The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-10

sian army before defeating il. Had it been |
able to take refuge in intrenchments covering !
the passage of river mile wide, those |
'fTuits' would have been less than ours |
which were, the preservation of the Confe- |
deracy Tor the time.
The masses referred to were less disor- |
ganized by defeat than our army by triumph. |
By ''gates of Washington" is meant. | sup |
pose, the Notifications upon which skilful en- |
gineers, commanding the resources of the
United States, were engaged for several |
months--manned by double our numbers.
half of whom had not seen the battle-and a |
river a mile wide commanded by the guns of
the United States fleet. We attempted invasion
in 1862, and again in 1868. First, after Gen.
Lees victories over Mcclellan and Pope, and
Jackson's over Banks, Fremont, and Shields.
The second time, when the way was supposed
to have been opened by the effect of the battles
| of Fredericksburg and Charlottesville.
On these occasions, the forces defeated were
ten times as great as those repulsed on the
| 2lst of July, 1861, and their losses twenty
times as great. Yet those defeated armies met
us at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg, so strength
ened in numbers and sphit as to send back
| the war into Virginia. These events show
how far, in July, 1861, our army could have
rushed blazing" through the North (and it
could have crossed the Potomac), and how
| much the North would have been ''frightenedn -
| The failure of invasions conducted bv Lee.
aided by Longstreet and Jackson and at
| tempted under such circumstances, proves
| that the Confederacy was too weak for ofFen-
| sve war, and is conclusive argument in
favor of the course against which the author
declaims so vehemently.
| Page 23l:-"He General Jackson) was then
| compelled to sit silent, and see the noble army,
with its enthusiastic recruits, whitening away in
inaction on the plains of Bull Run, no doubly
| peshential from the miasma of the August
| heats, and the stencil OF the battlefield; under
camp ievers ten-fold more fatal than all the bull
| lets of the enemy. Regiments dwinded, under
| the scourge, TO skeletons; and the rude, tempo
porary hospitals acquired trains of graves far
| more numerous and extensive than those upon
the hills around the Stone Ridge"
If General Jackson had seen this state of
things described above he could not have been
compelled to ''sit silent" He Uould haze
done his duty by protecting his brigade from
the effects of such wretched incompetence by
demonstrating to the General, and if that
proved ineffective, by appeal to the Govern
ment. His silence proves that he did not see
the evils his biographer describes.
1t is well known that large bodies of new
troops are sickly in all climates Our sick
reports were larger in the healthy climate of
the valley than at the time referred to. No
troops were then encamped in the valley of
Bull Run, or nearer to the "battle-ield'' than
four or five miles The dead had been buried,
so that the ladies visited the field without in
convenience. The writer's own estimate and
General Beauregard's very strongly contradict
this account of our great losses by disease.
He estimates the army of the valley at IL 900
when it left Winchester. General Beauregard
reported his to be about Il, 200, including
1900 mounted men, and the garrison of Manas-
sas COCO soldiers and seamen), in all about
$4,000; deducting 1893 lost in battle, leaves
80, 1O7-not estimating the thousands who
went home in the belief that their victory had
terminated the war. On page 239 the author
says, after 'forces had grown to about 60,00O
men," the Confederate generals 'pushed
their lines forward to Munsons and Mason's
Hills" This was early in September.
According to this the army had then
been increased by the difference between 60, 600
and 80, 0,l07-29,S 1913. If my recollection is
correct, it had received since the battle ten
regiments-one from South Carolina, one
from North Carolina, one from Texas one
from Alabama, two from Mississippi and four
from Georgia, averaging less than 600 men.
So that these reinforcements amounted to not
more than 6000, leaving %, 1913 as the growth
OF the regiments represented to have 'dwin-
died, under the scourge, to Skeletons" But
these assertions-that our regiments dwindled
to skeletons during August, and that the army
had grown to about 90, 600 men early in Sep
tember are altogether incorrect. have con-
trasted them to show the carelessness of the
authors accusations. The battle and its con-
sequences reduced our army to about $4,000
men. When its advanced guard occupied
Munson's and Masons Hills early in Septem-
ber it had received since the battle not more
than 5000. So that its strength then was
little more than half of the biOgrapher's esti-
mate.
Page 23G:-"Ihe weaned Confederate soldiers
did not find the rain any the less dreary ON the
next day, because they were either counter
marched up and down Bull Run, or left to
crouch on the battle field in fence corners,
without tents, instead of engaging in the in
spring pursuit of The enemy"
None of our troops were countermarched
up and down Bull Run the next day. None
were on the battlefield but those detailed to
collect arms, etc Beauregard's troops had q
full supply of tents, and those from the Val
lev a partial one Pursuit would have been
fruitless, and, therefore, anything but in
spring.
Page 236:-"The country was then teemina
with supplies; herds of bullocks were feedine
in the pastures around Centreville, and the
barns OF the farmers were loaded with grain
The country between Bull Run and Wash
ingtOn is poor and thinly peopled, and never
teemed with supplies. If there were evel
herds of bullocks in the pastures around Cen
treville, any Southern man can tell how many
would have been left by Federal army of foul
divisions (near 40, coo mem, encamped there
from the 18th to 2lst of july; and if there wa!
ever abundance between that place and Wash
ington. those who have seen the country
through which a Federal army has marched
| once can Judge of the abundance lett where i
has passed twice.
Page 23G:-"A marchs of twenty-five miles
| could surely have been accomplished without