The National tribune., 1909-06-24
Copyright, 1903. by John McElroyo
CHAPTER XXIII.

-.s-. THE BATTLE OF UTOY.
The Advance of the Right Wing To-
ward Hoods Last Railroad-Scho-
field Pushes Toward East Point
With Two Corps-Hardee Tries 10
Stop Him at Utoy Creek-Dispute
Between Schofield and Palmer.
Stoneman's Fiasco.
Cen. Stoneman's fiasco was by far the
most discreditable thing OF the cam
paign. and there is no explanation OF IL
except Stoneman's gross incompetence.
He had shown himself ridiculously IN
efficient on the Chancellorsvllie cam
paign, so that he had been renewed
from command of the cavalry OF the
ar,ny of the Potomac. In spite
of his demonstrated unfitness he had
been assigned to the command OF the
cavalry of the Army of the ONO. Al
that position he had done nothing eitn-
er creditable or discreditable, ana IN
the early part of the campaign seems 10
have satisfied Sherman, so that ne was
Entrusted with the command or TINS
very important movement. The nrst
exclamation that reached Sherman was
that Stoneman had grossly exaggerated
fhe force of the enemy, and had Deen
saized with panic when he, with 100
of his men, constituted forlorn hope
to hold the enemy back and allowNne
rest of his command to escape rms
seemed a palliation of his fault, but the
story was StonemanS own, and gotten
up to mitigate his failure. Stoneman
was noted for being good reporter,
and had much of what Tolstoi calls
military mendacity;" that is, he coufd
ornament failure with so many figures
of speech and plausible considerations
as TO make it appear success. Later
dor
truce from prison in Macon, Ga, in
which he laid the blame upon the poor
fighting of his men. He particularly
blamed Capron's Brigade and Adams s
Kentucky Brigade. This was sneaking
and cowardly, because the men of those
brigades were just as good as any IN
The army They fought well before and
after that event, and IL they dla not
fight well on that particular day it was
because they had discovered what a
misfit Stoneman was, and had no con-
fidence in his generalship.
Stoneman says that at the close OF
the action he found himself with only
200 of the 5th Ind. Cav. and sectlon
of the artillery. He says he wanted 10
fight, but was dissuaded from this by
the officers. This is rather singular, as
Stoneman was in the war four years,
and no one of those around him ever
discovered in him any intense eagernesS
for battle. He says THAI his horse was
shot from under him, which also Is to
be taken with some allowance, as the
testimony of the men with him at the
time was that they had to go OUT about
a mile to find some one to surrender to.
We know now that the immense SUI
periority of the Confederate force which
so terrified Stoneman existed only in
his imagination, and that he was suffer
ing from the first from very bad at
tack of 'buck fever" Stoneman was q
good illustration of the baleful infiu'
ence of the West Point cliques upon the
army. His clique had kept him up In
spite of HIS numerous failures, and even
after he had returned from prison they
managed to get him in command of the
cavalry of the Army of the Ohio, with
which he fought some inconsequential
skirmishes in the closing days of the
war. After the war Stoneman went &c
California, where the Democrats elected
him Governor of the State.
Kenner Garrard, who commanded the
larger division OF the cavalry which was
under Stoneman. also showed himself
ineffective, and greatly displeased Sher
man; in fact, Sherman was quite out OF
patience with all his cavalry command.
ers whom he could not get to handle
their men with the vigor and boldnes!
of the infantry commanders. The Cav
airy Corps of the Army of the Cumber-
land was under the command of Brig.
Gen. Washington Elliott, to whom Sher.
man wrote some characterstically SHARP
notes about his slackness and lack oi
enterprise The division commanders
under Elliott were Edward NJ McCook
Kenner Garrard and Judson Fitzpatrick
McCook and Fitzpatrick proved to be
more effective when they had a better
superior. Under these were many good