Latest from the North.
the defeat of McClellan acknowledged!
the brilliant Strategy a failure.
Congressional attack on Lincoln.
comments of the press — a victim Wanted — either Abe or
McClellan the guilty man — the bombardment of
Vicksburg.
&c., &c., &c.
Baltimore papers of the 8th instant, containing
York advices to the 7th, have been received.
The comments of the press tell the tale of the disaster.
The Yankee press on the disaster.
our army before Richmond — Causes of the recent reverse.
From the New York Times, (Editorial,) July 7.
The first necessity of every community, after a disaster, is a scapegoat.
It is an immense relief to find some one upon whom can be fastened all the sine of a whole people, and who can then be sent into the wilderness, to be heard of no more forever.
Of course, we have a very active search for such a scapegoat now. The reverse in front of
Richmond is a serious affair; and until somebody has been made to suffer for it, the country will not feel safe.
When somebody's head is off, it matters not much whose, we shall all breathe freer.
The
Post insists that
Gen. McClellan shall be the victim.
The
World censures the
President.
The
Herald falls foul of
Secretary Stanton; and the
Tribune, tired for once of its own denunciations, or having long since exhausted the list, contents itself with calling for help on
Gen. Hunter and his negro brigades.
We see little good likely to come of all this, What the country needs is courage and a new army — not crimination or criticisms of any kind.
Indeed, if we had less of these hitherto, we might have less provocation for them now. The great cause of our weakness has been discussions in Congress, in the
Cabinet, and in the press concerning the merits of different
Generals, and the wisdom of different policies.
In carrying on a war, the one thing needful is
confidence in the
Government and its agents.
Whatever strengthens this, aids the common cause; whatever and whoever weakens it, inflicts upon that cause a blow which may be fatal.
[From the New York Tribune, (Editorial,) July 4.]
The painful suspense of the last few days was, in a measure, relieved yesterday by the intelligence received from
Gen. McClellan's army.
For nearly a week that army has fought against overpowering numbers, and though compelled to fall back, has fought bravely, repulsing the enemy from time to time, with great slaughter, nowhere permitting its flank to be turned or its front to be broken.
Retiring by a dangerous and difficult might march, through forests and swamps, exposed to constant attack, harassed by an enemy hovering about them and constantly reinforced by innumerable and fresh troops, our brave soldiers made their way, through almost inconceivable difficulties, to the point aimed at on
James river, at Turkey bridge.
From this point they have fallen further back to one, it is to be presumed, more defensible, and where they can count with more certainly upon the aid of the field.
Here, at
Harrison's Bar, at the last accounts, they have made a stand, and entrenching themselves, with the gunboats behind them, will be able to get the rest they so much need, and choose their own time for a renewal of the fight.
We know, on the authority of some distinguished officers who reached
Washington two days ago, that the line of defence from the
Chickahominy to the
James river is considered absolutely stronger than it was ten days ago.
It is natural enough, perhaps, to suck when a disaster occurs, somebody to whom the exclusive blame may be imputed; and it is equally natural that much of that blame should be altogether unreasonable.
Before we come to any fixed opinion on this matter of reinforcements, on which there is much unintelligent if not idle discussion, it is as well that the public should be informed that not much, if any, loss than forty thousand men have been added to the Army of the Potomac within a month; that still other and large reinforcements were some time since ordered forward, and are now on their way, nor far off; and that probably in the military plans of
General McClellan, of which, of course, nobody but himself and the
Government could know anything, for their accomplishment was placed upon this very conjunction with a large naval force.
Before unquestioned blame is attached anywhere, let us be quite are that we know all the facts.
Reinforcement was to be made at a given time to both sides; if the enemy, in their desperation, were the speedier in their action — the speedier, because their facilities in a given case were the greater haste is not always the most speed.
It is their turn to-day; it may be ours to-morrow.
War never brings unvarying success to one side only; else their would be he war.
We do not mean, of course, to wink out of sight the serious character of recent events on the
Peninsula or to blind ourselves or our readers to the fact of the check our arms have received there.
But these ought not to discourage or overwhelm us. On the contrary, they should serve us to new determination and new effort.
Safe!
[From the Tribune, (Editorial,) July 5.]
In this long week of varied feeling, of intense anxiety at one moment, of hope the next, no word so cheering has come to us as that we publish this morning, in a Washington telegram, from the Richmond
Examiner.
The army is safe!
We all felt, whether we said so or not, how much depended on this one point — had the fighting stopped?
Had our weary and exhausted troops been able at last to threw back the advancing multitude of over whelming numbers, which had dashed themselves against our lines day after day, only to come on with renewed vigor from fresh men at the rebound of each repulse?
