The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1862-06-25
Affairs BefOr RichmOnd-A Des-
nerate Conflict Imnendiny.
Correspon ience oftAe New York Tribune
sEyRs PINES, Monday eftel noon,
lime lS6i

.
There is dueling at long range between
the enemy's pickets and our own-and there
are movements and preparation on our side
and undoubtedly on their side, for the
great battle soon to be fought And | will
candidly tell my friends that they must
make up their minds to hear the details of
conflict before Richmond compared with
which the battle of the Seven Pines was
but skirmish. The enemy are greatly
superior to us in numbers. Their earnest
ness is, of course, greater than ours-for
they fight to repe an invasion of their
homes and tiresidcs. Their cour-
age. as daring, if moi as tenacious as our
own, is by nature savage, and has been ami
mated by politics into implacable hate
They have our own discipline and equal
experience in the fcld-amd possess in
their dcpiaed smooth bore muslets and
their cartridges of one round bullet and three
buckshot. far better weapon for this wood.
ed-ighting ground than our bOasted Mimic
rifles. No-I saw these rebels fight under
the Seven Pines, and | say 10 all those
people who think we are to march into
Richmond without fighting every inch Of our
way nurse delusion which the killed and
wounded certainly, and possibly the list of
u,
them from, shOckingly if they have sons.
brothers or nephews in the battle. tell
you, New Workers, that this rebel army has
no purpose of retreatng before lis as we
march into their political capital. They sit
in their trenches and lie under their cannon
to save the Southern Confederacy. They
desire to fight. By evacuation of strong
holds and retreats from positions of advan-
tap hnlI 4,
by delays, they have drawn us where they
can flank us and where they will compel us
to fight, whether we want to or not. They
consider that the coming battle will decide
their fate, and that of their Confederation
that will conclude the war. They know
its importance and are braced to its duties.
To whip this rebel army Tomorrow, ur next
day, we shall have to destroyit. To march
into Richmond we must pave our way with
10000 dead S9utherners. Can we DO it?
If | could go back for three or four
months, with the advantages of my present
military experience ! should not cease TO
urge the policy of strengthening Mcclellan.
know now that this policy was wise. The
division of armies and the multiplication of
commands has ever been a rot in the vigcr
war, If Napoleon left any legacy to the
science of which he was master, it was
| the concentration of forces, and the strik-
ing an enemy with overwhelming numbers,
or with rapidity of successive blows that
stun while they surprise. 1t would have
been economical, humane and polite to
have given 10 Mcclellan all the disposable
troops north and west of the Ohio, when he
commenced the invasion of Virginia. He
could then have broken through the center
of the peninsular defenses stretching from
Yorktown to Lees Mills-have saved the
time lost in the siege preparations before
YOrktown--have overwhelmed the fugitive
enemy on the road and in their imperfectly
occupied defenses at Williamsburgh-have
chased them right up to Richmond if he
did not scatter them forever right and left
by the way, and would have spent in the
capital city of the rebellion, with useful
political effect, tho weary weeks wasted in
all unequal struggle with the rain and mud
of the peninsula swamps, and would have
kept in life and health, under Richmond S
sheltering roofs, the thousands of soldiers
who have unavc;dably sickened and died
in this unhealthiest and most difficult couu-
try that civilizedarmy ever operated in
The past is gone, But the present is with
US, and part OF il can be used to rectifv the
/ fearful mistake of weakening Mcclellan, in
Gods name let it be so used, and used on
the instant