The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-04-11

abort time. Some Of our Generals expected
and desired that it should be done. Gen.
Heintselman forwarded to Gen. Mcclellan the
application Of Gen. Hamilton, commanding
division, for permission to force the enemv's
fines. No answer was received to the appfca-
ton.
HOW MANY TROOPS MCCLELLAN HAD.
Instead of that, however, asiege was deter.
mined upon, CONTRARY to the desire Of the
President, who, as early as the 9th of April,
wrote to Gen. Mcclellan rs follows:
There is curious mystery about the mum.
Der Of troops now,with you. 4 telegrsphed to
you on the 9th, urging that You had over loO,-
600 with you. had just obtained from the
Secretary of War statement, taken, AS he sald
from yeu own returns, making 1896 then
with you and enrote to you, You now say
that you will have not $4,000, when oil en-
route to you shall have reached you. How
can this discrepancy Of $4,000 be accounted
for? As to Gen, Wool's command, under
stand it is doing for you precisely what Ike
number of your own would have to dof that
command was away.
Isuppose that the whole force which has
gone forward to you is with you by this time,
and if 60, think it is the precise, time for you
to strike blow. By delay the enemy VIII
steadily gain on you-that is, he will gain fas-
ter by Notifications and re.enforcements than
you can by re endorsements alone.
And, once more let me tell you it is lndis-
pensable to you that you strike blow. l am
powerless to help this. You will do me the
Juice to remember always wished not going
down the bay nsearch Of field, instead OF
fighting at or near Manassas. as only shifting
and not surmounting a difficulty; that we
should find the same enemy and the same or
equal entrenchments at either place. The
country suiN not fail TO notc-is noting noto-that
the present hesitation to move upon an entrenehed
position is but the story Of Manassas repeated.
And the repetition was made complete nearly
q month later, when the enemy. in the face of
q superior force, evacuated their works with
out loss and without the knowledge Of the gen
eral commanding our army.
i MCCLELLAN WANTS MORE TROOPS. ~
i Gen. Mcclellan, however, did not deem his
forces sufficient and objected very strongly to
the order of the President detaching Mellow
ellis corps for the defense Of Washington, as
imperilling the success of our cause. He cal
led again and again for re>enfoTcements. ask
ing for Frauklin's and McCalrs Divisions OF
McDowell's corps, to be under command Of
Franklin: insisting that Fran1lin's Division,
vi
April Frankin's Division was ordered to Alex.
andria to embark for Fort Monroe. On the
: 18th, Gen. Franklin reported to Gen. McClel
!, Ian near Yorktown, but his troops remained
on board the transports until after the onemy
evacuated the place, when they were ordered
to West Point.
!. HE WANTS TRANSPORTATION.
| On the 9th of April Gen. Mcclellan tele'
| 4 A. ffI l. hvvs,
{ the transportation must have to move my ar
my even few miles," and asks that all hit
/ orders for wagon trains &c., may be at once
complied with. AL was sent to him as he de-
; sired, until even Gen. Mcdowell found himself
!; 80 stripped of the transportation designed for
his corps, that when he moved to Fredericks'
n burg it was with the greatest difficulty hi
. could move supplies for his small force from
Acouia to Falmouth until the railroad va!
, completed.
, Amonth was spent before Yorktown, our ar
7 my, in the opinion Of some Of our sblest Off
! GERS becoming more demoralized by the 10
, bors of long seige than it would have been by
an unsuccessful assault
. The returns in the Adjutant-G Generals Office
) signed by Gen. Mcclellan and his Adjutan
General show that on the Both of April, 1862
: the forces on the Peninsula under Gen. McClel
= Ian amounted to 152, 392 present Tor duty.
HE WANTS GUNS.
On the 1st of May the President telegraph
. to Gen. Mcclellan: "Your call for Parrot gum
= alarms me, chiefly because it argues indefinite
procrastina,ion. Is anything to be done!"
e YORKTOWN EvAcUATED-M'cLELLAN CHA
t The evacuation was discovered by dayligh
e on the morning of the 4th. Between 10 ant
q IL o'clock, Gen Stouemnn, with the cavalr,
t and some light horse artillery, started ii
8 pursuit. About l o'clock, Gen. Hooker will
his division, left Yorktown, with orders t
support Gen. Stoneman. Gems. Sumner
Heintz,eman and Keys also moved out durin
the day, with the whole or parts Of thei
corps. About five miles from Yorktown tn
e division of Gen. Hooker was delayed for som
: time in consequence of other troops comm
Q from another direction, getting into the roa
r before him.
G In the meantime Gen. Stoneman had over
= taken the rear of the enemy with his caval
!. ~, and followed them up closely, keeping u
L a running fire all the time, until the enem
o reached their works in the neighborhood {
e Williamsburg, when the pursuit was checked
Gov. Sprague was sent back to hurry up tn
infantry support under Gen. Hooker. Ate
IT considerable delay, finding it impossible t
d pass the troops ahead of him, Gen. Hooke
'e turned off and proceeded by another road, {
- which he had obtained information from som
p of the inhabitants; marched till II o'cloc
er that night. renewed the march st dayligh
j. and came up to the advaIce works of the er
i envy little after o'clock, about half mi
Z from Fort Magruder, and at once engaged II
," enemy.
o. BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG.
:, There seems to have been great misappr'
y. - bension and confusion in relation to the maj
~ apement of the troops at Williamsburg. Whe
:. the pursuit first commenced on Sunday, &c
y Heintzlemam was instructed by Gen. McCle
"a Ian to take charge Of operations in 'front.' G
~ the morniug of Monday orders were sent
y Gen. Sumner to take the command; Gen.
- Clellan remaining behind to superintend the sen
~ inc of t,ro divisions up the York River to W.
= Point. A heavy rain set in on Sunday, re
y. derinr the roads almost Improbable for q
~ passage of troops The troops of the differe
"a commands became ngled-dlvlslons 81