ey, and
Burnside suffered his repulse at Fredericksburg within a few days
after I was directed to make my headquarters at Marietta and perfect
the organization of the district. I was therefore at a loss to
choose where I would serve, even if I had been given _carte blanche_
to determine my own work. Enough was known of the reasons for the
President's dissatisfaction with McClellan to make me admit that the
change of command was an apparent necessity, yet much was unknown,
and the full strength of the President's case was not revealed till
the war was over. My personal friendship for McClellan remained
warm, and I felt sure that Hooker as a commander would be a long
step downward. In private I did not hesitate to express the wish
that McClellan should still be intrusted with the command of the
Potomac army, that it should be strongly reinforced, and that by
constant pressure upon its commander his indecision of character
might be overcome. Those who were near to McClellan believed that he
was learning greater self-confidence, for the Antietam campaign
seemed a decided improvement on that of the Chickahominy. The event,
in great measure, justified this opinion, for it was not till Grant
took command a year later that any leadership superior to
McClellan's was developed. Yet it must be confessed that we did not
know half the discouragements that were weighing upon the President
and his Secretary of War, and which made the inertia of the Eastern
army demand a desperate remedy.

My personal affairs drifted in this way: the contest over the lists
of promotions, of which I knew next to nothing, prevented any action
on the request for a change of duty, and the close of the session of
Congress brought the official notice that the promotion had expired
by legal limitation. [Footnote: March 24th; received the 30th.] The
first effect was naturally depressing, and it took a little time and
some philosophy to overcome it; but the war was not ended yet, and
reflection made the path of duty appear to be in the line of
continued active service.

To form a new department for General Schenck, West Virginia was
detached from the Department of the Ohio and annexed to Maryland.
[Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxv. pt. ii. p. 145.] This was a
mistake from a military point of view, for not only must the posts
near the mountains be supplied and reinforced from the Ohio as their
base, toward which would also be the line of retreat if retrea