A NATION'S INGRATITUDE

Philadelphia, 1861. Broadside verse, 7-3/4" x 9-1/2." Forty-one rhymed couplets printed in two columns within an ornamental border. Dated, at the end, in type, "Philadelphia, December 5th, 1861." Very Good.

"Written on the occasion of McClellan's replacement of Winfield Scott as General in Chief of the Army" [Williams College description]. "A poem in praise of Gen. John Ellis Wool" [Huntington]. The poem begins, "The love of country is a holy love, / Approved and smiled on by the God above. . ."
The author is critical of the decision to choose McClellan. The correct choice was Wool, a career Army officer distinguished as Inspector-General of the Army, and for service in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. The oldest general on either side of the Civil War, the 77-year-old Wool commanded the Department of the East.
"Choose for your Chieftain one who has been tried, / The place is Wool's, it is his legal right. . . We know not what will be McClellan's fate, / But we do know thou wilt be ever great."
OCLC 64662122 [2- AAS, Williams], 960065926 [1- Huntington], 83346497 [1- NYS Lib.] as of March 2024. Not in Wolf.