General McClellan and the Conduct of the War

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Sheldon, 1864 - History - 312 pages

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Page 137 - 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 221 - And once more let me tell you, it is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. 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...
Page 195 - My dear Sir I have just assisted the Secretary of War in framing the part of a despatch to you relating to army corps, which despatch of course will have reached you long before this will. I wish to say a few words to you privately on this subject. I ordered the army corps organization not only on the unanimous opinion of the twelve generals whom you had selected and assigned as Generals of Division but also on the unanimous opinion of every military man I could get an opinion from, and every modern...
Page 264 - 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.
Page 37 - But the coincidence of a marked principle, moral and political, with a geographical line, once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind ; that it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing irritations until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to render separation preferable to eternal discord.
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 196 - Of course I did not on my own judgment pretend to understand the subject. I now think it indispensable for you to know how your struggle against it is received in quarters which we cannot entirely disregard. It is looked upon as merely an effort to pamper one or two pets, and to persecute and degrade their supposed rivals.
Page 221 - This is a question which the country will not allow me to evade. "There is a curious mystery about the number of troops now with you.
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...
Page 221 - Do you really think I should permit the line from Richmond, via Manassas Junction to this city, to be entirely open, except what resistance could be presented by less than twenty thousand unorganized troops?

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