William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac

Against stupidity, sings Schiller, gods and men fight in vain.

Finding himself deprived of that freedom of action on which, in so large a degree, the success of military operations depends, General Hooker requested, on the 27th of June, to be relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac; and early the following morning, a messenger reached Frederick from Washington with an order appointing Major-General G. G. Meade, commanding the Fifth Army Corps, in his stead.

Provoking as was the behavior of General Halleck, the conduct of General Hooker cannot be accounted noble or high-minded. A truly lofty sense of duty would have dictated much long-suffering, in a conjuncture of circumstances amid which the success of the campaign might be seriously compromised by the sudden change of commanders. Yet it was fortunate for the Union cause at this crisis, that the choice of the Government for the commander of the Army of the Potomac fell upon one who proved fitted for the high trust; and fortunate, too, that that oft-displayed steadfastness of the army, unshaked of fortune and committed to the death to a duty self-imposed, rendered such transitions, elsewhere dangerous, here safe and easy. Meade put his hand to his work in a quiet, practical, business-like way; and it was remarked that his undemonstrative temper, and the aspect he wore of a scholar rather than a soldier, were no drawback to the confidence of the troops, who had learned from the experience of his predecessor, that high-flown