Could the pursuit be once make a stand and be permitted a brief interva!
of rest, and time to throw up entrenchments, under the sheltering protection of the gunboats on
James river, then all would be well.
And it is well!
After a conflict that the
Examiner says was ‘"terrible,"’ and a loss that was ‘"terrible"’ on their side the advancing begins were swept back, for their ‘"situation was hopeless."’ And then, adds the
Confederate journal, ‘"seeing their adversary retire, the most vociferous cheers those along the whole Yankee line."’ God bless the ‘"Yankee line!"’ Again victorious, and victorious finally!
This, is seems, was five miles north of
Darbytown and the
Newmarket road, and this is northwest of, and some distance above Turkey bridge.--The next day the righting was renewed, but the
Examiner has no result to tell.
From
McClellan's dispatch of the 3d, however, we know they were again beaten, and the harassed and worn-out army made good its position on the
James river, and here the terrible ordeal of six battles ceased.
On Wednesday and Thursday, up to 5.30, there was no lighting.
We cannot exaggerate the importance of this fact — there was no lighting — nor exult too much over it. It is the salvation of the army.--Two days to rest the worn-out men; two days to entrench themselves against further attacks; two days to receive reinforcements which we knew four days before were hastening to their aid; and two days for the whole fleet of gunboats to roach them from
Fortress Monroe, with guns enough, and of such heavy metal, that their presence as a protecting force is equal to many thousand men!
All this we gain by these two days of quiet; the baffled enemy must have fallen back, despairing of any further advantage, incapable of any further mischief; and the army is safe!
Terrible as our loss has doubts less been, though we have lost men by thousands, and guns, perhaps, by hundreds, yet we announce the news with gladness, and full of cheer, that the army still presents a bold, unbroken front, and the
Confederates have fallen back to throw themselves around their capital for its protection.
Under the circumstances, we can ask no better news than this.
The situation and its consequences.
[From the N. Y. Herald, (Editorial,) July 6th.]
General McClellan has failed to take
Richmond and has suffered serious losses in men, artillery and warlike materials and stores in his struggle to extricate himself from a position rendered untenable from the heavy reinforcements sent in to the army of the
Confederates, and from the very scanty reinforcements to his own. With his army thus weakened by battles and disease, he could not hold his
White House operations twenty miles in his rear and his entrenched lines of ten miles in front of
Richmond.
His original plan, if we are not mistaken, was to move his whole Potomac army of last winter in a grand semi-circle upon
Richmond, sweeping the entire country from the
Potomac to the
Valley of Virginia before him, and contracting his lines as he advanced upon
Richmond, not from the east, but from the north, thus leaving no loop-hole for Confederate raids into the Shenandoah Valley, nor any chance to the enemy to cut him off from the base of his supplies.
Unfortunately, however, this well considered plan was act aside by the disorganizing abolition radicals of Congress, aided and abetted by two or three political
Generals of the
Cabinet.
In the failure of this great and all-important enterprise we have lost the labors of a campaign; and to repair this, and to drive the
Confederates out of
Virginia, will require an additional budget of many millions to our national debt.
The President cannot fall now to see where the responsibility belongs.
A very significant feeling of indigestion is beginning to develop itself in the public mind upon the subject, and directly against the
Cabinet as at present constituted.
Let the
President look to his Cabinet, and to its reconstruction as a working unit with himself in the prosecution of this war for ‘"the integrity of the
Union,"’ and not for the extirpation of slavery, and all yet may be saved.
Let him neglect this essential duty at this momentous crisis, and we may go on from bad to worse until all is lost.
The Store coming.
The excitement now is but the more muttering of the storm.
Wait until the long lists of killed and wounded in the recent battles before
Richmond are published and the storm will be then at its height.
Already the people of
Philadelphia host
Stanton's name in the streets, and declare that no more men will enlist while the remains in office.--New York city has suffered quite as much as
Philadelphia, and shares their sentiments.
Two New York regiments suffered at
Bull Run, and the excitement here was fearful.
What will it be when the lists of killed and wounded come in now?
The blow to public credit.
The financial credit of the country has received a shock from the disasters to
McClellan's army from which it will not easily recover.
Previous to his being driven back, from his position before
Richmond, Government stocks were at an unexampled premium, and the credit of the country never stood so high.
Within a week all this has been changed, and now Government stocks exhibit more unsteadiness than any other class of public securities.
Who is responsible for this state of things?
Not
McClellan, who, in his misfortunes as in his successes, has displayed all the qualities of an able General, but the radicals, who weakened his command by taking
Banks's and
McDowell's decisions from him, and then prevented his being reinforced, although they knew that he was in a position of the most pressing danger.
