The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-04-11

! by your friends, shall now bestow only q
few words upon the statement Of it in yogr
letter of the 29th of December. Your ex-
PLANTATION is as follows:
received a Geographic dispatch from
Gen. Halleck dated more than two weeks
before the attack at Pittsburg Landing,
Tennessee, from which, or from the couri-
ers bringing it, l gathered the idee that
you were within four days march OF ss-
vannah, and would be up in about thet
time. That dispatch was telegraphed tc
your care, if l remember rightly, and sent
by you to me by courier. At all events the
dispatch came by way of Nashville 70 the
army commanded by you, and thence 10 me
by courier. This fact may have meu-
toned, and drawn the conclusion that II
you had been up in the time mentioned, or
double the time, that instead OF being at
tackled l would have taken the initiative.
The dispatch to which you refer could
have been no other than that dated the
oath Of March, already quoted, although it
does not answer the description you give.
You had no dispatch from General Halleek,
through Nashville, or, l must presume,
through any other channel, that justified
the conclusion you say you arrived at with
reference to my position and movements.
But you had my letter Of the 22d of March,
informing you that it would be three or
four days before the bridge OYER Duck river
could be completed. If it had been com
pleted at that time, as hoped, and if then
your assumption had been reasonable that
l would make the march from that point in
four days, should have arrived at Savan-
nah on the 30th of March, or double the
four days would have brought me there on
the Sd Of April. Evidently the Sd of April
was not the time when you would have ta-
ken the initiative, for on the 4th you in
formed the commander Of my leading di
vision that it would be useless for him to
arrive before the Sth. But, in fact, you
had no right to expect that would-un-
less advised of some extraordinary emer-
gency, such as your imminent peril |
make the march over a single road |
from Columbia to Savannah, a dis
tance of ninety miles, in the condition OF |
the roads at that time, in four days. 1t |
took the Confederate army two days to make |
the march from Corintb, seventeen miles, |
TO attack you. Although up to that time |
you had never marched 10000, or even 30,- |
GEO men distance of thirty miles, yet your |
experience later in the war must have |
taught you that fifteen miles a day, under |
the circumstances, was very good march
ing; so that, even if had not been delay |
ed at Columbia beyond the 26th of March, |
you should not have expected me before |
the first of April. As it was, the bridge at /
Columbia was not completed until the even
ing Of the 30th cf March, four days after |
arrived there in person, and l reached Sa- |
vannah on the 9th of April. The events Of /
the following day, and your dispatch to
General Nelson, to which have referred, |
show how little you thought, or how lily /
you were even then to take the /
initistiVe.
Other statements have been circulated by /
certain of your friends relative to the con
dition Of your command on tho 9th OF April |
at Pittsburg Landing. They would have
it TO be inferred that, after all, you were
not reduced to very serious straights on that
day. If the indications should be confirm
ed that those statements have your sane
ton, l shall undertake to refute them be-
cause in attempting to Tighten your burden,
they rob the Army of the Ohio of the honor
which is its due, by depreciating the ser
vice which it had TO perform to retrieve the
fortunes of that field. D. c. BUELL.
New YORK, April 3.