Diary of Edward Bates, April 9, 1862

This great victory, following to [so] rapidly the capture of Island No. 10, with all its armaments and munitions, must break the heart of the rebellion. And, followed up, with speed and energy, as doubtless it will be, will I hope, speedily lead to a general submission of the people in the revolted states. Still, the remnants of the defeated armies, composed of men, now feeling that they are outcasts and desperados, will, I fear, plunder and devastate large portions of the southern country.

Genl. Halleck⁸⁰ as soon as he got news of the battle left St Louis, in all haste, for the seat of war, and, with Pope's⁸¹ and Buell's armies, added to Grant's, will, no doubt, be able to extinguish the rebel army in the Southwest. And this especially, if the Flotilla promptly go down the river, sweeping away all obstructions.

After all this, N. Orleans will, I hope, will [sic] surrender, without a useless waste of blood.

Poor McClellan!⁸² I really fear that he will fizzle down into acknowledged impotence. He has an army now of more than 100.000, in Eastern Va. and still he asks for more! because the enemy batteries are stronger than he expected — I hear that the sec of War answered him — “You were sent on purpose to take strong batteries.” He has a large force of cavalry for which he has no use and great difficulty in getting supplies, in the narrow peninsulas (between James and York rivers) in which he has chosen to act.

Of course, he can and must take both Richmond and Norfolk, but I think he has committed a blunder, fatal to his reputation, in attempting to conquer those cities by approaching Rich[mon]d.

through that narrow peninsula. The enemy forces there do but harmlessly hold their position so long as we command the water and operate elsewhere. Whereas, if, at great cost of blood and money, we take fort after fort, we drive them up to Richmond, or to their army about Gordonsville,⁸³ we leave them a free passage south and west.

If Gen McClellan wd. only (leaving ½ his army to hold the enemy in check on James and York rivers) would [sic] send the other half on the South side of James River, block Norfolk and ma[r]ch upon Richmond, via Petersburg, the least defencible [sic] side,⁸⁴ Richmond would be easily taken with all i[t]s men and munition, and the hostile forces in the two peninsulas would be bagged and helpless, and they and Norfolk would inevitably drop into our hand, without the necessary use of fire or sword. But — “Quern Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.” ⁸⁵

I do believe that the Genl. has such a morbid ambition of originality that he will adopt no plan of action suggested by another — He must himself invent as well as execute every scheme of operations. And yet it seems to me that he has but small inventive faculty — Hence his inevitable failure.

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⁸⁰ Supra, Nov. 13, 1861, note 37.

⁸¹ Supra, March 15, 1862, note 33. Pope had taken New Madrid on March 14, and on April 7 had occupied Island Number 10 from which Foote's gunboats had driven the enemy. He was now ordered to join Halleck.

⁸² On April 5, McClellan had landed at Yorktown to begin his “Peninsular Campaign.”

⁸³ A town southwest of Fredericksburg, between Orange and Charlottsville.

⁸⁴ i. e., the southern side. Petersburg is twenty-two miles due south from Richmond.

85 “Quern Deus perdere volt . . .” — a late Latin translation of a lost line of Greek tragedy.

SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, The Diary of Edward Bates, published in The Annual Report Of The American Historical Association For The Year 1930 Volume 4, p. 248-9