Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1864-10-07

of the War discovered this humbug
even before Mcclellan did. For while
the army was even then marching upon
Manassas, Il Massachusetts, man, endors-
ed as worthy of belief by the Massachl-
sets Congressman, came before the
| Committee and told them that the guns
were all wooden, and that there wasn't
a rebel soldier at Manassas, and hadn't
been for two weeks. We took him be-
fore the Cabinet, and they couldn't be-
lieve him. But soon there came another
witness-a man known to you and to
fame-B;yard Taylor-and he declared
that the guns were only Quaker, and
| that there never were any siege guns
there, and could't have been. So our
army marched out there like the King
of France, with forty thousand men,
and in big storm they marched back
again.
Now Mcclellan wanted to try the Pc
ninsular route to Richmond. But Mr..
Lincoln saw that there was an impor-
tant rebel army lying near Washington
which must be watched. He said to
Mcclellan ' In my Judgment the true
line OF advance is to attack the rebel
between the rebels and Washington.
But am not military man and you
are, and if your council of war is unan-
imous on this subject, you may take
your own route to Richmond, il you
will leave an army corps here to defend
| the capital I mention this because an
| attempt has been made TO deceive the
the people about this matter Mr.. Lin
coin only gave Mcclellan permission to
go on condition of united recommends
ton of his council of war. But Nc
Clellan paid no attention to the condi-
ton. He never called a council of war
on this subject. / believe that had he
done 50, four Of the commanders OF
corps could have voted that the route
which Lincoln first suggested, and
Grant so gloriously carried out, was the
| best one.
| THE PENINSULA CAMPAIGN-SlEGE OF
YORKTOWN.
In spite of this condition Mcclellan
! took his army and sailed away TO York
town How many men did he take
| there? We have indubitable testimo-
ny that ne took at least 10000 on the
start How many rebels were there to
encounter him? We have the testimo-
ny OF Mr.. Boughton, as truthful a man
| as ever lived, then Senator from that
part of Virginia, and since dead. He
| b )arded at the same table with Magru-
der and other rebel leaders at the time
of the landing OF Mcclellan, and Ma
gruder had no more idea that he could
stay there than in the internal regions.
| The rebels had not to exceed nine thou
sand men. This information came di-
rect from the rebel leaders, who boarded
with Mr.. Boughton. Well, they were
all ready TO run, but they waited awhile
| to see what the Yankees would do. And
when they saw Mcclellan go right into
the bogs and swamps and ague ponds,
and go to work throwing up entrench-
ments, they laughed and waited longer.
They knew that the intermittent fever
was doing more havoc than they p0ssi-
bly, could, and so they waited for the
sieee-2uns. And for seven weeks our
men stood there up to their middles in
mud, inhaing that malarious atm0s-
phere, and digging bitches, and at last
! ust as Mcclellan got his siege-guns up,
the little rebel army quietly moved out
OF the way, and left Yorktown. A
voice: "he didn't know it till six hours
AFTER" No, and he never would have
! known it had he been left to find it out
for Elinself-he never went near enough.
| Hooker had begged again and again to
attack the enemy. But no, Mcclellan
was engineer. He understood q siege.
he was uound to have Il siege if he had
it IN 4 frog pond.
THE BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG.
Well. then came the battle of VIII
! liamSbur%. Mcclellan wasn't there,
and III tiiilt 'spieniidly organized army
there was sucn d;sputing about seniori-
ty and prece,ante, and right to com
nland, and things got So mixed that the
battle was almost lost So testify Hook
er, Sumner and Kearney. But we won
the fight, and, even without Il comman-
der-in-chief, we fought them all day,
and whipped them rs usual, for our boys
will whip anythingin the world il prop
erly led But Mcclellan was back at
York ktown, and the Generals sent back
for him to bring order cut Of confusion.
General Sprague came back for him
through mire up to his horses belly. lie
found him under a shed at Yorktown
but he didn't want TO come. He said to
:. General Sprague-these are his very
words: 81 should think the Generals
could take care of a little matter like
that
At night, however, just as the army
had won the day, he got there The en-
envy were all in confusion, and Hooker
and others testify on oath that Rich
} mond could have been taken with Wig
orous effort. But though not there in
time to win the battle, he did get there
in time to order halt! And then,
while he waited, the enemy began to
concentrate and fortify Richmond,
which had never been defended before.
FAIR OAKS AND SEVEN PINES.
When Mcclellan got to the Chicka-
hominy he divided his army, putting
half on one side the ChickahOminy and
half on the other A food came, and
the two wings Of the army We're Gepaga
ted. The enemy assailed the half be-
yond the Chickahominy and overpow-
cred it in spite of most glorious bravery.
But Gen. Sumner, without waiting for
orders, hurried his men across the
i Chickahominy to the assistance Of the
rest. They fought the battle of Seven
Pines, and then, us ever when they have
any chance, our boys We're gloriously
triumphant. The brave Hooker was in
front, as he always is, and the enemy
were flying confusedly before him like
sheep before wolves. We We're within
four miles of Richmond. But McClel-
Ian came up again just in time to call Ii
| halt Our officers were swearing and
our men cursing, Hooker begging to
make the e,attack, and the people Of
Richmond packing up to depart. And
still we halted and threw up emhank-
ments big enough for any railway.
And now, with Jackson with a pow
erful force in Western Virginia, Nc
Clellan stopped aud commenced howl
ing for more troops. But if we had Civ
en- him more, Washington would have
been lost. And if you had given him
all the armies of the world, you couldn't
have whipped him into Richmond
| TVoice-"He was good on the retreat. "
No, not so good OH the retreat, either
he retreated too fast. / make the charge
without fear of contradiction, that Me-
Clellan in his whole military career, was
never under fire. Why, he believed in
long range guns-guns that could carry