The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-07-21


rear gusrd. Meantime, however,, jackson
was hC-ryinr across she Chickahominy in
rear Of THE position to get Is Us, ana Long
street and HilL who had marched up the
Chickahominy and recrossed il, were hur
ryipe down % the Richmond side 70 get At
McCieilaa's flank, or, i may b., they
thought it was TO save Richmond But Ma
gruder and Huger were rtpulsed, and We
Withdrew from Savage Stat on at 4 hit.
On June 80 occurred the bait in White /
Oak swamp, and that at Glendsle, which 4
the enemy call the bate Of Nelson's farm.
We had gotten through the swamp and 1
burned the brio ges, snd now formed a lins 4
that faced towards Richmond, It's right 4
being ir the swamp, It's LETT at Malvern Hill, /
on the wel. Glendale ives near the centre /
Of this line. Longsireet and II II ". re try
ing 10 force our position at Glendale, and I
expecting Jackson 10 come through the |
swamp ard hep. II he could have gotten /
through he woa d have been in the Tesr Il
US at Glendale, bus he c Juld not get through, ]
Franklin held him all day as giant would |
hold an infant. LonRstreei and Hill were /
consequently held with equsl ease at Glen
dale. We withdrew from both positions at /
night.
On July was fought the battle at Malvern |
Hill. Our force was tolerably concentrated. |
Jackson, Huger and Magruder assaulted our
sosition, and were repulsed with very great
] -. We withdrew at night
Sueh is the rec I'd. l. is obvious that the
important battle was the enc at Gaines
Mil. All that went befcrs was preliminary
10 that, and what followed was the necessa-
" consequence Of the loss Of II. MeClel-
Ian having loss thst bstile Yves compelled to
relinquish his position and get a new ba e.
Had he won that battle he would Lot only
have held his position, but be would have
destroyed the force with which Lee fought
/ IT, Thst g was within power 10 win that
/ battle, to make that day decisive against tie
eaemy, and 10 turn Their apparent victory
in positive di as er, is obvioiis both from
the report Of Mcclellan aud the report Of
/ Lee Mcclellan tells rs very clearly the
reai on why he Lost the battle. Il was be
cause he opposed to the seventy thoussnd
men under Lee only half that number. Les
tells US thst IN that battle be moved his
whole line against our position, competing
| tie commaads Of Long treet, jack on and
the two Kills. AeCleilsn estimated that
force at seventy thousand, and that must
have been very nearly right. Mcclellan as
sures Us that Porter only bad thiriy-five
thousand, and hewrote to The President the
/ next day that "a few thousand more men
would have changed this battle from de-
featto q victory"
With Z" few thousand more men" he
could have turned the tide Of that important
bat lie, end yet be had on the other side Of
the (hickah HON ny hardly halfa days march
! away, sixty thousand men. Why was that
force id e2 Why were Hooker and Kearny
left at Barxer's farm TO listen to the IRE and
star sti u Why were the divisions Of sedg-
wick, Richardson a1d Couch not put into
it2 Sumner Heintzelman, Ke5es and
Franklin were all on that day ft to fight for
the grandest empire under the sue, and the
corps Of any one Of thess would have
chaDged the result But these troops were
not used on th tdsy, becsuss General Met LEI
Ian was the victim OF q delusioD. He was
utterly and shamefrlly fooled by the man
euvres Of General Lee. He had made up
his mind that Lee had two hundred ttou-
sand men that seventy thousand were
pounding Porter, and that the other hun
dred and thirty thousand were at Richmond
resdy to pouDce down end gobble mp Sum
ner, Heintzelman and The rest. And the
proof that they were not there is found in
the fact that they did not do il. That large
force existed only in MeClellan's imsgina-
tioh and on the pages Of his ssecret service"
: re ort.
Lees main force was in front Of Porter,
aid force Of twenty-five or thirty thou
sand held the Richmond lines; and IN order
to prsvens Mcclellan from reinforcing Por-
ter, they made a great noise, as IS usual IN
such casef. They were successful; for Nc
Clellsn wstched them with the largest part
of his army. That he did so watch Them is
evident from bis own report, and that the
force in front Of Richmond was inc0nsidsrs.
bic is evident from Lees report, well IS
from every fact in the history Of the event.
