The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1866-05-24
..Sheridan'. Ride Told in Prose.


| OF much earnestness and some youthful
ness, has become the historian OF the 9th
J Corps. in the United States Magazine
His compilation is rattling and interest
/ ing, withstanding some obtrusive
preiudices, and in this journalistic way
lie treats of battle literature, in the splen-
did episode of Sheridan's terminating
| the beaten army IT the battle OF Cedar
! Creek:
z "Cedar Creek, made popular by Sher-
! idan's ride-a circumstance, by the way,
which had no bearing on the result of
| the dav-needs no description here
/ The surprise was overwhelming in the
morning The Sth and 10TH Corps were
! shattered, and went in confusion to the
rear. The 9th Corps alone remained.
| 1t was forced to fall back more than a
mile. 1t was then halted, and assumed
the offensive in the afternoon, with what
brilliant results the country Knows
Gen. Sheridan's opportune arrival gave
a splendid theme for poetry and praise.
and no doubt added somewhat to the en-
thusiasm of such small portion of the
army as might have been aware of his
presence. But in justice to Major Gen
eral Wright, who ordered the attack be
fore General Sheridan came, and in jus
tice to General Getty, Commanding the
9th Corps after General Ricketts, was
wounded, Whose splendid maneuvering
and stubborn resistance with the 9th
Corps had already, in effect. turned the
fortunes Of the day, and who deserves
more credit, and has received less, than
any other prominent officer on the field,
it must be said that the same result
would have been obtained if Sheridan S
horse, SO famous in verse, had founder
ed by the way When the advance was
made, precisely as General Wright had
ordered it, the enemy fled in panic
I'm this battle of Cedar Greek the 9th
Corps did almost all the fighting, losing
2, 300 men, and. with the cavalry achiev-
ed the utter destruction of Early's army.
This is the solitary instance throughout
this article in which exclusive praise is
given to the corps of which we write,
when i was associated with other troops,
and it IS done because of certain pubh-
cations recently made, in which the SER
vices of this corps on this occasion are
wholly ignored.
..The details of this most important
and decisive action are, as usual, omit
ted. The popular idea of battles is de
rived from certain writers-historians,
they call themselves have trick
of description, whereby colossal horses,
with distended nostrils are made TO bear
ptumcd troopers with bloody sabers
through agonized infantry and lost bat
teries. or long lines of cleaning bayo-
nets are brought promiscuoasly together,
while struggling men, with patriotic war
cries, arc prodding and ommeliag each
other indiscriminately for hours, around
waving flags, where shells are bursting,
with artistic precision. and slain horses
cucumber wounded heroes, who still
flourish defiant weapons; disabled pie
ces furnish picturesque couches for
slaughtered cannoneers. and everything
tells Of the rage and terrible splendor of
conflict, the agony Of wounds and suifeft
ing, or the beautiful abandonment of
daath. To the readers of such thrilling
things. it would seem tame TO tell the
story of 8 great battle without en- bellish-
ment. Tuey would turn, disappointed,
from the simple story Of line of blue
coated soldiers toilng slowly across
broken V slley or tangled swamp, against
q crest or wooded slope, or scarcely
visible line Of works, while a few dis
tant knobs are crowned with the smoke
OF batteries, and men are falling here and
there, with little regard to artistic effect
Two murderous minutes Of the double
quick, and one Of close, hurried, disor-
dered fighting, would not content the
myriad readers of the imaginative histo-
rians And yet this. repeated at mod
crate intervals through the day, is, per-
haps, all that we could offer in truthful
description of any Of the great battles Of
the war"