AMERICA

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 6, Issue 358, 7 February 1863, Page 3

AMERICA

[From the Home News, Nov. 2C] GENERAL M'CLELLAN'S REMOVAL. The most important fact in the military news of the month is that General M'Clellan has been removed from the command of the army on the Potomac, and has virtually retired from active 'service/, This displacement is officially explained as tlie result of an inquiry into a charge against the general of disobedience of orders. On the (Jth October, General Halleck, as commander-in-chief, ordered M'Clellan to advance against the enemy and give him battle. M'Clellan disobeyed the order, alleging that he was short of supplies. This statement, General Halleck says, could not be true, as all M'Ciellan's requisitions had been promptly supplied. The Harper's Ferry investigation committee has also censured the removed general for the tardiness with which he pursued the enemy. There is, however, no doubt that political considerations have had their weight in bringing about M'Clellan's dismissal. :' Had M'Clellan been a mere professional soldier," says the ' Daily News,' "no, one would have inquired what his political opinions were ; bnt he never professed to be so. It was well known what he thought of the anti-slavery policy of the Government, and that he disapproved of it. But the present war partakes largely of the character of a war of opinion. And it is approaching, if it has not entered, a critical stage. Heretofore, the Eepublicaris have conducted the war much as the democrats might have conducted it. But as the term lixed for the execution of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation draws near, the period of .neutrality is passing awaj\ It would have surely beeu an act of weakness of the President and his Cabinet to leave the chief conduct of -the war in the hands of a politician who believed that the method prescribed to him as a general was erroneous." The following is General M'Clellan's farewell address to the army : — Officers and Soldiers of the army of the Potomac,—An order of the President devolves upon Major- General Burnside the command of this army. In parting with you I cannot express the love and gratitude I bear to you. As an army you have grown up under my care. In you I have never found doubt or coldness. The battles you have fought under my command will proudly live in our nations history. The glory you have achieved — our mutual perils and fatigues, the graves of our comrades fallen in battle and by disease, the broken forms of those whom wounds and sickness have disabled, the strongest associations which can exist amoug men, unite us still ■with an indissoluble tie. We shall ever be comrades in supporting the constitution of our country and the nationality of his people. G. B. M'Clellan, Major-Gen., U.S., Army. , Qeneral M'Clellan arrived at Baltimore on the evening of the 11th November on his way to Philadelphia, whence he was to proceed to Trenton,' New Jersey. At the last namecl town great preparations were being made to receive him. • .Naturally the dismissal of M'Clellan has caused f gfefft excitement. The press uphold the action, while the Democratic papers speak of it as likely to be of important service to the Confederates. At a Union -Democratic Association meeting John Van Buren announced that he should support the nomination of M'Clellan as the Democratic candidate for the next Presidency. GENERAL BURNSIDE"S MOVEMENTS. General Burnside who is appointed to the command of the army of the Potomac, has issued an address in which he expresses confidence in the patriotism of the army. That immediate action was intended was evinced by the fact that General Halleck had ordered all officers of the army of the Potomac to join their regiments within 24 hours under pain of dismissal. As a victory of some kind is above all things necessary to uphold the impaired power of the government, it is.pj'pb.able that General Buruside will be commanded tp attack the- Confederates. General Lee has, it is said, evaded the Federals, so as to avoid fighting in the Shenandoah Valley, and his forces are posted at Gordonsville, whilst Gen. Longstreet's command is at Culpepper in order to prevent the Federals getting betwen the main army and Bichmond. It is in this district, therefore that a battle may be expected. The New York correspondent of the Times writes :-rGeneral Burnside, -who has been nominated, some say temporarily, others permanently, to the command, is in his 40th year, a soldier by education; and one of the most, popular commanders whom the war has produced. He is not prominent as a politician. ,He has. twice before declined the appointment, basing his refusal mainly on the far superior fitness of M'Clellan, andpartially on . perß^h'a^:Tiib|tyes of private friendship', for that . general. he shall gain a speedy, victory, i which ias ap .unlikely- as jp -be. all , but impossible, :he tod," win have to go into winter quarters, and suffer, weefcdby. week, and day by day, a dripping of th6^4itt;le raindrops of detraction on the rock of^Sis^p^blarify,' which will wear it away before tEd.spr.ing: He.is, -of course, quite aware of the danger in which the army is placed by the sudden ; removal of its cprinnander. .The. Confederates are not likely to miss the opportunity of striking - a blow, if the weather and the state of. the roads and rivers will allow, and should ho be 'induced

By the clamour of the " On to. Richmond " fanatics to follow the retreating army of General Lee towards Gordonsville — which it is Lee's evident intention he should do — General " Stonewall " Jack - son and General Stuart may, appear l>ef ore Washington and again alarm the country for the safety of the capital and the person of the President. Such a hocus poous as the simultaneous occupation of Richmond by the Federals, and of Washington by the Confederates, would be an amusing incident in this dreary war, and might incline men's minds to ideas of pacification by the sheer force of its absurdity.