The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-07-20
The Defeat of Hunter.

The Cincinnati Enquirer asks "Will
it be believed that what the Tribune de-
nounces as absurd stuff and enormous lies,
are statements derived from the Federal
officers and soldiers who we're with Hun
ter in his late disastrous retreat fl om
L%ynchburg to the Kanawha Valley ?"-
And we reply, certainly not the state
ments IN the Enquirer concerning the
war and the Administration are not to be
believed in any case. Nearly the whole
paper is made up of falsehoods, exaggera-
tions, slurs and sneers; it is a vile COM
that is hurtful to the nation, and dis
graceful to its people. Believe such a
reckless falsifier Not much"
The foregoing is from the New York
Tribune. 1t seems-that- the1Fribune-
deems it necessary that the delusion in
respect to the Hunter affair should be
kept up, and brings up it sbatteries of
blackguardism to sustain the main body
of its ~falschoods. Whether the subscri-
bers of the Tribune believe the statements
of the Enquirer or not, is no concern of
ours /; but their real or pretended incredu-
lily will make no difference with the
facts. It will be hard for journals of
even better repute than the Tribune, to
turn one of the most disastrous routs of
the war into any thing resembling a vic
tory, until they can stop the mouths of
loyal eye-witnesses and actors, to say moth
ing Of the disloyal. The soldiers were
hurried, by their panic stricken general
throughth the ravines and over the noun
tains of Virginia, two or three days, with
out food. They were led or driven TWEEN
ty-fve miles in one of the sultriest nights
of the season. Hundreds dropped and
died on the road from sheer exhaustion.
Four thousand horses fell and expired, or
were shot to prevent their use by the en-
envy. The survivors, the gaunt, tottering,
haggard victims of famine, awakened the
pity alike of friends and enemies and it
is affirmed by those who profess to have
seen it, that there were some among them
who actually ate the flesh from their own
arms, to appease their intolerable hunger.
Circumstances like these do not belong
among the Incidents of a victory, in our
opinion, though to the writer's of the Tri-
bune they may seem entirely appropriate.
But if this is one of our victories, in
the name of Heaven, of what dread ingre-
dients are our defeats composed? Our
armies are, now and then, as even the
loyal Journals are compelled to admit,
pretty nearly defeated. On such occa-
siuns, what happens? Spectators of the
scene do inform us, that for three weeks
after the battle of tho Wilderness, the
wounded of the Union army lay ungath-
cred and unattended upon the field. The
statement has been before the public for
some time, and stands uncontradicted.-
We enlarge upon the sufferings of cap
tive soldiers in Southern prisons; but are
there, even in those abodes of discomfort,
any horrors like this? Let the story be
denied by those who know, or the act JUS
tilted by those who can find a reason for
it for standing as it does, it is enough to
deliver over to eternal infamy its authors
and all his aiders and abetters.-Cincin-
natl Enquirer.
s6T Mr.. LINCOLN calls for more men.
-T