The apostrophe to the heroism of the soldiers is sickly and pale. The heroism of the soldiers! It is as brilliant, as pure, and as certain as the sun.
The attack was planned, (see paragraph 2 of the report,) on the circ.u.mstance or supposition that the enemy extended too much his line, and thus scattered his forces. But in paragraph 4, Burnside stated that the fog, (O, fog!) etc., gave the enemy twenty-four hours" time to concentrate his forces in his strong positions-when the calculation based on the enemy"s division of forces failed, and the attack lost all the chances considered propitious.
The whole plan had for its basis probabilities and impossibilities-schoolroom speculations-instead of being, as it ought to have been, as every plan of a battle should be, based on the chances of the terrain, by the position of the enemy, and other conditions, almost wholly depending upon which the armies operate. It is natural that martial Hooker objected to it.
Oh! could I have blood, blood, blood, instead of ink!
Constructing the bridge over the Rappahannock, our engineers were killed in scores by the sharp-shooters of the enemy. Malediction on those imbecile staffs! The A B C of warfare, and of sound common sense teach, that such works are to be made either under cover of a powerful artillery fire, or, what is still better, if possible, a general sends over the river in some way, with infantry to clear its banks, and to dislodge the enemy. In such cases one engineer saved, and time won, justify the loss of almost twenty soldiers to one workman. Some one finally suggested an expedition and they did at the end what ought to have been done at the start. O West Point! thy science is marvellous! The staff treated the construction of a bridge over the Rappahannock as if it were building some railroad bridge, in times of peace!
I am told that Stanton took sides with Seward. I deny it; Stanton remained rather pa.s.sive. But were it true that Stanton, too, is Sewardized,-then, Oh Mud, how powerful thou art!
In Boston, the B.s and Curtises, and all of that kidney, make a great fuss and invoke the name of Webster. If so, they are only excrementa Websteriana.
Dec. 24.-Patriots in both Houses of Congress! your efforts to put the conduct of the national affairs in honorable hands, and on honorable tracks, to prevent the very life blood of the people from being sacrilegiously wasted, to prevent the people"s wealth from being recklessly squandered; your efforts to introduce order and spirit in certain parts of a spiritless Administration, to fill the higher and inferior offices with men whose hearts and minds are in the cause, and to expel therefrom, if not absolute disloyalty, at least, the most criminal indifference to the people"s cause and welfare; your efforts to make us speak to Europe like men of sense, and not in the senseless oracles which justly evoke the scorn and the sneers of all European statesmen; all these your efforts as patriots rebounded against a nameless stubbornness.
Nevertheless you fulfilled a n.o.ble, sacred and patriotic duty. Whatever be to-day the outcry of the Flatfoots, lickspittles, intriguers, imbeciles; whatever be the subserviency or want of civic courage in the public press-when all these stinking, suffocating, deleterious vapors shall be destroyed by the ever-living light of truth, then the grateful people will bless your names, which, pure and luminous, will shine high above the stupidity, conceit, heartlessness, turpitude, selfish ambition, indirect and direct treason darkening now the national horizon.
Dec. 25.-Christmas. The Angel of Death hovers over thousands and thousands of hearths. Thousands and thousands of families in tears and shrouds. Communities, villages, huts and log-houses, nursing their crippled, invalid, patriotic heroes! A year ago, all was quiet on the Potomac-now all is quiet on the Rappahannock.
What a progress we have made in a year! and at the small, insignificant cost of about sixty to eighty thousand killed or crippled, and of one thousand millions of dollars! But it matters not! The quietude of the official butchers and money squanderers is, and must remain undisturbed in their mansions, whatever be the moral leprosy dwelling therein!
A young man from New England, (whom I saw for the first time,) told me that my Diary stirred up the youth. Oh, if so, then I feel happy. Youth! youth! you are all the promise and the realization! But why do you suffer yourselves to be crushed down by the upper-crust of senile nincomp.o.o.ps? Oh youth, arise, and sun-like penetrate through and through the magnitude of the work to be accomplished, and save the cause of humanity!
