The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1864-08-20
AUGUST 20, lso,
a y.n.ss Review Of Grants Campaign.

does give those on the Yankee side, as they wer
stated by their newspapers; that is 10 say, il admit
sometimes half and sometimes about one-.hira, o
the truth. Yet things are, having, probably, n
better resource for information than stantons tee
grams and considering that IL comes from Yankee
the story is told, have said with tolefable fair
ness. II begins with the day Oh which Grant brok
up his camp TO the Rapid Ann; that is, on tn
81 Of May. IL admits loss ON the 9th OF May
$4,000 msn, fgom which may fairly inter that Tn
actual loss fully 5000 Here the misstateinen
Of the Yankee press repeated when 1t IS SAID that
AZ daylight on the It'll, General Lee was 'etffafn"s
in good order 10 Spotsy lvanis Courthouse. Genera
Lee was net re,rcating lie was following the move
ment Of Grant, who. having lost according to th'
statement of the Yankee newspapers admitted 10y
this author to be correct but believed by TO be
underestimate of at least pne-thiri IS 600 men
drew of his whole left wing and the greater part o.
III. centre and cndeavoring to anticipate Lee by
taking possession tsylvnia Courthouse Lee tci
sssnea him. Which would have been the had he
h,mscii been executing movement in retreat, no:
quick enough TO prevent ham from taking Possession
OF the ground, bat enough to drive him from
1t before he had succeeded in fortiylng il to any
great extent Lce-woald never have left the Will
dcrness had Grant remained before it and the latter
left it because he found haself utterly unable to
drive Lee from his position. Thus carly in the cam
paign he had failed in his grand object, which was
to turn Lees right, attack him on that flank and
force him 10 fight with his back to the noun tans.-
There can be no doubt, from all the information q
have been able to obtain, that Grant lost in the bat
ties of the ith 5th 9th and 9TH of May at Least fifty
thousand men. The Yankee papers, as We have
SEEN, admitted loss Of thirty-five thousand, and
this writer, We have also seen, endorses the ad-
mission.
On the 10th of May the writer admits a loss Of
10000 men. We may, therefore, conclude that the
real loss was at least Is 900. We have never seen
Confederate officer who estimated it at less than
20,eoo. The same may be said Of the 18th of May
ON which day the Yankees and this writer admit
loss of 10000 men, while Confederate officer rates
their loss at hiss than 20O00 and many place il as
high As 81, 600. 1t was, We suspect about 25,OOo-
Contrary alike to the strong logic Of facts and to the
differences of common sense. the reviewer claims a
substantial victory this day, because Hancock's
corps, in the morning, surprised the division of Gen
eral Edward Johnson and captured several thousand
men. Yet he himself acknowledges that they were
Afterwards ropulsed and that all attempts to regain
possession were foilcd with the most tremendous
slaughter ever experienced in this war On the 18th
the battle was renewed along the whole line and the
Yankees were everywhere repulsed. On this occa-
sion they lost, the reviewer says, |, 200 men: we
may say about 5000. He does not tell the reason
why the attack was comparatively SO feeble and the
Yankee loss comparatively so small We must do
1t for him. 1t because the Yankee soldiers
could not be brought up to the scratch any longer
Inc Tremendous lessons OF the 9th, 10th and 18th
had not been lost upon them. They had lost All
heart, and were no longer the men they war, in
the beginning of the campaign
Grant failed here, as he had failed at the Wilder
ness, to drive Lee from his position; and having
done 80, he took himself off, in strict pursuance of
Dogbeny's advice. Here, according to this writer
commenced his grand thanking operations, which
consisted IN retreatng from before position he had
been unable to carry and attempting to place his
army between Lee and Richmond In this. of
course, he failed again. On the North Anna river
he found Lee still III his front; still interposng be-
tween HIM and Richmond still ready to fight. and
still determined to force him to fight if he would OBJ
tain the prize he sought, at every disadyantage-
He had already lost according to the statement of
the Yankee papers, seventy five thousand men: j,
POINT Of fact, his losses had reached one hundred
army He had been reinforced while in Snotsylya
hi ny twenty -nve thousand good troops the larger
portion OF which had already been expended He
az oeeh reinforced ny Iintier with twenty thousand
IL" had received fofty thousand from Ohio and other
states, but they were mere hundred days. men.-I
we may, therefore, safely say that now, having /
crossed the Painankey, opened McClellan's old i
line OF communication with West Point and /
set himself down at Cold Harbor. he was M.
more than one-half as strong as he was before he
crossed the Rapidan. With this diminished force
ae was still trcing Lee behind his breastworks with
roops reinforced and in the highest spirits and he
vas compelled to get him out of his way OF abandon
III thought of entering Richmond by that line, ON
which, however, he had promised to fight it out if
{ took him all summer" But three days of sum-
aer We're gone when, on the 81 OF June he made his
asst attack on the north side upon Lee and was re-
pulsed with greater slaughter than he had ever yet
net with. The two er.nes remained opposite to !
aeh other for several days, when Grant thanked |
'imseH over James river General Lee not attempt
ng to interrupt him. ''On the 18th of May" saws |
he reviewer " after SIX days OF heavy fighting ON |
he overland route, General Grant had written To |
be Secretary Of War, i propose to fight it out on |
his line, II 1t takes all summer On the l4th June
asst a month afterwards, and when the summer was |
My two weeks old, he had turned his back on this |
ne, and the Army of the Potomac, at least what
emained Of its original number On the day when it
ook up the bloody march across the country from |
fredericksburg, was set down by its commander OH
he banks Of that river, from which it was removed
General Halleck III 1862, and where it might have
cen replaced by General Grant long before the |
ith Of June IN the present summer, and that tool
1thout the loss OF man, if he had chosen to con.
ey 1t there in transports instead of marching over
md, where every foot of its progress was marked
nth precious blood-the blood of trained and brave
nd skilful veterans"
After announcing this singular circumstance. the
'yewer panses to inquire into the causes which led
the choice Of the overland route He ,ner,.;ons
iree' which have been conjectured by various per.
'hs first-eomplaisance to the PRESIDENT, whose
'vorih route this was well known to he This is |
,ieeted as at variance with the well established
1aracter OF Grant for indepeIdeace, &c Second
es,erai Grant expected 10 overpower and beat
enefai Lee so badly that his troops would be too
uch deinoralized to defend Richmond This. va |
ispect, was the true reason for choosing the over
M route IL shows that he had under,estimated
is enemy. which is not characteristic of an al,o
eneral. Third-by this route il was sunnossa .
Washington would always remain covered The :
rec OF tat reason is entirely destroyed by Grants
loaus across the river, which leaves no force at all
'tween washington and Lees army.
we nave room for very little more. The wr;ter
ys Inat the Offensive movements against Peters,
us were suspended because Grant was entirely !