subsequently, and was overruled. Finally, he pushed a column to its relief, and would have secured it and won a masterly position if the garrison had held out a few hours longer. He has also been censured for delay in beginning the attack at Antietam, and for failure to renew the battle, September 18th, instead of waiting for the 19th, as he resolved to do. It is true that prompter action before the battle might have had brilliant results; that he overrated the enemy's strength at all times; and that after the battle he forgot the shattered condition of Lee's forces in the consciousness of what his own had suffered. But his critics too often fail to remember that he was handling a defeated army, the battle-shaken elements of which he had gathered up two weeks before, and that he had to depend upon subordinates, not many of whom were equal to their responsibilities. No caviling about what he might have done should belittle the magnificent achievements of his brief campaign; and there is something curious in the indignation with which those who were trembling for the safety of the capital on the 2d of September saw Lee's defeated army escape across the Potomac.

As early as Sept. 21 McClellan said in a dispatch to Halleck, who had been in dread of a flank movement on Washington from the beginning of Lee's advance: "I regret that you find it necessary to couch every dispatch I have the honor to receive from you in a spirit of faultfinding, and that you have not yet found leisure to say one word in commendation of the recent achievements of this army, or even allude to them." He spent more than a month in reorganizing, reclothing, and resting his army, and in trying to get horses for an effective cavalry force, while the authorities at Washington urged an advance. A visit from the President, Oct. 1, had given him confidence that he was to have his own way; but on Oct. 6, instructions were issued to cross the Potomac and drive the enemy southward. These orders he interpreted as giving him discretion in the matter of preparation; and it was not till Oct. 25 that he considered himself ready to move. That day he addressed a letter to Halleck as General-in-Chief, in regard to the conduct of the impending campaign, and in answer that officer said: "Since you left Washington I have advised and suggested in relation to your movements, but I have given you no orders; I do not give you any now."

On Oct. 26 McClellan began the crossing of the Potomac, intending to move his army parallel with the Blue Ridge, making Warrenton the point of direction. He seized the passes into the Shenandoah Valley as he moved, and held them, so that if any strong force of the enemy remained in the north of the Valley, he might cross over in the rear of it; otherwise, his design was to strike between Culpeper Court-House and Little Washington, and either divide the forces of the enemy, or compel them to concentrate as far back as Gordonsville,

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leaving him free to advance on Richmond on the Fredericksburg line, or to move once more to the Peninsula. His progress after crossing the river was rapid and successful; but on the night of Nov. 7 he received orders to turn over the command of the army to Gen. Burnside, which he did at once, though its movements continued on the 8th and 9th under orders that he had already prepared.

His removal at such a time, to make way for the man that succeeded him, was an act for which there could be no justification on military grounds. It was doubtless due to some extent to the animosity of the Secretary of War and the General-in-Chief, but reasons are not wanting for supposing that it was mainly owing to the hostility of leading Republican_politicians, and to political considerations. He was a Democrat, in direct antagonism to the prevailing sentiment of the party in power, and with a grievance against the Administration; his failure in the field would be as disastrous as that of another, while his success might prevent the abolition of slavery, and render probable a Democratic triumph under the lead of a military hero in the presidential election of 1864. Even under the cloud of removal, with every charge from incompetency to disloyalty made against him, and with the war still in progress, he proved a formidable presidential candidate.

In the winter of 1863 he visited Boston, and was presented with a sword. In June, 1864, he delivered the oration at the dedication of the West Point soldiers' monument. On Aug. 31, 1864, the Democratic National Convention assembled at Chicago nominated him as the candidate of the party for the presidency, by a vote of 202 to 23 for Thomas H. Seymour, who was regarded as the representative of the peace sentiment in the Democracy. The platform adopted by the convention was especially weak in the declaration in regard to the war, notwithstanding the nomination of a soldier; and in his letter of acceptance McClellan virtually set it aside, and spoke frankly and strongly for the prosecution of the war. He carried only three States-New Jersey, Kentucky, and Delaware-and received only 21 electoral votes to 212 cast for Lincoln; but his popular vote was 1,811,754 to 2,223,035. On election-day, Nov. 8, 1864, he resigned his commission in the army and went to reside in New York.