Dec. 25.-As it was and is in all Revolutions and upheavals, so here. A part of the people const.i.tute the winners, in various ways, (through shoddy names, jobs, positions, etc.) while the immense majority bleeds and sacrifices. Here many people left poorly salaried desks, railroads, shops, &c. to become great men but poor statesmen, cursed Generals, and mischief-makers in every possible way and manner. The people"s true children abandoned homes, families, honest pursuits of an industrious and laborious life-in one word, their ALL, to bleed, to be butcherer, to die in the country"s cause. The former are the winners, the sacrificers, and the butchers; the second are the victims.
The evidence before the War Committee shows, to a most disgusting satiety, that General Halleck is exclusively a red-tapist, and a small pettifogger, who is unworthy to be even a non-commissioned officer; General Burnside an honest, well intentioned soldier, thoroughly brave, but as thoroughly dest.i.tute of generalship; General Sumner an unquestionably brave but headlong trooper; and Hooker alone in possession of all the capacity and resources of a captain. General Woodbury"s evidence is that of a man under difficulties, on whom his superiors in rank have thrown the responsibility of their own crime.
Halleck alone is responsible for the non-arrival of the pontoons. Burnside could not look for them; it was the duty of Halleck to order some of the semi-geniuses of his staff to the special duty of seeing to their delivery at Fredericksburgh, to give them necessary power to use roads, steamers, water, animals and men for transportation, and make it a capital responsibility if Sumner finds not the pontoons on the spot, and at the precise day and hour when he wanted them. Then, Gen. Meigs, who coolly a.s.serts that he "gave orders." O yes! but he never dreamed it was his duty to look for their execution. The fate of the campaign depended upon the pontoons, and Halleck-Meigs "gave orders," and there was an end of it. In any other country, such culprits would have been at the least dismissed-cashiered, if not shot; here, their influence is on the increase. Halleck and Meigs are still great before Mr. Lincoln, and before the ma.s.s of nincomp.o.o.ps.
Rhetors and sham-erudites are ecstatic about Burnside"s conduct. Well! Burnside is good-natured-that is all. They forget the example of Canrobert and Pellisier, in the Crimea. Canrobert, after having commanded the army, gave up the command, and served under Pellisier. Oh declaimers! Oh imbeciles! ransack not the world-let Rome alone, and its Punic wars, its Varrus, etc.-Disturb not history, which, for you, is a book with seventy-seven seals. You understand not events under your long noses, and before your opaque eyes.
When in animal bodies the brains are diseased, the whole body"s functions are more or less paralyzed. The official brains of the nation are in a morbid condition. That explains all.
Dec. 27.-I wish I could succeed in bringing about the organization of a good Staff for the army. Etat Major General de l"Armee Stanton seems to understand it, but the Hallecks and other West Pointers have neither the first idea of it, nor the will to see it done.
Dec. 28.-The so-called great papers of the Republican party in New York, as well as some would-be statesmen here, discuss the probability of some new manifestation by Louis Napoleon, or by other European powers, of interference in our internal affairs. The probability of such a demonstration by European meddlers can only have one of the following causes:-Our terrible disaster at Fredericksburg, or, what even is worse than that slaughter, the absolute incapacity of our leaders to cope with such great and terrible events as this last one. The bravery, the heroism of our soldiers will be applauded, admired, and pitied in Europe, but the utter intellectual marasmus, as shown by our administration, will and must embolden the European marplots to attempt to stop what they consider a further unnecessary ma.s.sacre. General Burnside"s report, and the evidence before the War Committee are before the country and before Europe. Therefore Europe and our country are to judge.
During his last visit in summer to New York, etc. the French Minister came in contact with low French adventurers, (Courriers des etats Unis) with copperheads and with democrats, and now he is taken with sickly diplomatic sentimentalism to conciliate, to mediate, to unite, to meddle, and to get a feather in his diplomatic cap. I am sorry for him, for in other respects he has considerable sound judgment. Mais il est toque sur cette question ci. He is ignorant of the temper of the ma.s.ses, and considers the a.s.sertions of adventurers, of traitors, and of meddlers, as being the expression of the sentiments of the people. But sensible diplomats are rari aves.
