The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-08-28
NUMBER 10.

they ever hOpeu 10 raise from an,
source, we did not attack them, but the,
attacked US, as we had reason to suppos'
they would. They attacked our righ
wing, and as / am informed upon wha
! mnst deem reliable authority, they
hurled the majority of their entire forcs
upon our right wing Of thirty Thousand
men, and during the whole of thai
Thursday our right wing Of thirty
thousand meu held their ground, and
repnlsed that vast hoard of the enemy
over and over again, and held their
ground at night. Of course You will
SAY reinforcement Of twenty or thirty
thousand men was sent to these bravs
troops that might not only hold their
ground the next day, but send this dss-
iardly army into Richmond a second
time, as at Fair Oaks. No, sir, nothing
of the sort was done.
AT night, instead of sending them re-
Inducements, they were orderd to-
retreat. That was strategy" Ths
moment they commenced their retreat,
as said in the dispatches, the enemy
fought like demons. OF course they
would. Who ever heard of a retreat
ing army that was not pursued by the
victors like demons, except in the case
of rebel retreat ? No other nation bus
ours was ever guilty of stopping imme-
diately after victory. Other armies.
fight like demons after a victory, and
annihilate the enemy, but We do not.
Our left wing and center remained in
tact. A feint was made upon the left
and center, and / have here, not the
sworn testimony, but the statement of
one of the bravest men in the whole
army of the Potomac will not give
his name, but a more highly honorable
man lives not-that when his regiment
was ordered under arms, he had no
doubt that we was going to march into
Richmond. He believed the whole,
force of the enemy had attacked our,
right wing; he believed there waA
nothing but a screen of pickets in front;
and he thought now our great triumph
was to come Off His men sprang into
the line with avidity, prepared to rush,
to Richmond and take it at the point
of the bayonet. He never discovered
his error untilhe saw million and half
dollars worth of property burned in
front of his regiment, and then he be.
gan to think that an advance upon Rich.
mond was not intended. And it was,
not. We had been at work there, and
had lost ten thousand men in digging
we had spent months
in bringing up siege guns, and we aban-.
doncd those without firing gun. Our
army was ordered to advance on the
gunboats instead of on Richmond.
This colonel told me that his regiment
fought three days, and whipped the
enemy each day, and retreated each.
night. The left wing and centre were
until they were ordered to.
retreat. No portion of our vast force
had been fought except the right wing
under Porter, and they whipped the
enemy the first day.
This is called strategy! Again, sir, /
ask why was this great army OF the Po-
tomac of two hundred and thirty thou
sand men divided? Human ingenuity,
conld not have devised any other way.
to defeat that army; divine wisdom
could scarcely have devised any other.
way 70 defeat it than that which was
adopted. There is no army in Europe,
today that could meet the army of the.
Potomac when it was two hundred and
thirty thousand strong, the best fighting.
ever put into an army on the,
face of the earth. Why was thai
grand army divided? l simply charge,
hat grave and serious errors have been
and, as have said, no.
,ther W ay could have been devised TO
defeat that army. If the one hundred
and tifiy-eight thousand ,nea that was
rnt TO Gen. Mcclellan had been
marched upon the enemy, they could
rave WHIPPED all the armies the Con-.
federates have, and they are likely to.
have for six months. One hundred
and fifty-eight thousand are about a.
many as can be fought on any one
battle field. One hundred and fifty
light thousand men are vast army
great deal larger army :han that with
which Napoleon destroyed six hundred
housand of the Aus;rians in a single
'ear. One hudred and fifty eight thou
and men ably handled can defeat any
orce the coufederates can raise, and
hat 10 the force that went down to
he peninsular. But, sir, it lay in
litches, digging, drinking rotten water,
md eating bad food, and sleeping in
he mud, until itbecame greatly reduced
n numbers, aud of those that were lefi
.ery many were iujuredin health. Sill!
hey hight; still they conquered in every
ght; and still they retreated, because
hey were ordered to retreat.
Sir, have deemed it my duty to
resent this statement of facts to the
senate and the country. 1 know that
am to be denounced for SO doing. and
tell yon who will denounce me. There
re two classes of men who are sure to
enounce me, and no one else, and they
re traitors and fools. The traitors
ave been denouncing every man who
i'll not sing psams to strategy"
hen it led TO defeat every time. The
'aitors North are worse than the trail
,rs South, and sometimes think we
ave as many of them in the aggregate,
hey are meaper men; they are men
ho will come behind you and cut your
,roat in the dark. l have great res
ect for southern traitors who shnuldsr
leir muskcts and come out and take
10 chances Of the bullet and the hal.