the enemy turn round and attack you in full force. In other words, the old Army of the Potomac is split into two parts, with the entire force of the enemy directly between them. They can not be united by land without exposing both to destruction, and yet they must be united. To send Pope's forces by water to the Peninsula is, under present circumstances, a military impossibility. The only alternative is to send the forces on the Peninsula to some point by water, say Fredericksburg, where the two armies can be united. * *

But you will reply, why not re-enforce me here, so that I can strike Richmond from my present position? To do this, you said, at our interview, that you required 30,000 additional troops. I told you that it was impossible to give you so many. You finally thought you would have some chance of success with 20,000. But you afterward telegraphed me that you would require 35,000, as the enemy was being largely reenforced.

If your estimate of the enemy's strength was correct, your requisition was perfectly reasonable; but it was utterly impossible to fill it until new troops could be enlisted and organized, which would require several weeks.

To keep your army in its present position until it could be so re-enforced, would almost destroy it in that climate.

The months of August and September are almost fatal to whites who live on that part of James river; and even after you received the re-enforcements asked for, you admitted that you must reduce Fort Darling and the river batteries before you could advance on Richmond.

It is by no means certain that the reduction of these fortifications would not require considerable time—perhaps as much as those at Yorktown.

This delay might not only be fatal to the health of your army, but in the mean time Gen. Pope's forces would be exposed to the heavy blows of the enemy without the slightest hope of assistance from you.

In regard to the demoralizing effect of a withdrawal from

the Peninsula to the Rappahannock, I must remark that a large number of your highest officers, indeed a majority of those whose opinions have been reported to me, are decidedly in favor of the movement. Even several of those who originally advocated the line of the Peninsula, now advise its abandonment.

This final decision was telegraphed to McClellan on the 6th. Pope's situation on the Rapidan, as already seen, was becoming critical, and yet, on the 9th, Gen. Halleck found occasion to telegraph as follows:

WASHINGTON, August 9, 1862, 12.45 P. M.

I am of the opinion that the enemy is massing his forces in front of Gens. Pope and Burnside, and that he expects to crush them and move forward to the Potomac.

You must send re-enforcements instantly to Acquia Creek. Considering the amount of transportation at your disposal, your delay is not satisfactory. You must move with all possible celerity. H. W. HALLECK, Major-General.

Maj.-Gen. G. B. MCCLELLAN.

He received in reply: "There has been no unnecessary delay, as you assert-not an hour's-but every thing has been and is being pushed as rapidly as possible to carry out your orders." On the 10th, a full week after the original order, Gen. Halleck again telegraphed: "The enemy is crossing the Rapidan in large force. They are fighting Gen. Pope to-day. There must be no further delay in your movements. That which has already occurred was entirely unexpected, and must be satisfactorily explained." The chief excuse for this delay was the want of sufficient transportation. He had not yet disposed of even the sick-a work required to be at once proceeded with, as early as the 30th of July. But even this imperfect explanation is set aside by Gen. Halleck in the following reply, (August 12th): "The Quartermaster General informs me that nearly every available steam vessel in the country is now under your control. ... Burnside moved nearly 13,000 troops to Acquia Creek in less than two days, and his transports were immediately sent back to you. All the vessels in the James river and the Chesapeake Bay were placed at your disposal

and it was supposed that eight or ten thousand of your men could be transported daily. . There has been, and is, the most urgent necessity for dispatch, and not a single moment must be lost in getting additional troops in front of Washington." Gen. McClellan again asseverates, in reply, that he is doing all he can, and actually says, (August 12th), nine days after the order to move: "If Washington is in danger now, this army can scarcely arrive in time to save it; it is in much better position to do so from here than from Acquia."

one via

Two or three days later, in a dispatch dated August 14, 11 P. M., McClellan at length announced: "Movement has commenced by land and water. All sick will be away to-morrow night" the "movement" referred to being, as he states in his final report, that "of the main army." At noon on the 15th, we find him saying: "Two of my army corps marched last night and this morning en route for Yorktown Jones' Bridge, and the other via Barrett's Ferry, where we have a pontoon bridge. The other corps will be pushed forward as fast as the roads are clear; and I hope before to-morrow morning to have the entire army in motion." In a word, under the most urgent orders to hasten to Washington, at a time of imminent danger, nearly two weeks expire before the march is commenced. The remainder of the movement was executed in accordance with this beginning.

On the 21st, eighteen days after the order to move was given, Gen. Halleck sends the following to McClellan, then at Fortress Monroe: "The forces of Burnside and Pope are hard pushed, and require aid as rapidly as you can send it. Come yourself as soon as you can. By all means, see that the troops sent have plenty of ammunition. We have no time here to supply them. Moreover, they may have to fight as soon as they land." McClellan replied: "I have ample supplies of ammunition for infantry and artillery, and will have it up in time. I can supply any deficiency that may exist in Gen. Pope's army." Leaving the corps of Gen. Keyes to occupy Yorktown, and Sumner's corps waiting for transportation, the remainder of the troops having at length embarked, McClellan sailed from Fortress Monroe for Acquia Creek on the evening of August 23, and reported from that