The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-12 00:00:00

General Early and his Army,

The New York papers of the 29th ult. contain the
following address by Gen. Early to his troops :
" Ileadquarters,Valley District, Oat. 22,1864.

" Soldiers of the Army of the Valley,—l had
hoped to congratulate you on the splendid victory
won by you on the morning of the 19th at Bell-
grove, Cedar-creek, when you surprised and routed
two corps of Sheridan's army, and drove back seve-
ral miles the remaining corps, capturing 18 pieces
of artillery, 1,500 prisoners, a number of colours, a
large quantity of small arms, and many waggons and
ambulances, with the entire camps of the two
routed corps ; but I have the mortification of an..
nouncing to you that by your subsequent miscon-
duct all the benefits of that victory were lost, and
a serious disaster incurred. Had you remained
steadfast to your duty and your colours, the vice
tory would have been one of the most brilliant and
decisive of the war ; you would have gloriously re-
trieved the reverses of Winchester and Fisher's
Hill, and entitled yourselves to the admiration and
gratitude of your country. But many of you, in•
eluding some commissioned officers, yielding to
a disgraceful propensity for plunder, deserted your
colours to appropriate to yourselves the abandoned
property of the enemy, and subsequently those who
had previously remained at their posts, seeing their
ranks thinned by the absence of the plunderers,
when the enemy, late in the afternoon, with his
shattered columns made but a feeble effort to re-
trieve the fortunes of the day, yielded to a need-
less panic and fled the field in confusion, thereby
converting a splendid victory into a disaster. Had
any respectable number of you listened to the ap.
peals made to you and made a stand, even at the
last moment, the disaster would have been averted,
and the substantial fruits of victory secured ; but
under the insane dread of being flanked, and a
panic-stricken terror of the enemy's cavalry, you
would listen to no appeal, threat, or order, and
allowed a small body of cavalry to penetrate to our
train and carry off a number of pieces of artillery
and waggons which your disorder left unprotected.
You have thus obscured that glorious name won in
conjunction with the gallant men of
pthroeuadrlymyof
Northern Virginia, who still remain
de-
fiant in the trenches around Richmond and Peters-
burg. Before you can again claim them as com-
rades you will have to erase from your escocheons
the blemishes which now obscure them ; and
this 'you can do if you will but be true to your
former reputation, your country, and your homes.
You who have fought at Manassas, Rich-
mond, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellors.
ville, Gettysburg, and from the Wilderness to
the banks of James river, and especially you who
were with the immortal Jackson in all his triumphs,
are capable of better things. Arouse yourselves,
then, to a sense of your manhood and appreciation
of the sacred cause to which you are engaged.
Yield to the mandates of discipline; resolve to stand
by your colours in future at all hazards, and you
can yet retrieve your reputation and strike effective
blows for your country and its cause. Let every
man spurn from him the vile plunder gathered on