The daily bulletin. [volume] (Winchester, Tenn) 1862-1863, 1862-10-05
The Zines on the Battles OF the
Chickahominy,. w'

'2lSt: ..t .-,.5 .
For someday5 past the tidings Of the battles
before Richmond have vibrated with every
hour. kilograms and mails have succeeded
each other with discordant rapidity. The pen
Lulum has swung from the point of Federal
victory to that Of Federal destruction. No
one could tell what had really happened, be-
cause no one could believe the Government
.ssurances, and it was not safe to give ere
tenco to the panic fears which in the general
Ignorance arose in the popular imagination
Everything which lay between a successful
strategetic movement and the utter destruc-
ton Of the army Of the Potomac was possible,
and every possible contingency had its advo-
cate,
AT length however the truth begins to be-
come apparent, and there really is very little
difference between the facts us they are now
told IN sober phrase and tho worst version
which was blurted TO the world in scattering
kilograms. If it be not true that Mcclellan
is a fugitive, and the whole of his army pressed
to the necessity of a capitulation, it appears
that there was a moment when this appeared
50 natural a result of the position that they
who asserted those facts might fairly have be-
lieved that they wero justified by what was
happening around them. A series of six days
of battle, and six days of defeat is now de-
scribed in the letters received at New York
Routs wherein officers often led the way Of
flight, and in which they never succeeded in
staying the headlong scamper of their men, q
general stampede" to the cry Of "The Reb-
els are coming" a run from post to post, the
enemies ever pursuing, and the dead and woun-
ded left in the hands of the pursuers. These
are the events which are now detailed in hor-
rible minutcncss by those who have survived
them. Six dayc and seventeen miles Of flight
and slaughter are the real facts which have been
sickened oyer by pale, ghastly boasts Of STRAIT
egetic success, The dead had no more to fear,
but the wounded were left in the swamps where
they fell, necessarily deserted by their flying
friends, passed over by their enemies, and with
out hope Of seeing other faces in this world
than those of men and women who had a right
to detcst them as mcrcenary plunderers and in
vaders. Such q scene arouges every sense of
honor and pity; but these feelings are turned
half into contempt when we find the leader Of
this panic-stricken host, having left his siege
batteries and his stores behind, having fled to
his ships, and being momcntorily safe under the
protection Of their guns compliments in q gen
eral order the ragged remnants Of his army up
on their achievements and their yalor, and VOL
"'AO'Sio WV. Ny4i'l'iNtOll> itlSCil'Oi l.itlG lllCN
have saved alItheir material and all their Guns,
except few lost in battle"
Such Il dreadful carnage as that which has
just taken place in America is unknown in
modern times. As the honors of the French
revolution crept out of peaceful looking votes
of general fraternity and the BOLTON Of cap
ital punishment, 50 the bloodlcss siegcs and bat
ties which gave the commencement of this civ
il war an air of p~astilno have dcopcned into q
furious Struggle in which populations seem to
join with no other idea than that Of mutual ex-
termination. with u great army completely
beaten and domoralized, it painful to find the
defeated General tabricating portentou5 esti-
mates Of the amount Of men his conqucrors
must have lost in beating him. It is sadly lu-
dicrous to see him making a ~pretence Of steal
ing back towards the city he lately beleaguercd;
feeling his way along the banks Of his protect
ing river with cautious leisure, and venturing
only where his Gunbogts can mpa Hmm
and can she'll the woods in his front to make
sure there is no Confederate force that can harm
him. While his flags of truce arc refused, and
while he is unable to count his own dead or
gather his own wounded, it is pitiablc to hear
him talk of the Confederate loss. Perhaps we
might pardon him, under the circumstances,
for stating IN his dispatches to Washington
that at cone O'clock on the Fourth Of July
the great day of Indcpendonce-the bands
were playing, the national salutes being fired,
andthings hooking BRIGHT" but is not pardon
able ina General so utterly beaten and SO near
ly destroyed to re-assert in that same dispatch
that sour forces were not beaten in any con-
''fict, nor could they be driven from the field
'by the uttcrmost efforts of the ene1ny."-
is it pardonable in q General address,
ing an army yet painting from a seventeen
run to parody the language of Napoleon,
and tell his wretched followers that they may
say with pride, 81 belonged to the
army OF; the Potomac" We understand the
and determination of brave man I'M
der defeat, but these qualities never lack the
dignity OF truth, and are never seen draped in
tawdry falsehood.
But we shall probably be asked what is it to
that General Mcclellan should talk this trash
to ms army and to his Government. We an
swer, hrst, that official documents are the ma
terials of history, and that it Is the business Of
every man to expose those who falsify them
Veracity in men who hold conspicuous posi-
lions is also q quality which it is the interest
OF all mankind to insist upon on pain ofinfamy.
II a ~ 49, = ~ .sts - .n ]