Glass 
 
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THE SECRET HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Letter of General H." M. Naglee about 
 General McClellan. 
 
 A mm FioH m sni!; to tih iiiihy. 
 
 THE ADDRESS TO THE ARMY AND NAVY, 
 
 ADOPTED AT HOPE CHAPEL, 
 On Wednesday Evening, September 28th, 1864, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 McCLELLAN LEGION. 
 
 SOLD at 13 PARK ROW, and at all Democratic Newspaper Offices. 
 
4 
 
 I pray Almighty God to deliver you and your army 
 from all peril, and load you on to victory. 
 Yours, trulv, 
 
 EDWIN M. STANTON. 
 
 Now, Judge, what think you of this man, 
 wlio, made Secretary of War by the request 
 and iufluenco of General McClellan, was vih- 
 fying and abusing and uttering falsehoods 
 against him, and who could at the same time 
 sit down and deliberately write such a letter? 
 
 Tou have referred to the council of war held 
 in Washington in March of 1862. Every effort 
 lias been made in vain to bring tlie proceedings 
 of that council before the public. A call was 
 made for them in the House of Kepresentatives 
 and was tabled by the Republican party. A re- 
 quest made by the recorder of that council, of 
 Mr. Stanton, to allow him to have tlie pro- 
 ceedings made up in proiier form, was refused 
 in a most rude and insulting i^anner, and the 
 papers have never been allowed to leave his 
 possession since. 
 
 Now, Judge, for your especial benefit, I will 
 relate the h. story of that important event, that 
 yon may, if you will, do justice to all con- 
 cerned. 
 
 The council of war consisted of Brigadier- 
 Generals Sumner, McDowell, Franklin, F. J. 
 Porter, McCall, lleintzelman, Keyes, A. Por- 
 ter, W. F. Sraitli, Barnard, Blenker and Nagle?, 
 each entitled to but " one star." It was called 
 togetlier by order of General McClellan on the 
 night of March 7, 1862, to eouvene at ten A. M. 
 on the following day. 
 
 General McClellan came into the council 
 room at the hour appointed, and placing on the 
 table a large map, explained his proposed Pen- 
 insular campaign, which, 'before this time, I be- 
 lieve to have been known to no one present ex- 
 cepting General Franklin and probably Fitz J. 
 Porter. Upon retiring he left upon the table, 
 for the consideration of the council, the follow- 
 ing inquiries: 
 
 1. — Whether it is advisable that the base of 
 operations shall be changed, the transportation 
 being ready at Annai)olis in all of next week? 
 
 2. — Whether it is better to make an advance 
 to the front before changing the base, should 
 such a cliange be determined upon ? 
 
 8. — Wliether a forward movement, with the 
 object of destroying the river batteries, is ad- 
 visable, and when it can be commenced, and 
 whether the naval force, witli tlie assistance of 
 the Ericsson battery, can alone accomplish 
 tliat object ? 
 
 After a session of three hours the council 
 were summoned to appear before the President. 
 lie advised them that he was quite unwell and 
 exceedingly nervous ; that the pressure had 
 been intense against General McClellan. lie 
 expressed himself gratified to have the oppor- 
 tuuity to sec and know the officers of the army, 
 and to be instructed by them in regard to army 
 matters, which were to him very incomprelien- 
 sible. 
 
 I informed him that^ aa recorder of the coun- 
 
 cil of war which had held its session by order 
 of Gen. McClellan, I would advise him of the 
 result of its proceedings, and then read them to 
 him. " AVhat, said he, " have the council de- 
 cided by a vote of eight to four — two to one — 
 in favor of the Peninsular campaign?" He 
 then asked many questions in regard to the 
 same, until Mr. Stanton came in, and I pro- 
 posed to read the proceedings to him. He re- 
 plied, " Give me the papers, I'll read them my- 
 self," and, after reading them over and prepar- 
 ing his notes, he, as you say, " put them (the 
 council) through the strict course 'of examina- 
 tion " which you refer to. This examination, 
 made for the purpose of neutralizing the eftect 
 of the decision of the council of war on the 
 mind of the President, and thus carry out th^ 
 objects of those who had been insisting upon 
 the removal of General McClellan, lasted for 
 four or five hours, during which time it was 
 only interrupted by an occasional expression of 
 the President, indicating his satisfaction and 
 gratification at the many explanations of mili- 
 tary movements contemplated, and which he 
 had not before been able to comprehend. 
 
