The New York herald., 1862-09-23
printed day BY day the history of this great


printed day by day the history of this grea
war for the Union.
Our envious rivals, and particularly tn
Tribune, cavil at and deny, but cannot alte
these established facts. The abuse or such op
ponents seems our best praise; for our circula
ton grows larger and larger as these attack
continue, while the Tribune has fallen below al
its contemporaries, its circulation being nov
also exceeded by that of the Times the San, ant
| even by that Of the World The reports Of oul
war correspondents have uniformly been the
best written, the fullest, the most detailed, the
most accurate the earliest, and the best illus
trated by maps, drawn exclusively for this
journal The completeness of this correspond
ence may be judged from the fact that, besides
| 3ll we publish, we have enough remaining every
Fay to fill another paper of this size.
4 But we prefer to allow our rivals to praise
ns, and we therefore republish the subjoined
mote from Mr.. S. Fl. Gay, the managing
editor, under Mr.. Greeley, of the New York
1'ibune-a paper which has often denied what
its leading editor here admits in private
letter of instructions to his correspondent
at Yorktown. The letter was picked up
at Yorktown, and sent to us by cores
pondent. We have the original now in
our possession, with the correspondents pencil
notes on the back, and its authenticity has
never been questioned by Mr.. Gay or by any
one acquainted with his handwriting and his
peculiarly of writing the word ''ths' in the old
style, .'yen:-
4 OFFICE OF THE TRIBUNE NEW York. April 2S 1862
My DEAR SiRMr Sinclair has gone 10 ye army baio.e
Yorktown to make arrangements TO get ye meas lie
with htn 80
Your sketch OF ye battle ground Of 20 1elh came Just
GfM days after ye battle. Or It useless.
The corr: Of 20 Philadelphia Inq,5rr had sent
one to that raler, which It had had engraved pub
llshed, which had also bad engraved published three
days before yours reached me. pray you emembcr We
Tts5une is doIg 'scss raler-or meant 20 be,& not
historical record OF past events Correspondence TO be
of any value must be prompt fresh & full Of facts
know how difcut il is under yc censor ship TO write, but
you to maise daily letter. Yours FOR 10 morrows paper
L is ye best you have sent usshort to ye purpose
should Ike you to write daily i only hai Ia qua. Ter
tinuous The curiosity anxiety aboat Yorktown is
fcverish, ye public like pa best that is always
giving something II there absolutely no'ng to write
about, drop line and tell that. The HERALD
stanty ahead Of US with Yorktown news The bait OF
ye 10th compelled to copy from it. Yrs very
truly, S. II. GAY.
We think this acknowledgment Of our su-
periority suitable corollary to our table Of
circulation Why Mr.. Gay does not admit the
facts above stated in the Tribune as well as in
his private letters, we cannot say; nor can we
explain how he and Mr.. Greeley reconcile it
with their consciences to abuse us in their
paper while they conidentialiy own that "the
HERALD is constantly ahead and that they
arc compelled to copy from it."
THE HARPER's FERRY DIsGRAcE-A CLEAR
CASE FOR CouRr MARTlAI.-Who is, or what
parties are, responsible for the dsgraceful,
costly and humiliatng surrender of Harper's
Ferry? 1t is clear case for a court martial,
and President Lincoln should promptly order
one to probe this matter to the bottom. The
infamous and inhuman ISLANDERS against Colonel
Miles, now lying in his grave, require no retu-
tation. No honest man believes them. But
what base motives could have dictated thems
That is the question. Is not this business
open TO the suspicion that the unserupulous
tool of some dirty political faction has Ind q
leading hand in it!
If the responsibility Of the surrender Of
Harper's Ferry belongs especially to any
one officer, we think that Col. Tom
Ford, Of Ohio, is that man. His aban-
donment of Maryland Heights was the
loss OF the whole position; for with those
heights in possession OF the enemy all the other
delcnccs Of the town were untenablc. Nor
does it appear that Ford made even respecta-
bic show Of resistance to hold those heights
Gen. Mcclellan fought the successful battle OF
South Mountain on Sunday, the 18th, the can
.r nl.
same mountain range at Harper's Ferry, only
some twelve or fifteen miles off. We know at
oil events, that had our officers in charge OF
that position held out till Monday night, instead
of basely surrendering that morning, the be-
leaguering rebel forces would have been COM
PEELED to leave the place on Tuesday morning,
as they did, to 60 up the river to the relief of
Gen. Lee.
Thus, in holding Harper's Ferry few hours
longer, we should have saved to our Army Of
the Potomac from ten to twelve thousand men,
some lifteen thousand muskets and rifles, from
fifty to one hundred pieces of artillery,
and valuable supplies of ammunition provisions,
wagons and stores Of all kinds; but above ALL
in connection with these troops and materials
of war, we should have saved military posi-
ton equal to fifty thousand men TO General
Mcclellan. But all was lost through this dis
graceful capitulation, and thus the means aud the
way Of escape were provided for the rebel army
from Maryland, which otherwise would have
been cut Off From the facts before us, had our
forces at Harpers Ferry been under the COM
mand of an officer Of JEFF. Davis, the capitula-
ton would not have been contrived more ad-
vantageoisly than it has been to General Lee.
This, we repeat, is clear and urgent case for
a stringent court martial; and, as the fidelity Of
Miles is established, we submit that the abandon
ment Of Maryland Heights by Tom Ford should
be thoroughly investigated. We have had Of
late quite enough Of these shameful capitula-