A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [217]
Burnside admitted defeat after forty-eight hours and ordered his men to return to their original campsites. Dubbed the “Mud March” by the army and the press, this was Burnside’s final debacle as commander of the Army of the Potomac. By January 27, the general and a few loyal staff members were on a train bound for New York. General “Fighting Joe” Hooker (a nickname that would return to haunt him) took Burnside’s place. Hooker’s intrigues against Burnside had been notorious throughout the army. When George Herbert learned the news, he put the promotion down to “right smart bobbery” and thought his “appointment will create a great disturbance.”13 Charles Francis Adams, Jr., told his brother Henry that Lincoln had created more problems for himself by selecting a man “who has not the confidence of the army.”14
Hooker was a heavy drinker, and although his name did not inspire the slang term for prostitute, as is popularly believed, his headquarters often resembled a saloon bar in the worst part of town. The qualities that had caught Lincoln’s attention were his energy and ambition, on display as soon as he took control of the Army of the Potomac. On February 5, the soldiers learned that they were being divided into eight numbered corps, each with its own badge and insignia. Hooker also created a separate cavalry corps under General George Stoneman, just as Lee had done with Jeb Stuart. In one stroke Hooker eliminated the muddles and regimental rivalries that had driven Percy Wyndham into an armed standoff against his fellow officers. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., revised his earlier opinion, writing happily, “At last we are coming up and winning that place in public estimation which we have always felt belonged to us of right.”15
Dr. Mayo visited the Army of the Potomac during Hooker’s reorganization. He had been promoted from assistant to staff surgeon, and now served on the three-member board that certified volunteer surgeons. Mayo was interested to see how Hooker was managing the health of the soldiers. “I was here able to see how the wheels of the medical department of an army of more than a hundred thousand men are kept in motion by their chief director, Dr. Letterman—an able manager, if ever an army had one.” With Hooker’s support, Dr. Jonathan Letterman instigated a new, healthier regime. The railway line was repaired and supplies were being brought quickly and efficiently to the front. “The army was now therefore pretty comfortable,” wrote Mayo.
All had tents, or shelter of some kind, and plenty of rations.… Almost all had built themselves fireplaces and chimneys … and had plenty of fuel to keep themselves warm. In fact, as camp life goes, there was little to complain of but the mud, which was certainly some of the dirtiest (always excepting that of Washington), brownest, deepest, stickiest, and most ubiquitous that can be conceived.16
He could not say the same for the inhabitants of Fredericksburg, who were surviving on twice-weekly handouts of food. Mayo watched as huddled figures, including children, sat for hours in the snow on the banks of the river, a fishing rod in one hand and a bucket in the other. Before Mayo returned to Washington, he paid a visit to the Irish Brigade. So many of its officers had passed through his care after Fredericksburg that he felt a special affection for the men. It was melancholy for him to walk through the half-empty camp. Fewer than 600 of the 1,100 remained; yet they were, he wrote in astonishment, “as jovial and hospitable as ever.” The marked lack of bitterness among the brigade even extended to its wounded.17.4
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Aside from the downpours and sticky sludge, the chief impediments to Hooker’s massive reorganization were the Confederate raids on outlying camps.