Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1862-10-31
The Campaign In Kentuc ucky--General A
McloWen McCOOEs Report.


On our first page will be found Gen.
a. Med. McCook's S report of the battle
Of Chaplin Hill, fought by his corps
with Gen. Bragg's army, near Perry
Vile, Ky, on the Sth of October. This
document will be perused with deep in
terest throughout the country. The
most remarkable fact that comes out
clearly in the report, is the failure of
Gen Gilbert's corps, which was posted
Immediately upoa Gen. McCook' right,
to come to his assistance when he was
pressed by superior number. The start
ling fact stands before the country that
Gen McCook, with two divisions of his
corps, numbering less tiran thirteen
thousand electives, maintained, for some
honrs, most bloody combat with the
enemy, unsupported, when Gen. Gill:
bert's full corps, numbering thirty
thousand rnen, and embodying several
Of the best divisions of our army, was
within easy supporting distance, and
was repeatedly sent for. Gen. McCook s
corps was ON the extreme left. His
right wing, when in battle order, ex
tended to within few hundred yards
of Gilbert's left, and he had cause to
believe that his right would be pro-
tected by Gilbert's left. But the enemy
broke McCook's right, ard pushed on
with division to position such that
if Gilbert's troops had been promptly
used, the advanced division of the en-
stroyed without remedy. These facts
are not substantiated alone by General
McCook's assertion, ample as that would
be, but every intelligent officer on the
field recognizes, them and asserts them.
An officer, high in rank, who took
conspicuous part in the battle, and
whose name receives honorable mention
in all the reports, informs US that when
McCook's right was turned, and the en-
emy advanced impetuously into the gap
following up their success, he looked
with intense anxiety and hope to the
woods in which he knew Gilbert S corps
were, expecting every moment to see
the heads Of our columns coming out to
cut off and crush the enemy. The fact
seems to be, that Gen. Buell. is a man
who is about twenty -four hours behind
the times. He had made his disposi-
tions to fight general engagement at
Perryyille on the 9th, and would have
been in an admirable fix to have done
so, but he was disconnected by the
movements of the eremy bringing on
the battle on the Sth, and could not be
convinced that anything but severe
skirmish was in progress. Messenger
| ,fto Prov, MaHool- f,;laJ 70
cudgel into his dull brains that there
was really serious affair in progress.
The wind was blowing from him to the
battle field, and the artillery firing was
not sufficient to convince him that the
engagement was one of Importance.
The night after the battle Buell. got
up his troops, and arranged them for
general action the next morning; and
the mechanical accuracy with which
they were posted is said to have been
something superb. But the enemy
were wanting. Buell. could not use
Giibert's corps to assist McCook, be-
cause it would interfere with the sym
metry of his battle plan for the next day,
and when he got ready, the enemy would
not accommodate him. Then he lott
cred along in an undecided way, ex
pecting to meet Bragg in battle array,
and was about week in advancing ten
miles. The idea was fixed in his head
that Bragg would fight a general battle
rather than abandon Kentucky, and so,
in making symmetrical dispositions for
fight, he allowed the enemy to escape.
1t is the testimony of many competent
officers, and other observers, that Gen
eraE Bragg 5 management was miSera-
ble-that he repeatedly exposed himself
to destruction, and that if we had had a
quick, alert, enterprising com mander-in-
chief, the whole force of the enemy
would have been cut to pieces.-Cin.
| Con,mercidl