 It was now getting dark. Mr. Stanton's , 
 questions indicated approaching exhaustion, and 
 finding there was a silence which called for a 
 cessation of hostilities on his part for tlie night, 
 Mr. Lincoln expressed himself highly gratified 
 with tlie interview, snid ho was impressed with 
 the earnestness and intelligence of the officers 
 y)res9nt, and that he had every confidence in 
 them. He was now deterniincd not to remove 
 General McClellan, as lie had promised to do, 
 but thiit he should make his campaign, as ap- 
 proved by the council of war, under restrictions 
 which he woidd niake known on the following 
 morning, at ten o'clock, when he desired the 
 presence of all the officers of the council, and 
 until after which time he desired that none of 
 them should leave the city. 
 
 Before leaving the President the recorder of 
 the council approached the Secretary and said : 
 — " If you please, Mr. Stanton, permit me to 
 have the proceedings of the council of war, 
 that they may be copied in a fair hand, and 
 General Sumner, the president of the council, 
 will sign them, the recorder will sign them, and 
 they will then be in proper form." "I'm jitst 
 as good a judge of the form as you are," was 
 the reply of your friend. 
 
 Other incivilities have been attempted by 
 Mr. Stanton towards me, the manner and re- 
 sult of wliich he has neither forgotten nor for- 
 given, and which he may relate to you when- 
 ever ho may feel so disposed. 
 
 On the following morning, at the appointed 
 hour, when all of the officers of the council of 
 war had assembled, Mr. Lincoln said : — " I have 
 slept better tliau for two weeks. I feel relieved 
 of an -immense responsibility. I have deter- 
 mined upon the following programme," which 
 he submitted verbally, and which was substan- 
 tially as follows: — 
 ,^; " I will permit General McClellan to carry 
 
5 
 
 out his campaign. Ho shall leave sufficient 
 force to defend the works before Washington. 
 He shall embark fifty thousand men from Au- 
 rnipolis; and then, unless the batteries on the 
 Potomac, which you assure mo will necessarily 
 be abandoned, are withdrawn or silenced, I shall 
 reserve my autliority to embark other troops." 
 He then said, •' I have determined to divide 
 General McClelhm's army into four corps, and 
 I shall ap])oint the commanders of them." And 
 afterwards he promoted the four officers who 
 had opposed General McClellan's camiiaign, 
 tlwee of whom he appointed to the command 
 of corps, and, Avith the exception of Generals 
 Franklin and Smith, who have been the subjects 
 of constant annoyance and indignities since, the 
 ^otliers have all been dismissed from the army. 
 The Peninsular campaign was proposed by 
 General McClellan whilst commander-in-chief 
 of the armies of the United States, and was in- 
 tended to be made with the forces then under 
 his command in Eastern Virginia, estimated at 
 over two hundred thousand men. It was so 
 accepted by tho President, and the movement 
 was commenced upon that basis. General Mc- 
 Clellan had scarcely left Washington to take the 
 field when the Secretary of War relieved him 
 of all the armies not under his (General Mc- 
 Clellan's) immediate command, and assumed 
 command of them himself. The troops left in 
 Northeastern Virginia wei'e placed under the 
 command of IfcDowell, Banks, Fremont and 
 Sigel, each being independent of the other, and 
 of General ilcClellan, and all subject to the 
 order of Mr. Stanton. Whilst the above divi- 
 sion of our army was taking place, the Confed- 
 erates concentrated theirs until, on tlie 20th 
 day of June, General McClellan found himself 
 before Eichmond with eighty-five thousand 
 men (including McCall's division), and was 
 attacked by the concentrated Confederate force 
 of one hundred and seventy-five thousand at 
 the very moment when McDowell, under pro- 
 test, withdrew his assistance from McClellan, 
 by the orders of the President and Secretary of 
 War. 
 
