report to General Moltke, that three weeks after a declaration of war, the largest force that the French could assemble on the Rhenish frontier would not exceed 250,000 men. On this estimate, which subsequently proved correct, the chief of staff based his campaign. Pouring across the frontier with a force more than double that of their adversaries, a month sufficed to shut up one French army in Metz and capture another at Sedan. Contrary to the practice of all other nations, we still continue in time of peace to ignore the value of military information."

In 1846 it will be remembered, that the Quartermaster-General could not find out in Washington, whether wheeled vehicles could be used in Mexico. This fact, discreditable as it was to the management of the War Department,-particularly since war had been anticipated for more than a year, was speedily forgotten, and as a consequence, in 1861 none of our statesmen or soldiers directed their attention to procuring timely knowledge of the enemy's forces and movements. The "secret service," like every other part of our military organization, was new, and had to be organized and developed by our military commanders.

In October, 1861, apropos of a movement on Manassas, the commander of the Army of the Potomac, through his spies and prisoners, estimated the enemy in northern Virginia at 150,000. Although this was more than six months after the fall of Fort Sumter, neither the General in Chief, General Scott, nor the Secretary of War, could bring any facts to the contrary. This ignorance lost to the Union one of best opportunities ever presented to destroy the Confederate army. ing to the report of the Confederate commander, his total force in northern Virginia, on the 31st of December, 1861, was 57,337 men, 10,241 in the district of the Shenandoah Valley, 6,257 in the district of Aquia, and 40,241 in the district of the Potomac. Opposed to this force of 40,000, more or less scattered from the lower Occoquan to Leesburg, lay the Army of the Potomac numbering, for duty, on the 1st of December, 1861, 169,452 men.

At no other time during the war, when the weather was favorable for military operations, were the numbers so unequal; yet for want of an organized bureau and the expenditure of a million or two of dollars in securing the services of spies, we remained throughout the autumn of 1861, in a state of almost total inactivity.

In January, 1862, our knowledge of the enemy was but little better. At a general war council held at the White House on the 10th of the month, the War Department could present no information. The Secretary of State was able to report, from information he had received through an Englishman from Fort Monroe, that the enemy had 30,000 men at Centreville

and in all our front an effective force, capable of being brought up at short notice to about 103,000 men-men not suffering, but well shod, clothed, and fed.

March 8, 1862, General McClellan again estimated the enemy at 115,000 men. Nine months later, General Burnside estimated the Confederate forces at Fredericksburg all the way from 100,000 to

a The Division of Military Information was established in the month of February, 1889.-EDITORS.

Minutes of the council by General McDowell, Swinton's History of the Army of the Potomac, p. 80.

200,000. At Gettysburg, the "secret service" of the Army having become thoroughly systematized, General Meade was enabled in a couple of hours to find out exactly what portion of Lee's army had been engaged on the 1st and 2d of July. The knowledge thus acquired made him firmer in his determination to offer battle the next day.

These facts, traceable to a defective organization of our AdjutantGeneral's Department, will explain why, early in the war, so many of our commanders were overcautious in their movements.

On the Peninsula, however, all the circumstances combined to mislead the commander. The Government did not dare to reenforce him, because it feared that the Confederates, whatever their number, might be able to send a detachment against the capital. On the other hand, the Confederates had greatly increased their army by passing a law conscripting all persons between the ages of 18 and 45. It was known also that, resolving to stake everything on the issue at Richmond, they had concentrated all their troops from the Potomac to the Savannah. Deserters sent in for this special purpose magnified their numbers, so that even at Harrison's Landing, on the occasion of the President's visit, many general officers still believed that the Army of the Potomac was confronted by 200,000 men.

Akin to the charge of overestimating the enemy, and equally unjust as a matter of complaint against the commander, was the assertion that 160,000 men had been sent to the Peninsula, which force if handled with courage and skill could at any moment overwhelm the enemy. The groundlessness of this statement will appear from the official returns. Remembering that Franklin's and McCall's divisions were reluctantly sent forward, at an interval of more than six weeks apart and that these accessions did not make good the losses by sickness, always large in a new army, the returns show that the number of enlisted men present for duty was:

On April 20..
On June 20

On July 10.

