Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1862-07-30

and IN tn5 m6anuIne our own army was IapAA45
wasting away. Unwholesome water, inadsquata
iood, over-WOrk, and sleeping in marshes were
rapidly filing the hospitals, and overloadiug the
return vessels with the sick.
Sir, We have lost more men by the spade than
the bullet-fiye to one since the army started
from YoTktcwn under Mcclellan. Had the sol
diers been relieved from digging and menial labor
by the substitution of negro laborers, the army o.
the Potomac would to-day, IN my estimation, con
tain 10000 more brave and efficient soldiers
than il does Had it been relieved from guard
ing the property Of rebels in arms, many valu-
able lives would have been saved. Yorktown
was evacuated after a sacrifice Of more men by
sickness than the enemy had in their wor rs
when cur army landed at Fortress Monroe. The
battle of Williamsburg was fought by small
fraction of our army, and the enemy routed
During the battle, Gen. Mcclellan wrote the
following dispatch from the field of battle;
Receiyed at the War Department stl222P NJ May g.
i, BIvoUAc IN FRONT OF WILLIAMSBURG,
May ., 10 P. N.
Hon. Edwin N. Stanton, Secretary of War;
After arranging for the movements up the
York river, was urgently sent for here. EfnG
Joe Johnston in front Of me in strong force,
probably greater a good deal than my own.
Hancock has taken two Tedoubts and Tepulsed
Early's brigade by q real charge with the bayo-
net, taking enc colonel and a hundred and Fifty
prisoners, killing at least two colOnels and many
priVates. His conduct was brilliant in the eX-
tTeme 1 do not know our exact loss, but fear
Hooker has lost considerably on our left
learn from prisoners that they intend dispUiing
every step to Richmond. l shall run the risk Of
at least holding them in check here, while re-
sumo the original plan.
My entire force is undoubtedly considerably
inferior to that Of the rebels, who win fight well
but / will do all l can with the force at my dis
Posal. G B. Mcclellan,
Msj.-Gen. Commanding
He would Try to "hold them in checkm lie
| could not hold them. He could not stop his
| eager troops from chasing them. After a small
fraction OF his army had whipped their entire
| force and had been chasing them for hours he
penned that dispatch and sent it to tho Secretary
Of War, aud, if 1 remember Alright, it was read
in one of the two Houses of Congress. As you
may suppose from that dispatch, there was no
| great eagerpess IN following up that victory
| Three Michigan regiments were not only deci-
! mated, they were driven in twGin in that bloody
| battle at Williamsburg They fought there ell
! day without Teintorcements. One Michigan
| regiment went into the trenches and left sixty
three dead rebels, killed by the bayonet weller
| ing in their blood. But who has ever heard, by
! any official communication from the head of the
army, that Michigan regiment was in the fight
| at Williamsburg? ! do not blame him for not
/ giving credit where credit is due, for I do not
| believe he knew anything more OF that fight
| than you or l.
When that battle was fought and won, all
| the enemYs works were cleared away, and ve
! had an open road to Richmond. There was not
| single fortGcatiOn between Richmond and
| Williamsburg. All we had TO do was 10 get
| through these internal swamps, march up, and
| take possession Of Richmond. What did we
! do7 We found the worst swamp there was be-
| tween Richmond and Williamsburg, and sat
right down in the center of it and went TO dig
! ging We sacrificed thousands and tens of thous-
auds Of all the bravest troops that ever stood on
The face Of Gods earth, digging in front Of no in
| trenchmsnts, and before q whipped army of the
enemy. We waited for them to recruit; we waited
| for them To get another army. They had q levy
| en- masss They were taking all the men and
| boys between the ages OF fifteen and fifty FIVE,
| and magnanimoUsy we waited weeks and weeks
| for them TO bring these forced ieYieS into some
| sort of consistency as an army. The battle Of
| Fair Oaks was fought There the enemy found
again little fraction Of our Grmy-very much
| less than half-and they brought out their en-
tire force l have it from the best au hOrity that
| they had not a solitary regiment in or about
Richmond that was fit to put in front of an enc
eny that they did not bIi0g to Fair Oaks aud
hurI upon our decimated army. Again the in
domits5Ie bravery of our troops [ot the men, of
| tie private soldiers the indOmitable energy OF
| Michigan men and New jersey men-bUt viii
not particu,arize, for all the troops fought like
| lons,) and the fighting capacity of our army
| not only saved it from being utterly destroyed
| by sn overwhelming force, but gave us a tri
! umphant victory. The enemy went back to
| Richmond pell-mell. l have been informed bya
man who was there at the time that two brigades
Of fresh troops could have chased the whole Con-
fsderate army through The city Of Richmond
and into the James river, SO utter was their rout
end confusion
And what did we do then? We found an
other big swamp, and we sat down in the center
of it, and went to digging. We began to throw
up intrenchments in our 'front.' no enemy that
was not utterly broken. We never took ad-
vantage of the battle of Fair Oaks Again
Michigan soldiers were cut to pieces by hun
dreds Go into the Judiciary Square hospital
in this city, and you viii find more than half the
occupants are Michigan men who were shot at
Fair Oaks and Williamsburg, men who stood
until q regiment of a thousand men was reduced
to one hundred and five, and even then did not
run. Sir, these men have been sacrificed.
They have been put to hard digging, and hard
fare, and hard sleeping, and if there was any
hard fighting to do they have been put 10 that;
and besides all this, at night they have had to
guard the property OF rebels in arms. They
I
Michigan regiments to-day cannot bring into the
field two hundred and fifty men each out of
thousand with which they started.
Fair Oaks was lost; that is to say, we won
brilliant victory, butt did Us 10 good we did
not take advantage of It. OF course it would
have been very unfair to take advantage of
routed army laughter it would not have been
according to our " strategy" We magnani-
mousy stopped, and commenced digging.
There was no army in our front; there were no
intrenchments in our front but we did not
know what else to do, and SO we began to dig
and ditch and We kept digging and ditching
until the rebels had impressed and drilled and
armed and made soldiers Of their entire popula-
ton But that was not enOugh they sent
jackson up on bis raid to Winchester, and we
waited for him to come back with his 10000 or
10000 men. We heard that CoTinth was being
evacuated, and Of course it would have been
very unfair to commence an attack until they
brought their troops from Corinth, and so we
waited for the army at COrinth to get to Rich
mond After the rebels had got all the troops
they ever hoped to raise from any source, we did
not attack them, but they attacked Us, as we had
reason to suppose they would. They attacked
our right wing, and as l am informed upon what
I must deem reliable authority, they hurled the
majority of their entire force upon our right
wing of 1000 men, aud during the whole OF
that Thursday cur right wing of $4,000 men
! held their ground and repulsed that vast horde
of the enemy over and over again, and held their
ground at night. OF course you say rein
1 forcemeAt Of 1000 or 10000 men was sent to
these brave troops that they might not only hold
/ their ground the next day, but send this das-
! tardly army into Richmond a second time, as at
/ Fair Oaks. No, sir, nothing Of the sort was
/ done.
At night, instead of sending them reinforce
ments they were ordered to retreat That was
strategy" The moment they commenced
their retreat as is said in the dispatches, the en-
emy fought ike demons OF course they would
Who ever heard of a rereating army that was
not pursued by the victor5 like demons, except
ia the case Of rebel retreats7 No other nation
but ours was aver ouilsv Of stonniny inlmedi-