The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1862-09-16
Occasional Correspondence of the Guardian.
Beleagured Capital-.POpe's Cam
paign..A Sight at Rebels.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 1862.

! WASHINGTON, Sept. b, 1857.
You were here last winter, Mr.. EDITOR,
when this city was beleagured by the
Rebels. You described the appearance
of the city then, and the appearance of
the country hereabouts. 1t is just so
again. Wagons by the thousand rum
BILE over the pavements vast field, near
the city are filled with trains in park /;
ten thousand tents spread their white
canvas to the breeze and reflect the sun !;
at night ten thousand fires from camp
and bivouac shine up against the sky ;
all the while there is hurrying to and
fro-noise and wild hurly burly every
where. 1t is different from last winter
too. We had got used to it when you
were here, and things seemed to move
along right naturally, with the rebel flag
constantly Haunting, within plain view
of the Capitol. But now it is strange
again, and deep anxiety finds expression
in the faces OF all our loyal people. A
year has gone, and now, since Nc Clellan
assumed command of the armies of the
United States, and we are where we were
then, with the loss besides of an hundred
thousand lives, and | know not how
much treasure. 1t is a painful retro
spect.
When the paper blast with which
Pope commenced his late expedition,
and the fact that his army is now again
about Washington, are considered, it
might seem that his campaign were well
nigh as futile as the campaign of Nc,
Clellan on the Peninsula. But not So
Pope accomplished his object-the say
ing Of Nc Clellan's army. IT. in his re-
treat from the Rapidan to the Potomac,
he lost many men. and was defeated in
the last general engagement, it is never
theless true that his retreat was in main
successful, and accompanied by as little
loss of life as could have been expected.
Your readers will understand that
pope's advance, though accompanied by
all the pomp and pride and circum-
stance of glorious war, was, in reality, a
feint. The army Of the Potomac, nine.
ty thousand strong, was weltering in the
sun at Harrison's Landing, each success
sive day bringing it nearer to capitula-
ton. Had that capitulation taken place,
il would have carried with it the ruin of
the national cause. Every consideration.
therefore, impelled TO that course by
which McClellan's army could be saved
1t could only be done by threatening
Richmond from the North, and Rich
mond, filled and surrounded by an army
commanded by able and wary generals,
could not be threatened from the North
by handful of men, Or even by mere
| " considerable exhibition Of force.
Stonewall Jackson and his contreres were
not the men to be caught on any such a
pin-hook. We were compelled TO send
the largest force which could be raked
and scraped together, and to send it with
terrific flourish of trumpets besides
The rebels bit--they were fairly caught
in the trap, and Pope had scarcely reach
ed the Rappahannock ere they came out
to meet him. Just at this time. McClel.
Ian wants to march on Richmond, and
delays the evacuation of the Peninsula
three days, till peremptory order leaves
him no alternative. His delay was a
fatal error, and lost us the Saturdays
battle on the old field of Bull Run.
Pope had to 60 further than he would
have gone, but for McClellan's DELAY.
but it was expected that the latter would
reach the former before he should get
this side of the Rappahannock. There,
the two armies joined, could have kept
sAo "h"iO iSDe' ioiSc at uay III tuc new
leyies should have come up, when they
could have stamped the southern armies
in the earth, and marched from the Rap
pahannock to the Gulf before the first
frost in Washington. But still we would
have whipped them at Bull Run, had
Franklin and Summer arrived, the one
twelve, the other twenty -four hours,
earlier. For not sooner sending them,
Nc Clellan has been severely blamed, and
even charged with treason. Of crime
SO atrocious lie is not guilty. His men
were not ready to move. The three days
delay on the peninsula lost the battle
That lost, nothing was left but to return
to Washington. Mcclellan was saved,
and national ruin at least postponed.
Such was the result of Gen. Pope's cam
palsn. whatever raids may just now take
place in the neighborhood Of the Nation
al Capital.
| accompanied the army from Bull
Run TO Alexandria, having gone to the