May 16, 1863, The New York Herald
General Hooker was yesterday in Washington on official business. Immediately after his unexpected retreat he was visited at his headquarters by the President and General Halleck in order to ascertain at once the exact state of affairs. More recently, Senators Wade and Chandler, the radical chiefs of the Congressional War Committee, went down to the Rappahannock, and it may be in consequence of their call that General Hooker was yesterday at the White House. It is intimated that he has lost caste with the General-in-Chief, and, if the Tribune may be considered as speaking for the radical leaders of its party, Senators Wade and Chandler are of the opinion that Hooker has been tried and found wanting. But President Lincoln is an amiable and generous man – remarkably so, – and, whatever he may believe, in regard to the late retreat, we have no doubt that he has called General Hooker to Washington to consult with him, and instruct him in regard to his preparations, plans and strategy for another trial.
Thus, concluding that Gen. Hooker is to be retained at the head of his splendid army, it is to be hoped that he will do his very best, when next he moves, to retrieve his late misfortune and to recover his lost laurels. He is more fortunate than Pope or Burnside, who were set aside, each after his first failure. We trust he will be more fortunate than Gen. McClellan, if successful as he was in his Maryland campaign, and that “Fighting Joe” will not be removed while in pursuit of the enemy. With the superior army, means and facilities which he possessed, and after all that he promised and all that was reasonably expected of him, it can hardly be denied that his late nine days’ campaign is the most inglorious of all the failures of our generals in Virginia since the beginning of the war. Gen. McDowell failed at Bull run because Gen. Patterson failed to hold in the Shenandoah valley the twenty odd thousand men of Jo. Johnston, which he was instructed to take care of. Gen. McClellan failed on the peninsula; first, because his army, instead of being consolidated as much as possible, was cut up into three of four different armies, and scattered over half the State of Virginia; and, secondly, because he was recalled from Harrison’s Landing when, at that point, he should have been strengthened for another advance upon Richmond. General Pope failed because of the inextricable confusion created by the War Office in the distribution of McClellan’s forces, as they were brought back from peninsula. They were scattered along from Washington to Fredericksburg, while Pope was enveloped by the rebel army from Warrenton to Manassas. General Burnside failed simply because he dashed his army literally against an impassable stone wall. On the other hand, General Hooker – with an army around him greater than all forces in August last of McClellan and Pope combined, and provided amply with everything desired; after a refreshing rest of six months to his soldiers; after turning the flank of the rebels and choosing his own ground – permits himself to be pushed back upon the river without a general battle, and retreats when the enemy is too exhausted to follow, and when by advancing en masse he might have annihilated at the rebel army.
We are told that before recrossing the river he had a consultation with six of his corps commanders, and that four of them were in favor of advancing instead of retreating. We are told officially that in all his late battles only one-third of his army was engaged. We are assured that the brave soldiers of the army had no idea that in shortening their lines to the river they were going to recross it, and that, while they were hoping and eager to advance, or pause for another trial with the enemy, they were saddened and disappointed with the order to retreat. We say, therefore, that, under all the circumstances, the retention of General Hooker in command is an act of great generosity on the part of the President, and we hope that it will bring into active exercise all the energies of the General thus so highly favored, and all the useful lessons of his severe experience to recover the ground and the fame which he has lost.
We do not suppose that, unless demanded by some offensive demonstrations of the enemy, the Army of the Potomac will advance again for some days or weeks to come; but when again it shall advance, whether under General Hooker, General Halleck or any other General, after cutting up the rebel forces right and left till they haul off, and with two-thirds of our army held back as reserves, we do hope and trust that our General will not give up the contest and retire without a general engagement; for, after all, we believe that such an engagement in their late glorious campaign to them would have carried the veterans of the Army of the Potomac without further serious resistance right on into the rebel capital.