The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-06-30
email portion Of the public should el'ow
iHek to be thus deceived by jourosl
celebrated for suoh hoaxes.


Several correspondents complain to US Of the
discrepancies between the accounts Of the bat
Ties at the seat of war received by telegraph
and the accurate reports afterwards received
by mail, and we must confess that there are
good grounds for the cumplaints In almost
every case the accounts by telegraph seem
TO have surpassed those by mall as greatly In
their exaggeration as in their speed, and it is
hard to cay which is deserving of our greater
wonder and establishments.
Thus, in the account of the reported second at
tack upon Big Bethel, where hundreds of rebels
were killed and one thousand taken prisoners,
the Geographic reporter outheroded Herod,
and proved that his maternal parent, and not
Necessity, was the mother of invention; for,
wien the later reports came, we discovered
that, unfortunately, the whole battle was
myth, the prifon mere shadows of things
hoped for, and that the battery was still un-
taken. TO the teegy aphic reporter, also, history
ewes second Thermopy,@; for that account
Of tie FIGHT at Piedmont, where forty
Union men resisted four thousand rebels, aud
died manfully at their guns, puts anything the
ancients accomplished completely In the
shade. Unfortunately, however, it lacked
ony one thing TO make 1t mplete
and that was truth. As 1t now stands,
it bears q striking resemblance to Falstaffs
campaign with the men in buckram, aud is
quite as original, we'll conceived and uatrue
OF similar character was that splendid
man9uvre, by telegraph, of General Lyon, at
Bonneville, Missouri. Our readers will re-
member that Gen. Lyon, with seven huadren
Union men, attacked two thousand rebels
that Gov. Jackson took up a position ana
q telescope on q high rock and that Geo
Price had bad diarrhGa aad left for boat
that General Lyon made feigned re
treat from number of masked bat
teries, drew the enemy into q wheat
field and there moved down three hundred
ers. The West is famous for great stories,
and this was one of them. The brilliant
and accurate account of our special cor
respondent, published in Sundays HERALD,
shows that the battle was fought in the
ordinary way, and that only about fifty
tured. As for the masked batteries from
which General Lyon feigned a retreat, they
have remained up to this time hidden equally
from friend aad foe. Governor Jackson has
descended from his lofty height thrown
away bis telescope, and, when last seen,
Was making tracks for the Businesses O.
Arkansas, having outstripped the buffalo aud
prairie deer, after ON animated foot race As
we are informed that he is now beyond the
reach of the telegraph" We shall probably
soon have accurate reports of his whereabouts
Now we think that this Is doing pretty well
for the North, and we recommend a search
for q gentleman named Arrowsmith, who Is
said TO be engaged among the reporters
But the Southern journals beat us all hollow
in ouch little matters. Their General Bragg
is by no means confined to the vicinity
Of Fort Pickers. All their regular reporters
seem to have boon discharged, and Munchsu-
sens appointed In their room. We at the North
are content only to exaggerate our victories;
but the Southrons turn their defeats into glor;-
ous tIiumphs. According to their accounts our
.hordes" have been annihilated several times.
At Fairfax, where all of the rebels who did not
run and who escaped killing were hidden in
hedges and haJstacks, the Southerners inform
us that they gained decisive victory, and
used up Lieutenant TompEns and his cavalry
without any discount At Phihppi, where
the seceders showed their coat tails and
their cowardice, the rebels assure us that
they gave us defeat only paralleled by that
Of the Austrians at Marengo. At Romney they
celebrate their Austerlitz, with slight additions
and amendments. AT Big Bethel we are in
formed that not only General Buffers forces,
but In fact the whole army Of the North, wa,
beaten by the chivalry. Our defeat can only
be compared by them to that of the French at
Waterloo. They now allow us to continue to
occupy Fortress Monroe as an especial favor
and from motives Of humanity; and only on
for which the corps should be sternly rebuked,
they did not capture that fort and the feet
lying of it.
The telegraphic reporters do not stop to con-
slider that such reports as these must necessa-
rily be exaggerated, because, effective as vifled
cannon and sword bayonets are, all history
teaches that the mortality in battle is never SO
great as is represented in these accounts. Dis
this common sense consideration,
the reports are hastily thrown into the tele
graph offices, reach the newspapers at all
hours Of the day and night, and are either cor
1ected or printed re,botim, as they may chance
to reach the editors in or out of season. Against
such exaggeraions the Journalists here, there.
fore, are not able to guard; but if the reporters
would be more considerable and less disposed
to magnify every skirmish into q battle, we
should have better and more reliable and &C.
cuIate accounts.
The government and the leading journals