Hooker, because he alone is a captain, cannot be in command. Infamous intriguers, traitors, and imbeciles, prevent Hooker from being intrusted with the destinies of our army. Whole regiments claim to serve under him, and above all such regiments as fought under others in the peninsula, and always have been worsted, and who wish once to be led to success and victory, as were always Hooker"s soldiers. The Franklins, and other marplotters in the Potomac Army, menace to resign if Hooker is put in command. The sooner the better for the army to get rid of such trash. But the imbeciles and the intriguers in power think not so; and all may remain as it was, and a new slaughter of our heroes may loom in the future.
Dec. 29.-General Butler"s proclamation to his soldiers in New Orleans is the best and n.o.blest doc.u.ment written since this war. It is good, because it records n.o.ble and patriotic deeds. During those eighteen months General Butler has shown capacity, activity, energy, fertility of resources and readiness to meet any emergency, unequalled by any one in the administration or in command. And for this, Butler is superseded, because Seward promised it to the Decembriseur in the Tuilleries, and because he is a man, and conservative patriots, alias traitors, could not get at him.
Dec. 30.-Angel of wrath, smite, smite! Oh, genius of humanity, take into thy mercy this n.o.ble people! Oh, eternal reason, send the feeblest breath of divine emanation and arrest this all-devouring torrent of imbecility, selfishness and conceit that is reigning paramount here. Only the PEOPLE"S devotion and patriotism, only the unnamed save the country!
Dec. 30.-Those foreign caterwaulings against Butler. England, in 1848-9, whipped women in Ireland, and how many thousands have been murdered by the Decembriseur? And the Russian minister joining in this music. A shame for him and for his government!
Dec. 30.-Poor Greeley looks for intervention, mediation, arbitration; and selects Switzerland for the fitting arbitrator! How little-nay-nothing at all, he knows about Switzerland and the Swiss! Stop! stop! respectable old man!
Dec. 31.-Stanton is not at all responsible for the slaughter at Fredericksburgh, or for the infamy of the belated pontoons. Halleck has the exclusive control of all military movements, etc., in the field. But Stanton ought not be benumbed by a Halleck or a Meigs.
The people at large cannot realize the really awful position of patriotic members of Congress, and above all, of such senators as Wade, Grimes, Fessenden, Wilson, Morrill, Chandler and others, or the almost similar position of Stanton, in his contact with the double-dealings or the obstinacy of Lincoln.
Dec. 31.-To-morrow few, if any, shall miss the occasion to shake hands with the official butchers, with men dripping with the gore of their brethren. Oh, Cains! oh, fratricides!
Dec. 31.-Midnight.-Disappear! oh year of disgraces, year of slaughters and of sacrifices.
Tschto den griadoustchi nam gotowit? (Puschkine.)
Ring out the false, ring in the true, Ring out the grief that saps the mind, * * *
Ring in REDRESS for all mankind!
JANUARY, 1863.
Proclamation - Parade - Halleck - Diplomats - Herodians - Inspired Men - War Powers - Rosecrans - Butler - Seward - Doctores Const.i.tutionis - Hogarth - Rhetors - European Enemies - Second Sight - Senator Wright the Patriot - Populus Roma.n.u.s - Future Historian - English People - Gen. Mitch.e.l.l - Hooker in Command - Staffs - Arming Africo-Americans - Thurlow Weed, &c.
Jan. 1.-The morning papers. No proclamation! Has Lincoln played false to humanity?
The proclamation will appear. All right so far! Hallelujah! How the friends of darkness, how the demons must wince and tremble.
There! Red-tape commander-in-chief, field marshal (who never saw a field of battle!) parades at the head of victorious generals, of intelligent staffs, of active pontoon providers, and of really and highly qualified quartermasters general. To the White House! They will congratulate Mr. Lincoln. Upon what? Upon Fredericksburgh and other ma.s.sacres; but especially they will congratulate Mr. Lincoln upon the fact of his being surrounded by such a bright galaxy of know-nothings and do-nothings!
Death-knell to slavery and to the slaveocracy. The foulest relic of the past will at length be destroyed. The new era has a glorious dawn; it rises in the glories of sacrifices made by a generous and inspired people. Yes! The new era rises above darkness, selfishness, and imbecility. The shades of the slaughtered are now at length propitiated; their slaughter is at least in part atoned for; and outraged humanity is, at least in part, avenged! Let rebels and conservatives remain hardened in crime; a just and condign vengeance shall overtake them.
