composed of rough levies;
that they fought three hours, being almost surrounded by overwhelming
forces; that they kept ground until reinforcements came; that the
breaking of the division cannot be true, or was only partial, and that
McClellan was not at all on the ground.

This battle of Fair Oaks is another evidence of the transcendent
incapacity of the chief of the staff of the army of the Potomac, and
of Gen. McClellan's veracity. In a subsequent bulletin the general
confesses that he was misinformed concerning the conduct of Gen.
Casey's division.

In any other army in the world, a chief of the staff who would assign
to a division a post so advanced, so isolated, so cut off from the
rest of the army, as was Gen. Casey's position,--such a chief of the
staff would be at once dismissed. Here, oh here, nobody is hurt,
nobody is to be hurt--only the bleeding people.

As to the conduct of the soldiers, they fought well; thorough veterans
scarcely could have behaved better. McClellan turns out worse even
than I expected.

The President's campaign against Jackson--very unsuccessful. Fremont
came not up to the mark; disobeyed orders. No excuse whatever for such
disobedience.

One is at a loss which is to be more admired, the ignorance or the
impudence of such opinion-confusing and opinion-poisoning sheets as
the New York Times, the World, the Herald, etc. They sing _hosanna_
for McClellan's victories. In advance they praise the to-be-fought
battles on selected fields of battle, and after the plans have been
matured for weeks, nay for months.

A plan of a whole campaign, a general survey of it, may be prepared
and matured long before the campaign begins. But to mature for weeks a
plan of a battle! All the genuine great captains seldom had the
selection of a field of battle, as they rapidly moved in search of or
to meet their enemies, and fought them where they found them. For the
same reason, they scarcely had more than forty-eight hours to mature
their plans. Such is the history and the character of nine-tenths of
the great battles fought in the world.

When Napoleon overthrew Prussia and Austria, he beforehand prepared
those campaigns; but neither Jena, Eylau, Friedland, Austerlitz or
Wagram were the fields of battle of his special choice. But Napoleon
moved his armies as did all the great captains before him, and as must
do all great captains after him. Only American great captains sit down
in the mud and dig.