Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-09-06
IIJ VuuIIIItp U VIIY HI51I070 u w
THE REBEL REPORTS OF THE BATTLES.


THE REBEL REPORTS OF THE BATTLES.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 2uPM
As usual, the secessionists in this place
and Baltimore profess to have reliable de-
tails Of the late fighting on the rebel side,
before we can begin to understand how the
case stands with US. 1t appears the news
of Saturdays battle and Popes falling
back has already reached Richmond and
come back here in the shape Of the distOrt-
ed and exaggerated accounts the rebels are
wont to give Of all their successes. The
Iiebmond papers of Monday, the lst, are
said to have contained complete and reli
able az accounts of affairs up to an early
hour Sunday morning, at which time they
said go Our forces were pushing towards
Washington after the retreating foe.
| They claim the result Of Saturdays
! fighting as their greatest victory of the
war, asserting they captured eighty pieces
of artillery, five thousand prisoners, many
| stands of arms, colOrs flags, sc. In all
| the fighting since they dashed on Manas-
| sas, they also claim to have captured
wagon trains Of supplies and ammunition,
arms and camp equipage Sufficient to sup
| ply their whole army now on Bull Run for
many days.
They admit all this was not accomplished
without fearful sacrifice of life, and,
! though the loss in the battle Of Saturday
| is stated to have been not more than four
hundred killed and twenty-five hundred
wounded, they acknowledged a total loss
in all the fighting Of ten thousand killed
and wounded.
By the information from these secession
sources, it appears there was hitch some
where in the rebel plan, which came very
near being fatal and administering a coup
de grace to the struggling cause. Jackson
came through Thoroughfare Gap with
EwelTs. Hills and Longstreet's divisions,
together with his own, of which he still re-
tains immediate command, thinking him
self able to use up Pope with his force
not less than fifty thousand strongly at
tacking him in the rear. His object was
to meet Pope's division in detail, and cut
them up, one by one, as they, Ignorant of
his strength, were sent against him; but
Pope upset all this by his lively retrograde
movement Of his whole army, and by
Thursday Stonewall discovered he had
"caught a Tartar" Mcdowell and Sigel
had driven back the small force
he left in Thoroughfare Gap to keep
/ open communication with Lee forces
at white plains and on the Upper
Rappahannock, and on Tuesday morning
he found Pope's whole army on his hands,
and his line of retreat cut off. The seces-
sionists say that had Pope attacked him
with his whole army on Friday, or even on
Saturday morning, it would have been the
last Of Stonewall; but he tried to bag him,
and in the meantime his enemy cOmmuni-
Gated his desperate situation to Lee
early on Friday, and asked for reinforce
ments to force the Gap and come to his aid.
Lee brought them himself, and arrived
against Pope's left late in the afternoon on
Saturday, having come on the double quick
for the last ten miles. He hurled them
against Mcdowell and Porter, and Stone
wall Jackson was saved. It is said he had
no intention of surrendering in any emer-
gency, and would have fought General
Pope TO the death. He had planned the
whole movement himself, and when he at
tempted its execution he did not dream Of
the possibility of wanting reinforcements,
and neglected to provide for that emergency
entirely. Hence his desperate struggles
to get out of his own trap.