 . The campaign under General Grant did not 
 commence until the 4th of May, 1864. That 
 of Chancellorsville, in whicli" the casualties of 
 that army were estimated at thirty thousand 
 men, and which, but for the providential kill- 
 ing of Stonewall Jackson, would have been 
 annihilated, was planned by the President and 
 General Hooker, or to use the President's own 
 words, " by Joe and I," of which the Secretary 
 of War and General Halleck were kept pro- 
 foundly ignorant, and was not commenced until 
 May 2, 1863; whilst that of tho Peninsula, for 
 the deliiy of which General McClellan was so 
 much censured, was commenced on the 25th' 
 of March, 1802, forty days in advance of cither 
 of the others. 
 
 Why this bitter enmity and persecution of 
 General McClellan? why, in the beginning of 
 March, was the President pressed to death to 
 remove him, even before he had made his first 
 
 trial in command of the Army of the Potomac? 
 Why did a distinguished member of the Senate, 
 on the 17th of March, write to ine : " The cry 
 against McClellan is increasing; every effort is 
 being made to crush him," What possible 
 chance had General McClellan to succeed, when 
 his own Government did everything in their 
 power to embarrass his movements and break 
 Inm down? One would think his task suffi- 
 ciently onerous, laborious and responsible, 
 when, without experience, after the first disas- 
 trous rout at Bull Run, he reorganized the 
 armies of the United States and was preparing 
 to fight them without the additional conviction 
 being forced upon him at every step that his 
 own Government were determined "to crush 
 him." 
 
 Judge, you and I met within ten days after 
 the dreadful battles before Richmond. You 
 attacked General McClellan with a bitterness 
 and feeling that ill becomes a Christian gentle- 
 man. I then begged you not to break down 
 General McClellan until you had given hin^a 
 fair trial, and until you had found' a better 
 man, and challenged you to name a better gen- 
 eral. I now do the same thing, and appeal to 
 the record of the past thirty months, and to the 
 rivers of blood that have flown since, to sustain 
 what I then asserted. I refer yon to the opin- 
 dons of foreign officers", and I assure you that 
 among the old officers of the army I shall be 
 fully sustained. 
 
 The preference of General McClellan for the 
 Peninsular campaign, and the condemnation of 
 the President's plan, have been fully sustained. 
 The families and friends of the one hundred and 
 thirty thousand men lost south of the Rapidan 
 since the 4th of May last, proclaim it every- 
 where. Mr. Stanton told the country at that 
 time, he had, a hundred thousand men more 
 than he wanted, and now he tells yon he wants 
 a hundred thousand more men. 
 
 General Grant crossed the Rapidan 
 with an army variously estimated 
 from 118,000 to . . . . 120,000 
 He afterwards added Butler's . . 40,000 
 He was recnforced .... 45,000 
 
 Making, exclusive of Sigel's 30,000, . 205,000 
 
 On the 1st of September, our forces were es- 
 timated, exclusive of Sheridan's 30,000, at 
 50,000. 
 
 General Lee had on the Rapidan, after 
 
 he had concentrated his array, . 85,000 
 
 Beauregard joined him at Richmond 
 with his forces from the South, 
 which, with those near Petersburg, 
 amounted to 80,000 
 
 Breckinridge brought . . . 10,000 
 
 And Lee was reenforced, probably, . 30,000 
 
 Making, in all, . . . . 155,000 
 On the 1st of September, hisforces were es 
 
6 
 
 timated at Richmond at 45,000, exclusive of 
 Early's command — 30,000 — showing the dis- 
 charges and loss from General Grant to be 
 150,000, and that of Lee to be 85,000. 
 
