--The New York
Herald, has an editorial article upon
General Rosecrans's removal, in which the following appears:
‘
General Rosecrans in 1861 laid before the
Government a plan by which he could operate from
Western Virginia upon the rebel position at
Manassas and flank it. Though practicable, it was not acted upon.
In the next year he projected a plan for the capture of
Lynchburg, which would have give us possession of the Virginia and Tennessee railroad.
Gen. McClellan and the
Secretary of War both approved of this plan; but "the clamor of politicians and the necessities of military rank compelled the Administration to create the Mountain Department for the benefit of other
Generals;" and thus, "to please a political faction, a practical plan of operations which would have proved of immense advantage to the
Federal arms was thrown aside, and the season frittered away in a campaign barren of results." Had
General Rosecrans's second plan been acted upon
Stone wall
Jackson's advance down the Shenandoah Valley would never have taken place;
McDowell would have formed a junction with
Gen. McClellan, then in front of
Richmond;
Richmond must have fallen, and
Gen. Lee, instead of crushing
Pope and advancing into
Maryland, would have surrendered with
Richmond or have been compelled to retreat through
North Carolina, while the
State would probably have risen against him at every step of the way. Now, to have presented these plans to the War Department, would, inasmuch as they were not acted upon, be a great crime in any man; but to present these plans and tell of it also is a crime too great to be horde, and it should be expected that any General guilty of it must die, if two or three
Secretaries of War and a military adviser could between them shuffle off his mortal coil.
Gen. Rosecrans appears to have been guilty of the greater crime.
’
In the recently published "Annals of the Army of the
Cumberland" there is a biography of
Gen. Rosecrans, in which these facts appear.
If we may judge from appearances the facts were furnished by
General Rosecrans, and the severe reflection on the War Department which they imply, and which were thus assumed to emanate from that General, were more than the War Department could bear.
Gen. Rosecrans was removed immediately upon the publication of the book.
