The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1864-06-07
FULL DETAILS UP TO TUESDAY NIGHT.
The Significance OF Movement Great
Victory Gained By Strategy-Where
our Army is-Its Position and Pros
meets.
From the Clncinn Ii Gazette.


WASHINGTON, June 3:-Mr. SwintOn
the able and graphic correspondent o
the New York Times, sends the follow
ing report to that paper tonight:
HEADQUARTERS Army OF THE PoToNAC, }
In the Field, near Hanoverton, Va.
Tuesday, May 81, 1864. }
By one of those odd condolences, o
which the history of the Virginia cam
paigns Is so full, Gen. Grants head
quarters are this morning at the very
point which formed the extreme right
wing of the Army of the Potomac il
the Peninsular campaign two years ago
Howe's Shop, near which we now are
four or five miles west of Hanover G.
H., was then occupied by the 9th regu
lar cavalry, as an outpost, and it was
here, just two years ago, that Stuart
moving from Hanover c. H., to make q
raid around McClellans lines, struck
our right flank
Draw line of FIVE or six miles il
length, from the Pamunky near Han
over Court House, where our right now
rests, almost due South to the TotOpa
tomoy Creek, three miles south of Han
overtOn, and you will have our line oil
battle as it now stands. Five miles
west of our line runs the famous stream
Chickahominy Along that river in
front of, and covering that Of the Nir
ginia Central Railroad, from Atle's sta
ton to Shady Grove, five miles north o.
Richmond, the rebel front is formed
midway in the interval that dividef
these two points. The skirmish lines
of the two armies meet, and to our ears
the morning air brings the crackle OF
musketry, like the scattering of a cal
dron, while now and then comes the
boom of guns, whose reYerberatiOns are
easily heard in the capital of rebellion.
Gaines Mills and MechanicsVille are
within an hours ride. Fair Oaks you
can reach in an hours stroll Rich
mond is ten miles off 1t is there that
history repeats itself The present po-
sition of the army is the result of that
fine turning movement, which, com
mencing on Thursday last, in two days
planted our corps across the Pamunkey
river, rendered useless the elaborate
rebel defences of the South Anna, and
secured us communication with York
river, the Chesapeake, and the ample
resources which those waters float. OF
this movement / have sent you such
reports as it has been possible to send
with such unfrequent opportunities of
communication as are offered.
fear, however, that no reports which
you can have received are at all ade-
quate to set forth the true presentation
of this great operation in strategy.
Your readers would require better
maps than can possibly be accessible
TO them, an would need TO bring to
them an amount of study of which you
are incapable in order 10 grasp its re-
lations and its reality. Enough that it
has planted this army twenty miles
nearer Richmond; that it has foiled
the plans and purposes Of the willy enc
my, and has brought Us in easy com
munication with a secure and perfect
base. / must not, however, forbear to
emphosize one point.
1t appears to be conceived that this
movement is understood to be a follow
ing up of the enemy, who is supposed
to have fallen back from his lines be-
tween the North and South Anna
conception which does injustice to the
generalship of our commander TWAS
not Lee but Grant that took the initia-
tive, Lee would gladly have remained
in his line along the south Anna, and
would willingly have awaited battle
there. but was forced out Of this cher
ished position Just as he was compelled
to evacuate the lines of Spottsylvania,
by an offensive movement, threatening
his communication movement bold
in conception and mastery in execu-
ton These are, says the Arch Duke
battles which are already won
by the mere direction of the strategy of
advance. In a like sense it can fairly
be claimed that by a couple of days
this army has gained a vic
tory more substantial than a weeks
hard pounding could in the situation
we have won, and that we are entitled
to regard this great flank msneuVre, as
by the tone of mingled NOR
tifcation and braggadocio in which the
Richmond press treats it. Grant,
SAYS the Examiner of Saturday, the
2Sth, ''has definitely declined battle at
Hanover Junction. Perhaps we should /
say that his army has saved him the I
trouble of declining it. Ii is certain
that both armies are moving. Two /.
stories have lately prevailed Of the di-
,ection which Grant is going. One &C
count represented a large body Of Yam I
KEGS at Negro Foot in the upper part Of .
Havana, but is not confirmed, and IL .
Unlikely. The more probable state 4
nsnt is that Grant put Notifications f.
llong his line before the junction 70 .
prevent an attack from General Lee, 7
md then returning to the northern .
Iank Of the North Anna, passed down
he Pamunkey TO Hanoyertown, q few
niles above the Piping Tree, the point
O which boats can come. Here he Is
aid to have crossed the river with the
reater part of his force If Grant has
eally landed there, he may be said 20
ave already reached the destination
,redicted for him since his check at
York and Peninsu