The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1865-12-21


armies to fight. with, ut materially
the vartagc.grouud Of
e,thcr. The southern press and
people, with more sArcw,incss than
was displayed in the north. fnd.np
that they had failed To CAPTURE
Washington and march on to New
Eork, as they had boa ted they
would do, assumed they only dc.
ttrdcl their capital anl southern
territory Hence, Aulic,am, Got
tysburG and all the other battles
that had been Ought were by thcm
set down as failures ON our part,
AMI Victories for them. Their ar.
my believed this. 1t pro ,uccl Il
moyd'e which ccu'd only be over.
come hy desperate aud cont nuous
hard lighting. The battles OF the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Notl
Anna and Cold llarblr, bloody
and terrible as they were On our
side, were even moro daun.ing ta
the enemy, AMI 50 crippled him as
to make him wary cvcraltCr taking
thc'oil;usivc Ills losses in men
were probably not so great, owing
To the fact that we were, save in
the Wildcrncss,- almost invariably
the attacking party; and when he
did attack it was in open field. 49,
The dctailS OF these battles, which
for endurance and bravery ON the
pait of the soldicry have rarely
been surpassed, ao given in the
report ot Major General Meade,
aud the suhord matciclor;s accom-.
ranying /.
rHE FAILURE TO CAPTURE PETERS
BugG.
After the crossing had commrn.
ccd, proceeded 10y steamer to
Bsrnudn huuArod, To uivc the ucc,
essnry orders tor to immcdiut,
capture ol Petersburg.
The Instructions to Gen. Butl >,
were verbal, and were for him t,
send General Smith immediately,
that night, with all the troops h,
could give him W thout sacriiicin.
the position he then held. | told
.him | would return ut once to the
Army of the Potomac, hasten its
crossing, and throw it forward to
Petersburg by divisions us rapidly
rs could b. done; that we could
reinforce our armies more rapidly
there than tho enemy could bring
troops against US. Gen. Smith
got oifas directed, AM confronted
tho cncmy's pickcts near Peters.
burg before dayligttneXt morn'n
but Tor soMe reason, that | hav,
never been able to satisfactorily
understand, did not get ready tt
assault his main line until ncal
sundown. Then, with II pnrt %
his command only, he made the
assault, and carried the lines north
east of Petersburg from the Ap.
poma'toX river, i,r u distance oI
over two and n half miles, captur
ing fifteen pciccs of artillery and
three hundred prisoners. This wa,
about Z Pm Between the lin,
thus ciptured.and Petersburg thcr,
were no Other works, and thcr,
was no evidence that the cuonN
Lad reinforced Petersburg with q
single brigade from any source.
The right was clear - the
moon shining very brightly 49,
and invoraLl, to further oper
ations. General Hancock, will
two divisions of tho Second corps,
reached General Smith Just aftoi
dark, and offered the service OF
these troops rs he (Smith) Nigh
wish, waving rank to the name,
command n, who lac naturally SUI
posed knew best the position O
affairs, and what to do with tn
,ll, uool'9' '."t '"S''%u ~ VI '"Nlpi
;',' ;n.SJ y 'loolIS un' pushing "' one
IIa,,. iiI.o : o,tr'onrs' ne requested uyil
1imn r,"'iOIT H. :" -, np'e''o LEW, " PnLt ol ~
,mS ,ns Hann =, ,''J hor ",a ,i,Ls WIS ""'e'
"I pr 't t''o tina in % or,i" i IT, ,,,o mas.
D ,'s ,hn t,'''I "',r.D ,,., ''V s ngN
'''' '"0 ' we ''''''
A COMPLEMENT TO SHERIDAN.
The two armies lin tho Vnllev
lay in such n po,ition-,he cuom,
on the West bank Of the Opcouar
creek GOVERN. Winchester. and
our forces in front of b rrysyille--
hat either cou'd hrin. a attic OF
At any time. Defeat 10 Ms woul(
lay open to the enemy tho State,
Iof MARYLAND and P,nn,ylyania r,l
long distances before another mr.
INV could ho iutrrnosod tn ch,cl