Sioux City register. [volume] (Sioux City, Iowa) 1858-1871, 1862-12-06

fairly at work Pa .a o--s.ut# -.4a,
It91n'speakinS of the battle of Williams.
burg the Prince compliments Gen. Nc.
CIellan as follows: ....,r ..............-f
"a At this very moment Gen. Mcclellan,
who had been detained at Yorktown, ap.
peared on the field. 1t was dusk, the night
was coming on, the rain still fsl:ng.in tor
rents. On three sides of the. plateau on
which the General was, the cannon and
musketry were rafting unnterruptedly.-
The success of Hancock had been decisive,
and the reserves brought up by the Gener.
eral;in, Chief, charsed upon the field. and
settled the affair. Then it was that saw
General Mcclellan, passing in trout of the
SIKH Cavalry, give his hand to Major vii.
liams with n few. words on his brilliant
charge of the day before The regiment
did not hear what he said, but it knew
what he meant, and from every heart went
up on of those masculine terrible shouts
which are only to be heard on ihe field OF
battle. These shouts taken up along the
whole line, struck terror to the enemy
We saw them come upon the parapets aud
look on, in silence and moiiouless upon
the scene. Then the firing died away, and
night fe!l on the combat which in America
is called the battle OF W3Ilamsburg.'
From an unprejuiiced pen, reader, after
reading the following do you not wonder
that Mcclellan did not resign? Had he
not been u pure Christian aud patriot such
treatment would have made second Ar.
mold:
NcClelan had driven the enemy home
upon his capita and brought him to the
issue of decisive battle 81 know tha,
such battle ought to have been won, aud
was not wen. But here the responsibility
is far from belonging to the chief or to
his army. Who were the men who, driy.
ing them into an untimely campaign, had
so revealed to the enemy operations not
yet ripe for execution? Was Mcclellan
responsible for that want of unity in the
ends and in the action Of the Government
which had ira meed the movements of
the army since he had been deprived OF
the chief command and supreme direction
Of the armies? Was Mcclellan respon
slb!e for the Systematic dmiuua,iOn Of his
forces, which, in the face Of the agglom-
Grafton Of the forces Of the enemy, had
successfully deprived him, since the cam
paign had opened, Of the division of B!en-
ker and two thirds Of McDowell's corps,
without sending him one solitary man to
ell up the gaps made By sickness and by
the cannon? In spite Of all these obsla-
ciess he had reached the walls of Rich
noud, but he had no longer the means Of
striking the great b!ow which probably
would have ended the war. In hostile
country what appears Il simple reconnois,
sance may often prove serious and gem
eral attack. There large force is needed
to guard against surprises, and still lar.
ger force to secure lines Of communica.
ton, which cannot be broken without dan
/ Reinforcements were needed. Whence
should they come? General Wool, from
Norfolk; Burnside. from North Carolina.
might send some men, but very few, while
around Washington more than eighty
thousand We're collected. Of these. about
one half were making head against the
partisan Jackson in. the. Valley of the
| Shenandoah, The rest were collected
under Mcdowell at Fredegicks burg, sixty
miles to the north of Rich mond. They
! Rsppanbannock and in three or four days
they might have joined the army OF Ne,
/ CleIlan. They covered nothing at Ereder
| ick-bprg, and were so notQriously useless
/ to the Federal cause that in the Ceutedef-
ate nrnais they were spoken of as the
iitth wheel of the coach. 1t was known
that McD4well desired ardently to give
I the he 10 these raiiieries by bringing a
the decisive moment, bis assistance to ihs
cause q the union. Accordingly, Nc,
| CIel'an had no sooner arrived Le:ure Rich
mond than he undertook 10 discover what
be had to hope for on this side. No OH.
caI advice, either from Washington or
from Frederick burg, had informed him OF
.ftt, f Il &
| McDoweIFs presence at that point, only
sixty miles distant but ,rulnor had proba.
bly, agreed so well in. placing him there
that the General.in CLief resolved,to make
an attempt to establish communications
with him. On the night OF the 10th
sent forward General Porters diyisio
with few squadrons OF cavalry, in a #
rious storm, TO Hanover Court House, !.
village abou: twenty miles north Of Rich.
mond, wheEe the railway to Fredericks.
barg crosses the Pamunkey. The troops