Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-07-10
from the Army before Richmond
How the People Of the Country are
Deceived BY the war Department.

letter dated JAN 2ssh, Savage Station, nine miles
east Of Richmond:
The army Of the Potomac has met the enemy
and been defeated. There il no use in attempt
ing 10 evade or gloss over this sad and humilia-
ting fact We are cut of from all communica.
ton with the rest Of the world, but will venture
to assert that the newspapers Of Friday morning,
June 81, Saturday, Sunday. and Monday morn
ings, June % ~, and 80, have and will contain
Official bulletins from the War Department at
Washington. stating that Mcclellan has gained
brilliant victory over the rebels, has annihilated
the rebel army, and is now engaged in profound
strategic movement towards the James river.
am tired of these official Washington lies. |
know how and why they are manufactured
Stanton sacrificed Mcclellan and his gallant lit
tie army on the altar OF his selfish ambition. |
tell you we are defeated-defeated with terrible
loss; and il succeed in cutting way
through, and getting away from Richmond il
will be an achievement equal to Xenophon's re-
treat of The ten thousand Greeks.
Immediately after writing 70 you my last letter
from Washington, on the 23d inst, think,
started for this point relying fully upon Lincons
promises TO Mcclellan Of ample reinforcements,
and fully expecting to hear the booming of Burn
sides cannon James river long before now.
/ arrived here on Tuesday night, June "a. Gen.
McCal's Pennsylvania Reserves have joined
McClellans army. But besides these, and with
the exception of few other beggarly regiments,
Ii. 600 men in ALL not a single soldier has ar
rived. And, so far as Burnside is concerned, he
might as we'll be back in North Carolina for any
good be is doing Mcclellan. | know very well
that this is not Burnsides fault; and knowing
what do of intrigues at Washington, it is not
difficult to decide where the fault lies.
The next is dated Headquarters Army of the
Potomac. Harrison's Landing, on the James
river, eight miles below City Point, Thursday,
July 81
i have had no opportunity TO write you since
my last letter of June %. The scenes that
have passed through since then are such "a
never expected to witness, and such as / pray
may never be- my lot to again. The War
Department at Washington, as learn, from papers
received to day, has suppressed all the material
facts and has had the brazen effrontery TO trum
pet to the world the assertion that wehave gained
a great victory before Richmond. The fact is
exactly the reverse. We have met with defeat
which will prove the utter humiliation OF the
army of the Potomac unless are reinforced
by 100. 900 disciplined troops in the course OF the
present month. For seven days past we have
been fighting with the enemy every day. and
treating every night. For seven days our heroic
troops have fought like heroes, as they are. with
the courage inspired by patriotism, and without
once turning their backs upon the foe. For
seven days have given ground only step by
step. blowing up the bridges behind US, burning
up all the stores and ammunition which We could
not carry with u.s. and compelling the enemy to
pave his way in our wake with the bodies OF
thousands of his best officers and soldiers.
But all this has been OF no avail. Wherever We
brought brigade of 1000 men into the field the
enemy met il with a division Of 900 troops.
Whenever we drew up division in line of battle,
it was confronted by whole Confederate army
corps 35, 900 strong. When our troops were
drawn up in line of battle, thew had to fl ht I'M
hf.fh
utterly exhausted. Not so the rebels AS fast
the ammunition of asbrigade became exhaust
ed, or the men became weary, they were with
drawn, and their places filled by fresh traops.
In every fight that we have been engaged in du-
ring the seven days, the enemy has outnumbered
US three to one. Sill. i'll the face of all these
unequal facts, the retreat has been conducted
with perfect order and discipline The baggage
wagons and transportation have all been saved.
We have lost sixty pieces of field artillery, which
have been captured by the enemy: but all the
other guns have been brought off safely. The
loss which will be most severely felt, is that of
the baggage and personal effects of the office
OF many OF the regiments packed IN trunks and
carpet bags, which were necessarily lett behind
for the want of transportation. We left behind
at Savage Station, also, 100 wounded and sick
soldiers twenty three surgeons who volunteered
to stay and take care OF them, and fifty nurses
selected from the ranks. We were obliged to
release all the prisoners we had taken; and, more
humiliating still, we had to leave upon the bat
tle-held, to the tender mercies of the enemy,
thousands of our dead and dying soldiers. In
riding through the woods on each side OF the
roads, | have seen the ground strewed for miles
with blankets, ovcrcoats. knapsacxs. cartridge
boxes filled with ammunition, and even with
muskets and bayonets in capital order OF
muskets alone there must be thousands thus
thrown away. The woods, too, and by-roads
wpr oil VIII frap lQrS nd I'm
ers who always had the same tale TO tell. They
had fvu ght with their regiment until ordered to
fall back, and had then become separated from
il. and had been unable to find it since. The
number of these skukers, all of them without
their arms, was estimated to day by an army OF
ficer of high rank at 20 900.
The retreat proper commenced on Friday night,
June 81 Ii was continued without interrnission
until yesterday, at which time the army reach
ed this position 1t is twenty five miles southeast
of Richmond in a direct line, but fifty miles by
the course of the James river As only
four miles from Richmond when the movement
commenced, it readily be perceived how
much to our object now. As our
troops crossed the bridges over the Chckahomipy
and the White Oak Swamps, the Engineer Brig
AIDE of Gen. Woodbury., who had built those mas
sive structures, blew them up with gunp0wder,
and INSTRUCTED the road with abaffis and felled
trees. The New York papers of Monday, which
/ have Just seen, say that this would be done
and boast that the Chickahominy and those
swamps would prove barrier between US and
the enemy which the latter could not pass Yet
they have passed il. Their progress not re-
tarded greatly by those obstacles, formidable as
they we're They have engineers well we.
They constructed bridges and causeways, cut
/ roads, and continued to press Us hard Our
losses during these fearful seven DAYS have been
enormous, and must reach. in killed. wounded
and placed hors de combat, 900 men per day, or
80 900 men IN ALL
Can Mcclellan maintain his position where he
is now! Yes, if he is reinforced by 5000 troops
per day steadily, without cessation, for the next
twenty days; not otherwise The enemy has
concentrated at Richmond two hundred thousand
disciplined troops This force will in a few DAYS
be hurled ca masse on McClellan's little army.
Yet in those few DAYS we will be so intrenchel
here as TO be able to hold De position, if we are
thus SuccOred
PosTcRIPT-( Written at Fortress Monroe. July
! ~ have come down the James river to mail
this letter to YOU from here. Before | left Nc
+ Clellan's headquarters yesterday, the statement
circulated through the camps that reinforce
ments amounting to 10000 troops had arrived at
Harrisons Landing. | learn here from very
high authority, that the whole number of rein
forcements sent to Mcclellan during the last ser-
en- DAYS has not exceeded 5000 men, and that il
is very doubtful whether - 900 troops in all, in
GLIDING these can be sent 10 him during the nexi
two months. The facts in regard TO this point
-. - 81 Nall.