the W. F. Smith Papers, courtesy of Walter Wilgus; with a supplementary letter by Franklin dated Dec. 26.
8. Basler, Vol. VI, 31; John G. Nicolay and John Hay: Abraham Lincoln, a History, Vol. VI, 213-14. (Cited hereafter as Nicolay & Hay.)
9. Nicolay & Hay, Vol. VI, 211, 213-14; letters of G. K. Warren to his brother dated Dec. 18, 1862, and Jan. 5, 1863, in the G. K. Warren Papers, Manuscript and Historical Section, New York State Library, Albany.
10. Allan Nevins, ed., A
Diary of Battle, by Col. Charles S.
Wainwright, 157-59; The Life and Letters of
George Gordon
Meade, Vol. I, 349; Darius N. Couch,
Sumner's Right Grand Di-
vision, B. & L., Vol. Ill, 119. It
should be borne in mind that
Wainwright was a conservative Democrat, a bitter critic of Abraham
Lincoln and a devout supporter of McClellan.
The common assumption that Burnside's march never had a chance may need revision. At the time, some competent critics commended the plan. Meade wrote (loc. cit.) "I believe but for the storm we would have succeeded," and Maj. Gen. A. A. Humphreys assured his wife: "If we had only marched a day earlier, and could have attacked the enemy's entrenchments in that storm, we should have carried them." (Letter dated Jan. 24, in the Humphreys Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.) Wainwright said that Gen. Henry Hunt, chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac, "thinks our chances of success were good had there been no disaffection in the ranks." Wainwright added that he understood that Gen. John F. Reynolds, commander of the I Corps, felt the same way. (A Diary of Battle, 161.)
11. O.R., Vol XXI, 998-99, 1004-5;
CCW Report, 1863, Part
One, 720. Sumner had no part in the anti-Burnside cabal. He
did,
however, rank Hooker and it seemed advisable not to make
him
serve under a junior. In addition, he was an old man,
stout-hearted
but rather antiquated, hardly fitted for high command in an
army
that needed vigorous rebuilding.
12. Basler, Vol. VI, 78-79.
13. The literature on the Porter case is
voluminous. For a
brief review of the affair, see Richard B. Irwin, The Case of Fitz
John Porter, B. & L., Vol. II,
695-97. For a stout defense of Por-
ter and McClellan, see Otto Eisenschiml, The
Celebrated Case of
Fitz John Porter.