The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-07-29
DEMOCRATIC CEN. COM.
The Battle of Gettysburg-A Rebel
Statelnent-Letter from Gen. Lel.

[From the Richmond Dispatch, July 1871
We have no official account Of the battle OF
Gettysburg, although We should think the au
thoIillcs must surely have received one before
tins But many wounded oficers-some oil
them lien OF great intelIigence-have arrived,
aud ircm a comparison of their We
are enabled III make out the following facts
1he battle OF Gettysburg was, on our part, u
triumph success-an overwhelming victory.
We DeaI the enemy on all three of the days.
Ou Friday we drove hun five miles assaulted
his Qualifications aud carried them. He was
utterly beaton and d.scontitted at ali points
4 hat Gen. Lee did not continue to hold those
Qualifications, Was suleiy due.to the fact thai
they were IN that mountainous country over
,ooked by u lofty raE &c OF heights which en-
ureiy com anGeJ them. To these heights
the Yankees fled Tor protectioa, lrcc sely as
,iey did to their .unboats at Malvern Hill,
aid Gen. Lee Withdrew his army TO: the same
reason that he withdrew from the range OF
he gGuboats' fire. That he wass repulsed in
his attack on the intreuchments that he fed
lh dIsUrdor-that his army was demoraiIzrd-
are Yankee lies OF inc first magnitude. They
we're nut believed ut Washington, however
they III ght huye been here, fur that city was
IN u state of uncomfortable terror on Sunday
night That Lihcnin did not believe then, il
ev.rent from his Calling of all the tloaps ir,n
the heisi.bui hood o. Old Point, rave u mere
handful. I he slaughter oil the. Yankees was
terrible beyond all former example, and the
telegraph operator was not SO Tar from wrong
when he SAID we had forty thousand prisoners,
as had been supposed We bruugh. away
thirteen thousand, aud thousands were allowed
10 escape. Every house in Gel ysburg Was
flied with Yankee soldiers, who had been left
behind when our troops entered. The soldiers,
finding out that they were within (generaliy
In cunccalmeut), rushed in and dragged them
Out OF their hiding places. The enormous H.
cLmurance Inflicted BY these PRISONERS Was Cne
cause vi Gen. Lees retrosradc uatch. Every
officer who has spoken on the subject says that
thu. movement was not determined.by anything
the Baukces had done or Guild do. Gen. Lee
had wor the ground aud could have held it,
but he chose, Tor military reasons, to fall back,
after having utterly broken the backbone OF
the Yankee army. Apparently he had no in
.tentIon to recross the Potomac, and Washing
ton is nearer to Hageistowu tan to Gettysburg
IL is slated upon good authority that our
loss in killed. wounded, aud missing did not
exceed ten thousand. 1t, as the Yankees as
Sc {, We lost four thousand prisoners, then our
luss III killed and wouuded was emily six thou
sand eight hundrvd-a very small loss con-
the number of combatants aud the
of the battle. The Yankees took no
ChbVds q NhOg SN's law NahSu
five. The pieces were abandoned because
they were disabled, and the hors, 8 a tached L.
them were killed.
These fell into their hands, and form the
same dismal trophles of WHIT ley pretend to
consider a great triumph Our army is in
sp .cDdId order, aud ready for another conflict.
They have not been pursued, as the Yankees
falsely stated, Tor they were in no coudi ion to
pursue and it was, in fact, the very thing that
Gen Lee most d, siered. Meads seema 10 have
gone to parts unknown.
(From The richmond Enquirer, July 1s.
The President received a letter from Gen.
Lee On Saturday, which puts TO rest all ankle
in relation to he situation OF our army in
aud confirms the statements wheel:
been made, that our army bad been uni
iormly victorious in its encounters with tn
enemy in Pennsylvania The letter states, in
.effecr, that the engagements at Gettysburg re-
suited II defeating the euemy complety, in
killing and wuuudiDg u Dum er tar exceeding
our own, aud in the capture of u large numl er
If prisoners that the falling back of our arr
my tt lia.erstown WAS "a prudestial move, not
occusioned by any success on the part of the
ene M md NOT through any apprehension of
contingencies urising which might insure his
success at that poiut
The yist of the letter, in q few words. is that
The enemy was more thoroughly cut up aud
whipped than he ever had been upon southern
soil, and that the occupation of Hagerstown
was a movement dictated by strategy and pru-
denco, as essential to the success of the cam
paign. The secret involved in this movement
may as well be left to Gen. Lee to develop in
his own good time. The prisoners in our
hands aud on tho way here, are, VIC under
stand, estimated mt between Is. 600 and 49,
200. The army is in fine spirits and excel
lent condition.
s@- Hooking Hunter, the Abolition candi.
date for Supreme Judge, declines 20 take the
stump. The whole Abolition crew might as
we'll give up the contest, for they are bound