The Memphis union appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1862-1862, 1862-07-15

having the opportunity Of reading In your
appeal of the eth, the Cincinnati Commercial
account Of the six days battle before Rich
moni. I was greatly alarmed, no doubt in i
common with many others, at the rumors to /
which It gave rise in the city, on Monday, inn |
mediately upon its reception. I sought in vain
to obtain a. copy, the supply had been en-
hsusted. But the conclusion professedty gath
cred from it, and the impression intended to be
made, by not few, was most alarming to the
Federal cause. Why said s. protested
Unionist, q our army has been awfully Gus up
driven baek-s0hippedi if the Commercial
states the truth" Indeed, it seemed as though
dire and helpless CONSERVATION had taken pos
session of this mans brain. Whether this
feeling was feigned or real cannot say. am
disposed to surmise the former. Be that as it
may, it led me greatly to desire perusal Of
the article. 1 have read it, and the terrible
alarm the report of it had occasioned has sub
sided. For, in the first place, it is evidently,
and by confession of one of the writers, the
work oftwo men. One of them, like . COOL
deliberate, faithful narrator, gives plain,
straightforward, UNIV arnished account Of
events as they transpired. The other, in the
heat of an excited mind, gives highly colored,
fanciful, romantic picture Of real or supposed
events. And the object of the writer seems
sensation article to accomplish an end-to ex-
cite want of confidence in, or i'll will towards
the Government, or mistrust of the compe-
tency of the General Commanding in being
driven by stern necessity to make an import
ant and hazardsus change in his entire plan Of
operations, instead of having been led to it by
the suggestions of his own mind, by previous
strategetic foresight. His own mind was evil
IDENTIFY worked up to high pitch of alarm and
gloomy excitement and his approximations and
forebodings of direst calamities color and be-
| cloud his entire picture-for it can claim to be
nothing else but fancy picture-not plain
detail of facts. And let me here say to that
correspondent, should this happen to meet his
eye, that plain facts, and not romance or rhe-
torie, or highfalutin, is what the public want
in relation to such grave and moment
| Gus affairs.
! The writer's description is liable to another
serious objection, it is not consistent with itself
1t leads the reader gravely and fearfully &C
anticipate what its subsequent details 20 not
realize. "The night of Friday, says the
writer, "was gloomy, but it was felicity itself
compared with those of Saturday Sunday,
Monday and Tuesday" An "improyised y
portraiture this to use term of his own, of a
sad and most disastrous future, the forthcoming
Of events too sad and too painful to be named
beside those which had already befallen our
poor army, cut of, wellnigh, in his distracted,
distempered mind, from any hope for the fu-
ture. But what do those most unfeliciteus
days and nights reveal according to his own
description, Invested of its romantic drapery
and rhetorical bombast? Why, that McClel.
Ian hsd admirably attained his end, that hi:
exhausted and fainting troops had been sue,
cessfully snatched from the whirlpool of over
wheimning numbers that they had, at last
really founda little time for breathing, and O
place TO rest and that now, worn out, hungry
and thirsty, they were nerving themselves no
bly, for more desperate conflicts, and were beat.
ing off the foe, entirely disappointing and
routing him at every point while gunboats-
though his distempered vision could discern
but two or three of them-were coming up
and large reinforcements were gathering tc
their aid. True, those we're days of deep anx
iety, of supsrhuman efforts and endurance, d
doubtful result, but yet of unwonted success as
i they passed, and of most inspiring hope in The
end. Are our sad expectations realized, as The
writer fortells they must be, of the intolerablt
infelIcity of those days? Not at all. Nay
we are happily and gloriously disappointed, al
events turn up far better than we feared, nay
better than the most sanguine anticipated.
Again, the mind of this anaylist is evidently
unstable, wavering, vaeillating to one extreme
and then another, undecided as to proper rest
ing points, At one time he lauds our officer!
and men, and then disparagss them as much
as wanting in the skill and tactics of the rebels
and as fighting, not for the love of country
but for the sake of military show and gallantry
Now he describes the rebel officers as wonder
full in their maneuvering and their ability K
handle masses, and the men as brave, and ye
i cautious in their selection of fighting ground
and then, that the men are pushed into battle
by their leaders, and crowded rank after ranl
up to the lannon's mouth through very mad
ness at want of success and utter recklessnes
of l..fe. At one time Mcclellan is driven e
change his base Of operations for fear of uttei
determination; and again, it is most wisely
and admirably accomplished, whether BY pre-
vious purpose and plans, or by necessity, hi
would not say. What so great, complicated
and hazardous change, accomplished admir-
ably without purpose and plant Such is tn
consistency of the writer. And though hi
whole article is terrible with gloom, it j
| n4-oal.aa Nth linht and closes in sunshine