PROVOST GUARD, WASHINGTON. FROM A SKETCH MADE

1862.

M C CLELLAN ORGANIZING THE GRAND ARMY.

BY PHILIPPE, COMTE DE PARIS, AIDE-DE-CAMP TO GENERAL M°CLELLAN.

O one lias denied that McClellan was a marvelous organizer. Every vet-

-L i eran of the Army of the Potomac will be able to recall that extraordinarytime when the people of the North devoted all their native energy and spiritof initiative to the raising of enormous levies of future combatants and theirmilitary equipment, and when infantry battalions, squadrons of cavalry,and batteries of artillery sprung, as it were, from the earth in a night, andpoured in from all sides upon the barren wastes of vacant building-lots thatthen went to the making up of fully three-quarters of the Federal capital.

It was in the midst of this herculean task of organization that two French aides-de-camp were assigned to duty as military attaches on McClellan’s staff.His brilliant operations in Western Virginia against Lee,— who had not yetrevealed the full extent of his military genius, and whom McClellan wasdestined to find again in his front but a year later,— the successes of LaurelHill and Rich Mountain, gave evidence of what might be expected of theinexperienced troops placed in McClellan’s hands. ☆ He had already shownrare strategic ability, and the President had confided to him the task of creat-ing the Army of the Potomac from the disorganized bands who had fallenback on Washington under the brave and unfortunate McDowell. Surroundedfor the most part by young officers, he was himself the most youthful of usall, not only by reason of his physical vigor, the vivacity of his impressions,the noble candor of his character, and his glowing patriotism, but also, Imay add, by his inexperience of men. His military bearing breathed a spiritof frankness, benevolence, and firmness. His look was piercing, his voicegentle, his temper equable, his word of command clear and definite. His

& See “ McClellan In West Virginia,” by General J. D. Cox, Vol. I., p. 126.— Editors.

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