Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1864-11-09
The Seven Days Battles,


begin to find their falsehoods recoiliug upor
themselves, win find little consolation in per
using the following letter from Mr. Samue
Wilkinson, the regular correspondent of the
Tribune, and who is at this time in the EN-
ploy of the Administration.
On THE March THROUGH THE
/ WHITE OAK SWAMI, June S. 1868 (
Out-numbered and surrounded, liable a
any moment to be cut off from our base o
supplies, and to have our possession of the
York River Railroad wrenched from ON
grasp, Mcclellan came out at starrising from
the fight in which he had shared the perils o.
the common soldier, with a Nepoleonic con
ception of the only salvation for his army
from humiliation by FIRE, or loss by capture
He ordered new roads to be instantly cut
through the swamp that separates US from
the Charles City highway, and communicated
to his Generals his purpose to change his
base by q rapid movement to the James Riv-
er
We march now through White Oak Swamp
to change in twelve hours time the base Of
tie great army-doomed where it was, and
having now but little grace of delay accorded
to it by an active and brave enemy; numer-
Gus enough to encircle US at any point and to
outnumber US at ALL The movement is bold,
soldier like and brilliant, but eminently haz-
ardous. 1t was made by the light of the
burning Of every one of the bridges which we
had 50 painfully thrown over the Chicahom-
my, and within hearing af the destruction, by
our hands, of the railroad which gave US sup
plies and was to secure US retreat. The move
ment will probably be successful. though its
trial will be bloody. The world will regard
it as a masterly stroke Of genius. The army
will so regard it, and feel for its commander
the admiration and gratitude that saviors OF
men ever enkindle in loyal hearts.
But the brilliancy of this movement will
not for an instant dazzle the eyes of the
wronged and wrathfll men Of the Army of
the Potomac, nor will it dazzle the sight Of
de angry people so far as for moment to
obscure their perception of the crimes against
the nation, 10hicb has made. the change Of base
necessary. TIE CRIME IS THE REFUSAL TO REIN
FORCE MCCLELLAN, don't care about the
question-which legislators, soldiers and poll
ticans have debated Of this Generals fitness
10 command, the York and James River Pc
ninsula was not the place for that discussion.
The hour of the junction of Beauregard's and
Jackson's forces to those of johnson is not
the time for debate. care not for any crit
icism of Gen. McCleIlan's campaign on this
Peninsula or on the Potomac have blows
but not a word for the untimely casuist, in or
out of the administrative Office, who, under
the roar of the rebel cannon, sweeping our
ranks with shot aud shell. meets the demand
for aid to this army with a chronological
measure of delays at Fortress Monroe, at
Yorktown, at Williamsburg, at Seven Pines
don't care whether they were delays or no
delays-or whether they were McCleIlan's
delays; the Quarter-master's delays or the
delays Of the elementsl
No man, no narty, no interest, shall with
my consent or my silence, be permitted to
mix up with the sacred right of an outnum-
bered American ormy to demand help from
their countryman and to promptly receive it,
collateral questions Of fitness, of vigor, of f.
deity. When loyal New York regiments,
lifted from their feet by the fire OF rebel bri-
gades, cry out OF their wounds and death for
help-when the choicest OF New England,
and Michigan, and Pennsylvania troops, out
numbered in front, on both Aanks, and by
whole divisions Of the enemy, beg for rein
forcemeDts, 1 say that the blackest crime that
Power can commit is to stop upon the field
and say: Soldiers, I have no faith in your
commander; let your martyrdom proceed
And so says the Army of the Potomrc And
it registers tonight vows of vengeance as it
marches in the dark from position which
their deminfshed numbers disabled from the
holding, but which Consecratedt to them forev-
er by their suferings, their labOrs and their
wrongs. The politicians and statesmen who
leftus here to be out numbered and cut from
our supplies and the possibility of retreat and
doomed men. 7. w.
Mr.. Wilkinson is still in the active service
of the Administration. but he has never yet
uttered word to qulaity or retract this de-
nunciatior of the perpetrators Of he grossest
crime IN history. In the light of the docu-
mentary narrative of Mcclellan, tor nearly
two years suppressed, but now at last dragged
out of the pigeon holes of the war Office, ev-
erv syllable the Tribune correspondent says
substantially a fact, and his indictment Of the
Administration is, to-day, unanswered and
unanswerable. 1t seemed almost impossible
to believe that men could be SO heartless, so
cruelty partisan as to plot for the defeat Of
an army upon whose fate depended the coun-
try's life, but who douots now that such was
the fact?
Vote for George B. Mcclellan, the hero
statesman.
THE twenty-inch Rodman gun, tested at
Fort Hamilton on Wednesday last is the
heaviest piece Of ordnance in the world. The
quantity of power used in firing the gun was
one thousand and eighty pounds. The gun
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