Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-08-18
FROM THE AMY OF THE POTOMAC.
The Explosion Before Petersburg-'-Its
EneesJPaSsinS AWay--Piuck Of the
( Ar1ny.--Gheerlne Good News.
teorrespondenos Of the New FORK Tribsns-l
GENERAL BUTLER's HEADQUARTERs, I
August IL, 1864 J

Feorrespondenoe Of the New York Tribuns.l
GENERAL BUTLER's sHEADQUARTERs I
August II, 1864 J |
The affair of Saturday, July 3D. in front
Of Petersburg, has already come to seem
almost as old thing as Bull Run. That |
there was neutrality-suspicious., and for |
4 time, great depression throughout the |
army, may not be denied, better face the |
fact. And better face, too, the one alarm
ins element of that fact; that the dlsheart-
snment was altogether disproportlonate to
the calamity which indueed it. Men ssAed
each other II simple repulse, with loss
small compared with that of any one Of
half Il dozen other days of this campaign,
could now 9pIoduce such dispirttment7
would not greater disaster utterly break
the power OF the army for immediate Of
fense2 Some reasoned thus, who from
their rank, should, at least never have ex-
pressed such fear. These must by this
lime. have astayed and quieted all such
lnisgiYings, else they have not noted the
pre.eut feeling in the ranks, and over the
II required but few days for reject
| ing men-and none others affect at all, or
| beIp 10 constitute the morale Of an army
to begine to suspect that they had been
/ a little infected with panic. Looking at II
ooolly they saw that the rebels were no
stronger and. we scarcely weaker for the
/ one unlucky days work, that We had lost
/ nothing of position, that despite the rebel
taidiug north coming right on the heel Of q
tepulse here, there seemed no faitering IN
bha RRggPa ns tQ Q fight tIs i Ps s on this M ns
its great leader was determined it should
iinola on. They knew also, and better than
the people Of New York, the desperate
strait of the rebels-the strait they car
escape only BY causing this army to lst &C
p his hold, Weld this vantage ground
I whether bv direct battle or by the ruse o.
a grand invasion Of Penns ylvania- And
looking around the horizon, they saw what
Sherman has done, and dwelt on the fac
hat he had inflicted Losses three times a
great as those be suffered. And nov
comes the good news from Mobile, and thu
later good news from Averill, till theTs i
! sDoaiaRe0us cheering IN the camps
When these men cheer Of thei
own win, and with Will, fo
!. victories far away, know that they eravl
one more for themselves, and will fight TO
It. Letters come here from all over thl
} country, asking if the army isn't going bGcl
to Washington-isn't going here, there o
elsewhere. Now there is not soldier il
all this army who has any such notion
: Not one intelligent man, even at his heart
. sickest moment on account Of hope deferred
has dreamed that thing-that the eampaigl
is to be backed out Of Esstigia NuLta re
trorsitas-few Of them know the dead Ian
J guage but they all have the live idea.
! II is somewhat the habit TO represent
! body Of troopa known to be brave and ef
fectiye, as ''eager for the fray" burning t
be led against the foe,p or less elegantly
''spoiling for fight" Writers who in
dalge in the use Of such phrases, know
/ nothing of armies, or do not state wha
they know or rather state what they d
, not know. unless indeed they know it Il
be false. The soldiers themselves laugl
at these expressions when they see them
and none laugh heartier than those |
score of times conspicuous for the cheerful
ness with which they have gore int
ID battle and their stssdiness and pluol
under whitening FIRE. They are no
conscious Of any particular eagerness tpl
. the fray.n any amorous inclination towards
bullets, any penehant for meeting shell
half way, any longing for short sleep
: ana shortened limb under the surgeons
} hands, any special haste 20 be mustered gu
| in this, and to bs mustered in in another
world. The man who affects any Of thi:
fine phrensy is coward. Let it be under
stood that troops never crush franticany
tc the front for the love of the thing-at
least not after they have been in one fight
After that they are sure to know better
4 Hence it Is that the first battle does not
distinguish the brave from the eowardly.
1t is the second one, with the recollection
of the carnage and narrow escapes OF the
first before him, which tries a soldier and
tests his metal--snd bis mettle. One who
was recklessly, unthinkingly brave in his
FIRST field, has learned to realize his peril
on the second, and may run away; while
another, who ran the first time now plueks
up courage, having seen that it Is quite as
safe to go ahead, or having, through pride
mastered his fears. ...7 H.
But if there is no beautiful, sentimental
ltching ITO be led against the foe" on the
other hand, men do not go in sullenly, dog
gedly, or with any sort of apparent reluc-
tanee. They go to an encounter with some
thing like solennity now, with elastic step
and cheerfully, but with set teeth and earn
est faces. Set it down to the credit Of pluck
sheer pluck, --clear, clean, square, quiet, SOL
i'd, honest pluck It was this which fought
Antietam, Notwithstanding the Seven Days,
Gettysburg, Notwithstanding Chancellbrs-
ville,-and it is this which would yet give.
this army the clarions of Victory, rotwith-
standing twenty 30ths of July like the
last. That day has ceased from troubling
the army and is become like any other Of
the defeats of three campaigns-tO be Offset,
when thought of against some one of the
successes ofthese three years, and depend
upon it, the successes are oftenest recalled.
There is no reason why we should Ibate
one jot of heart or hope but there is every
inducement and warrant why we should
"stin bear up and steer right onward
A Soldiers Advice to cOPperheads.
4H TThe following pointed letter is from q