The National tribune., 1908-12-10
CHARLOTTESVILLE.
(Continued from page two.l

to tell about the exhaustion of his men,
the excessive warmth of the weather.
the lack of supplies, the customary
tales which are told to excuse nom
performers. Halleck was justified in
saying bitterly in his annual report:
HaIIeek's Comment.
when the rebel army was moving
north upon Maryland and Pennsylva-
mia, Gen. Dix sent all his available
| force from Norfolk and Fortress Mon
roe up the York River. for the pur-
| pose of cutting off Lees communica-
tions with Richmond and of attacking
that place. which was then defended
by orly handful of militia. The ey-
| pedition, however. failed to accomplish
single object for which it had been
fitted out, the failure resulting, it was
alleged, from the inefnciency of one of
the Generals in command"
This, as might be expected, provoked
| reply from Gen. Dix, in which he
| denied that Richmond was defended
| by only handful of militia. He said:
AN intercepted letter from Jefferson
Davis to Gen. Lee, dated June 2S, the
! day the last of my troops arrived at the
White House, states that there were
| three brigades in Richmond and part of
Hilrs Division, besides Wise's Brigade
on the east side of the city. These were
all Regular troops and not militia.
| There was. in addition, "a body of
trained artillerists in the intrenchments,
the Home Guards and a eonvalescent
brigade.
"The objects of the expedition, as
stated in your order, were threefold:
First, to threaten Richmond; second, to
destroy the railroad bridges over the
South and North Anna Rivers. and dc
the enemy as much damage as posi-
L ~ 4 1t, To- 60
| of the enemy. The first and last o1
these objects We're effectually accom-.
plished. the second partially. and,
may say, substantially. One of tht
bridges over the South Anna was de.
stroyed. Altho the other was not de-
stroyed,. the railroad track between il
and Richmond was torn up for con-
siderable distance, and the bridge al
Ashland, on the same road, IL miles
out of Richmond. was completely de-
molished and burned, as well as the
depot at that station.
| "Col. Spears expedition sent out un-
der written instructions, was mos!
successful and creditable one. He de-
stroyed the aforementioned bridge and
the Quartermasters depot at Hanover
Station, bringing back 35 army wagons,
700 horses and mules. ana Gen. w. n
F. Lee, the son of the rebel General-in-
i
fayette as hostage, and over 100 pris-
oners"
| This is exceedingly weak at best
Gen. Dix had great opportunity, as
had also his subordinates, Gems. Getty
and Keyes. 1t would have been an
easy matter to take Richmond, and il
is not seen how it was possible for the
troops then garrisoning the city to have
made a successful resistance to the 49,
i 000 man who wara assembled af White
house Landing. if they had been han
died with boldness and skill. In the
| first place, an energetic commander
would have gotten many more men than
| that together a week earlier, and he
would not have advertised his plans
| for days by an elaborate wharf con-
struction and the slow concentration
| of troops at Whitehouse Landing A
capable commander, who would have
quickly collected his troops and made
| a swift dash directly on Richmond,
would probably have had little trouble
in entering the Confederate Capital
within two days after his departure
from Fortress Monroe.
This ended the military careers of
both Dix and Keyes. Keyes resigned
May 6; 1864, and went to California,
where he engaged in business dying in
1895. Dix was transferred to New York,
to settle the troubles arising out of the
draft, and remained there until the
close of the war.
(To be continued.l