It was during the night march from Malvern Hill that General Smith encountered General Fitz-John Porter, his class-mate whom he always regarded as a first-class soldier, and with whom upon this occasion he had a conversation, the facts of which go far to justify this high estimate. Noting that Porter seemed greatly depressed he asked what was the matter. In reply, Porter told him that as soon as he had become certain the evening before that the enemy had been broken and beaten back from his reckless attack on the Union lines at Malvern Hill, and had withdrawn in disorder from the field, he had gone to McClellan on board the boat which he had occupied with his headquarters, and had begged him with all the arguments he could bring to bear, and all the force he could command, to assume the offensive at dawn. He said he had spent half the night in advocacy of this policy, expressing the confident belief that if adopted it would result, not only in the destruction of Lee's army, but in the capture of Richmond. He had no doubt that our own army, encouraged by the sanguinary repulse it had finally inflicted upon the enemy, would respond to every demand which could be made upon it, and would thus turn a series of indecisive combats, which the country would surely regard as defeats, into a magnificent victory. Smith's testimony shows this splendid conception to have been no afterthought with Porter, as it was with many who subsequently came to understand the facts of the case, but coming as it did hot from a desperate battle field, must be regarded as the inspiration of true military genius, while the fact that McClellan rejected it must always be considered as the best possible evidence of his unreadiness to meet great emergencies. Smith does not say specifically that he approved it, but the context of his narrative leaves but little doubt that he thought favorably of it and would have given it hearty support.