The New York herald., 1862-04-10

The sangufnary and Decisive battle OF
Pittsburg Landing-Our Greatest and
Most Important victory-RePorted oc-
cupstion or Corinth by Union Troops.
The most sanguinary battle ever fought upon
this continent, and immeasurably the most i'm
portant in its crowning victory to the arms of
the Union, is that which was so magnifcently
fought by our invincible Western soldiers on
Sunday and Monday last, at Pittsburg Landing,
in Southern Tennessee, That locality, hitherto
unknown except to the residents and traders
on the Tennessee river, henceforward becomes
one of the most famous landmarks in American
history.
From the details before us, it would appear
that this battle was very skilfully oontrived
between the rebel Generals Sydney Johnston
and Beauregard, for the purpose of cutting to
pieces the army of General Grant by
overwhelming numbers, before he could
be strengthened by the advancing re-
Inducements of General Buell.; that
General Grant was thus assailed by combined
force twice his own in point of numbers; that
thus the results of the battle, at the end Of the
first day, were very seriously against him, and
that, had the daylight lasted two or three hours
longer, he would, perhaps, have suffered q
fearful defeat. But, in still holding the enemy
at bay to the end of the terrible fighting OF
Sunday, the invaluable time was gained which
brought in his reinforcements, and which Sc
cured to the Union the glorious triumph Of
Monday. In this desperate enterprise on the
part of Johnston and Beauregard we have q
repetition of the bold dash of Zollicofer at
Mill Spring last January, and for the same
great object, and with the same result. Beau
regard knew that if the Union forces advancing
upon his intrenched camp at Corinth, from
different points, were permitted to form q
junction, he would be lost; but he saw that by
promptly acting himself upon the offensive he
might cut up the several approaching columns
of our troops in detail, beginning with the
advanced army corps Of General Grant, and
thus reverse the whole tide of our recent
triumphs in the West back to our starting
point of Cairo
Considering tho desperate extremities Of
the rebel cause, the temptations thus offered
him were irresistible; and against any other
than the very best troops in the world-our
strong, tall, muscular, disciplined, intelligent
and unconquerable Western fighting men--he
might have succeeded on Sunday lastin serious
check to all our offensive operations by land
and water. But the trump card of Bull run,
between Beauregard and his duplicate, John
ston, was in this instance turned against them,
and their grand game for recovering their losses
in the West they have lost, and in losing it they
have lost the whole Southwest, and their last
chance Of regaining o hope of success in any
position in any quarter of the South, on the
Mississippi or among their inland mountains,
or in their strongholds near the. sea.
Between this disastrous repulse of tho rebels
at Pittsburg Landing, and he surrender of
Island No. TO- with its immense stores of artil-
lery and munitions Of war, our right of
way in the West is reopened, without
much further difficulty, by land and wa
ter, to the Gulf of Mexico. The forti-
fed camp of Beauregard at Corinth, has, it
is reported by our telegraphic dispatches,
been hastily abandoned by the rebels, and
is now occupied by our troops. And
now these questions come homo to JEFF.
Davis and his railing confederates at Rich
mond: "What are we to do! Would it not
be well at once to make our escape from
Mcclellan! Has not the time arrived for aban-
doning even the pretence of holding on to Vir-
ginia? Does not our safety require that we
shall leave her to her fate, and take such of her
troops as can be secured to follow us to the
Southwest for q junction with Bcauregard 30
that when pushed to the last extremity
We may still have chance of reaching
the protecting soil Of Mexico" Nor can there
be reasonable doubt that before the lapse of
many days its last days sun will have set upon
the rebel government in the Old Dominion,
and then we shall have nothing to do but to
gather up the broken fragments Of great re-
bellion laid in ruins.
There is no occasion for the slightest impa-
tience in regard to the movements of General
AGsCl.lI.~ That aaaoua.l;slaA a~Ia:a.