June 6, 1862 (Friday): McClellan's Losses

Franklin's Corp Retreating at Fair Oaks (Waud)

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., June 6, 1862. 

Major-General McCLELLAN:
    Officers of your army, some of high rank, are sending details to their wives and friends, by telegraph, of the disasters, in respect to the number killed and wounded.


EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.

McCLELLAN'S, June 6, 1862-noon. 

Honorable E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War:
    Has been raining, but now stopped. River still rising. All quiet to-day. Several deserters and contrabands state that J. E. Johnston was dangerously wounded in battle of Fair Oaks and that G. W. Smith is in command. Their loss is stated at 10,000. I only know that it is very great, far more than ours.


GEO. B. McCLELLAN,
Major-General.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 11, Part 3, Page 217.

To this point the newspapers in the North were reporting a smashing victory and heavy Confederate losses, the consensus being the rebels were at bay and Richmond would soon be taken.  But in the accounts of ranking officers to their wives a different story was emerging, one Stanton was willing to call "disasters".  McClellan's response overstated Confederate casualties by 70%.  In point of fact, the battle was a horrendous slaughter, and not creditable in its execution to either Johnston or McClellan.