It was the last straw. McClellan had been weighed and
found wanting. He registered a solemn promise with God that if the great
Confederate Commanders succeeded in making good their retreat from this
desperate situation he would remove McClellan.
The Confederates withdrew, rallied their shattered forces safely in
Virginia, and Jeb Stuart once more rode around the Northern army!
The President issued his Emancipation Proclamation, challenging the
South to war to the death, and flung down the gauntlet to his rival, the
coming leader of Northern Democracy, George Brinton McClellan, by
removing him from command.
CHAPTER XXII
BENEATH THE SKIN
John Vaughan saw the blow fall on McClellan's magnificent headquarters
in deep amazement. The idol of the army was ordered to turn over his
command to General Burnside and the impossible had happened.
Instead of the brilliant _coup d'etat_ which he and the entire staff had
predicted, the fallen leader obeyed and took an affectionate leave of
his men.
McClellan knew, what his staff could not understand, that for the moment
the President was master of the situation. He still held the unbounded
confidence of his officers, but the rank and file of his soldiers had
become his wondering critics. They believed they had crushed Lee's army
at Antietam and yet they lay idle until the skillful Southern Commander
had crossed the Potomac, made good his retreat, and once more insulted
them by riding around their entire lines.
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