misrepresentation, made to the Senate committee on the Conduct of the
War, but as the action of the Senate and its committees in reference to
confirmations were secret, no correct explanation can now he given of
the allegations against Smith, though they were generally attributed at
the time to Burnside and his friends, and while they were neither
properly investigated nor supported, they resulted in reducing Smith to
the rank of brigadier general and depriving him of the high command
which he would have otherwise continued to hold.

It is worthy of note that before these changes were made, and while the
Army of the Potomac was still floundering in the mud under the
inefficient command of Burnside, Franklin and Smith joined in the
letter previously referred to, advising the President to abandon the
line on which the Army was then operating, with such ill success, and
after reinforcing it to the fullest extent, to send it back again to
the line of the James River. This letter was doubtless written in
entire good faith, but at a time when it seemed to be impossible for
the government, even if it had so desired, to carry out its
recommendations. Its only immediate effect was to arouse the antagonism
of Mr. Stanton against these two able officers, and to deprive the
country for a while of their services. A wiser and more temperate
Secretary of War would have filed and ignored it, or sent for the
officers and explained why he deemed their advice to be impracticable
at that time. That, however, was not Mr. Stanton's way. Although
intensely patriotic and in earnest, he was imperious and overbearing
both to high and low alike, and preferred to banish and offend rather
than to listen and conciliate.

The winter of 1862-3 is now by common consent regarded as the darkest
period of the war for the Union. The failure of Burnside's plans and