Close quarters.
Everything seems to indicate the approach of a great battle between the forces of McClellan and our own, under General Johnston. We have the utmost confidence in the skill and ability of our General. We are well aware that he knows what is best to do, and that he will be sure to do whatever is best. We hope he will be left free and untrammeled, to carry out his own views, and to make his own campaign in his own way.--Far be from us the unpardonable presumption of even hinting what ought to be done, in a case where is so completely understands the subject, and we know so little of it.Nevertheless, we cannot forbear observing that where the enemy is so superior to us, in the number and range of his great guns, and in the completeness of his small arms, it would be the height of folly to allow the issue to be staked alone upon the use of fire-arms — This is especially the case in this instance, since the late example of Shiloh has proved beyond question that the bayonet, in the hands of our troops, is a weapon which the enemy cannot withstand. We beat him wherever we came in contact with him with that weapon. He was unable to withstand a single one of our charges. This fact speaks a whole volume of encouragement to our men. Whenever the long-range guns of the enemy. Annoy them without the possibility of retaliation, a charge with the bayonet will be sure to decide the debate. The English and French infantry always charge a battery by which they are galled. They never think of wasting ammunition in returning the fire. Our troops are brave enough, and they are sufficiently well disciplined to charge with the bravest. It would seem, that where a column charging is fired upon by a column in position, it ought to be annihilated before it could reach the firing column. But experience has proved that such is never the case. On the contrary, the casualties are in general surprisingly small. They are not nearly so great as when the two columns stand and deliberately fire at each other. We recollect a case in point, which occurred at the capture of an advanced two days before the battle of Borodira, and is related by Gen. Gourgand in his reply to Segur's Narrative.
The redoubt in question was open in the rear. On one flank was a deep ravine, and about ten yards in its rear was another. Gen. Compenas, with about fifteen hundred men was ordered to take the redoubt. He attempted to turn it by means of the ravines in question. He had driven the Russians out of the first ravines but as his men rose the verge on the opposite side, they saw the Russians just rising the bank of the other. Both parties instantly commenced such a deadly fire that in five minutes 800 men were killed or wounded on both sides. The fire was so furious that the officers could not be heard for a few moments, but as soon as they could make themselves understood, a charge was ordered, and the enemy routed at the point of the bayonet. What the firing could not do, even with the loss of so many men, the bayonet did instantly. It cleared the way for the French, who entered the redoubt by the rear without further opposition, for the defenders evacuated it as soon as they saw that they were tested.
There are many other examples besides this to show that it is the safest to charge , when the fire is heavy. The loss is never so great in a rush as it is where the parties stand still. The coolness of the party receiving the charge can rarely ever be preserved, none, indeed, but of the meet approved valor can preserve it, and McClellan has none such in his ranks. Our men may his long range muskets at defiance, if they will charge briskly, and will not lose bail the number they would lose — by standing to be McClellan boasted six months ago the war was to be decided by artillery, and he forthwith went to work and cast any number of long range guns. Let us show him that he is mistaken — that we have something else besides spades and pickaxes to depend upon — and that the bayonet still preserves its ancient supremacy upon the field of battle. The war between France and Austria, in 1859, notwithstanding the enormous mass of long-range artillery in the hands of the French, was decided at last by the bayonet. And so it must be, and so it will be, whenever the spade is laid aside, and the manhood of the soldiers substituted for ditches and earthworks.
