The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-06-07
Mendacj,y a. a MILITARY Ara,

nfbdacfty as n Military Brt
During the Seminole war there was very
important engagement between portion of
General JEsrP's command and body Of In
dams under 0cEoLA. The whites claimed the
victory; and the newspapers heraldod
triumph with great eclst. Sometime after
wards when 0cgoLA was a prisoner in our
hands, some remark was made in his presence
about the victory we had gained over him in
The battle referred to. The Chief was very
indignant. He declared that the Indians had
won the victary, and that the whites had sus
gained disgrareful defeat but you had the
lying newspapers on your side, and they whip
ped us after We had won the battle" The
Yankees have the same advantage over the
South in this war they have the lying news
papers on their side and their powers Of ia
vention are capable of supplying all that their
Generals lack in strategy and their regi-
ments in prop.ss. 1t is quite provoking, and
At the came time very amusing, to see how
killful their newspapers and te'egraphlc re-
porter. are in converting victories into defeats
in concealing their own losses and in swelling
The lists Of our killed and wounded. From
be time they toasted Major Anderson as the
victor over and slayer of BEAUREGARn, down
TO the rout they have Mo 'e of three thousand
.eeessionists at Philippi by less than half the
number of '1oyalists" their reports of the fight
ng have been uniformly exaggerated, preposte-
rous and false. Probably we ought to give
their newspapers the benefit of the fact that
II is not they alone who are engaged in thfsyer9
valiant sort Of campaigning. Gen. Nc D9wJ5a,,
IN his report of the affair at Fairfax Court
House, seems determined not to be outstripped
by the press in this new branch Of military
tactics. Wh,t he lacks in other departments
of generalship, he is determined to make up
IN mendacity, the most important part, in the
Northern programme. Mcdowell, however, is
40 greater proficient in this business than the
rest of their officers.
II the victory is to be awarded to the best
liars in this contest, then the case of the Sonth
is desperate. The North can hes, tie 1vor: d
at that sort of canponatins. A single New
York newspaper, of the first class" would
je an ever match for all Great Britain. The
Tribune alone could drive LOUIS NAPOLEON,
he greatest military potentate on the globe,
,ut of the field. An Armstrong gun would be
nothing to GREELEY's goose-quill. 1t is said
hat TIE Washington Patent Office is a monu-
ment of Northern ingenuity and invention. It
is as a mer pigmy by the side of the Egyptian
pyramids, when compared with the mighty
mass of talsehood embodied in the files of the
Republican papers. They present a monu-
ment higher tn an the top Of Babel ever
reached, more massive than Cheops. They
hire newspaper reporters in Washington, not
with reference to their skill in ferettiny out
news, but in invepting it ) and one of these
adopts in mendacity will improvise in five
minutes more SANDER upon a public man
than he can refute in five tbs or. may be,
in the balance of his life.
We suppose the South will try'to lie a little
in this struggle but 1t will make very awk
ward figure in the attempt. Deceptions are
deemed legitimate in military strategy
WASHINGTON practiced them himself He left
mis- camp fires burning at Trenton all the night
he was marching upon Princeton. IF casuists
yrumbe at these pious frauds, military men
| commend them. To lie to an enemy by your
acts is not deemed a breach of military honor,
though verbal falsehocd has always, until
| now, been Gespised. We have no doubt the
South will essay now and then a little legiti-
| mate military deception; but she will not de-
| scend to the base trick of Intentionally mis-
| representing the result of engagements. This
concerns the honor of the soldier, and to repre-
sent base and arrant poltroonery as gaining
victories over courage and proves, is to blot
out glory from the vocabulary of warfare and
| to poison the fountains of fame. 1t is true,
that truth will generally overtake falsehood in
the long run; but the Northern papers put
forward talsehood with such railroad speed,
| first in their newspapers and then in their
books, that truth has but little chance to catch
| up this side Of eternity. "The eternal years of
| God are hers; y but the Herald Tribune and
| Times, give falsehood exclusive sway in the
| realm of TINE.