Nunc pede libero Pulsanda tellus.
Jan. 2.-Shallow and brainless diplomats sneer at the proclamation. So did the Herodians sneer at the star of Bethlehem; and where now are the Herodians? Oh! shallow and heartless diplomats, your days are numbered, too!
Jan. 2.-A man inspired by conviction and glowing with a fervent faith, thoroughly knows what he is about. Strong in his faith, and by his faith, he clearly sees his way, and steadily walks in it, while others grope hither and thither amidst shadows and darkness and bewildering doubts! Such a man boldly takes the initiative, marches onward, and is as a beacon-light to a nation, to a people; often, sometimes, even for all humanity. A man who has a profound faith in his convictions has coruscations, fierce flashes of that second-sight for the signs of the times. The mere tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and selfish politician is ever ready to swim with the stream which he had neither strength nor skill to breast; he never ventures to take the initiative. In issuing the proclamation, Mr. Lincoln gives legal sanction, form, and record to what the storm of events and the loud cry of the best of the people have long demanded and now inexorably dictate.
History will pitilessly tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and small credit will history give to Lincoln beyond that of being the legal recorder of a righteous deed, and not even that credit will be given to the countersigner, Seward.
Mr. Seward countersigned both proclamations of freedom. Europe is filled with his despatches, written at first plainly for, then lukewarmly tolerating, and, at length, flatly against, slavery. European statesmen have thus the exact measure of Mr. Seward"s political character. They know that to the very last he defended slavery, and then countersigned the decree of its destruction! In Europe, self-respecting statesmen resign rather than countersign a measure which they disapprove or have strongly opposed.
Jan. 3.-Emanc.i.p.ation under war powers. A mistake by a contradiction. Spoke of it before. And nevertheless: under war powers alone, emanc.i.p.ation is palatable to a great many, nay, almost to millions of small, narrow intellects, dried up by the formulas, and who in the Const.i.tution see only the latter, and not the expanding, all-embracing principle and spirit. O, Rabbis! O, Talmudists!
Lincoln is very unhappy in his phraseology. He invites the sympathies of humanity on a measure decided by him to favor the war. It is a contradiction; humanity and war are antipodic.
The papers in the confidence of Seward, such as the Intelligencer (without intelligence,) the border-state friends of Lincoln, and all that is muddy and rotten, even the supposed to be well-informed diplomats unanimously a.s.sert that Mr. Lincoln has no confidence in his proclamation. As for Seward-this Lincoln"s evil genius-no doubt exists concerning his contempt for the proclamation. Ask the diplomats. But these highest pilots in this administration are bound-as by a terrible oath-to violate all the laws of psychology, of human nature, of sense, of logic and of honor, to make the people bleed and suffer in its honor.
Well, pompous Chase; how do you feel for having sided with Seward?
Gen. Butler"s farewell proclamation to New Orleans rings the purest and most patriotic harmony. Compare Butler"s with Lincoln"s writings. All the hearts in the country resounded with Butler; and because he acted as he did, Lincoln-Seward-Blair-Halleck"s policy shelved Butler.
Jan. 3.-By the united efforts of Lincoln-Seward-Blair, of the Herald, and of that cesspool of infamies, the World, of McClellan, and of his tail, by the stupifying influence of Halleck, the Potomac army, notwithstanding its matchless heroism, and equipped as well as any army in Europe; up to this day the Potomac army serves to-establish-the military superiority of the rebels, to morally strengthen, nay, even to nurse the rebellion. Lincoln-Halleck dare not entrust the army into the hands of a true soldier,-Stanton is outvoted. The next commander inherits all the faults generated by Lincoln, McClellan, Halleck, Burnside, and it would otherwise tax a Napoleon"s brains to reorganize the army but for the patriotic spirit of the rank and file and most of the officers.
Jan. 3.-What a pity that petty, quibbling const.i.tutionalism alone is understood by Lincoln and by his followers. To emanc.i.p.ate in virtue of a war power is scarcely to perform half the work, and is a full logical incongruity. Like all kind of war power, that of the president has for its geographical limits the pickets of his army-has no executive authority beyond, besides being obligatory only as long as bayonets back it. Such a power cannot change social and munic.i.p.al conditions, laws or relations (see Vol. I.)