The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1862-08-13
From the North.
THE BATTLES BEFORE RIcuMoNp-A CAN.
DID ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF M'CLELLAS's

THE BATTLES BEFORE RICuMoND-A CAN.
DID ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF M'cLELLAN's
DEFEAT.
The correspondent of the Chicago Times
makes a candid acknowied snent Of Nc.
Clel!an's defeat in the battles befure
Richmond. lie tries neither to disguise
or gloss it over. We make some extracts
from that portion Of his letter:
The army Of the Potomac has met the
enemy and been defeated. There is 10
use in attempting TO evade or gloss over
this sad and humilia,ng fact. l will
venture to assert that the newspapers
will contain official bulletins from the
War Department at Washington, sta.
ting that Mcclellan has gained bril-
liant victory over the Confederstes has
annihilated their army. am tired OF
these official Washington lies. | know
how and why they are manufac,ured.-
Stanton sacrificed Mcclellan and his gal
liant army on the altar Of his selfish am.
bilion. Itell you we are defsated-de.
teated t1iM terrible loss.
The War Department at Washington,
As ! learn from papers received to day,
has suppressed all the material facts, and
has lad the brazen effron,ery to trumpe,
10 the world the assertion that we have
gained great victory before Richmond.
The fact is exactly the reverse. We
have met with defes. which will prove
the utter humiliation Of the Army Of the
Potomac, unless We are reinforced 5v
100000 disciplined troop, in the course
OF the present month. We have los, six
.y pieces Of 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 officers Of many Of the regiments,
packed away in trunks and carpet bags,
which were necessarily left behind for
want Of transportation. We left behind
at Savage's Station, also, 900 wounded
and sick soldiers, % surgeons, who vol
unteered to stay and take care Of them,
and SO nurses, selected from the ranks.
We were obliged to release all the
prisoners we had taken and, more hu-
initiating still, we had to leave upon tho
battle field, to the tender mercies Of the
enemy, thousands Of our dead and dying
soldiers. 10 riding through the woods
on each side Of the road, have seen the
ground strewed for miles with blankets,
overcoa,s, knspsacks, cartridge boxes
filed with ammunition, and even with
musk ,ts and bayonets in capital ORDER
OF muskets alone there must be thou
sands thus thrown away. The woods,
too. and by roads and lanes, were filed
with stTagglers and skuIkers, who al
ways had tue same tale to tell. They
had fought with their regiment until or
dered TO fall back, and had then become
separated from it, and had been unable
to find II since. The number Of these
skulksrs, all Of them without arms, was
estimated to day by an army officer oi
high rank at 10000.
the retreat proper commenced on Fri.
day night, June u II was continued
without intermisson until the army
reached this position. Our losses, during
these fearful seven days, have been enor.
nous, and must reach, in killed, wound
ed aud placed hors de combat, five thou.
sand men per day, or thirty thousand. at
least, in all. We are now twenty five
miles southeast OF Richmond, in a direct
lipe, but fifty miles by the course Of James
river. As we were only four miles from
Richmond when the movement com
menced, it can readily be perceived how
much nearer We are 10 our object now !
stated in my last letter, also, that
tie taking o. Richmond by this army
was no longer probable that the ques
ton now was whether Mcclellan aud bis
army shAll 10 saved or whether they