These are the traitors who would destroy the integrity of the
Republic, ruin the fair edifice of our financial credit, and plunge the country into hopeless embarrassments, to place the negro in a position in which he would be of no earthly use to himself or others.
Thus far they have been successful in their intrigues.
Let them look out, however, for the retribution that is to follow them.
The country is losing patience, and it will not be long before they feel the full effects of the wrath which they have so industriously provoked.
Mismanagement.
[From the New York Herald, (Editorial,) July 7.]
There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak.
The campaign has concluded with our repulse from before
Richmond.
The campaign to come will require new troops, new plans and new combinations, with, perhaps, new emergencies of foreign complications.
The time has come, therefore to expose, rebuke and correct the errors and mismanagement of the past, in order to secure a thorough reformation for the future.
The
Secretary of War makes no provision for accident or emergency, and issues a call for three hundred thousand troops, not just before a battle, when the people are enthusiastic, but just on the heels of a repulse, when the people are depressed.
When
Stanton divided
McClellan's command he himself assumed the practical direction of the campaign.
The people knew and the press announced that
Jeff. Davis was massing all his troops at
Richmond, just as a good business man concentrates his means where he finds the best investment.
The
Secretary of War could not understand this.
Consequently our forces on
James Island retreated from a foe who had gone to
Richmond; our troops in the
Shenandoah built entrenchments against
Jackson, who had gone to
Richmond; our troops at the
West stood on the defensive against
Beauregard, who had gone to
Richmond; and
Burnside sought in vain for the
North Carolina Confederates, who had also gone to
Richmond.
McClellan was, therefore, overwhelmed.
A Washington letter in the Baltimore
Sun, dated 7th inst., says:
‘
Officers from the seat of war on
James river, absent on short leave, say that it is the belief that there will be no more fighting there for a month.--Both sides were so much shattered, it is thought, that a cessation of actual hostilities may occur.--But the
Confederates, if aide, will not be slow to renew the conflict.
’
All accounts from the
North show that great agitation and hesitation prevail in regard to financial and military prospects.
Capitalists who hold public securities take the alarm.
But the call for the additional force of three hundred thousand men will, it is thought, be met, under the stimulus of the proposed twenty-five dollar bounty.
A very intelligent person, who deserted from the
Confederates at
Richmond, arrived here to-day.
He speaks of their forces as immense, and as being constantly augmented by reinforcements under the conscription act.
A Washington letter in the New York
Tribune says:
‘
There is much interest in
Washington to hear the response of the country to the
President's new call for volunteers.
The prevailing sentiment is that the enlistments will be too slow to meet the public demand for an immediate and overwhelming advance upon the rebellion, and that a draft for a half million men would ...the
pres. half-way measures, but the finishing blow.
’
A surgeon of a Wisconsin regiment, who was captured at
Bull Run and has been kept in
Richmond ever since, reached
Washington this morning.
He was taken out to the battle-fields before
Richmond to help care for the wounded, but watched his opportunity and escaped.
He says the
Confederate leaders claim a miraculous deliverance, and that every pane of glass in
Richmond was illuminated in honor of their victory; but still the tone of the community was greatly saddened by reason of their frightful losses in battle.
[From the New York Times, (Editorial,) July 7.]
If ‘"
Stonewall"’
Jackson be not dead — and there is now a doubt thrown over the statement that he was veritably and actually killed in the late battles — is there no danger of his taking a column and with it marching suddenly in the direction of
Washington?
The movements of this daring rebel during the last two months have been as rapid and successful as they have been extraordinary in other respects.
It is but a few weeks since he pounced upon and defeated the forces of
Milroy and Scheack in the Shenandoah Valley.
From that work he entered upon the pursuit of
Gen. Banks, drove him to
Winchester, defeated him there, pursued him a distance of seventy or eighty miles up to the
Potomac; then retired, and during his retreat defeated
Fremont and
Shields; then swept over the
Blue Ridge and across
Eastern Virginia to the
Chickahominy and attacked the right wing of our main army ten days ago — with what success is known to our readers — having in this space of time fought four battles at distant points, and traversed a distance of four or five hundred miles. In each of the instances his movement was more or less of a surprise, and each of them would have been declared by most men quite impossible before it was actually done.
It would be undoubtedly a difficult thing for
Jackson, whether he be or be not dead, to take twenty thousand.
Confederates and move north to
Fredericksburg, thence to
Manassas, thence eastward to the
Potomac, and it is not likely he will try. We believe, moreover, that our troops now at
Washington and the points named are fully prepared to resist such a movement.