 Judge Kelly, were the records of the council of 
 war, and that of "the strict course of examina- 
 tion" made by Mr. Stanton, indicating the very 
 difficulties and dreadful losses General Grant 
 has lately sustaimsd, ever placed before him? 
 And wliy not? And who is responsible for the 
 one hundred thousand men unnecessarily and 
 wickedly sacrificed south of the Rapidan, in 
 the experiment made to prove that General 
 McClellari and the council of war were wrong, 
 and that the President's plan was fight. 
 
 The army of the United States, as you found 
 it at the commencement of this war, was con:- 
 posed of a high-toned, intelligent, honorable, 
 gallant set of men, fully equal to the contest 
 before them. They had always studionsly 
 avoided all political connections ; maiiy of 
 wj^om had been thirty years in the service of 
 their country and had never voted. They held 
 their country and the honor and integrity of it 
 before every other consideration. Had a rule 
 been adopted requiring that no political subject 
 should be introduced into the army, but that all 
 political rights should be respected, and had 
 army othcers only been held responsible for the 
 conduct of the war, it would have terminated 
 long ago. 
 
 Why have McOIellan, and Sedgwick, and 
 McPherson, and Bayard, and Franklin, and 
 Buell, and Meade, and Averill, and Porter, and 
 a score of other general officers, with hundreds, 
 if not thousands, of officers of an inferior grade, 
 been offended and held back, and many of 
 them dismissed from the army without a word 
 of explanation — an arbitrary act unknown in 
 Great Britain — while Pope, and Burnside, and 
 Hooker, and Ihitler, and Hunter, and Banks, 
 and Sigel, and Sickles, and hundreds of others, 
 certainly no better than the former, have been 
 preferred? "Why was Gen. Stone, than whom 
 there is not a more loyal man and accomplished 
 gentleman and gallant soldier in the country, 
 confined in prison for fifteen months? And 
 when released by an act of Congress. Avhy was 
 it that neither the President, nor Secretary of 
 War, nor Secretary of State, or otlier persons 
 at Washington, would assent to any knowledge 
 or any particii)ation in the arrest? Such out- 
 rages are calculated to break down the honor 
 and e»prit du corjys of any army, and all have 
 looked on with disgust and horror and pain at 
 the shameful injustice and outrages that have 
 been continually heaped upon so many of their 
 old friends and conn-ades in arms, whom they 
 know incapable of an ungentlemanly, dishonor- 
 able, nnsoldierly, or disloyal act. 
 
 Why did the Committee on the Conduct of 
 the War investigate and falsify with such nice 
 precision the conduct of McClellan and his 
 friends, and overlook the volumes of charges 
 filed in the War Department against Fremont, 
 
 and Sigel, and Hunter, and others, and en- 
 tirely overlook the immense slaughter at Chan- 
 cellorsville, and Fredericksburg, and south of 
 the Rapidan ? Why did a secret political in- 
 quisition, with no other pretext than that they 
 suspected him of political ambition, sit over five 
 hundred days, and manufacture over seventeen 
 hundred pages of ex parte testimony against a 
 young officer, a Christian gentleman, an honest 
 man, who. Heaven only knows, never had but 
 one purpose, and that, to serve his country and 
 his God ? 
 
 You know, Judge, that while in Washington, 
 General McClellan studiously avoided all politi- 
 cal association, and to sucli an extent that 
 many of his friends of both parties were much 
 offended. * 
 
 The first knowledge that I ever had of any 
 political ambition on his part, was after he liad 
 been retired from active service and sent in 
 disgrace to New Jersey ; and this was after his 
 fitness for the succession liad been discovered 
 by Mr. Lincoln, and the people had signified 
 their affection for him. His letters and orders 
 have been called political ; but they were emi- 
 nently proper, and refer entirely to the mili- 
 tary policy of the country. But, Judge, sup- 
 pose Ave admit that General McOIellan had an 
 ambition to be President of the United States, 
 was it not a laudable ambition, and is there 
 any impropriety in it ? Is the|field not open 
 to him as well as to Mr. Lincoln, or Mi-. Fre- 
 mont, or Mr. Chase, or the many others infin- 
 itely his inferiors? So far as the objections to 
 his military qualifications are concerned, we 
 have only to remind you that, within the last 
 sixty days, a confidential friend of the Presi- 
 dent was sent to oti'er him one of the most im- 
 portant commands of the army. But this 
 proposition was coupled with the most dishon- 
 orable condition— that he should decline to be 
 a candidate for the Presidency. General Mc- 
 Clellan restrained his indignation, and replied 
 to the bearer of the message, " Go baok to 
 AYashington and say to the President for me 
 that when I receive my official, written orders, 
 he shall have my answer." 
 
