and rule, but it
is susceptible of exceptions. The generals of the Potomac shun the
exceptions, and thus deprive their action of all spontaneity.
Perhaps, indeed, spontaneity of action is not among their military
gifts. Thus we have from them, none of those _coups d'eclat_, those
sudden, brilliant, and impetuously improvised dashes, which so often
decide the fate of the day, and turn imminent defeat and partial
panic into glorious and crowning victory. We find none such, if we
except some actions of Hooker and Kearney, on a small scale, and at
the beginning of the campaign in the Chickahominy, or the Peninsula.
The most celebrated _coups d'eclat_ in general military history,
have mostly been, so to speak, the children of inspiration, seizing
Time by the forelock,--thus using opportunity which sometimes exists
but for a few minutes, and thus a doubtful struggle terminates in a
brilliant success. At such critical moments, the commander of a
wing, or a corps, nay, even a division, ought to have the courage,
the lofty self-abnegation, and firm confidence in his star or good
luck, and still more in the enduring pluck of his men, and boldly
strike for the accomplishment of that which the "Orders" have not
mentioned or foreseen. Such a general acts on his own inspiration,
and at the same time reports to the Commander-in-Chief, what he has
determined upon. If instead of acting thus promptly, he sends and
waits for further orders, the auspicious opportunity may pass away;
the decisive moments in a battle are very rapid, and a single hour
lost, loses the day, or reduces the results of a victory.

I respectfully submit these undeniable but much disregarded truths
to the Hallecks, McClellans, McDowells, and other great West
Pointers.

_Dec. 20._--The political cesspool is deeper, broader, filthier and
more feculent than ever. Seward is triumphant, and the patriots have
very much elongated countenances.

_Dec. 21._--Senator Wilson has learned from Halleck, Burnside, and
from some other and similarly _great_ captains, that the affair of
Fredericksburgh, and the recrossing of the river, brilliantly
compares with the countermarchings of Wagram, and with that
celebrated crossing of the Danube. As there is not, in reality, a
single point of similitude, the comparison is well selected, and
does great honor to the judgment of the military wiseacres. At all
events, never was the memory of a Napoleon, a Massena, or a Davoust,
more igno