At least we hope so. And we also hope that our troops now in the Shenandoah Valley and elsewhere in
Eastern Virginia, will be disposed of so as to effectually prevent any other northward movements of this rebel, if he be alive, or of his ghost, if he be dead.
A day of excitement in New York.
[From the New York Tribune, July 4.]
Yesterday was a day of intense excitement.
It has had few equals in this country.
The ambiguous utterances of the morning papers — the sullen silence of the
Government — the evident restraint of comment — the ill concealed anxiety of those who ought to be at case — the imperious call for men — the erratic movements of cabinet officers — the restiveness of the people under all this apparently designed mortification — all conspired to raise a fever in the public mind of unequalled fervor.
We were called upon early in the morning to give, in an extra edition, a dispatch from
Fortress Monroe of most unsatisfactory character.
It represented that a gunboat had arrived from the scene of action, yesterday, (Monday,) 10 miles above
City Point; it went on to say that division [what division] had fought four days and retreated 17 miles. If that division was a portion of
McClellan's right wing, the 17 miles is easily understood.
The dispatch jumps at once to the fight of yesterday, (Monday,) and says it was terrific, the enemy having three to one--the old, old story.
It was begun by our land forces, who fought four hours; then our gunboats got in range and gave the
Confederates much trouble; they stood it for two hours, and then retired.
Then we are told that our men took many cannon and 2,000 prisoners--among them
Gen. Magruder, (Most excellent news, if true,) All this took place at
Turkey creek, bend or bridge, about ten miles above
City Point. Seventeen miles of retreat from this place would bring our army down to the place —
Harrison's Bar — where
McClellan had his headquarters (so says a later dispatch) on Tuesday.
But then the
Fortress Monroe correspondent abruptly adds that ‘"the retreat of the
Confederates last evening (that's Monday) was with great disorder, and their loss has been very heavy, much greater, it is thought, than ours."’ But he adds that nothing deficits is known about losses.
And he immediately adds, with sublime disregard of time, place or continuity, that
McClellan had to spike his siege guns and leave them on the debt, the nature of the ground rendering their removal impossible.
Upon this meas of unintelligible stuff, the public were left to ruminate until late in the afternoon.
There was almost universal gloom.
Now and then a credulous believer in the Immaculate talent of a great man, would oracularly pronounce ‘"all right; only keeping back the good news for the 4th of July,"’ but his followers were few and for between; even the ardent hope which has so long sustained us flagged and was fast giving way to despair.
From this thickening gloom the city was partially roused at 3 o'clock by a dispatch hailing from
Washington, reading as follows: "A dispatch from
General McClellan, just received at the War Department, dated, From
Berkeley,
Harrison's bar, July 2, 5.30 P. M., stating that he has succeeded in getting his army to place, on the banks of the
James river, and but one gun, which had to be abandoned for daylight (Tuesday) because it broke down; that and a half ago the rest of the wages train a mile of the weep and only war wages
It is needless to say that this, brief and unsatisfactory as it is, gave most welcome belief to a million of anxious minds.
The army was not bearer — so they reasoned; all was — or would be — right.
Yet the statement of
Gen. McClellan that no guns were lost was inexplicable; other reports, apparently truthful, said that he had lost dozens; but this late at news came from the War Department--they could not deceive the people — certainly not intentionally.
So, opinion was rather in favor of the latest dispatch; and the painful suspense of the people was measurably relieved.
In this state of mind, the city entered upon the eve of the national anniversary.
But the customary hilarity was not manifest; the evening was cold and gloomy, and even the irrepressible patriotism of
Young America was tame and spiritless.
Our next telegraphic advices, in order of date, are from
Fortress Monroe, July 2, endorsed ‘"By Mail to the
Associated Press."’ The reports from the army by this correspondent are to Tuesday, inclusive.
That was the sixth day of continuous fighting all along our lines, a fight that for destructiveness of life has no parallel in history.
Our killed, wounded, and missing are estimated at 15,000 to 20,000.
This letter denies the loss of the siege guns, stating that nearly all were brought safely off.
General McClellan and his staff agree that the army has got into a much better position by the great movement.
Some of our regiments have suffered terribly.
For instance, the 5th New York lost 300, after most heroic fighting.
The enemy everywhere outnumbered us; they had 185,000 effective men —
McClellan not more than 195,000.
Next we had a dispatch from
Baltimore, but it is suppressed at the dictation of
Mr. Sandford, Military Supervisor of Telegraphic Dispatches.
From other sources, we learn that
Gen. Shield's army went up
James river on Tuesday to reinforce
McClellan.