 Beware, Judge, of the intemperate abnse of 
 your political opponents, as proud and loyal as 
 you are, who would rather see the continent 
 "of America sink into the ocean, with all that 
 dwells upon it, than see our nationality de- 
 stroyed ; who will not endure this constant 
 usurpation of authority and encroachment 
 upon their rights, and whom you may drive 
 into a dreadful conflict, in which the abolition- 
 ist and the negro may find themselves arrayed 
 against all who will unitedly stand, hand in 
 liand, and shoulder to shoulder, in defence of 
 tlie Constitution and the fundamental laws of 
 the land. Very respectfully, 
 
 HENRY M. NAGLEE. 
 To Hon. Wm. D. Kklley, Philadelphia. 
 
THE ADDRESS TO THE ARMY AND NAVY, 
 
 Adopted at Hope Chapel, 
 
 on WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 28th, 1864, by the 
 
 To the friends of George B. 3IcClellan in the army 
 and navy of the United States : 
 
 The approaching Presidential election, as well 
 as your own noble efforts on land and on sea, 
 will shortly decide the all-important question 
 whether tliis Union of States, this glorious in- 
 heritance, which alone gave the republic its 
 illustrious station among the nations of the 
 earth, shall be preserved. or ignominiously de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Upon jow rests at this hour a responsibility 
 far greater than upon any portion of the people 
 of biie United States, Let it not be said, when 
 the 8th of November has passed, tliat the sol- 
 diers and sailors of the republic have neglected 
 their duties as citizens of a free and constitu- 
 tional community. 
 
 We, your old comrades in arms, appeal to 
 you, by the common ties of brotherhood, in 
 the name of the thousands of fallen heroes, 
 whose blood has been freely shed upon the 
 altar of our country ; in the name of that 
 Union to defend which, and which only, you 
 entered the service and are now lighting tlie 
 armed forces of our enemy ; in the name of all 
 that is dear to us on earth, we appeal to you 
 to deposit your votes as becomes the freemen 
 and armed constitutional guardians of the re- 
 public, unawed by fear, and untrammelled by 
 any interference. 
 
 In choosing between the candidates which 
 the two political parties of the country have 
 placed before us, for our suffrages, you will, 
 not only as soldiers, but as citizens, readily un- 
 derstand who is your natural friend, who will 
 best promote your own interests and the holy 
 cause for which you have pledged your lives. 
 Major-Genoral George B. McClellan, the con> 
 inander who has shared with you the dangers 
 of battle, the fatigues of the march, the monot- 
 
 ony of camp life, who, again and again, hasJed 
 you to victory ; the officer, the patriot, the 
 statesman, is to-day, as we honestly believe, 
 -the only one under Providence, who can, if 
 elected, restore the Union, and with it give us 
 all once more peace and happiness in this now- 
 distracted land. 
 
 We call upon you to aid us in elevating pur 
 old commander to that eminent position to 
 which he is so deservedly entitled. j 
 
 If elected to the Presidency of the United 
 States, General McClellan will at once set to 
 work, both in the cabinet and on the"tield, to 
 restore this once glorious Union. Under his 
 management this war will cease in a very few 
 montJjS. His policy in conducting military 
 operations — which is well known to you — is a 
 sufficient guarantee that you -will, at an early- 
 day, be permitted to return to your homes and 
 firesides, there to receive tliose honors due to 
 men wlio as soldiers have faithfully and steadi- 
 ly resisted the onslaught of armed traitors on 
 land and sea, and wlio as citizens, by casting 
 their votes for George B. McClellan, have ma- 
 terially aided in reestablishing our beloved 
 country to its enviable position among the na- 
 tions of the earth. Eemeniber the following 
 noble words which General McClellan ad- 
 dressed to the Army of the Potomac, when he* 
 parted from those comrades whom he l^ved so 
 much. He said : 
 