Nee elan re ports battle on that side, and
Lee does not even mention it. There, then,
was McClellan's hun iliating under. As
be acknowledges, IL was possible fer him TO
concentrate his force on either side Of the
ChickahOminy. On either side he would
have the pref Onderanee os numbers. The
inducement to Concentrate on the North
side was the chance to destroy Lees army
By a magnificent battle. The iuducement
to cOncentra.e on the south side was the
chance to capture edmond almost without
! a battle. On The north side he would have
had one hundred to seventy-tnough TO
watch the river and whip the seventy. On
: the south side he would have had oae hun
bred TO thiriy-the seventy on the o her
, side could not have touched him-and Rich
mohd would have been The prize be evta
claims that by e~ncel tratiOn on the north
! SIDE be could have bea-en the enemy
t there" he could have ne either-hs did
r neither He decided not TO strike for Rich
mcnd, and Tor an unheroic reason he might
iai ami so he continued to retreat. That
Offer ed no chance for IA lare.
Bus Lee blum cred very greatly also. The
blunders Of the two g together aud Their
+ in the hands ST great p rcep i've so der,
e would have been annIhilated. On the 25th
E Of June Mc0lel an, as he tells us, had his
| preparations inside for an onset against the
I euemys capitol. Bis reads and brids es were
built, MS Lines formed, his supplies up, his
= troops in hand-ell was ready, and the d. Is
/ of war were held in the leah, ready and
psnting to so There was only one fact he
! nd hnf fhaa = baVa
I the immense power with which they held
! the place. He was 10 move on the 26th, and
on that very day Lee, as # IN league with
Mcclellan, moved out Of Richmond al the
troops with which he held it, except about
Z twenty fve1housand.
9 There was Richmond defended by only
/ that number, and here were a hundred
! thousand ready u move against it. Lse
, made haste to Tut q river between Rich
mond and the rest Of his force. He took
away his heroes Longsteet and HiiI-and
carried them 10 join Jaekfon. Drunken
Megrudtr and impotent Hnger were the
only ones in Richma nd, and they had only
two visions. Lee did az this, even by hrs
own showing. Ii ives the most complies di-
vision Of forces ever seen. He kept his
forces thus divided fer three days-the 36th,
9th snd 2sth Of June. On one Of these
days Lee and his army were al ne on the
]
bridges" says Lee, were destroyed, their
{ reconstr6ction imTracti abe" That is.
McClellan's hundred thousand were on the
same side cf the river with Richmond, aud
only Msgruder and Huger stood between.
Lee, with seventy thousand, was on the
other side Of The river, snd couldn't get.
t aero s; he was out OF the fight This lasted
: all day, aud Nee elan employed that day
in securing his retreat. Doe hour of Sheri
dan 90 that 2sth Of June would have given
as Riehmoni, and Lee would never have
, been heard OF ain as General He must
{ have died Of shame.
But the discrepancy between the
ct tsments Of facts iH the two reports il not
greater than their difference Of tone. Nc
Clellan's exhibits a strange mental condition.
He never once considers how he can defeat
his enemy's grand attempt, but only how he
can get away. He is anxious to put on some
one else's shpu'd ers the responsibility Of
the defeat OF battles that not vet b .
gun. He has from the FIRST made up his
mild 20 be beaten. His messages have the
dependency of " last words" His appre-
tensions have ubled the sizeof Lees arnv,
aud that has made him hopeless. His mind
is 50 prcoecupied with r,treat that ever
when he has whipped the snemy-by his
own showing snd the enemy's shOwine--he
sees no other advantage but tia, il gives him
an opportunity 10 run little urther. Little
as we a-e disposed @ orify Lee, il must he
Acknowledged that the tone Of his report is
very differeet from this, and that Is alwsys
oontemplstes IN q maoly spirit the legitis
mate objects OF a folders ambition-victory
md he destruction Of al opposing pCwer.-
". y Herald.