Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-05-06

DOSlu d. dill
GLOW good Of you, Mrs. Baker, to take
up the cause of that poor Miss Starr!" said
Tilly Marsh, one day, when she met her
neighbor in the village street
"It was only my duty" said Mrs. Baker.
4 was the proper person to see her. you
know, since am on the relief committee. !"
her mother that she felt sure they had done
Mrs. Baker injustice in thinking her vain,
glorious and selfish.
"Perhaps we did, said Mrs. Marsh. ''I
don't understand her lately. She isn't at
all as she used to be. Something has
changed her.. I wish | knew what it
was"
But she never knew.
Gen. ROSsers Contribution to tho ANNALS
of the War;
TO the Editor of the State:
n 1 have read with much pain and regret
the articles published in the Philadelphia
Times, by Gen. T. L. Rosser, under the
caption of 'sRosser and His Men, As ex-
tracts from them are being copied into
some of the papers, even in Virginia, feel
constrained to say that their bombastic
egotism and absurdity are surpassed only by
the "romanticism' of the statements they
contain. Rosser was undoubtedly brave,
dashing, and enterprising soldier, and can
account for the production of his articles
now only on the hypothesis that his success
in money making has turned his head, if it
has not changed his heart also. His ridic-
ulous vaporing. when he came to the Valley
in the fall of 1854, in claiming that he and
his "Laurel Brigade" came as the 'ssaviors
of the Valley" and were going to show the
rest of my command how to fight, excited
no little amusement at the time, and is well
remembered; but I never suspected him of
being capable of the folly of which he has
now been guilty.
His statement, that I ordered him to get
ahead of Sheridan's army, as it retired
down the Valley in the early part of Octo-
Der, and arrest it's march, is without any
foundation in fact. He had then under his
command, including Fitz Lees two bri-
gades and his own, only some 1,500 or 1900
cavalry, at the farthest, instead of 5000, as
he says, and l certainly had no idea that
the accession of his 'Laurel Brigade to
the other two would enable them to do
what my whole force had not been able to
accomplish. The note which he cites as
being written to him by me is either an IL
the purport of one may have written, if
he has such in his possession. The two
divisions of cavalry that were on my f1anlzs
respectively, one under Lomax and the
other under Rosser, were ordered to pursue
on different routes and prevent the burning
of houses, barns, &C., by the cavalry that
was bringing up the rear of Sheridan's
army as he moveu down the Valley Rosser
became SO elated with some success he had
obtained over the burning detachments
that he boastingly sent me word that he
was going to drive Sheridan across the Po-
tomac, when, knowing tine danger into
which he was rushing, 1 sent message to
him to caution him against any rashness,
but before my. message reached him the
unfortunate affair of Toms Brook had oc-
Cured. His present story in relation to
that affair leads me to suspect that great
injustice may have been done to that colo
mel mentioned by him, who was court
martialed and cashiered on charges pre-
ferred by him ON account of his conduct on
that occasion. The statement in regard to
the remoustrance sent to me about getting
him into that difficulty at TOMS Brook is
also myth, a figment Of the brain, The
statements that he proposed to me to allow
him to follow the reserves at Cedar Greek
along the pike, so as to charge the enemy
when routed; that he charged up to
within sight and to within a mile of New
Town during that battle; that when the
enemy had been thrown into confusion he
requested permission to charge fsthe enemy
then flying before Gordon" and that ar
rested the progress of my troops in the
midst Of victory early in the morning, are
all altogether imaginary; and his statement
in regard to the retreat from the field in the
latter part of the day, is gross exaggera-
tion. II he had made the proposition in
regard to following the reserves along the
pike would have rejected it on account of
its absurdity, as the enemy had very
heavy cavalry force on his right flank on
the back road, which, Rosser says, twas
strong enough at any time to have fallen
upon me and crushed me, and which was
not strong enough at any time to drive off,
What would that cavalry have been doing
while he was giving s'the broken masses
the sabre" and Wright's corps (the Sixth)
remained intact? Then, too, how was he
able to make a successful crossing of Cedar
creek on my left, ''driving the brigade of
cavalry from its position and pursuing it to
within a mile and in sight of New Town.
as he says he did, in the face of that cavalry
force that was able to have fallen upon and
crushed him? Then, too. when he was
within mile of New Town he should
have been in the rear of Sheridan's army,
while it was confronted by my main force;
why did he not then charge the enemy from
the rear and rout him? The statement
that l arrested the progress of my troops
in the hour OF victory is without the slight
est foundation in fact, as I did not arrive
upon the field where they halted until they
had halted, and l then endeavored to press
on, but found it impracticable to do SO.
Notwithstanding the condition of things
he represents as existing ON the retreat,
1,500 prisoners captured from the enemy
were safely carried off, and all the wagons
and artillery, including that captured from
the enemy, would have been carried off but
for the fact that a bridge at narrow pas
sage where there was no other passWay.
broke down, thus compelling all the wagons
and artillery beyond that point to be aban-
dOned. Instead of his sending to find me
at Fishers Hill, had halted a part of my
force at that point and sent for him to bring
his command there.
His statement that all who served with
me 'tcould not fail to have noticed how de-
ficient he IT. was in the knowledge of to-
pography, or the coup d oeil, on the battle
tield,'' will be a. surprise to all my staff.
officers and especially to my Typographical
engineer, and is about as accurate as that
other statement which Gen. Rosser makes.
that sit so happened that the greater part
of his Emy adversary g army was cavalry. y
II any one will take the trouble of read
ing Swinton's account of the battle of
Sharpsburg or Antietam. in the 'sTwelve
Decisive Battles of the War" and my re-
port in reference to the same battle, he will
be struck with the great similarity in our
descriptions of the typographical features
Of the part of that battlefield where on,