Shady Hill, 19 March, 1862.
. . . I am not as critical as Iago, but I do not like McClellan's
address to his troops. It is too French in style and idiom. He “loves his
men like a father”? “A magnificent army”? “God smiles upon us.” How does he
know? And “victory attends us”? This last phrase is plainly a mistranslation
from the French “La Victoire nous attend,” — which means, what our General
ought to have said, Victory awaits us.
But I am more than content with our progress. Wendell
Phillips in Washington! The new article of War! The slaves running away in
Virginia! Fremont re-instated in command! Freedom cannot take any backward
steps — and it looks as if she would soon begin to move forward with faster and
more confident steps than heretofore.
What a fine fight that was in Hampton Roads! Honour to the men
of the Cumberland. I heard a most interesting and deeply moving account of the
incidents of the fight and the sinking from Dr. Martin, the surgeon of the
ship.
And how splendidly the Monitor was managed! . . .
SOURCE: Sara Norton and M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters
of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 253-4
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