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JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY
BY GEORGE H. HOPKINS
June 7, 1882
I have come home utterly disgusted with McClellan, doubting his capacity or his loyalty. He should have annihilated the rebel army on Thursday; why he did not, the coming pen of history alone will tell.
"My theory is that the training of West Point, that has always looked upon the North as common, and the South as the aristocracy, still thinks the same. They do not mean to be utterly defeated, if they are compelled to go into an engagement, but they do not mean to defeat the enemy beyond their power to recuperate, and thus keep the thing along, until the power and energies of both sides are destroyed, and then patch up a dishonorable peace. I may be wrong. I may not be a judge, but I am thoroughly convinced that Thursday ought to have seen the surrender of the rebel army. They never should have been permitted to take a wagon or a gun across the river, nor get across themselves, except as stragglers. I fear we are gone. God alone can save us, and I hope those who have the complete and perfect faith I have not, may by their prayers secure his aid.
. "The worst is, too, that our people are discouraged. This is the worst of all, but it is too true. "The family friend from whom we have quoted says: "When he was sixteen years old, visiting at my father's house in Jackson, Mich., he had listened to a theological debate on, punishment. He was then the size of a common man. He went out into the yard agitated, distressed—but soon turned to his mother, saying 'I am going over to the state prison this afternoon to study punishment as we administer it. ' He asked me to go with him and I went.
Michigan
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