Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1862-07-31
From the Petersburg (va.) Express, July II.
REBEL GROWING.
THE GREAT DEFEATED.


dressed TO his army upon taking command of
II. az will push them to the wall" were the |
no less bombastic words in which he announced |
TO his Government his determination to follow |
the "Rebels" up to Richmond from Yorktown,
and annihilate them. These were seemingly |
very heroic explosions of valor, and served |
wonderfully to fire up public expectation at the
North.
With a General so intrepid of speech, so
Napolonic in kilograms, the universal belief in |
Yankee doodledom was that he was invincible |
in the field--hat he had only to march forward |
at the head of his legions to put an end to the
rebellion and to the war. This Goliath of the
Puritanic Phstine8 was to sweep everything
before him. Never did commander promise
such great things. Never did mortal warrior
pledge himself to such prodigious deeds of
arms There was no such word as "lai" in his
vocabulary--no such emotion as fear in his
bosom. The earth almost trembled under his
feet as with towering audacity he proclaimed
his fixed and irrevocable purpose to rush on
ward, conquring and to conquer.
How is this mighty man fallen! He was
outwitted by the "Rebels" at Manassas. He
then tried his fortunes in the Virginia Peninsu-
la, where, instead of boldly marching up to
Richmond, he commenced q series of demon
STATIONS with the spade and pick-made the
dirt fly with these trenchant weapons-crept on
like a tortoise, hating every few hundred
yards to throw up breastworks and dig trenches.
At last he reached the banks of the Chicka.
hominy, where he was also in sight of the
steeples of Richmond.
He had but few miles further to "press"
the "Rebels" before they would be driven plumb
"to the wall" But the "pressure" did not
come. He sat himself down in the swamps of
the famous old stream, and again whacked
al, .,o cro1n IIo tai, Lee nnp1
a nearer approach to the city he had doomed
and was content quietly to await the develop
ments Of the future. In the mean time to keep
up the spirits of the people whom he had so
long deuded by his grand assurances, he gave
the cue to the lying correspondents of the Lin
coin press, and they rang out the inspiring
declaration that the capture of Richmond was
with Mcclellan only ga question of time"
This was enough. They pressed the new
phantom to their bosoms, and there were no
bounds to their silly enthusiasm. In the course
of "time' they were told that the Rebel capital
would surely fall into McClelan's hands, and in
gence they forgot that time was counted by
years as well as days.
Having thus masked all his delays under
skyline ambiguity of words, which might be
construed either into an immediate or indeh-
nitely remote sense, this hot- pressed military
darling" of the Yankees leisurely proceeded
with the construction of his parallels and re-
doubts, his trenches and his ebattises, and when
they were all completed he considered himself
gloriously secure against any attack of the
"Rebels"
But he was not permitted long to remain un-
der this hallucination. The "Rebels, tired and
disguised with his interminabe procrastna-
tons, first sent a cavalry brigade around his
IN nj IN of
the most remarkable and brilliant reconnois-
sances that was effected, and Mcclellan, as
soon as he heard of it, should have known what
it portended and have acted accordingly. But
he treated it as a trihing affair, not worthy of
serious notice.
Then it was that he ought to have antcipa-
ted the threatened Confederate movement BY @
bold and vigorous dash upon Richmond, hav-
ing his intrenchments to TO fall back upon in
case Of his repulse. This would have been
generalship of the Napolonic stamp, and
whether successful or unsuccessful, he would
have won substantial reputation by such
display. But he was not equal to the occasion
He continued his inglorious rest behind hi,
Notifications until he was startled by skill
full and furious onslaught by the "Rebes" upon
the most elaborate and strongest of his works
The tug of war came, and he had now t.
prove his fighting capacity. Surely he coull
beat back from his lines despised and derdet
enemy. Surely he could maintain position
which he rendered impregnabe by his labors
But not so. For hours and days the blood
conflicts went on. Position after position wa
wrcsted from him, his guns turned agains
him, his communications DESTROYED, and hi
whole army threatened with capture
At last cut off from the Pamunkev, and com
PEELED to make the best retreat he could, in or
der to save himself and the remnant of hi
forces from the hands Of the victorious "Reb
els" he slipped out in the dead hours of thu
fourth night after the battle commenced. ant
made tracks for his gunboats in James River
pursued by the "Rebels," but having too ia
the start Of them to be intercepted. Onward
he sped until with his wcaried, shattered, half
demoraized army he gained the shelter whicl
he sought, and sat down under the protection
of the guns of the war vessels, which the Con
federates had no means of silencing.
And there he is nOw pushed back nearl
seventy miles from his lines, leaving them i
our possession, with thousands of prisoner,
besides hundreds of his unburied dead and DIES
titute wounded for us to take care ot-not
mention a large number of his most splendi
guns, great quantity of small arms, ammun
ton, stores, &c. Never was there a niue
greater contrast in human condition than thu
which is now presented between Mcclellan Q
he was two short weeks ago, and Mcclellan
he is.
Arrayed in all the PRIDE "pomp and gloriou
circumstance" of war--breathing nothing to h
people but the loftiest annurciatons of comm
success, that would immortaize him-aroun
him one of the most splendid armies that WI
ever put in the field, flushed with a confdenc
in him as their leader, that made the idea
its being overpowered or vanqushed by tn
"Rebels" perfectly ridicuous-this was Nj
Clellan's condition in the first case. In II
second we see him beaten and fugitive Ger
eral and his army a wreck, both rejoicing at Il
hair breadth escape whi,h they had made, afte
having lost the fight into which they were il
voluntarily drawn.
He is still at the head of a numerous force, bl
1t is Tor the most part composed of men who ha,
become disheartened by the tremendous d,
feat which they have sustained. They are \
longer the formidable hosts they we're. whe
with unbroken front they were prepared I
drive the "Rebels" before them as n b,lida
amusement, and to be jubilant over the fail
Richmond. They may be reinforced ever :
heavily, but this will not avail them. The Co,
federates can be reinforced too. Their nrestie
is gone, and all that is wanted to consume
their destruction is for them to try the forum,
of another fight.
nnAmH on aENERA At nUUIans Atm,