Our
Washington dispatches state that a cavalry officer from
Fredericksburg reported heavy cannonading heard all day on Wednesday, in the direction of
Richmond; that at night the sky was strongly illuminated with lurid light, and on Thursday (yesterday morning,) there was a great smoke to the south, as if from some dense conflagration.
The death of
Stonewall Jackson, and also of
Gen. Barnwell Rhett, of
South Carolina, is announced in a Richmond paper.
From this sketch of the day's dispatches, and from the letters of our correspondents, (elsewhere printed) the reader can get all the light available to the public in regard to the great contest before
Richmond.
But the manner in which information has been conveyed, and the hesitancy on all sides about publication, is not calculated to inspire a lively faith in any statement.
Proceedings in the Yankee Senate.
In the
Yankee Senate, on Monday,
Mr. Willey moved to take up the bill for the admission of
West Virginia, and
Mr. Trumbull called the yeas and nays thereon, of a test vote.
The Senate refused to take up the bill — yeas 17, nays 18.
Mr. Chandler submitted the following:
‘
Resolved, That the
Secretary of War be directed to furnish for the use of the Senate all orders of the
Executive to
Major-Gen. Geo. B. McClellan relative to the advance of the Army of the Potomac upon
Richmond, and all the correspondence between the said
Gen. George B. McClellan and the
Executive, from the date of the
President's order to the said
Gen. McClellan to advance upon
Manassas on the 22d February, 1862, and the 1st day of May, 1862; likewise the numerical force of the Army of the Potomac, as shown by the morning rolls on the first day of November and December, 1861, and January, February and March, 1862; the number of troops which
Gen. McClellan took to
Fortress Monroe, and the number of reinforcements supplied him up to and including the 25th day of June, 1862.
Mr. Chandler said the
Senator from
Pennsylvania wanted to know where the army was. The army of the Potomac, when it marched on
Manassas, numbered 230,000 men, and the enemy less than 30,000.
They marched on
Manassas and found thirty-two wooden guns and eleven hundred dead horses.
He believed that the army could have marched to
Richmond in thirty days and not have lost a thousand men, and there would have been no impediment to its marching to
Charleston or New Orleans.
But the
Senator from
Pennsylvania wants to know who placed the army where they are. The press, politicians and traitors to the country declare that
E. M. Stanton put them there, but
Stanton had nothing to do with putting the army in the marshes of the
Chickahominy.
This is a matter of criminality — gross criminality, which should consign the criminals to eternal detestation and condemnation.
The country demands a sacrifice for crime, and the press of the country is demanding the sacrifice of a mere clerk,
Mr. Stanton being a mere clerk, to obey the orders of the
President.
A call should be made on the
President, which, if answered, would show the true criminal.
The criminality was now reduced so as to be between two and dividing the Army of the Potomac, and
the criminal is either Abraham Lincoln or George or McClellan--there is no third man at all. The criminal should, in his judgment, not only be deprived of office, but suffer the extreme penalty of the law. The nation had been disgraced by this division of the Army of the Potomac, which
Secretary Stanton had opposed.
If that army had been commanded by that arch traitor,
Jefferson Davis, there had not been a step since December he would not have ordered.
He called on the press to stop denouncing at mere clerk, and to denounce the
President and
Gen. McClellan.
Mr. Lane, of
Kansas, joined in loud condemnation of the manner in which the war had been conducted and the so-called conservative policy, urging the putting of arms in the hands of all loyal men in the States, without reference to color.
If this had been done at first, as his friends desired, the rebellion would have been crushed in sixty days. He vehemently advocated this policy.
After further discussion, the Senate went into Executive session and subsequently adjourned.
’
The bombardment of Vicksburg.
A dispatch from
Memphis, dated 6th inst., states that the ram
Lioness had arrived there from
Vicksburg with dates to 2d inst.
The canal being cut across the point of land opposite
Vicksburg was nearly completed.
A large number of negroes had been collected to work on the canal from the various plantations in the vicinity, and in all cases Government receipts were given for them.
Several thousand more were about to be engaged on the work.
It is supposed that when the ditch is finished the river will cut a wide channel during high water, forever leaving
Vicksburg an inland village.
The bombardment has been kept up at regular intervals from both fleets,
Com. Davis having arrived when the
Lioness left.
The rebel batteries were replying occasionally.
It is stated that the rebel works were to be stormed on the Fourth of July, and there is every reason to believe that the place has already fallen.--The city is said not to be so badly damaged as first stated.
All the non-combatants were removed previous to the bombardment.
The rebel force is said to be 16,000.
A story had reached the fleet that several hundred of the enemy were killed by the explosion of the shells.
