52 THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. that to the ri^ht two other divisions were moving forward with still greater difficulty. Such was the condition of the ground that the cannon sank over the axle into the mud. This medlev of men and baggage thrown pelhnell into narrow and Hooded roads had fallen into considerable disorder. In the United States there is no such thing as a corps of the General Stall'. The American system of “ every man for himself,” individually applied by the officers and soldiers of each corps to one another, is also applied by the corps themselves to their reciprocal relations. There is no special branch of the service whose duty it is to regulate, centralize and direct the movements of the army. In such a case as this of which we are speaking, we should have seen the General Staff Officers of a French army taking care that nothing should impede the advance of the troops, stopping a file of wagons here and ordering it out of the road to clear the way, sending on a detail of men there to repair the roadway or to draw a cannon out of the mire, in'order to communicate to every corps commander the orders of the General-in-Chief. Here nothing of the sort is done. The functions of the adjutant-general are limited to the transmission of the orders of the general. He has nothing to do ■with seeing that they are executed. The general has no one to bear his orders but aides-de-camp who have the best intentions in the world, and are excellent at repeating mechanically a verbal order, but to ■whom nobody pays much attention if they undertake to exercise any initiative whatever. Down to the present moment although this want of a General Staff had been often felt, its consequences had not been serious. We had the telegraph, which followed the army everywhere and kept up communications between the different corps; the generals cotdd comerse together and inform each other of anything that it was important to know. But once on the march this resource was lost to ns, and so farewell to our communications!
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