THE ENEMY DRIVES US FROM OUR CAMPS—MICHIGAN BOYS BEAR THEMSELVES NOBLY—A DAY OF HARD FIGHTING AND HEAVY RAIN—AN ENTIRE COMPANY SWEPT AWAY BY CANISTER—A SOLDIER OF THE SEVENTH MICHIGAN TAKES THE BLOW MEANT FOR HIS COMRADE—QUESTIONS FOR OUR COMMANDERS.
From our Special Correspondent.
Camp upon the Tennessee, April 6, 1862.
This has been a day of trial for the Army of the Tennessee, and one which has shown plainly enough the difference between the soldier in the ranks and the gentlemen who undertake to command him.
The morning began badly. Our battalion drill was conducted with such singular confusion that officers’ and non-commissioned officers’ hats were sent flying in every direction. Had the enemy been watching, he might well have concluded that we were practicing some new species of military gymnastics.
We soon discovered that the real exercise was yet to come.
The rebel attack fell upon us with a violence and suddenness which drove our men from their camps and steadily toward the river. Heavy rains added to the misery of the day, driving the local inhabitants from their places of shelter and leaving soldiers and civilians alike exposed to the storm.
Yet through all this, the Michigan boys behaved magnificently.
Again and again they were compelled to fall back, but they did not cease fighting. The enemy might take a camp, but he could not take the spirit of the men defending it. Where the officers failed to provide order, the soldiers furnished courage enough for themselves.
The day’s fighting has been frightful. In one instance an entire company of Zouaves was swept away by a single discharge of canister from a rebel gun. Such scenes make the consequences of this war painfully plain. There is nothing theatrical about a battle when canister is tearing through the ranks.
And yet amid these horrors there are acts of courage which deserve to be remembered long after the names of generals have been forgotten.
One soldier of the Seventh Michigan Infantry, seeing the shot coming toward the rear of his company, deliberately kept himself from the rear rank in such a manner as to receive the blow himself and thereby save the man before him. Such a deed requires no general’s commission and no newspaper proclamation. It is the plain, unadorned courage of the American soldier.
Let Michigan remember such men.
It is less easy to speak with confidence of our generals.
There are already many questions concerning General Grant and the manner in which this army was left exposed to surprise. We hear, too, that General Sherman, alarmed at the situation, spoke with General Grant during the day’s confusion. Grant, it is said, was in no condition to furnish much encouragement, but replied simply:
“Lick ’em tomorrow.”
Perhaps tomorrow will prove the General correct. We sincerely hope so. But it is difficult to understand how an army is to be led to victory when its commanders first permit it to be surprised and then offer tomorrow as the principal feature of their strategy.
A LITTLE TOO MUCH CAKE.
We are also informed that a baking competition has recently occupied the attention of certain persons of considerable distinction. Remarkably, both Mr. Abraham Lincoln and Mr. Jefferson Davis were called upon to act as judges, and both gentlemen unanimously selected a reproduction of Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln’s cake as the finest offering.
We confess that we find this fraternizing with the enemy somewhat difficult to swallow, particularly at a moment when American soldiers are swallowing considerably more gunpowder than cake.
Perhaps if the President spent somewhat less time stuffing his face with Mrs. Lincoln’s confectionery and somewhat more time devising a plan by which General Grant might keep his army in its camps, the people of the North would feel a little more confidence in the administration’s culinary and military judgment alike.
We trust that tomorrow’s proceedings will concern the enemy rather more than the frosting.
But whatever may be said of those who direct this war, let no word of criticism fall upon the brave men who are bearing its burdens.
The Michigan soldier has done his duty.
He has stood his ground when he could, fallen back when he must, and fought wherever he was ordered. Some have fallen. Others are wounded. Many are exhausted. But their courage remains unshaken.
The enemy may have driven us from our camps today.
He has not driven the Michigan boys from the field.
The boys have done their duty.
A BRAVE HORSEMAN HURT.
We regret to learn that one of our brave cavalrymen was thrown violently from his horse during the confusion of the action and rendered insensible by the fall.
He was attended by surgeons as soon as circumstances permitted, and we trust that his injuries will prove less serious than first feared.
The cavalryman who rides into danger while shot and shell are flying about him performs a service too easily overlooked by those safely removed from the field. We send him our hearty wishes for a speedy recovery, and hope that before long he shall once more find himself in the saddle.
May his faithful horse and his brave rider both yet have many a hard march and a happier campaign before them.