 " In you I have never found doubt or cold- 
 ness. The battles you have fought under my 
 command will proudly live in our nation's liis- 
 tory. The gloiy you have achieved, our mu- 
 tual perils and fatigues, the graves of our com- 
 rades fallen in battle and by disease, the broken 
 forms of those whom wounds and sickness have 
 disabled — the strongest associations which ex- 
 ist among men — unite us still by|an indissoluble 
 
« 
 
 tie. We shall ever be comrades in supporting 
 tlie Constitution of our country and the nation- 
 ality of its people." 
 
 The commander and statesman who spoke 
 thus to his fellow-soldiers two years ago, knows 
 that, to-day^ ho can still "look upon you all as 
 comrades. lie is, and ever has been, the great 
 defender of our Constitutional Union, *ind 
 thinks only of the good of the whole country, 
 
 "It was in this cause and with these mo- 
 tives," our candidate truly said in his West 
 Point oration, ''that so many of our comrades 
 gave their live^; and to this we are all per- 
 sonally pledged in all honor and fidelity. Shall 
 such a devotion (he asked) as that of our dead 
 comrades be of no avail ? Shall it be said in 
 after ages that we lacked the vigor to complete 
 the work thusbegun ? — that, after all these no- 
 ble lives freely given, we hesitated, and failed to 
 keep straight on until our land was saved ? For- 
 bid it. Heaven, and give us firmer, truer hearts 
 t^an that, that none may doubt the salvation 
 of the republic and the triumph of our grand 
 old flag." 
 
 Again, in his letter of acceptance, you fel- 
 lc»v soldiei's are thus spoken of: "I could not 
 look in the face my gallant comrades of the 
 army and navy, who have survived so many 
 bloody battles, and tell them that their labor 
 and sacrifice of so many of our slain and 
 wounded brethren had been in vain ; that we 
 bad abandoned that Union for which we had 
 so often perilled our lives. A vast mnjority of 
 our people, whether in the army or navy or at 
 home, would, as I would, hail with unbounded 
 joy the permanent restoration of peace on the 
 basis of the Union under the Constitution 
 without the eifusion of another drop of blood, 
 but no peace can be permanent without Union." 
 
 " The Union at all hazards,'''' is McClellan's 
 motto. It is yours, and it is ours. It is to-day 
 the watch \voi*d of all who love their country, 
 its constitutional guarantees and liberties. It 
 will bo the rallying cry, both in and out of the 
 
 army, among all those who deposit their votes 
 for George E. McOlellan. 
 
 Kally around him, then, ofiicers, soldiers and 
 sailors, and assist us all in reestablishing the 
 Union. Let us prove that we are still and ever 
 will be General McClellan's comrades " in sup- 
 porting the Constitution of our country and the 
 nationality of its people." 
 
 McCLELLAN SONQ. 
 
 By Major Sidney Herbert, a membor of the Legion. 
 
 The McOlellan legion. 
 
 In every region, 
 Comprises the brave and the true ; 
 
 They have fought aid bled — 
 
 No more need be said — 
 'Neath our flag of Red, White, and Blue. 
 
 They still honor the name 
 
 And revere the fame 
 Of the hero who led them to war, 
 
 And ne'er will they give, 
 
 So long as they live, 
 A vote that his record shall mar. 
 
 Let traitors defame him, 
 And fanatics blame him, 
 
 And still seek to set him aside ; 
 
 We'll soon let them know, 
 By the votes that we throw, 
 
 That he's still our hope and our pride. 
 Comrades now in the field, 
 Who our liberties shield, 
 
 We send you a greeting to-night ; 
 Forget not the past, 
 But be your votes cast, 
 
 " Little Mac," Union and Right.