June 17, 1863, The New York Herald
The sudden and rapid invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania by General Lee’s army, from Culpepper and the upper Rappahannock, after outgeneralling Hooker by turning his right flank, is to be traced directly to the removal of General McClellan from the command of the army last fall, when he was within two days’ easy march of Culpepper and the enemy. This has been the fertile source of all our troubles and failures and disasters on this side of the Alleghany Mountains since that unhappy 5th of November. McClellan, in the moment of panic last September, when the Cabinet and General-in-Chief at Washington were bewildered and knew not what to do or what orders to give, had taken hold of our army, beaten and demoralized under Pope, and with it saved the federal capital, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and, by the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, had forced Lee to take the back track into Virginia. After recruiting and refitting the shattered Army of the Potomac he followed the rebel general in his retreat towards Richmond, and would have compelled him to fight at a disadvantage, and perhaps defeated him in a decisive battle, or forced him to abandon the Confederate capital and evacuate Northern Virginia. But in the midst of this successful and brilliant career he was cut short, without cause, by the influence of Wade and the Satanic committee of which he was chairman – a committee which misrepresented everything, and deceived alike the Chief Magistrate and the country.
What was the first consequence of this step, following rapidly upon its heels? Burnside, unfit for the command of an army of 100,000 men, broke one side of his head against Fredericksburg, from which he recoiled and staggered back by the force of the shock. He has since fractured the other side of his skull against Vallandigham and the Chicago Times newspaper. Next, blundering “Fighting Joe Hooker,” by the advice of the revolutionary radicals, was permitted to assume the role of commander of the Army of the Potomac, strengthened and reinforced till he cried “Hold, enough!” He like Burnside, was allowed to cross the Rappahannock without any serious opposition, and boasted that the enemy was completely in his power and could not escape. His retreat was as precipitate as that of Burnside, but with far less cause, indeed without necessity; for he said he had ‘the best army on the planet,” and had besides an impregnable position, from which he could not be dislodged, and Stoneman had accomplished his part in the programme. And what do we find now? Not only that Lee has crossed the Rappahannock, but the Potomac, after clearing out the valley of the Shenandoah and capturing Winchester, and even threatens the crossing of the Susquehanna and the capture of Harrisburg, Pittsburg and Philadelphia, to say nothing of Baltimore and Washington. In fact, there is, in the present stage of our information, no telling what Lee may do, in what direction he may turn, or where he may stop, while, from all appearances, Hooker and the authorities at Washington are enveloped in a fog of uncertainty.
What is to be done under these circumstances? The people must aid the administration, notwithstanding its disgraceful blunders and misconduct. The wave of invasion must be thrown back, and all hands must come to the rescue. But, in order to further this action let Gen. McClellan be restored at once to his place at the head of the Army of the Potomac. His name is a tower of strength. The force now under Hooker would fight very differently under its old, beloved commander, who organized it and led it in so many battles, and many of the soldiers who have returned from it to their homes in consequence of their period of service having expired would, under the influence of the enthusiasm created by his restoration to the command of the army, re-enlist for the war. The merchants, the bankers and municipal corporations, under the same potent influence and from a sense of revived confidence and security, would probably offer such bounties that a vast number of volunteers from among these veterans would be induced to go back and arrest the onward march of the invaders; for militia and raw troops will avail but little now against the veteran force of Lee. Let Hooker, therefore, be immediately superseded, and let Gen. McClellan be sent for and put in his place. Let this be done before it is too late. Men of all parties, and even some of the very radicals by whose persuasion McClellan was removed, now agree that the government committed an enormous error in setting aside the best general that the war has as yet developed; and still greater is the unanimity that Hooker is the greatest failure among all the generals who have played a part in this struggle. Let not the administration, therefore, persist any longer in a blunder which is now obvious to all the world, and longer continuance in which may prove disastrous and even fatal to the public interests. And let the people meet in every district of the loyal States and strengthen the hands of the President by crushing the radical power and by respectfully calling upon Mr. Lincoln to put General McClellan at the head of the Army of the Potomac before it is too late.