first he took boat at Alexandria for the front. Part
of his army had preceded him. The remainder-except the force he had
assigned to the defense of Washington-was speedily to follow.

With McClellan's departure still another devotee of suspicion moves
to the front of the stage. This was General Wadsworth. Early in March,
Stanton had told McClellan that he wanted Wadsworth as commander of the
defenses of Washington. McClellan had protested. Wadsworth was not a
military man. He was a politician turned soldier who had tried to be
senator from New York and failed; tried to be governor and failed; and
was destined to try again to be governor, and again to fail. Why should
such a person be singled out to become responsible for the safety of the
capital? Stanton's only argument was that the appointment of Wadsworth
was desirable for political reasons. He added that it would be made
whether McClellan liked it or not. And made it was.(22) Furthermore,
Wadsworth, who had previously professed friendship for McClellan,
promptly joined the ranks of his enemies. Can any one doubt, Stanton
being Stanton, mad with distrust of McClellan, that Wadsworth was fully
informed of McClellan's opposition to his advancement?

On the second of April Wadsworth threw a bomb after the vanishing
McClellan, then aboard his steamer somewhere between Washington and
Fortress Monroe. Wadsworth informed Stanton that McClellan had not
carried out the orders of March thirteenth, that the force he had
left at Washington was inadequate to its safety, that the capital was
"uncovered." Here was a chance for Stanton to bring to bear on Lincoln
both those unofficial councils that were meddling so deeply in the
control of the army. He threw this firebrand of a report among his
satellites of the Army Board and into the midst of the Committee.2(3)

It is needless here to go into the furious disputes that ensued-the
accusations, the recriminations, the innuendoes! McClellan stoutly
insisted that he had obeyed both the spirit and the letter of March
thirteenth; that Washington was amply protected. His enemies shrieked
that his statements were based on juggled figures; that even if
the number of soldiers was adequate, the quality and equipment were
wretched; in a word that he lied. It is a shame-less controversy
inconceivable were there not many men in whom politics and prejudice far
outweighed patriotism. In all this, Hitchcock was Stanton's trump card.
He who had re