d of Waterloo, Thiers
mentions four charges with the bayonet and hand-to-hand fighting at
Ligny, and nine at Waterloo, wherein one was made by the English, one
was made by Prussians and by French, and one by the French with
bayonet against English cavalry. In 1831 the Poles used the bayonet
more than it was used in any one campaign known in history. O, West
Point!

It deserves to be noticed that the conspirators against Pope and
McDowell, and the pet pretorians of September 6 and 7, distinguished
themselves not very much in the battle of Antietam. Hooker commanded
McDowell's corps.

To the number of evils inflicted upon this country by the McClellan
infatuation, must be added the fact that many young men, with
otherwise sound intellects, have been taken in, stultified, poisoned
beyond cure, by high-sounding words, as strategy, all-embracing
scientific combinations, &c.--words identified with incapacity,
defeats, and intrigue.

In all probability, Hooker alone, when he fought, had a fixed plan at
the Antietam battle. As for a general plan, aiming either to throw the
enemy into the river, or to cut him from the river, or to accomplish
something final and decisive, seemingly no such plan existed. It looks
as if they had ignored, at the headquarters, what kind of positions
were occupied by the enemy; and the only purpose seems to have been to
fight, but without having any preconceived plan. This, at least, is
the conclusion from the manner in which the battle was fought. If any
plan had existed, the brave army would have executed it; but the enemy
retreated in order, and rather unmolested. _As always, so this time,
the bravery of the army did every thing; and, as a matter of course,
the generalship did--nothing._

_Oct. 4._--The proclamation of September 22 may not produce in Europe
the effect and the enthusiasm which it might have evoked if issued a
year ago, as an act of justice and of self-conscientious force, as an
utterance of the lofty, pure, and ardent aspirations and will of a
high-minded people. Europe may see now in the proclamation an action
of despair made in the duress of events; (and so it is in reality for
Mr. Lincoln, Seward, and their squad.) And in this way, a noble deed,
outpouring from the soul of the people, is reduced to pygmy and mean
proportions by ----. The name is on every body's lips.

But it was impossible to issue this proclamation last year; at that
time the master-spirit of Mr. Lincoln'