Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-06-11

enuteu 10 draw, ana II might lead 10 100 hllch
! inquiry.
Graphic Sketches Of the Field of Fair
Oaks-GeneraI Casey's DivisiOn-John
Cochrane'S Brigade.
Correspondence Of the y Y Tribune.
SAvAGE's STATION, June /, 1S62.-The
most conflicting statements are made of the
behavior of the troops in Cascy's division.
The corpses of hundreds and hundreds of
them lie upon the ground, mute but impress
i've witnesses of the courage that can die, if it
| cannot resist unequal numbers On the other
! hand, the early and almost immediate set-in
of the drift of Skulking and struggling from
| CaseyS regiments is a fact which can not be
made to consist with discipline and soldierly
| spirit. The witnesses to this early and formi-
dabe and disgraceful flood to the rear of I'M
wounded men are thousands and thousands in
number. Majors wandered alone in woods
mile from their regiments line of battle;
lieutenants, with privates, when stopped,
swore that their body had been entirely
cut to pieces, and did not exist, and edged
sideways out Of the questioning and out
| OF the barred pathway, and resumed their
! flight from the shells which screamed and
! burst in the air above. By twos and threeS,
singly and in groups, officers and men-tOO
many officers. l do declare, they retreated
continuously from the first five minutes after
the firing commenced, and could not be stOpp-
ed, save in numbers so few that, when gath
cred by Col. Russell of Massachusetts, they
made the most representative regiment ever
| eXtemporiZed from the wreck of field of bat
tie Seven hundred did this officer scoop off
| the highway with the help of the provost
guard. But the woods on either side of the
road were alive with them, steady in their
| wi nd l.
their excuses for it, from ''attacks of collie"
which all at once bent the questioned travel
ers double, to the ''totally-cut-to- pieces"
dodge, and the being ''sent after ammunition"
At o'clock in the afternoon | saw Gen Ca
sey riding about on the field without a COM
mand.
Cochrane, on the extreme right for two
hours and a half poured deliberate fire into
the enemy across an open tield-so deliberate
that every one of his men, obedient to orders,
covered his rebel accurately with both sights,
before he pulled the trigger-and he literally
piled the enemy's front into line of corpses
and, after fight in the woods, which al
ways tavors skulking, and in the course of
which he resisted artillery, musketry, and a
charge of bayonets, he called the regimental
roll, and there waS not q man ''nliSSing."
The dead and wounded were answered for by
their comrades. When the dead fell, they
lay as they fell. When the wounded fell,
they handed their muskets and cartridges to
their comrades, and crawled out of the ranks.
No sneaking and doleful procession of from
four to ten towards bore them backward For
Shaler, the lieutenant-c colonel of the regi-
ment, and Hamlin, the major, had so trained
them for the sacred duties of battle, that it was
impossible for them to weakenthe regiment and
weaken their cause by deserving their ranks on
any pretenSe whatever, or tOwaste ammunition
by wild firing or firing contrary to orders So
| it was with Poe's I'd Michigan. out on picket
duty upon line four miles long, they, within
the short space of two hours, came in, formed,
answered every man to his name, marched,
and reported to Gen. Heintzelman on the field
of battle. Berry led them through the
woods to position which t1anked the swarms
of rebels in possession of Caseys camps and
his headquarters, and his Fashioned fort.
| There this regiment of severely-trained and
caretully-watched woodsmen, in connection
with two others Of Berry's regiments, opened
a deliberate fire upon the enemy, so deadly
that they were cleared out of the open ground
around the fort-swept from the spaces be-
tween the houses and the huge wood pile
| knocked wholly out of the camp, and when
| they ran for refuge into the clapboarded
| buildings, the bullets sent in after them drove
them out, and swept the whole crowd off the
| ground. The I'd, in turn, of course, sustain
ed a furious fire, for the rebel attack was no.
where made by towards. But when the roll
was called at evening not man was miss
ing"
Of dead and wounded, there was the inevi-
table list Take, also, the case of the ODD
Pennsylvania, Col. McCarter: Sent to sup
port Casey, Immediately after the attack on
him was made, this thoroughly trained body
OF troops, conScientiously looked after for
half year by commander once distinguish
ed for his zeal as a Methodist preacher, fought
turiously for an hour-were driven back from
their position, but not broken-halted at the
word of command, loaded wheeled, and fired,
retreated, halted, loaded, and fired, again and
again, and came off the ground in perfect Or
der, with their two colors flying, and present.
ing to the whole army striking proof that
the success Of battles is in the discipline of
troops, and the excellence Of soldiers rs cho1y
dertUed from the c0nScieHtiOuSneSS md thor
oUghneSS Of their officers. But the theme is
not grateful one, and my personal interest
in it is full of pain. Now, after long pause
in the writing of this letter, and "a care
tul collection Of the facts of the case,
at the distance from the scene of action
at whlch L am placed, carefully collected
so as to correct any errors of Judgment l
may have formed in the heat of the battle,
am clearly of the opinion that the suddenness
with which Casey's division disappeared will
be accounted for by proof that at least ten or
twelve thousand Of the enemy, bursting out
of the woods swept the uniformed and scarce
ly formed regiments, with whirlwind Of fire
and steel, right off their feet-ran round the
| intrenchments and occupied them i'll an in
stant-killing the artillery horses as they
went and selling the batteries-and in twenty
minutes taking full possession of the advanced
position of the Union army. But | am as
clearly of opinion that distant picketing and
thorough picketng would have ayerted the
disaster, and, that neglected, that thorough
discipline would have made protracted fight
of what was sudden rout, and would have
held at bay the rebel avalanche until Couch
or Hooker could come up with re-enforce-
ments.
COlOred Schools in North Carolina
Slave Hunting under DiHcuIties-
MIR. COllyer's Statement.
Mr. Vincent Collyer spoke to large audi
ence at DIR. Tyng's church in New York city,
Sunday evening, in explanation of his enter
| IN, IL IL.