54 could not advance on that route while Norfolk was in possession of the rebels, and while the iron-clad Merrimac blockaded the mouth of the James River. When Norfolk was taken and the Merrimac was destroyed, and our gun-boats had reached City Point, it was the true policy of McClellan to join the gun-boats, and unite our naval and military forces. McClellan, as early as Friday, in the third week of June, gave orders to remove the stores from the White House and the York River, round to the James. And it was done effectually, and without interruption or loss, by the following Tuesday. On Tuesday he moved his army ; it was attacked, and the attack was repulsed ; fresh hordes of the fugitives of Beauregard with the veterans of Johnson and Lee repeated the assaults on Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday and Sunday, and each onslaught was repelled : on Monday, the advance of our army reached the James River, driving before them three thousand head of cattle and dragging their siege guns through the swamps of the Chickahominy, without the loss of a hoof or the abandonment of a gun. The dead and the wounded were necessarily left behind, and several fieldpieces (twenty-five in number) were disabled and captured. Prisoners were taken and provisions in baggage wagons were captured. This was all our damage, though it was fearful and saddening. On Monday the rebels renewed the fight on the rear-guard, and were again repulsed with loss of whole brigades of rebel prisoners and of twenty- six of their guns. On Tuesday the reserve of the enemy marched from Richmond, fresh and untired, with the expectation of getting into the rear of our exhausted troops ; but they were met and held until our gun-boats, the Galena and the Monitor, opened a terrific fire, which sent the frightened rebels hurly skurly back to Richmond. Thus- ended the foiled attempts to outgeneral McClellan. [Cheers.] Thus terminated the rebel efforts to beat our brave soldiers of the Army of the Potomac. [Cheers.] It is worth noticing, that the correspondent of the New-York Tribune relates that he was on board of the Galena when McClellan arrived on board from a skiff, and posted the gun-boat by his own directions to her commander ; that then he went aboard of the Monitor, and pointed out the proper position for that champion to take. [Cheers.] It was a spectacle like that of Perry passing from the Lawrence to the Niagara, and plucking victory from a competent foe by the force of mind and valor. It was the shots from these, his naval coadjutors, which gave the finishing blow to the rebels in their last assault, and sent them back to their rebel capital. [Cheers for McClellan.] Now, fellow-citizens, does all this wear the aspect of McClellan's defeat, or of McClellan's victories ? The rebels were foiled, and the Union Army was successful. And I claim the series of victories, costly as they were, to McClellan and his army, and so will history record her judgment. Why, let me put the case in a familiar way ; suppose that you were going over the ferry to Brooklyn, where two or three rowdies encountered you, and swore that you should not go ; they attack you, and you knock them down, one after another, and go on your way, and reach the other side as you intended. Who conquered ? W'ho got the victory ? Will you say that you were defeated, because your clothes were torn and your nose bloody, or even if your arm were broken and your purse gone ?
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