104, 610

101, 160

85,000

Add to either of the above figures not to exceed 4,725 officers, and the total present for duty never exceeded 110,000 men. With this number further reduced to the fighting strength of about 95,000, the commander at the critical moment was compelled to face, as he supposed, a force of 200,000 and an actual force of 95,000. Had either he or his generals suspected that their numbers equaled those of the enemy, it is more than probable that in a death struggle, man for man, the battles of the Chickahominy would have ended in the complete destruction or triumph of one of the contending armies. While such a spectacle would have been heroic, the policy which led to it would not have been wise.

In the late Russo-Turkish War, the Russians began their invasion of Bulgaria with 180,000 effectives, the Turks having 165,000. The second defeat at Plevna brought the invaders to a stand until the Emperor called out 340,000 men, who were further strengthened by the Roumanian contingent of 40,000, making a total of 380,000 men. Thus reenforced, they used 160,000 men to invest Plevna, and were justly credited with wisdom and skill when its garrison of 40,000 men were made prisoners of war.

a Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, vol. 1, p. 656.

When General McClellan begged for reenforcements, on the eve of what the Confederates meant should be a decisive battle, the Government had in its service more than 600,000 men.

The reasons why McDowell was not sent forward have already been stated. Why the Government did not fill up the ranks and send forward another reenforcement of 50,000 or 100,000 men, will be satisfactorily explained hereafter.

It was the refusal to let him land at Urbana in the first instance and the withdrawal of McDowell, that caused the month's delay at Yorktown; it was during this month so lost, that the Confederate congress abandoned voluntary enlistments, adopted conscription, and took away from the governors the power to commission Confederate officers; it was during this month, when the Army of the Potomac should have been at the doors of Richmond, that almost every regiment of the Confederate army was reorganized; it was during this month that Confederate conscripts began to pour into the old regiments instead of being formed into new organizations; it was during this and the two succeeding months, while McDowell was held back, that these conscripts, associated with veteran comrades, acquired courage and discipline, and it was by concentration during the last month that the Confederate army was made to equal its opponent. The loss of battles was but a trifle compared with the other consequences of this one month's delay. It arrayed against us a military system, which enabled the Confederate government to call out the last man and the last dollar, as against a system based on voluntary enlistment and the consent of the States. It was no longer a question of dealing a dissolving army its deathblow. We had permitted a rival government to reorganize its forces, which we now were compelled to destroy by the slow process of attrition.

CHAPTER XXII.

REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, FROM ITS ARRIVAL AT HARRISON'S LANDING TO ITS WITHDRAWAL FROM THE PENINSULA.

Although constitutional Commander in Chief, the fruitless strategy in the valley campaign convinced the President, that neither he nor the Secretary of War, had any of the qualifications of a military commander. He saw, too, from the ease with which 16,000 men had neutralized 60,000, that the creation of the Mountain Department and of the Departments of the Rappahannock and the Shenandoah had worked to the advantage of the Confederates. To remedy this evil an order was issued on the 26th of June merging the troops of the three departments into the Army of Virginia, commanded by Major-General Pope.

To clearly understand the events which followed, let us now direct our attention to the influence exerted upon the conduct of military affairs by individuals in high station outside of the Cabinet. The power of Congress to raise and support armies unquestionably gave it the right to inquire how the military resources it had provided were being applied. This right it exercised on the 9th and 10th of December, 1861, by appointing a joint committee of three members of the Senate and four members of the House of Representatives "to inquire into the conduct of the present war." To accomplish this object the committee was given power "to send for persons and papers, and to sit during the recess of either House of Congress.

Had the investigations been confined to transactions which had already occurred, no harm would have ensued beyond the injury done to discipline by encouraging officers to criticise their superiors with a view to securing promotion, or to the gratification of personal ill will. But a knowledge of past events by no means satisfied the committee. It pried into the present and sought to look into the future. With but little or no regard for secrecy, it did not hesitate to summon commanders of armies in the field, who were asked and encouraged to disclose the numbers of their troops and their plans of campaign.

