American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-11-02
Gen. Mccall Va. Gen. Mcclellan.
MeClellan's Reflections Refuted.

Major General George A. Mccall, who
commanded the division of Pennsylvania
Reserves during General McClellan's Pen
insula Campaign, has published .eDgthy
document, fully and satisfactorily refutng
the charges against the Reserves, con
tanned in the latter's official reports OF the
battle of Wilson's Farm, or Glendale,
as it is variously called. The Pennsylva-
mia Reserves, as gallant and as faithful
a corps as was in the army, has by this
report of General Mcclellan, been un-
justly aspersed, and although his attention
has been called to the fact, and proofs of
his errors rendered, he has up to this
time refused to do justice to this division
of the army as well as to his own charac-
ter as an impartial man.
The following is the Philadelphia In
gnirer'S summary Of General McCalPs
report and we commend it to the careful
attention of every friend of the Pcnnsyl-
vania Reserves:
The first complaint against General
Mcclellan is that he has sreported that
the Reserves were attacked at that battle
above five o'clock in the afternoon, and
gave way in less than an hour" The
fact is that they were attacked at three
o'clock and held their position until af-
ter dark, more than four hours. That
the attack was made at three o'clock is
shown by tho reports of Hooker and
Sumner, and acknowledged by Gen Nc
Clellan himself in quotations from the
reports of those officers. In regard to
the division giving away at all, the state
ment is pronounced false by General Nc
Call and General Meade. The division
held its ground, and it was its stubborn
resistance alone which permitted the con-
centration of the army in its rear during
the night. The original report of Gen.
Mcclellan admitting that two of his reg
iments supporting battery, were com
PEELED to give way, whilst his centre was
still engaged, which engagement contin-
ued until the rebels were repulsed. The
regiments which had given way were in
formed and the battery was recaptured !;
but tie giving way of two regiments is
not the giving way of a division of ff-
teen regiments, and the officer who could
have assumed that it was, in the face of
the well known stand made by the re-
naming thirteen regiments, could not
have had his wits about him, or was deep
ly prejudiced against the troops which he
aspersed.
General Mcclellan inhis ignorance or
malice, asserts in another part of his re
port that certain regiments of Slocum's
division were sent to occupy McCall's
deserted position, thus insinuating that
the position had been disgracefully aban-
doned This idea seems to have been
General McClellan's own. He did not
derive it from the reports of any of his
officers 1t is part of the same theory
that McCalis Division had given way,
when, in fact, it had done no such thing;
but maintained its ground, and saved the
army 1t is shown by General Mccall
that these troops of Slocum's did not oc-
cupy any position which the Reserves had
held; but that the ground was really a
part of General Kearney's position. Gen.
Mcclellan therefore falsely assumed that
it was McCalPs position which had been
deserted, although the ground had not
been occupied by him, and there is moth
ing to show that it had been abandoned"