New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-06-05
Bloody Check Sustained by the
Union Advance.
MCCLELLAN ON THE GROUND.
TIE CAUSES OF OUR DEFEAT,
LIST OF KILLED AND WOUNDED.
Correspondence OF The N. Y. Tribune.

correspondence OF ne ~ l. IHoune
sAvAGE's STATION, York River and Richmond R. R.,
May 81, 1867.
At o'clock this afternoon a musketry fire In
front Of the left wing and upon Casey's Division,
told Us that the enemy had commenced the fight,
which policy and necessity had suspended on our
part. The storm Of last night was the most furious
fell Of rain and explosion of lightning ever saw.
Not regiment, not company scarcely an officer
was exempt from iis chilling and exhausng effects
The Rebels seized upon it an element Of military
advantage and, having fully prepared themselves,
fell suddenly on our pickets, scattered them in
wards, and held Cascys regiments in actual battle
while their pots aud kettles were yet on the fires
and many of the men were drying their wet clothes.
cannot tell In the confusion, which now reigns ST.
preme, how the small earthwork and the rie-pit at
the front were 10 quickly taken out Of our posses
sion. The number and the quality Of the guns in tho
fort am ignorant of. But pits, fort, and guns,
whether siege or field, changed owners suddenly.
Now face the first truth in the history Of the
Union Disgrace at the Seven Pines-and shall not
dodge it. The important place of danger, the front,
was committed to a General whose division COM
posed Of raw troops marched down Fourteenth
street. in Washington In the last week of February,
H. 600 strong-and has been neglected and 30 al
lowed to 20 undi.ciplned, that 1000 of them could
not by any possibility have been gathered together
this Mornings division left TO itself to luck and
the DEVIL that it has lost literally lost, 700 men and
upward since 1t left Wiliamsburg-a division whose
commander has long been conspicuous as searching,
miles ahead of his marching columns for comforta-
BILE quarters. Upon this division out Of place in the
en- nd lno cd / int
disorder and ruin faster than conceived it possible
for Anglo-Saxon troops TO be moved by any power
less than Gods thuuderbolis Oh how much
have learned to-day, and how much have I'M
learned!
Gen. Peek's military family were at their rice and
coffee In the open air at quarter before o'clock Iii
the afternoon THO unmistakable rattle Of nuekeiIy
fired by companies and by column in front brought
the graduate of every battlefield in Mexico right to
his feet. He mounted instantly and ordered his
brigade under arms. In the short space OF time con-
sumed by me in rolling up my blankets aud overcoat,
aud saddling reStless horse, and riding twenty rods
toward the iront-not twenty minutes-the carient
of struggling and skulking had fully set in and wns
swccping in great shameful flow down the VIII
Iiamsburg road. II was the most astonishing o.
spectaoles. Great, healthy, vigorous men, who bad
volunteered to fight the battles OF Freedom, walking
rapidly back from the first touch of the foe, with
boxes full of cartridges and muskets in their hands
sound in wind and limb, but, thank God looking
mean as sheep-thievcs when they encountered the
stare Of brave men, and Stimulating lameness and
every form of sickness when cavaliers, not COM
baants by profession damned them in their fury for
towards, and endeavored 10 breast them backward
with their horses into the fght-great hulking pol
troons, falling into every possible variety Oh
limp out of rapid strong walking; aePr.''
ing at pleasure either shoulder WIN ,e'''o'0
wounds; quickly gathering into their Dyson''
mutilated arms, wholly untouched WIN Oun's -
going through the whole disgusting panom a. y.
sickness Of tho stomach in reply to hercs questions %
to where they were going and why tho ds'u lucy