February 22, 1863, The New York Herald
The defence which General McDowell read before the court of inquiry at Washington is a paper too voluminous for our columns. Yet it contains points of great interest, to which we desire to advert.
As far as the charges against General McDowell are concerned, we think he has been completely successful in refuting them. He was accused of […..], disloyalty and treason.” As to the first charge, he has shown that he has never drank anything stronger than water; and as to the alleged disloyalty and treason, there was not a shadow of proof produced to substantiate those cruel charges so flippantly made by the abolitionists. The outcry raised against him in the Senate by Mr. Wade and in the republican journals, about protecting rebel property while he was in command of the Army of the Rappahannock, is demonstrated to be without any foundation to rest upon. The charges of Sigel, too, about his permitting Longstreet to pass through Thoroughfare Gap, and about his failure to play his proper part in the second battle of Bull run – charges reiterated in all the radical journals – have fallen to the ground, and recoiled upon the heads of their authors, the same men who, by their to “To Richmond” clamor, caused him to lose the first battle of Bull run, by goading the administration to order him to make the attack before his raw troops were sufficiently drilled and disciplined for offensive operations.
But the weightiest charge made against him was that he obtained the separation of his corps from the army of McClellan, and willfully defeated the peninsular campaign by refusing to cooperate with that general in the advance upon Richmond. The testimony proves exactly the contrary: that he never sought to have an independent command, and that he did his utmost to effect a junction with McClellan, but was prevented by positive written orders from the War Department, which he produced before the court. General McClellan and General Hitchcock, of the War Department, both equally acquit McDowell of any responsibility in failing to join the Army of the Potomac. On the 24th of April he received at Falmouth a despatch from the War Department, dated April 30, telling him that […..] can occupy Fredericksburg with such force as in his judgment may be necessary to hold it for defensive purposes, but not with a view to make a forward movement.”
Meantime, McDowell, with the aid of his troops and the trees cut down by them, rebuilt the railroad bridge over the Rappahannock, six hundred feet long and sixty-five feet high, and that over the Potomac creek, four hundred feet long and eighty feet high. The latter, which was built in nine days, was most remarkable, and elicited the admiration of distinguished foreign officers. It was a structure which ignored all the rules and precedents of military science as laid down in books, and even Napoleon’s bridge builders never accomplished such a work. On the 17th of May instructions were issued from the War Department that, on being joined by General Shields’ division, he should move to Richmond. He had forty thousand men and one hundred pieces of artillery, and he was ready to advance. Shield’s army, which was without […..] , trowsers and ammunition, &c.,” now joined him. The needed articles were supplied. But it was found that all the artillery ammunition furnished was bad, and was condemned by an inspector of ordnance from the War Department, and new ammunition was ordered; but the transport grounded near Alexandria, and lost a day. Everything was ready for the march on Sunday; but another day was lost by an objection on the part of the pious authorities at Washington as to the desecration of the Sabbath. But on Sunday (the 25th of May) he received an order from Washington lay aside for the present the movement on Richmond, and put twenty thousand men in motion at once for the […..] Shenandoah.” Jackson was now in pursuit of Banks, and the alarm at the capital was great. Ord’s division was ordered by the War Department to Washington and Alexandria, and Shields division was sent back to the valley via Catlett Station. A terrible rain storm, which carried away the bridges, prevented the junction of the forces of Shields and Fremont; and Jackson, after driving Banks to the Potomac, made good his retreat, and marched rapidly to the assistance of Lee on the Chickahominy, while it was firmly believed by Banks, Fremont and the wiseacres at Washington that he was about to return into the valley with reinforcements.
Thus McDowell’s army was kept in the valley by Jackson ruse de guerre; but at length, on the 6th of June, McDowell was ordered to send McCall’s division from Fredericksburg to General McClellan by water, down the Rappahannock. Had 20,000 more men been sent at that time, McClellan would have been in Richmond in less than a week. On the 8th of June, after a personal interview with the President, McDowell obtained an order from the War Department to the effect that, having first provided adequately for the defence of Washington and Fredericksburg, he should march towards Richmond to cooperate with McClellan. Shields was now ordered by McDowell to return from the valley to Fredericksburg. But the order was afterwards modified by the War Department, and only one brigade was permitted to move till Gen. Banks should occupy Front Royal.
From this time forth, owing to the intrigues of other generals and conflicting orders, McDowell says he had […..] constant struggle to get his forces out of the valley to concentrate them upon Fredericksburg.” He had to wait till bridges were built across the Shenandoah, and it was not till late in June that Banks was enabled to cross the river at Front Royal. Meantime the troops and horses of General Shields were without shoes and his men without blanket, causing further delay. Another attempt at delay was made, owing to a request of Gen. Banks to retain Shields for a short time at Front Royal. On the 21st of June Mr. Stanton telegraphed to McDowell as follows:
General Banks has urgently and repeated requested that General Shields’ division should remain a short time at Front Royal. In a note to me this morning the President says: “Tell McDowell what Banks says. Tell him we incline to have Shields remain a few days at Front Royal.”
But Shields’ division, in compliance with the orders given after the President had been with McDowell at Manassas, had reached Bristow Station on its way to Fredericksburg. McClellan and McDowell, however, were still doomed to disappointment by the evil genius which swayed the councils of the War Department. On the 26th of June an order from Washington was issued suppressing the Department of the Rappahannock, and placing McDowell, with his forces, under Major General Pope, to constitute a part of the Army of Virginia. On the same day Jackson – concerning the renewal of whose attack down the Shenandoah there had been so much speculation in the valley – struck the right of General McClellan’ army before Richmond, and commenced that series of battles which resulted in the retreat of the Army of the Potomac to Berkley, on the James river, and all the disasters that have since followed in the train of that event. McDowell had telegraphed McClellan on the 10th of June that he would be with him in ten days, and he adds that if he had been permitted to withdraw his forces from the valley at the time he issued his orders (June 8) he would have formed a junction with him by the 20th, or by the time McCall’s division reached him by water from Fredericksburg.
Thus not only were McDowell and his army made a football of, to be kicked about from place to place by politicians, but McClellan and his army were victimized by the imbecility which rules at Washington, after which Pope and his army were sacrificed in turn by the same ignorant folly and mismanagement. The next victims were Burnside and his army, whose defeat was caused by the delay of the pontoons. Such continuous and disastrous blundering is without a parallel in the wars of any other nation. By the result of this investigation McDowell is vindicated, and McClellan is vindicated; but the War Department is […..] to everlasting fame.”