Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1862-04-18
FROM PIrTsBURG LANDING.


News Down to Wednesday Evening.
Especial correspondence of Cincinnati Gazette
P-rrsBURs LANDING, Tenn, April The
days after the battle have been spent In burying
the dead and collecting the wounded. Meantime
no operations Of any importance have been at
tempted against the enemy. Lest night their rear
pnard wGs still within eight miles Of Us. IL cav
alry 10 ever 10 be Of any use IN US, then was the
time to let u out. But no pursuit hiss been made
Several regiments were ordered out Yesterday, on
what suppose wss intended as q Reconnaissance
They came up TO the rebel rear guard, made
push az II, and-came back something the worse
for wear. There were certainly no signs in the
movements there that the retreat was rout.
Yet the rebels abandoned large quantities Of
property A mile two ont from Shiloh, 1.-THE
church In the edge Of our lines, where Beauregard
had his headquarters long trains Of wagons
mostly loaded with provisions-gOt fast In the
go along before leaving aud break of all the
tongues They seemed to imagine that that
would serve, like spiking gun, to disable IL ef-
fectually. The amount OF provisions abandoned
was immense.
The rebels had evidently come to stay. Flour
was scattered over acres on acres on either side
the road. till In places 10 looked an II 1t had
showed Hour, and that the storm was heavier
than had ever been Eeen before by the Oldest
inhabitant.
There were some signs, too, OF rapid retreat
Monday evening. In one place sabers, muske.s,
and accoutrements could be picked up In anv
quantity. Elsewhere, through the woods and
and arms OF every description.
At one point, In the fields a mile or two beyond
our lines, thew seemed to have carried out most Of
their dead, who were killed in the battle on SUM-
day, for busaI Acres were thickly dotted with
the bodies.
There are no present indications that we are TO
follow up our victory with the vigoT many will
doubtless expect The army has passed through
4 very severe battle, in which some Of its bfiRsdes
and regiments, and nearly all its divisions, were
more or lesS disorganzed. Weeks will be re-
CURED to put the army in as good shape a. II was
before the battle. The roads, too, Just now, are
impossible. And 10 is understood that General
Grant is not permitted by his orders to PURSUE or
TO move from his present pOsitloss. Itls said he
couldn't have moved out to attach Johnston II the
latter had even come and leisurely pitched his
tents within three miles Of our lines
We are expecting Gen. Halleck by Friday
night, or Saturday morning, TO take the com
mand In person. He may go into things with
dash, but | should doubt IL. He IL taking COM
mand Of a somewhat disorganiZsd army. He
will hardly risk his first movement with IL, TILL
II 10 again In good condition to meet the enemy.
IL will take some time too for him 10 famiIiarize
himself with the minuter details Of his position,
to learn his officers, and, In general get his bear
ings At any rate there is no possibility now Of
our moving VII ne comes
Gen. Nelson's Division, forming the advance
Of Gen. Buslps forces, arrived at Sayannah Sat
urday night and Sunday morning. Crittenden's
Sunday TO get up In time for the fight on Mon
day. Woods got in just as the battle was clos
ing. Gen. Garfield now has a brigade in 1t.
Thomas Division brought up the rear, and got
in on Tuesday.
Thus ell the divisions Of Buell's army are here,
excepting Mitchell's You doubtless know better
where it 10 than we do.
IL was a matter Of universal regret that the
brilliant officer, General c. F Smith, was not
able 70 participate in the battle For several
weeks he has been confined 20 his room and
sometimes to his bed, by severe attack Of gout
and combination of other diseases. His d!stin-
guished GOODNESS on the battlefield, his more
than third Of a centuTy's active experience,
would have gone largely to preventing the dis
asters Of sunday.
II il barely possible there may be some COM
paint about tie gunboats killing our own men
In the cannOnade on Sunday night. IL IS true,
believe that they did. An ofieer Of one Of them
informs me that he est mates toe number thus
killed at twenty; but it va3 better to lose those
twenty than to lose the cannonsde. Firing In the
dark and in the general confusion O! our lines,
and the advance and change Of positions during
the night, Il IL only wonderful that they did not
do more Of this unavoidable damage than they
did.
There Is no town OF Pittsburg where the battle
was fought There Is simply to.erably good
place for boats to land, at which much Of the
freight for the lower Tennessee, coming from
Memphis and Corinth by rail, seems TO have been
shipped. The place Is known to the people Of
the country simply as Pittsburg Landing, and
Pittsburg Landing should be the name Of the
nent with ten times as many troops engaged as
at New Orleans, thirteen times Is many az at
Buena Vista, and nearly 20 OgG more than the al
lies had at the Alma, it deserves at leaEt Its proper
name.
tempts to knock me down, aud the matter ends
In INV knocking him down, Pm not defeated At
the same time mast know how much pve hurt
him, and how badly I'm hurt myself, before l
can determine whether ia better glorifY over IL
or not.
Johnston and Beauregzrd attempted ts Dive US
into the river and the matter ended In our driving
them of the neid. Certainly il was not defeat.
But was Il a decisive victory We are yet with
out facts suEcient TO form satsfactOry opinion.
IL they were defeSted SD badly on 81 Onday as to
turn their retreat into EOut; or II the killing OF
Johnston, the rspalse OF toe great army on which
thsir last spasmodic eKOrts have been cOncen-
trated, and the defeat OF the pc. BesufegaEd whom
they looked upon ss inEineible, should produce
encouragement and Decentralization enough In
their ranks 70 prevent their mixing ffIa stand
at Corinlh, then the victory was-OT might be
E1a<s-the most decisive of the war. Bot IL las
is insisted by those who ought to know beat, and
a. SEEMED TO me, Judging from all ] could see
and learn, 10 be the case, their retreat was con-
ductCd in good order and without confusion, and
II they are able 70 Psrfeet their defsGSes at Cor
iRth, aud prepare Tor vigorous resistance before
We attack them, the greatest battle Of the war,
instead Of deciding anything, will become mainly
q success in regaining camps from which we had
been driven by surprise.
As TO the sghtihg. the case Is greatly in our
favor. The rebels selected their Gme and place
Of attack, pouEeed upen a far inferior force and
performed feat that military writers declare Il
Impossible In Well-dlsci plined arIny-t6ected a
compste surprise. A stronger comb nation OF cir
cumstsnees against US could hardly be imagined.
Vet we finally repulsed them.
coaEARATIyz LossEs-KuLzD, WOUNDED, ARrIL-
LAZY, PRISONERS, RTc.
Nor do the books post 80 badly. We all be-
lieve here that their less In killed and wounded
10 considerably larger than ours Certainly ft Is
nc less. They took good many,guns from u.s.
but we got them all back again en- Monday, and
few Of theirs beside, including AZ least one fne
sIeel rIhed piece.
The balance Of prisoners Is against us They
took at swOop the chief portion of three regl-
nents. Al various other times they picked isola-
ted fragments Of companies and squads. Alto
gether they must have from three To four or fye
thousand Of our men. And 10 head the llst, they
have one OF our Division Generals. We, on the
other hand, took comparatively few. We have
no defnite figures yet, but i've hundred, should
think, would cover the whole number We
have, however, a large number Of their wounded,