ourse, do not speak half the truth on such occasions, we may fairly infer that the loss was at least sixty thousand, which estimate is rendered probable by the number of small arms picked up by our men--fifty — seven thousand in all. Grant wrote a lying dispatch, claiming a victory, at the very time that he was retiring before Lee; while the latter, following him up, drove him out of Spotsylvania Courthouse and established himself there.
Here he was again assailed by Grant on the 9th and 10th of May.
On the latter day, he sustained a sanguinary repulse, in which he lost twenty thousand men. On the 12th, he made a sudden assault upon a portion of our lines which was too far advanced, and, by the suddenness of the onset, routed the division of General Edward Johnson and captured two thousand prisoners (among them the General himself) and all the artillery of the division.
The Yankees, however, were soon driven off, and the most tremendous battle of the war ensued.
Being behind breas
