Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-05-06
Deeial Correspondents. to the chicago Tines.


WASHINGTON. April 80.
The present disgraceful condition of affairs on
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad illustrates per
fectly the military qualifications of Schenek. the
"Vanauished OF Viena, called by Mr. Lincoln
/. General - Schenck va placed in command OF
the military department through which the Bal
tim0re and OhiO RaiIrord runs, in order that he
might protect that road from further damage by
the Coufederates. For this purpose a whole army
corps, the sth. was placed under bis command
As il is well known TO the enemy, BY means of
official publications. that our army corps contain
from 80 600 to 40 400 men, will state that the
9Th corps is not behind any of the others in nu-
merical strength.
military man. on being placed in such an i'm
portant position, and with such vast forces at his
command, would, first Of all, have gone carefully
over the whole line Of the road, have seen for
himself where wereits most exposed points and
where il could be best defended Nor would he
have been satisfied with that He would have
ridden on horseback along line ten or twenty
miles south Of the road. along its whole extent
to see with the eve of a soldier. where the enemy
could most easily approach the road: TO become
personally acquainted with the mountain defiles,
the rivers bridges, fords and ferries the proper
places for outposts. &c He would thus have ac-
quired that personal knowledge OF he country i'm
which he was 10 operate, that he could do that
understandingly.
But Schenck is not a military man and he Gid
nothing OF the kind. He is a politician and "A
politician, too. of the smallest and narrowest
kind. Instead of making himself acquainted
with his military duties and attending TO them,
he devoted all the energies Of his little mind to
n war upon the women OF Baltimore which would
disgrace tyrant, and TO making speeches about
1.-THE poutng Rebels of Baltimore" He has
never even been over the road in the coin fortable
cars Of the company. He has not the slightest
idea of the country through which the road runs
as scene of military operations He would not
even distribute his forces properly along the road
but kept the great bulk of them in and around
the CITY of Baltimore and ut Harpers Ferry. At
the time he succeeded Gen. Wool he found Gen.
Milroy in command in the western part of North
eru Virginia. and Gen. Mulligan. of Chicago. at
Grafton. He left everything relating to the de-
tense of the road in their hands but he neglected
to furnish them with troops enough properly 10
cover or defend the road.
On Thursday of last week. the enemy in some
force attacked one of Gen. Mulhgan's outposts
at Beverly. south Of the road and drove them to
Grafton. Schenck might have known what would
follow. If he bad n once concentrated even
10 900 troops between Grafton aud Cumberland
the disgrace of having portion ofthe road again
destroyed would have been averted. But ne did
nothing of the kind. On Sunday and Monday the
enemy appeared at Altamont and Piedmont. cut
the telegraph wires. tore M u little of the track
and then marched against Gen Mnlligan ut Graf
ton. Thew were here repulse,l however. for Gen
MuIligan is a soldier, and he had made what
preparations were in his power, to meet the emer-
gency. Happily they proved sufficient but the
enemy only retreated after sharp skirmish with
some loss on both sides Making circuit to the
west. the enemy then on Tuesday struck the road
at Clark where they 1aleafpd and r1ut IN,
rout the small Union force stationed there
Marching swiftly thence to Warrington, a sta
ton the Wheeling branch of the road, fifty
miles from Wheeling, they burned a railroad
bridge there. and then moved north and invaded
Pennsylvania yesterday. Thus matters remain
at present.
The force of the enemy consists of about 900
cavalry and twenty pieces OF field artillery 1t is
possible they nave some designs on either Pitts
ourg or Wheeling, but scarcely probable. unless
they are but the advance guard of a larger body,
which is not impossible.
Schenck, Of course. has made the usual boast
that che has taken such measures as will result
in the capture of the whole gang" They are
words easily spoken. but they never vet have
been fulfilled.
Day BY day the evidence accumulates to prove
that il is the design of the Republican party to
entirely overthrow our system Of government
frequent and fragrant violations OF the Constltu-
ton perpetrated by Lincoln's Administration are
too fresh in the minds of your readers to need re-
equalization. The latest one is Lincoln's prccIa-
nation admitting into the Union as a State a few
counties in the Northwestern part of Virginia,
which more constitute State than Cook
county does and which have no more consttu-
tional right To enter the Union as a State than
Cook county has. The Philadelphia Press. one
a. -. r. -
saws. that ''Our Government must be re-orsan-
lied What we want is power and strength.
The problem will be to combine the forms of "A
Republican government with the powers of
monarchy" And the North American. another
Administration journal. SAYS This war has
shown that the power of the Government must be
unlimited" These atrocious sentiments are
daih quoted here, and warmly applauded. To
this complexion then have we been brought by
two years of Republican rule. What will the re
manning two years bring forth Y