The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-10-26
Covvardiy Sensation Journalism.

mountain out OF the Edwards Ferry molehlll,
and outrival all so-called sensation journals
and correspondents in their comments upon
that affair. Only few days ago the champion
runner of the Iimes-the hero of Solferino and
Bull rnn-warned the public to prepare for a de-
feat. At the same time the penitential Greeley,
who first begged the public's pardon and then
the HEnALD's mercy, wrote of that defeat as al
most inevitable, and assured us that the South
ern confederacy must be acknowledged if de-
Feat came Such cowardly stuff might reason
ably be expected of the Bob Acres of the Times
and the Bombastcs Furoso of the Tribune; but
the clergymen Of the World and the poets of
the Post fairly out-Herod Herod, and declare
that the defeat which the racing and apologize
poltroons predicted has actually occurred.
How unfortunate it is for us that nobody but
the World and Post people can sec it.
| Now, the public generally, and General Nc
Clellan and the iltary authorities in particu-
! lar, regard tho Edwards Ferry business as re-
connoissance and its result as one of the ordi-
nary casualties of war. Twenty different recon-
noissances have been made from General Nc
Clellans division, but none brought on battle.
That ordered by General Stone was more for
tunate. That the party were repulsed is not at
all strange. They occupied the same position
towards the grand army as the skirmish-
ers do towards detachments, and their
business was to fall back upon the
main body when the enemy was dis
covered in superior force This they attempted
to do, but, by great haste and by the accident
of certain natural advantages the enemy was
enabled to bring up this superior force very
rapidly, and the consequence was that our
brave fellows had to fight their way back to the
river and across it, They did this most nobly
and even held the ferry until the enemy with
drew. The facts ascertained by the reconnois-
sance were, that the enemy was in force on the
Upper Potomac; that he intends to dispute our
passage there, and that he has probably con-
centrated there part of the force recently be-
fore Washington. 1t has demonstrated, too, that
ourmen are full Of fight; that they have recovered
from the Generalization of Bull run, and that
they are perfectly under control amid the
heaviest fire. Now, the responsibility of this
reconnaissance rests with General Stone. but
that it was only a reconnaissance, and in the
facts it elected a most valuable and successful
one, no one can doubt. 1t is indisputable,
also, that some such reconnaissance
conducted perhaps-was necessary, and, accord
ing to all military experience, indispensable.
Has not the result proven this? Suppose it
were the whole Of General Banks division,
instead of party of reconnaissance, which had
crossed the river at that time. Only the pious
exhorters of the World, and the idealists of
the Post, could discover that this reconnois-
sance was an advance in force; that we have
met with shameful defeat, and that our brave
soldiers acted like towards, and emulated the
scamperers OF Bull run.
The Post heads its article upon the subject,
''Truth the Best Policy" Whether or not truth
is the best policy the Post people have never
tested experimentally, and they therefore
have no right to decide the matter
SO dictatorially. We admit, however,
that truth is the best policy and
it is just this policy which we recommend to
the Post and adopt ourselves. But the truth
which the Post pretends to tell is stranger than
fiction. What we have just shown to be re-
connoissance the Post declares was stupen-
dous blunder," repetition, on larger scale,
Of the battle 6 Big Bethel" an "error ,
| with heartrending result" disastrous"
aggravated" and calamity" Upon such
trash as this the Post bases an attack upon Gen.
Mcclellan, and then discloses the real point Of
its article by pitching into the government
for not allowing its correspondent to
transmit more of such bogus "truths"
by telegraph. But the World goes farther
and fares worse. 1t stretches fact and con-
science like its own India rubber. Editorially
it pronounces this reconnaissance worse than
| q crime" and then proceeds to "annihilate one
of our finest regiments" thus doing for the
rebels what they could not do for themselves.
Like Dominic Sampson, it talks Of "stern
reckoning" and mouths about "relentless con-
demnation" like Methodist exhorter in fit of
the jerks. The World editors may possibly be
excused for this, on the ground that they are
all broken-winded clergymen, and are there
fore as familiar with strong language and red
fire as BowGy playwright; but what shall we
say Of their war correspondent? He is sort
OF cross between LID. Russell, who patch
worked runaways' stories into an account of
the battle Of Bull run, and Commodore Hollins,
who did not sink the Preble and pepper" us
well at the mouth of the Mississippi. He is, as
the World admits, one Of the captains who be-
came scared at the ferry fight, and we suppose
| he there lost the little wits he ever had. He
| Oalls the reconnaissance "a sickening repulse;"
and that shows the state both Of his stomach
and his mind Evidently, like Gen. Price at
Bonneville, be had no stomach for fight. ut
was sasve Qai ped" says he, and this is one Of
Rnssell's own expressions verbatim. "Our
entire forces were retreating, tumbling, rolling
and leaping," adds the noble captain, rs if our
army were circus troupe. "Muskets, coats
and everything were thrown aside," he tells ms
borrowing another bit from Russell, and leay.
ing US to infer that trowsers and shirts were
thrown aside" among the "everythngs."
''The shrieks Of the drowning added to the hor-
ror Of the sights and sounds" All, that is
Commodore Hollns, for do we not all remember