In the spring of 1865 he went to Europe. Returning in 1868, he took up his residence in Orange, N. J., but engaged in business as a civil engineer in the metropolis. He had supervision of the building of the Stevens battery, under the terms of its projector's will, until 1871; in 1870 he was made chief engineer of the Department of Docks in New York, and he held the place for two years. He also planned a railroad bridge across the Hudson at Poughkeepsie, which has not yet been built. He was one of many engineers who gave it as

their professional opinion that an underground railway in Broadway was practicable, and he was at various times President of the New York Underground Railroad, the United States Rolling Stock Company, and the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. In March, 1877, he was nominated by Gov. Robinson as Superintendent of Public Works in New York State, but the nomination was not confirmed. On Sept. 19, 1877, he was nominated by the Democratic party of New Jersey as its candidate for Governor, and he was elected by a vote of 97,837 to 85,094 cast for the Republican candidate. His administration was one of the best in the history of the State. Up to the day of his death he was prominent in the business and social life of the metropolis. His last formal public appearance was at the Decoration-day ceremony on the battle-field of Antietam in 1885, when he delivered the oration. He died of neuralgia of the heart, after an illness of four hours, and was buried at Trenton, N. J.

Gen. McClellan was about five feet eight inches in height, neatly and compactly built, with strong shoulders supporting a large neck and a handsome head. His eyes were gray and clear, and his complexion ruddy. He wore a mustache and imperial, sandy colored in the days of the war, but silver-gray at the time of his death. His forehead was prominent, his nose good, and his whole face indicative of a strong and fine nature. He had in a rare degree the peculiar charm that wins the love and confidence of men. It was felt by all who came into personal contact with him in the closing years of his life, not less than by the mass of his soldiers, whose rolling cheers were wont to announce his coming along the lines. Though few men of his generation were more bitterly assailed, his achievements were great, his character beautiful, and his life blameless. He was the author of no book beyond those already mentioned, and the "Report on the Organization of the Army of the Potomac, and of its Campaigns in Virginia and Maryland," published in 1864; but he contributed several papers to the magazines, and was one of the best writers among the soldiers of the civil war.

MCCLOSKEY, JOHN, an American prelate, born of Irish parentage in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 20, 1810; died in New York city, Oct. 10, 1885. At the time of his birth Brooklyn was a village of fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, and New York was a city of fewer than 100,000; and there was neither Catholic priest nor Catholic church in the former, and only two priests and one church (St. Peter's) in the latter, though a second church (St. Patrick's Cathedral) was building. He was baptized by the Rev. Anthony Kohlman, who was acting as administrator of New York, which had been made a separate diocese two years before, but was then a vacant see. As a boy, the first American cardinal used to go down to the East river with his mother on Sundays, and

cross in a row-boat from Brooklyn to hear mass in New York. He was a lad of delicate constitution, and an accident, in which a log rolled over him, weakened his lungs, so that even in early manhood he did not expect to live beyond forty years of age, and made the very frailness of his life the excuse for spending it lavishly in the labors of the priesthood.

His parents were well-to-do, and in 1822 he was sent to school at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmettsburg, then in charge of its founder, the Rev. John Dubois, a school-fellow of Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins, who became third Bishop of New York in 1826. Young McCloskey was of gentle disposition and studious habits, and after a seven years' preparatory and collegiate course he entered the theological department at Mount St. Mary's to prepare for the priesthood. Completing a seminary course of five years, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Dubois in the old cathedral, Jan. 12, 1834, being the eighteenth priest ordained in the Diocese of New York. The previous year the bishop had laid the corner-stone of a college and seminary at Nyack on the Hudson, and though the building was destroyed by fire and the project long delayed, it was not abandoned, and the young priest, with a view to fitting him for the presidency of such an institution, was allowed to go to Rome to continue his studies. Early in 1835 he entered the Gregorian College, where he spent two years. and he so contrived his slow return as to see something of the various countries of Europe, reaching home admirably endowed by nature and thoroughly equipped by education for the career he was to run. He was appointed, Nov. 1, 1837, pastor of St. Joseph's Church, corner of Washington place and Sixth avenue, the fifth in order of erection of the Catholic churches of the city. The parish was extensive, stretching from Bleecker street to Harlem, and the congregation was fresh from a serious quarrel with the former pastor arising out of the old trustee system; but Father McClos key entered upon his duties with cheerful enthusiasm. He is described as at that period bright-eyed and frail-looking, but indefatigable.

Bishop Hughes, who had been made coadjutor of Bishop Dubois in 1838, and administrator of the diocese in the following year, opened St. John's College, Fordham, June 24, 1841, and appointed Father McCloskey president. He held the office about a year, and then returned to his parish-work. In 1843 Bishop Hughes asked for a coadjutor, and the Provincial Council, Nov. 23, nominated Father McCloskey for the place, and he was consecrated, March 10, 1844, Bishop of Axieren, in partibus, and made coadjutor of the Diocese of New York with the right of succession, being then thirty-four years old. In 1847 the new sees of Albany and Buffalo were erected, and Bishop McCloskey was transferred to the former city, May 21, 1847. There he remained as bishop for seventeen years, laboring for the develop