Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-06-07

terest, not 10 he published. tits the cor
respondence Of the New-York Tribune:
sAvAoE's STATION,
York River and Richmond Railroad,
May ~, 1902 }
Att o'clock this afternoon musletry
fire in front Of the left wing and upon Ca
seys Division, told us that the enemy had
commenced the fight, which policy and ne
eessity had suspended on our part. The
storm Of last night was the most furious
fall of rain and explosion of lightning /
ever saw Not regiment, not a company,
scarcely an officer was exempt from its
chilling and exhausting effects. The Reb-
els seized upon it as an element Of military
advantage and, having fully prepared
themselves, fell suddenly on our pickets,
scattered them inwards, and held Casey's
regiments in actual battle while their pots
and kettles we're yet on the fires, and
many of the men were drying their wet
clothes I cannot tell in the confusion
which now reigns supreme, how the small
earthwork and the rife-pit at the front
were so quickly taken out Of our posses
sion. The number and the quality Of the
guns in the fort l am ignorant Of But
pits, fort, and guns, whether siege or field,
changed owners suddenly.
Now / face the first truth in the history
Of the Union Disgrace at the Seven Pines
and l shall not dodge it. The important
place of danger, the front, was committed
to General whose division, composed Of
raw troops, marched down Fourteenth
street, Washington, in the last week Of
February, $4,000 stTong-and has been so
neglected and SO allowed to 60 undisci-
plined, that 1000 Of them could not by any
possibility have been gathered together
this morning. division so left to itself TO
luck, and the devil, that it has lost, liter
ally lost, 700 men and upward since 1t left
Williamsburg division whose command
er has long been conspicuous as searching
miles ahead of his marching columns for
comfortable quarters. Upon this division,
out Of place in the front, the shock Of bat
lie fell-and knocked it into disorder and
ruin faster than conceived it possible for
Anglo-Saxon troops to be moved by any
power less than Gods thunderbolts. Oh
how much l have learned to-day, and how
much have unlearnedl Iert
Gen. Pecks military family we're at their
rice and coffee in the open air at a quarter
before ! o'clock in the afternoon. The un-
mistakRble rattle Of musketry fired by
companies and by column in front brought
the graduate of every battlefield in Mex
leo right to his feet He mounted Instant
ly and ordered his brigade under arms. In
the short space of time used by me in rolling
up my blankets and overcoat, and sadding
a restless horse, and riding twenty rods
toward the front-not twenty minutes
the current of struggling and skplkng
had fully set in, and was sweeping in a
great shameful flow down the Williams
burg road. 1t was the most astonishing
of spectacles. Great, healthy, vigorous
men, who had volunteered to fight the
battles of Freedom, walking rapidly back
from the first touch Of the foe, with boxes
full Of cartridges and muskets in their
hands, sound in wind and limb, but, thank
God looking mean as sheep-thieves when
they encountered the stare Of brave men,
and Stimulating lameness and every form
Of sickness when cavaliers, not combat
ants by profession, damned them in their
fury for towards, and endeavored TO
breast them backward with their horses
into the fght--grcat hulking pOltroOns,
falling into every possible variety Of
limp out of rapid walking; depressing at
pleasure either shoulder with terrible
wounds; quickly gathering into their
bosoms mutilated arms, wholly untouched
with bullets; going through the WhOledis-
gusting pantomime of sickness Of-the
rfngre they were going, and why the devil
they were not fighting; with false speech
and false looks asserting every conceiva-
bic acute attack of disabling disease as a
justification for going to the rear, and let
ting the cause they had sworn to defend
go to the devil. 1t was amazing. It was
new revelations But moments refec-
ton, and q sharp observation Of the num-
bers on the caps Of the streaming towards,
explained the phenomenon, as it appeared
to a civilian. The brass figures 100, l01,
l03, 104, told of enlistments as late as
January and February, and eonclusivoly
proved the greenness and inexperience Of
troops who had been taught nothing save
how 10 march and to camp, and who de-
Perforated daily under the command Of a
General who had neither youth, snthusi-
asm, pride, or combativeness. To these,
the sight Of falling comrades, and the
shrieking Of the wounded, and the groan-
ing Of the dying, instead of being the food
of fierce fury, served only to open the
Down the road they came-over the fields
on either side of the road they struggled
fast-thTough the safer woods they skulked
away, and sought the rear. Most were
muddy, showing that they had lain down
TO avoid the shell and shot-very many
were without arms and aceoutrements.
The crowd grew thicker. The Provost
Guard formed across the road to stem its
dastardly flow. Before o'clock General
Keyes found that Casey's entire division
was gonei He sent to Heintzleman for
instant help The brave Pennsylvania
was already on his way to the place where
he was wanted. He came on the ground
about quarter after 3, and gathering as
rapidly as he could all the elements Of the
situation in the strange woods and un-
known swamps, took command and infused
a new spirit into the failing fight. He sent
back for Kearney, and Jameson, and
Birney, and Berry-he who so timely
brought salvation upon bis bayonet points |
to us at Williamsburg. While they were
coming up, | went ahead once more to see |
55th the 90 into fire. Their movement in |
response to the order eFOrward :" was not |
impulsiye from front to rear. 1t hitched, |
in sections like the drawing out of the |
joints Of a field glass. Omen Of eveli In |
thirty minutes red-capped and red-trous-
cred men, mostly without their muskets, |
were under the fire Of the seorn and the 1
jeering of the New York eds fire more |
CALLING and insuppOrtable, as it seemed to
me, than any that ever spouted from mus
kets. Mounsheer, the muss is the other /
way !" Hello, Holsters we are Union |
men; we amt rebels. What are you run
ming at us for?' "The 62d is good
shelter; fan in behind p Not a wrathful |
reply was made. The bursting of the
rebel shell overhead, the screaming Of /