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[608] Was her inaction to be attributed to the timidity of the Richmond government, unwilling to jeopardize a vessel whose presence alone closed to the Federals the maritime approaches to their capital? It is difficult to say. It may be that the Virginia lost all her efficiency with the loss of the brave commander who had so skilfully handled her on the first day, and who would doubtless not have accepted the combat of the day following as a final defeat. Before proceeding any further, we must go back to the period when we left General McClellan planning the operations upon which the battle of Hampton Roads was to have such an important bearing. We have indicated the combinations among which he could make a choice, and the difficulties that each of them presented. His plan was determined upon by the end of January. He only took into his confidence the President, a few cabinet ministers, and his principal generals; and while the construction of his bridge equipages was being completed, he devoted all his time to devising the necessary means of transportation in order to carry out with precision and promptitude the bold movement he had conceived. Unfortunately for his army, a violent sickness, as we have already stated, came to interrupt these labors, and for a time to paralyze his faculties at the moment when they would have been of the utmost value. The fever had seized him before he had time to transfer the command to one of his lieutenants. Seniority would have designated McDowell. The staff did not deem it proper to recommend the vanquished soldier of the 21st of July for so important an interim, and they continued to exercise the command in the name of the sick chief. The President, on his part, did not dare to strike at the power of a general whose convalescence was announced to him from day to day; but at last, on the 10th of January, having become impatient at not being able to confer with him, he sent for two generals of the army of the Potomac and bluntly requested them to furnish him with a plan of campaign which could be carried out with the least possible delay. The next day, the 11th, these generals proceeded to institute inquiries into the condition of the army, through the administrative bureaux, and requested the Secretary of the Treasury to confide to them all the plans of
Philadelphia, Jos. H. Coates and co., 1876.
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