Gen Bragg and his Assailants.
[Communicated.]
Richmond, June 15th.
Is it not time that the bitter war upon Gen. Bragg had ceased?
Has any good come of it?
Is it likely that any good will come of it?
Admitting, for the sake of argument, but for no other purpose, that Gen Bragg is not as competent to discharge his present duties as could be desired, is this sufficient reason why all his powers of usefulness should be destroyed?
Why he should be denounced as if he were a traitor to the country?
Why he should be saddled with the blunders and shortcomings of all who receive orders from him, and denied the right to share in the credit when the enemy is checkmated, and victory achieved?
Have gentlemen of the editorial corps the right, like the wind, to blow upon whomsoever they will?
Does the "liberty of the press,"as understood by intelligent men, give the profession the right to gratify, their egotism, or give vent to their prejudices, or partisan feelings, by ridiculing officers in the public service without cause and without reason?
Are liberty and license the same thing?
I put it to the cander and the reason of the Examiner, of the Whig, and of the Enquirer, whether their course towards Gen. Bragg has been just to him or to themselves whether it has been right — whether it has promoted the public good — or conduced to the harmony of the army?
An attempt has been recently made to excite indignation against Gen. Bragg for an order lately alleged to have been issued by him for the evacuation of Petersburg.
It turns out, however, that there was not the least foundation for the charge.
On the contrary it is now well known, as it might have been to those who fabricated or circulated the charge, if they had taken the trouble to make the inquiry, that he was extremely solicitations to save Petersburg, and did all he could, with the means at his disposal, to prevent its falling into the hands of the wretch Butler.
He has General Lee defended Richmond?
By going forward and meeting the enemy, and not waiting for him behind the fortifications of the Capitol.
This was all that General Bragg did in the case of Petersburg.
He ordered forces at Petersburg to advance upon the enemy, then between that city and Richmond, at a time when there was no enemy in the rear of Petersburg worth naming, and thus save that town and Richmond also.
For this he was denounced, while General Lee is applauded, and yet the result has shown the wisdom of his plans, and that he understood his business as well as his editorial accusers or their advisors.
But this is not all. The President, who was chosen to his high office because he was supposed to be capable of discharging its duties, has seen fit to call Gen Bragg to the seat of Government and assign him to certain duties.
At the time the appointment was regarded with general favor by the press and by the people, but Gen Bragg has his enemies, he has had to lay his hands upon certain officers.
These officers and others, who have but little to do, except to rail at the Government and utter praises of certain other officials, have gone to work and gotten up a great tempest in a teapot.
General Bragg, they say, ought not to hold his office; he is a vindictive malicious tyrant and marplot, and should not be placed over General Lee, General Cooper, and the Secretary of War; he will misted and control the President.
Control the President.
The cry heretofore has been that the President would nor he controlled.
that he would not even be advised.
But what will the people think of all this sound and fury, when they are told that General Lee, the Secretary of War, and General Cooper were consulted in advance, and that they approved the appointment of General Bragg, and that General Johnston and General Beauregard have since also signified their approval of it. Such is even the fact!
Now, who is the better judge of the fitness of an officer for a military position — the President of the Confederate States, the Secretary of War of the Confederate States, the Secretary of War of the Confederate States, the Adjutant and inspector General of the Confederate States, and the commanders of the three principal armies of the Confederate States, or the respectable editorial gentlemen who fly in the face of such high authorities and set up their own crude and uninformed opinions as the absolute standard by which the fitness of military appointments is to be determined?
Gentlemen of the Richmond press, it will not do. There are some people in the world who know a few things as well as yourselves, and fortunately all knowledge will not die with you. That you possess unquestioned abilities for the discharge of your legitimate duties, no one will admit more readily than the writer.
Your motives are not impugned, your great services in this unholy war are recognized, and commended.
But remember the injunction to the cobbler, and stick to your last.
Do not let designing men impose upon you. I know you will not if you know it, but they are very adroit, and will distill poison in your ears, as the serpent did in Eden, when you little dream of it. There are ambitions and unscrupulous men in the army as well as elsewhere — they have their axes to grind as well as the politicians — and especially is this true of those who are not content to rise by their own efforts, and their own merits, but must needs pull others down.
Above all, do not set me down as a partisan.
I hardly know General Bragg, I do not know the President except by his likeness on the postage stamps.
I hold no office under the Government, and no place under any of its officers, and would hold none, and I have no kinsman, who holds or desires any office.
My motives, like your own, are unselfish.
But I have fallen into error in supposing that you are not supported by authority in the course you have pursued towards General Bragg.
The Enquirer, at least, can point to the young Adjutant who written over the pseudonym of "Howard." --This is a brilliant young man. He has been serving on the staff of a Major General who for nearly two years tried to oust General Bragg from the command of the Army of Tennessee, that he might get it. But no one will suspect (I do not) the motives of the young Adjutant, who does the writing, while he does the thinking and the fighting.
I repeat that "Howard" is a brilliant writes; that is, if many words and few ideas constitute a brilliant writer, or if syllabub be better than cognac.
But has he had any military experience?
Is he a military authority, to whose fierce denunciations and vain assumptions the Richmond Enquirer should surrender itself?
The Enquireradmires Gen Johnston, and Gen Johnston endorsed General Bragg's conduct in the West.
The Enquirer thinks well of Governor Barris, of Tennessee, and Governor Harris is reported to do the same.
But these men must hide their diminished heads in the presence of the new Daniel.
One word is sufficient to dispose of Mr. Orr's various assault upon Gen Bragg in the Senate The reader will be at no loss when he is informed that Gen. Bragg found it necessary, on Beauregard's retreat from Corinth, to arrest a brother of the Senator for misconduct before the enemy.
It is proper to add that the misconduct did not involve that officer's personal character in any respect.
The time will come when the history of the Army of Tennessee will be made known.
That history will show that Gen Bragg possessed the confidence of the men and most of their officers, and that those who warred upon him most nearly sough to strip him of his mantle that they might wear it. Meanwhile let there be peace in our own camps.
The Gauls are thundering at the gates of the Capital.
To the breach, then, good friends, to the breach. Cato.
