Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1862-05-02
PITrsBuRG LANDING, April 10.

great deal about the recent great battle here
and not finding anything that portrayed the
feelings of the soldiers engaged in it,
thought it might be we'll to tell you what the
most intelligent part Of them think about the
action.
In spite of the extraordinary manifesto
tons Of joy throughout the country, in spite
of the sensation headings of our newspapers,
in spite of the highly appropriate order Of
Mr.. Secretary Stanton, returning thanks
giving to the Lord of Hosts for our recent
great success, it is extremely gu stionable
whether the result OF the great battle o,
Pittsburg Landing is such victory as we
can with propriety congratulate ourselves
upon. We look in vain for any of the usual
results of a great victory. The retreat OF
Beauregard was effected in good order. He
was not harassed or pressed by our cavalry.
The number of prisoners captured by US is
absolutely insignificant, and the rumors which
constantly reach us, regarding the democrat
izasion and disintegratlon of his army may
we'll be classed with those other stories to
the same effect so rife during the last few
weeks, and so signally disproved on the 9th
and 7th. It is painful in the extreme that it
should be So That battle should have been
fought, by all odds the grandest and fiercest
ever occurring on the continent-that it
should have been characterized by the most
obstinate valor on our side-that the vast
field should have been absolutely saturated
with the choicest blood of the Northwest and
that after all we should not be step nearer
the termination of our national troubles is
agonizing beyond endurance. There is not
a neighborhood, we had almost said not a
household, throughout the whole valley of
the Upper Mississippi, to which the intelli-
gence of this conflict will not carry sorrow
and dismay, for it will also bring the news
that some favorite one sleeps the last sleep
that knows no waking" or suffers the agony
of wounds, disease or captivity. 1t is GER
tain that the people were expecting result
vastly different. Assuredly they had right
to do so.
Why o more complete and decided success
was not attained it is somewhat difficult to
conceive. The army on the Tennessee under
Gen. Grant was one of the most magnificent,
in point of numbers, ever assembled in mod
ern times 1t was composed almost entirely
Of the men Of the Northwest-of those who
had proved themselves on several sternly con-
tested fields the worthiest representatives of
American courage and manhood. Their arms
and appointments were, with few exceptions,
worthy of such men. The position on the
Tennessee was precisely such one as would
have been selected by great strategist as q
favorable field for a successful defense-fank-
ed as it was on one side by large river i'm
passable to the enemy, AMI with several of
our gun-boats floating in its current ready to
assist materially in the defense. The nature
of the ground was at least as favorable for
the resisting as for the attacking party. And
yet, with all these advantages in our favor,
the fact is indisputable that in the first days
fight we were terribly worsted. Our troops
were driven back at least five miles-the
first three of which was gained y the enc
my while most of our army were in profound
l ignorance of there being an attack at all =
Well might Beauregard transmit his boastful
dispatch on the evening of Sunday, for never
was victory seemingly nearer within his grasp.
To explain away these ugly facts by saying
that it was . surprise does not in the least
paliate them, for it is the business of q
commander to guard against surprise. 1t will
be found that but few o. the ordinary precau-
tons, in the shape of pickets, &C., were en-
ployed. Nothing in the arrangements of the
proceedings of the few days preceding the
battle indicate that our army was within an
easy days march Of vast force bent on our
destruction, and commanded by one of the
ablest chieftains in the world. With such a
record as this for the transactions of Sunday
and the few preceding days, it is the sheerest
folly to claim for the General in command on
that day that he exhibited any Of the charac-
teristics of . prudent, still less, of great
Nor can there be found one out
Of fifty of those who were engaged in the
fearful carnage Of the 9th of April to re-echo
the seryile praises showered by the newspa-
per press upon the great Illinois GeneraI-I
The connection is irrisistable in the minds of
hose who thoroughly understand the situa-
hon Of affairs or viii take the trouble to learn