We have already given an account of the taking of the two important cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth the recovery of the Gosport Navy Yard and the destruction of the much dreaded iron clad nondescript, the Merrimac, all done by an insignificant force of 5,000 men under the command of the president himself. This could all have been done better, and easily, at any time during the last six our eight months. Had it been done in October or November last what a destruction of life and property would have been saved? The humiliation of the destruction of two of our vessels of war – of the scare at Washington, New York and all along the shore, would have been spared us. But no, General McClellan would not co-operate with the Navy and strenuously set his face against anything and everything looking like business. He would not aid in raising the blockade nor in anything else and nothing but the most positive and peremptory orders to move, drove him from Washington. That all the water courses about Fortress Monroe are now cleared of rebel gunboats and “rams” that Gosport Navy hard, the best and most extensive in the Union is again in possession of the Government, we are indebted to the personal interposition of the President of the United States. The “great strategy” business is played out.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 17, 1862, p. 1
1 comment:
Everything I've read about this prima donna General makes me think he shoulda be relieved sooner.
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