STONEWALL JACKSON'S SUCCESSFUL RAID.

When General McDowell was turned back from Fredericksburg to take
part in the fruitless chase after Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah
Valley, he was doing precisely what the President of the Confederate
States would have ordered, had he been able to issue the orders of
the President of the United States. McDowell saw the blunder, but
his directions were peremptory and nothing was left but to obey.
He telegraphed the Secretary of War, "The President's order is a
crushing blow to us." Mr. Lincoln personally and immediately
replied to General McDowell, "The change is as painful to me as it
can possibly be to you or to any one." McDowell then ventured to
argue the case with the President. He distinctly told Mr. Lincoln
that he could effect nothing in trying to cut off Stonewall Jackson
in the Shenandoah Valley. "I shall," he continued, "gain nothing
for you there, and I shall lose much for you here. It is therefore
not only on personal ground that I have a heavy heart in this
matter, but I feel that it throws us all back, and from Richmond
north we shall have all our large mass paralyzed, and shall have
to repeat what we have just accomplished." Mr. Lincoln's order
and the whole of this correspondence were by telegraph on the twenty-
fourth day of May. Conclusive as the reasoning of General McDowell
seems, it did not move Mr. Lincoln from his purpose; and the heavy
re-enforcement which was then within three days of the point where
it could most effectively aid McClellan, was diverted to a hopeless
and useless pursuit. Had McDowell been allowed to proceed as he
desired and as General McClellan confidently expected, he would
have re-enforced the Army of the Potomac for an attack on Lee,
while Stonewall Jackson's corps was in the Shenandoah Valley. By
the unfortunate diversion ordered by Mr. Lincoln, precisely the
reverse occurred. Stonewall Jackson's corps arrived before Richmond
in season to aid in defeating McClellan, while McDowell with his
splendid contingent was aimlessly loitering in a distant part of
Virginia.

The President was led into this course by the urgent advice of the
Secretary of War. When McClellan went to the field, Mr. Stanton
undertook personally to perform the duties of General-in-Chief in
Washington. This was evidently an egregious blunder. Neither by
education, temper, temperament, nor by any other trait of his
character,