To the Editor of the
N. Y. Tribune.
SIR: I cannot suffer
undue merit to be ascribed to my official action. The glory of our recent
victories belongs to the gallant officers and soldiers that fought the battles.
No share of it belongs to me.
Much has recently been said of military combinations and
organizing victory. I hear such phrases with apprehension. They commenced in
infidel France with the Italian campaign, and resulted in Waterloo. Who can
organize victory? Who can combine the elements of success on the battlefield?
We owe our recent victories to the Spirit of the Lord that moved our soldiers
to rush into battle, and filled the hearts of our enemies with terror and
dismay. The inspiration that conquered in battle was in the hearts of the soldiers
and from on high; and wherever there is the same inspiration there will be the same
results. Patriotic spirit, with resolute courage in officers and men, is a
military combination that never failed.
We may well rejoice at the recent victories, for they teach
us that battles are to be won now and by us in the same and only manner that
they were won by any people, or in any age, since the days of Joshua, by boldly
pursuing and striking the foe. What, under the blessings of Providence, I
conceive to be the true organization of victory and military combination to end
this war, was declared in a few words by General Grant's message to General
Buckner – “I propose to move
immediately on your works!"
Yours, truly,
EDWIN M. STANTON.
– Published in the New York Daily Tribune, New York,
New York, Thursday, February 20, 1862, p. 4
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