The Forrest City times., 1891-07-24

SuoustiiiiiiS oHc "uoie week of solid thrash ing before he knew that he could never enter Richmond
 ''On to Richmondl' had been the cry; "baek to the gunboats" soon be- came the mot 'ordre. Mcclellan was good soldier aud he saved his army | when he re.reated from Richmond in the face of telegraphic growls from Washington, and protests daily and hourly from his own corps command CTS. He was a singularly misiudged, ill-treated man, both at this time and | after. Nothing on earth could have whipped Lee and Jackson then, for they had men (veterans), money, food, clothing, high spirits and plenty of ammunition, and the confederate capital, with the enemy in full view from the housetops, was the gayest of gay cities at that time. We just couldn't have been whipped then. It would take two more years of awful carnage-two more years of isolation from the world, two more years of un- paralleled suffering and starvation for Grant to strike down the wan and wasted apparition at Appomattox, which called itself, still proudly, the army of northern Virginia.
 Mcclellan knew too we'll that no force the North could summon at that time could then take Richmond His loss by shot and sickness was tre- mendous, and that each day added to his danger A week more and he would be surrounded and forced to the humiliation of surrender. Patri- ot that he was, he preferred the cen sure of the war department to the sac rifice of his splendid army-and like wise and good commander he did the best thing he could do under the cir cumstances-he retreated. He retreat ed, but heretreated as the dying grizzly retreats when shot to death, slowly, sullenly-but still full of danger and ferocity. Malvern Hill, think, showed that, and Magruder-well, all men make mistakes. Our boys fought as they always did, but they couldn't storm the very gates of hell.
 Less than 5000 men trying to as- sail hill trlple-crowne1 with over % guns and defended by nearly 100, ,o00 veterans. It was madness, and yet after his victory Mcclellan made all haste to get under cover of his gun boats. His officers remonstrated They wanted to turn back on our shattered ranks and march straight to Richmond. But ''I.ittle Mac judged better than they; he knew that Lee and Jackson and plenty of fresh troops lay in the way between him and the confederate capital, and he said to them.
 "No, gentlemen, let us get to our base and reform for another attempt: Ii we were to pursue the enemy now we should be inevitably whipped. We had the choice of position here, and Magruder was an old fool to attack us; but who shall say what may hap pen If we venture to attempt with a diminished and demoralized army what we could not do in the full flush of our vigor before Richmond. No; let the order be given at once for an orderly retreat. We have hit them too hard to fear pursuit."
 But still his officers protested, and Philip kearney, holding up the stump of his arm when Mcclellan had gone, exclaimed passionately to the of- ficers around him: II, Phil Kearney, an old soldier, did most solemnly pro test against this most cowardly and disgraceiul retreat"
 But time approved Mcclellan $ judg- ment,
 He had done the wisest thing to do, and he had done it well.
 It was during these exciting days that the incidents of my story took place.
 had only recently rejoined my regi- ment, the Seventh Georgia, when was ordered, being still weak from q wound received some five months | previous, to have my name carried again on the roster, but for week or | two to report to the commissariat de- l partment for clerical duties, being as was a good penman and accountant. | My duties were arduous, and such | entanglement as we got into some times would paralyze professional accountant Not that 1t was our fault, though we were literally ''cussed out" tor it, but because acquisitions
 were sent in in such strange forms and
 in so many irregular ways. We had
 all necessary blanks, but they seemed
 of small use to the men to whom we
 sent them. A requisition for calomel
 and hay, bedding and opium, stirrups
 and cartridges, digitalis and ''sow-
 belly" (bacon) would come in on one
 sheet and have to be referred and re.
 referred and entered and re-entered
 so that I grew nearly distracted and
 longed to be with the boys again.
 sometimes think now, considering how
 much was really wasted or arrived
 too late, that if we could haze had
 fifty or sixty experienced commissarial
 men, that the issue of that war would
 have been different.
 We'll, it was. after one of these day'
 of exhausting labor at the desk that
 the night being warm, I strollet
 eround to 2 hotel much freQuented by