We feel no disposition to disparage in any degree any claims to being a great warrior which
Gen. McClellan may have fairly earned in any war in which he has become distinguished.
We know nothing whatever of his military genuine, except that he has a great reputation.
founded, so far as we can learn, on his skill as an engineer officer, and his his success in
Western Virginia over an enemy not one tenth his own numbers.
He may be a great General, but the world has not seen the proof of it. Whether the anaconda plan of encircling the
Southern coasts and gradually constructing the coils of the anaconda, till the victim's bones are broken and he is ready to be swallowed, is a conception of
Gen. McClellan, or of old
Scott, we are not informed, though it is generally attributed to the latter.
It is one of those big, stately looking plans, which suits the buze dimensions and pompous habits of the late
Lieutenant General; but, whether there is any merit in it, is a question which must be decided by experience.
Thus far, it has not produced any very remarkable results.
The anaconda has gobbled down a few small villages on the seaboard, which had neither cotton nor tobacco in them, out he has not even approached the spinal column of the country.
Giving to
Scott, however, the credit of the anaconda, which is a reptile after his own heart, what has
McClellan actually accom plished!
He has had command of five hundred thousand men, and an unlimited amount of ammunition and warlike appliances nearly nine months have elapsed since the
battle of Manassas, and how much hearer is he than he was then to the subjugation of the Southern Confederacy?
His first great movement to flank our army at Leeburg was followed by the most decisive and bloody defeat, in proportion to the numbers engaged, that had then occurred in the war. The Yankee Government made an artful effort to conceal the fact of
McClellan's real responsibility for the disastrous failure of their arms at
Leesburg, but the deception imposed upon no intelligent mind in either country.
That he has placed his army in a splendid state of discipline is undeniable; but drilling is the work of a martinet, handling large bodies in the field the test of a General.
When a famous
French Marshal wished to convey an idea of
Napoleon's greatness, he exclaimed. "He could move a world in arms" When
Gen. McClellan proves his ability to move large masses, he will demonstrate the claims to great generalship which his admirers once act up for him, but which many of the
Federal journals are now tempting themselves to deny.
They cannot see why
McClellan, who professed to have an army of a hundred and fifty thousand in
Washington, did not advance last fall, when the reads, till an unneuatly late period in the winter, were in on admirable condition — They went to know what he has done, besides protecting
Lincoln and the members of Congress and the city of
Washington.
The
Tribune declared that he intended to make
Manassas's Christmas present to the
North, but
Christmas came and went, and
Manassas remained the town till
Gen, Johnrich saw as to give it by himself the very moment when it proved a fatal gift, disconcerting completely
McClellan's long deliberated plan of the campaign.
We believe that
McClellan is a gentleman, humane in his sentiments, and has some regard for the usages of civilized warfare; but his declaration months ago that the contest would be a short and desperate one, and his late grandiloquent address to his soldiers, are in striking contrast to his actual performances.
We now hear that he declared some ten days ago that
Richmond would be in his hands within thirty days. It remains to be seen whether that prediction will be fulfilled.
Ten days have already clapsed, and perhaps twenty will pass with no other result than to prove
McClellan a false prophet.
