mies which
inspired them toward us."(6) What a transformation in McClellan's
disciple!

But the country was not won over so easily as the Committee. There was
loud and general disapproval and of course, the habitual question, "Who
next?" The publication by the Committee of its insinuation that once
more the stubborn President was the real culprit did not stem the tide.
Burnside himself made his case steadily worse. His judgment, such as
it was, had collapsed. He seemed to be stubbornly bent on a virtual
repetition of his previous folly. Lincoln felt it necessary to command
him to make no forward move without consulting the President.(7)

Burnside's subordinates freely criticized their commander. General
Hooker was the most outspoken. It was known that a movement was
afoot--an intrigue, if you will-to disgrace Burnside and elevate Hooker.
Chafing under criticism and restraint, Burnside completely lost his
sense of propriety. On the twenty-fourth of January, 1863, when Henry
W. Raymond, the powerful editor of the New York Times, was on a visit to
the camp, Burnside took him into his tent and read him an order removing
Hooker because of his unfitness "to hold a command in a cause where so
much moderation, forbearance, and unselfish patriotism were required."
Raymond, aghast, inquired what he would do if Hooker resisted, if he
raised his troops in mutiny? "He said he would Swing him before sundown
if he attempted such a thing."

Raymond, though more than half in sympathy with Burnside, felt that the
situation was startling. He hurried off to Washington. "I immediately,"
he writes, "called upon Secretary Chase and told him the whole story.
He was greatly surprised to hear such reports of Hooker, and said he
had looked upon him as the man best fitted to command the army of the
Potomac. But no man capable of so much and such unprincipled ambition
was fit for so great a trust, and he gave up all thought of him
henceforth. He wished me to go with him to his house and accompany him
and his daughter to the President's levee. I did so and found a great
crowd surrounding President Lincoln. I managed, however, to tell him
in brief terms that I had been with the army and that many things were
occurring there which he ought to know. I told him of the obstacles
thrown in Burnside's way by his subordinates and especially General
Hooker's habitual conversation. He put his hand on my shoulder and said
in my ear as if desirous of not bei