The Count of Paris wrote these chapters in 1874.--twelve
years after the events, and with ample testimony at his command. It is
strange that he could not reach the conclusion, then and now commonly
held, that McClellan's treatment of President Lincoln throughout his
entire career seems to have been highly insubordinate and apparently
based upon the idea that he regarded himself as the nation's only hope,
forgetting that to a free people no man has ever become indispensable,
however powerful his intellect or exalted his virtues. Barring certain
conclusions which are open to easy controversion, the narrative is
exceedingly careful, graphic, and in the main truthful.
The third volume (1883) is translated and edited by Col. John S.
Nicholson of Philadelphia, and covers the eventful year 1863,--the
operations and movements on the Rapidan and the disaster to the union
arms at Chancellorsville,--the movements upon Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and
the retreat of Lee's array to Virginia. Closer attention is paid, in
this volume, to the legislation, administration, finances, resources,
temper, and condition generally of the North and the South, and valuable
accounts are given of the organization at the North of the signal corps,
the medical and hospital service, the military telegraph, the system of
railroad transportation for military purposes, the soldiers' homes, and
the sanitary and other commissions.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33