General McClellan and the Conduct of the War

Front Cover
Sheldon, 1864 - 312 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 127 - That the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day for a general movement of the land and naval forces of the United States against the insurgent forces.
Page 214 - You will do me the justice to remember I always insisted that going down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only shifting and not surmounting a difficulty; that we would find the same enemy and the same or equal intrenchments at either place. The country will not fail to note — is noting now — that the present hesitation to move upon an intrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated.
Page 261 - ... nation. All points of secondary importance elsewhere should be abandoned, and every available man brought here. A decided victory here, and the military strength of the rebellion is crushed ; it matters not what partial reverses we may meet with elsewhere. Here is the true defense of Washington; it is here, on the banks of the James, that the fate of the Union should be decided.
Page 241 - If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you, or to any other persons in Washington. " You have done your best to sacrifice this army.
Page 71 - WHEREAS, The laws of the United States have been for some time past and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law...
Page 245 - You have saved all your material, all your trains and all your guns, except a few lost in battle, taking in return guns and colors from the enemy. Upon your march, you have been assailed day after day, with desperate fury, by men of the same race and nation, skilfully massed and led.
Page 241 - I 20,000 or even 10,000 fresh troops to use to-morrow I could take Richmond, but I have not a man in reserve, and .shall be glad to cover my retreat and save the material and personnel of the army. If we have lost the day we have yet preserved our honor, and no one need blush for the Army of the Potomac.
Page 212 - Your despatches, complaining that you are not properly sustained, while they do not offend me, do pain me very much.
Page 33 - I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opinion that if this bill passes, the bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved; that the States which compose it are free from their moral obligations, and that as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must.
Page 44 - That Congress possesses no constitutional authority to interfere in any way with the institution of slavery in any of the States of this confederacy; and that in the opinion of this House, Congress ought not to interfere in any way with slavery in the District of Columbia...

Bibliographic information