July 8, 1862, scarcely a week after his assignment to the Army of Virginia, General Pope was called before the committee. From the

a The committee originally consisted of:

On the part of the Senate: Mr. B. F. Wade (chairman), Ohio; Mr. Z. Chandler, Michigan; Mr. Andrew Johnson, Tennessee.

On the part of the House: Mr. D. W. Gooch, Massachusetts; Mr. John Covode, Pennsylvania; Mr. G. W. Julian, Indiana; Mr. M. F. Odell, New York. (Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, vol. 1, p. 66.)

Mr. Johnson, on being made military governor of Tennessee, was replaced by Jos. A. Wright, of Indiana. The place of the latter on retiring from the Senate was left

vacant.

following question it will be seen that he revealed the strength of his command:

Q. Will you state to the committee the amount of troops now under your command, and the objects you have in view to accomplish what is being done and about to be done with that force?-A. I have a movable force, aside from the few troops that are here around Washington and in the intrenchments, of about 43,000 men. That is exclusive, also, of a small force that is in the Kanawha Valley, too far from the seat of operations here to be of any use in the present service. a

In continuation of his answer he next laid before them his original plan of campaign:

This command, when concentrated, was designed by me-when I first came here and learned the condition of things, and before the late reverses before Richmondto have marched upon Gordonsville and Charlottesville, in Virginia, and the southern extremity of the Shenandoah Valley, and thence upon Richmond upon the western side; at the same time, in the course of that march, I intended to destroy the railroads from Charlottesville to Lynchburg and from Richmond to Lynchburg; then, having arrived in the vicinity of Richmond, I proposed to aid the forces there in every possible way in the reduction of that place. That is what I proposed in the beginning."

Being interrogated as to what was about to be done, he explained his plans as follows:

The reverses which have occurred within a few days there, and which have caused the retreat of our forces to a point from which they are not accessible from this direction, and which by interposing the whole body of the enemy between them and Washington may perhaps endanger the safety of the capital here, has made it necessary to make some other disposition of my forces. I am therefore now assembling them at points on the east side of the Blue Ridge, some 25 or 30 miles south of Front Royal, and immediately in front of the passes leading through the Blue Ridge into the Shenandoah Valley, occupying Culpeper Court House with cavalry, and a point 20 miles in front, in the direction of Richmond; so that, in case any of the enemy's troops succeed in penetrating into the valley of the Shenandoah, I occupy such a position that, by marching upon Gordonsville, I have a shorter distance to march than they will have in turning back, and shall be able to cut them off completely. At the same time I shall be in such a position that in case the enemy should advance in any considerable force toward Washington, I shall be able to concentrate all my forces for the defense of this place, which I propose to defend, not by standing on the defensive at all, or confronting the enemy and intrenching myself, but I propose to do it by laying off on his flanks and attacking him from the moment that he crosses the Rappahannock, day and night, until his forces are destroyed, or mine. I have no apprehension, with my troops stationed in that position, although I have but 43,000 men, that even 80,000 of the enemy would be able to get to Washington at all. b

The safety of the capital next engaged the attention of the committee.

Q. What will be the number of troops left in the entrenchments about Washington?-A. In numbers they will be about 12,000; in condition they are very poor, indeed. They consist of new regiments, perfectly raw, and broken fragments of old regiments sent here to recruit. The force is not an effective one by any means.

Q. So that the defense of the capital will depend upon your army?-A. Largely upon operations in the valley. But I tell you that unless the enemy have force enough in Richmond to be able to detach at least 100,000 men, I do not anticipate any danger to this city. If they were to send so large a force as that against it, it would be very troublesome.

Q. Is it your design to act upon the defensive alone?-A. Not at all.

*

Q. So that you mean to attack?-A. I mean to attack them at all times that I can get the opportunity. If I was to confront them with the force that I have, and go to building intrenchments, etc., they could flank me on either side and force me back without my being able to offer any resistance of any consequence.

p. 276.

*

* *

a Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, vol. 1, Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, vol. 1, pp. 276, 277.