The longer telegram4/15/2023 ![]() They also state that all the bridges along the route which they came, had been blown up by the rebels in their retreat, and that the greater portion of the track is also torn up. But if they did, it was for the purpose of reinforcing JACKSON, at Winchester. The contrabands state that a portion of the force which left Manassas passed northwardly, but this is considered improbable. ![]() They all agree in saying that the rebels left the latter place in great precipitation, and that the destruction of their commissary stores was commenced at an early hour on Sunday. Some of the fugitives claim to have come twenty miles west of Manassas. On our way from Centreville yesterday morning, we passed at least one hundred, who were making their way to Washington. Large numbers of contrabands have reached our lines (which now extend beyond Manassas Junction,) and are still coming in by droves. It is said the rebels left Centreville on Sunday morning. Such of the locomotives which were out of repair were also destroyed, it is supposed by being blown up, and the vicinity of the depot is covered by fragments of machinery belonging to the destroyed locomotives. The rebels also blew up the bridges along the line of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad for some miles below Manasses. The place presented a scene of the utmost desolation, a mass of charred and blackened ruins. Upon close examination it was discovered that the rebels before evacuating their much boasted stronghold, had set fire to such of their commissary stores as they could not conveniently carry off. ![]() The bridges, railroad track and depot in that vicinity were extensively damaged, and nothing but wreck and desolation was apparent. The rebels had destroyed as much of their property as they could not carry away, by fire and otherwise. The entire command thence proceeded to Manassas, arriving there in the evening. Yesterday morning our forces, amounting to upward of two thousand, proceeded to Centreville, and occupied the village about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. This army is invincible, and can go "On to Richmond!" No facts could more conclusively show the wisdom of long and patient training of men in camp before attempting to handle them in the field. No stragglers are loitering along the road, - and the army of to-day is in striking contrast with the army of July. As much order reigns as though the troops were still at Arlington Heights. The movement to this place has been a great success. Last night was cold, but the soldiers are all fresh and fine this morning. The Court-house and Church are in good condition. The houses are mostly empty, fences aregone, and desolation prevails. No accident has occurred.Įverybody has run away from about Fairfax who could. All the Union troops ordered have come up. ![]() The roads are found to be good, and, so far, unimpeded. A few rude trenches are all the military defences about this place. Your correspondent, finding no enemies around, encamped at Fairfax for the night. In the evening the Union troops occupied Fairfax. For more Kennan in the Atlantic archives, see “ Foreign Policy and Christian Conscience,” published in May 1959.On Sunday morning, a squad of cavalry, numbering ten or twelve, passed through here, going toward our lines, but returned in an hour or two and went toward Centreville. to avoid histrionics and over-reaction.” One should avoid “the abundant pitfalls of attempting to strike noble poses with relation to a situation one did not create, cannot remove, and understands very poorly.” “I had been struck by the contrast between the lucid and realistic thinking of early American statesmen of the Federalist period and the cloudy bombast of their successors of later decades.” And so on.Ĭontinued here. “One stands stupefied at the frivolity and irresponsibility reflected in this response.” “We would do well. Weariness and exasperation mark his descriptions of American policymaking. Saving the world is beyond America’s capacities, and is likely to harm both us and those we are trying to save, he says. The left’s desire to save the world by good works and the right’s desire to save it by military adventure are, in Kennan’s view, just two versions of an ill-informed, ahistorical, and doomed romanticism.
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