July 7, 1862

July 7, 1862:  Maj. Gen. George McClellan, apparently distracted from his political ambitions by the recent Seven Days’ Battles, pens this “strong and frank” letter to President Lincoln about the conduct of the war:

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. In prosecuting the War, all private property and unarmed persons should be strictly protected; subject only to the necessities of military operations. . . . Military power should not be allowed to interfere with the relations of servitude, either by supporting or impairing the authority of the master; except for repressing disorder as in other cases. Slaves contraband under the Act of Congress, seeking military protection, should receive it. The right of the Government to appropriate permanently to its own service claims to slave labor should be asserted and the right of the owner to compensation therefore should be recognized. . . . Unless the principles governing the further 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. . . .



Maj/. Gen/ George B. McClellan

---Even though McClellan, in his letter, openly campaigns to be made commander-in-chief in the same letter that hammers Lincoln for being hopeless and wrong, on this every date Gov. William Sprague of Rhode Island leaves Washington for Corinth, Mississippi with a letter in his pocket appointing Gen. Henry Halleck to be the new general-in-chief.

---Oliver Willcox Norton, serving in the 83^rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, recounts the ghastly losses of his regiment in the Seven Days, and yet manages to defend McClellan, in this letter home:

The report sent in from our regiment yesterday gives the names of four hundred and fifty-two killed, wounded and missing in our regiment. Think of that for one regiment! Four hundred and fifty-two out of less than six hundred that went into the fight on Friday. Colonel McLane was shot at almost the first fire, and died without a struggle or a word. Major Naghel followed him an instant after, and our two senior captains were shot during the action. The third one who then took command was wounded, and can only get round now by the help of a horse. I have nothing to say of how the regiment fought. It is not my place, but I am not ashamed yet of the Eighty-third.

What the result of all this fighting will be, I cannot say. The rebels undoubtedly will claim a great victory, as they always do, generally with far less foundation than they now have. McClellan has succeeded in withdrawing his army from a position they could not hold to one that they can hold where his flanks are protected by gunboats and his supplies cannot be cut off.

---Katherine Prescott Wormeley, of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, writes home to her mother after returning from the front to Washington with the wounded, and then back to Harrison’s Landing again:

 

We have come back to find that the army, which we left massed just here, has got into position, and is intrenched or intrenching. General headquarters is moved about a mile and a half inland. General McClellan says positively that he can hold the position. The wounded are all in, and either shipped or cared for on shore. When I say “all,” I mean those within our lines; the most severely wounded we shall never see. Forty of our surgeons are with them, scattered along the line of march; they are prisoners by this time. This is the worst horror of war, and one I cannot trust myself to think of. . . .

We look and hope and pray for reinforcements. Immediate levies should be made, the recruits used in garrisons, and the older troops sent here. The whole question is, Are we in earnest? Is the nation in earnest? or is it the victim of a political game? For God’s sake, for the sake of humanity, let us strike one mighty blow now, and end this rebellion! Surely it cannot be that the nation can’t do this! Then let it be done; and oh! do not sacrifice this noble army. Let every man take arms that can take them, and fill the places of tried men who could come here. At this moment “a strong pull and a pull altogether” would end this rebellion, and send its wretched leaders to their just destruction. This is not my opinion only, it is the sum of all I hear.

---The New York Times, in an editorial, excoriates Wall Street for flinching in the face of military losses in Virginia:

What a very uncertain, unreliable [???] the “nerve of the pocket” is. When all goes well, it is as stiff as bar iron; but no sooner do the clouds of disaster begin to gather than it becomes as as a piece of boiled macaroni. What was there in the worst news received on Tuesday and Wednesday last that should have tumbled down the Government securities three or four per cent?