Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-06-25
THE GREAT CAM PAlG N.
Military Review Of the Situation Before Pc
tersburg.
THE STRATEGY OF A WEEK
A CLEAR AND INTELLIGIBLE ACCOUNT.
RICHMOND AND THE uNFAVORABLE PROSPECTS
or THE CAMPAIGN. u Y &
IFrom the Correspondence N. Y. Times.l
ARMY PoToMAC, NEAR PETERsBURG,l
Tuesday, June 81, 1854. !

| From the Correspondence N. {. llmeS'I
| ARMY Potomac, NEAR PETERsBURG,l
/ Tuesday, June 81, 1854.
i r0a i. sea g0l a
THE SITUATION IN ITS GENERAL ASPECTS.
Regarded in its most general relations,
the present situation of the armies operat-
! ing against Richmond, presents an aspect
identical with that which has already thrice
met us1in front of Spottsylvania Court
House, before the lines of the South Anna,
and on the ChiekahOminy.
The strategic problem, executed with en-,
tire success, has given way to tactical
problem, which stubb0rniy bids defiance TO
our efforts to solve. In stroke OF MASTER
ly oeneralship this army was taken up from
Il the Chickahominy, conveyed overa inter-
val of over fifty miles, transported across
two formidable rivers, and in two days was
planted before Petersburg-the key to
Richmond. But Petersburg, the richly
merited prize of the most boldly conceived
( and the most brilliantly executed military
conception of the war, by one of those vex-
atious accidents that checker the history Of
military operations, failed to be won: IN
i vain stroke OF genius outwitted the astute
General who commands the foremost army
of the rebellion, threw him from his CEN
tral position to one exterior to us, delayed
him two days, and brought this army in
| front of Petersburg four and twenty hours
before a man Of the enemy had crossed the
| James river.
| The defenses of Petersburg fell prize to
the rapidity of this great movement. Its
| line of works, formidable in character and
of old construction, was carried, or rather
surprised and taken by our advanced col
| umn. A few militia and old men and boys
| of the town, hastily gathered up for the
occasion, were all that met General Smith
| in a line of works south of Peter sburg,
which. if properly garrisoned, could have
babe defiance to the whole Army of the
| Potomac, and must have reduced us to the
necessity of siege operations. Butler, too,
on the north side of the Appomattox,, broke
| through the imperfect obstacle he met and
seized the main line of railroad communi-
cation leading from Richmond. l.'-r
Never was the Cesarian maxim, "Count
nothing dole till all is DONE" more strik-
| ingly illustrated. A few hours more day.
| light, the arrival of column of troops, de-
| layed few miles back, would have secured
| these conquests to us as a permanent pos
session. At 7:30 o'clock in the evening of
| Wednesday last, Gen. Smith, tCih a simple
skirnaish line, took the whole line of field
works covered by his front. Had the pre-
arranged programme been carried out,
whereby another corps was to have connect
ed and co-operated with him, the whole
| line would have been taken, and, the victo-
ry followed up, Petersburg would that
night have been in our hands.
| How this design failed of realization is
worthy of explanation. F
| III.
| HOW WE FAILED TO TAKE PETERSBURG.
When, early on Wednesday morning, the
Second Corps had effected the passage of
the James river at Windmill Point, Gen.
Hancock was met by dispatch from the
| Commanding General, directing him that,
! if provisions had arrived, ne should ration
his men before proceeding toward Peters
burg. Just at this time he received infor-
nation, seemingly reliable, and conveyed,
| l believe, by an engineer officer who had
| just come up from the pontoon bridge, to
the effect that the transports had arrived
with supplies. This fact Gen. Hancock
communicated to the commanding General,
stating that he would soon begin Issuing
rations, and would then move forward as
| directed.
The information proved to be mistake
"a lamentable mistake-the transports had
not arrived. Yet this simple error caused a
delay in the movement of Hancock's corps
| of fue hours and a haH. His column joined
Gen. Smiths troops at O'Clock on the
morning of Thursday. But had he been up
earlier BY the difference noted of five and a
half hours, he would have reached the front
at 1880 on the evening of Wednesday, tohich
aoas precisely the moment at lohtch Gen. Smith
made has attack
Thursday morning revealed new actor
on the stage-a new element introduced into
the problem.
While our troops were coming up during
the night, Beauregard also came up, and
the reconnaissance of Thursday morning
developed him in force in a line hastily
| thrown up during the night, and little
closer to the town, but still strong enough
| to check our advance. The militia was re-
lieyed : Beauregard's force, numbering
thirty thousand men, and reinforced by the
addition of Bushrod Johnson's command,
took their places. Men of very different
mettle these, from the crude soldiers to
whom the defense of the works of Peters
burg had been intrusted! I
| 1t is true the assaults of the two succeed
ing days drove the enemy from their tenn
porary position, but it was only to fall back
on a line hugging the town, which
Beauregard was preparing in the mean
while, and which, constantly strengthened
| during the interval that has since elapsed,
stands between us and the desired point as
| formidable an obstacle as we have yet en-
countered.
This line was assaulted along our entire
front on Saturday last in an engagement,
the details of which / shall presently re-
count. The attack was similar in character
to that made on the lines of the Chicahom-
my on the Sd inst. 1t resulted, like that, in
serious loss of life, and its issue was of a
similar kind-that is, we tailed to carry our
point.
"A like untoward fortune attended the at
tack of Gen. Butler on that portion of the
rebel position lying north of the Appomat-
tox. Meeting, like Smith, with but feeble
resistance from the local troops in the at
tack on Thursday, he seized the Petersburg
and Richmond Railroad, and destroyed 1t
in part; but Longstreet's arrival compelled
Gen. Butler to withdraw his command to
his original line.
BEFORE PETERSBURG.
Thus it was that this golden moment was
lost. And in this situation the united
orn,;ea of Meade and Rutler now pnye'on