New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-09-24

ia confirmed. and Lexington undoup.0u'
= en- no,.ession of the rebels under frlce' oen'
McCulloch is reported to have been In Barton
Countv in the Southwestern part OF inc o'a.c'
~ Monday marching to the aid OF Price. lie
80. nroboblv NOT more than q hundred miles DIS
tsnt and could easily have reached Lexington Oh
SATURDAY.. The combined forces would number
NOT less. we presume, than $4,000 men, and
with such an army in an intrenched and COM
manding position viii be able, we fear, to defy
attack from any force that can Immediately be
brought against them, as the Federal troops in
that part of the State do not exceed 900 men,
if so many. 1t may be that McCulloch was
so near to Lexington on Friday that Mui'
ligan saw that further resistance would
be hopeless Why, however, Gen. Lane
from the West, or Gen. Pope from the
North, OF Gen. Hunter from the South, or Gen.
Sturges from St. Joseph, or force from st.
Louis, were none of them there to strengthen and
relieve the beleagured and brave men, fighting
for four days, part of the time without drop
of water to relieve the burning thirst from the
heat and the dust of battle, passes our compre-
henson. The one mitigating and clear fact is
that Mulligan aud his men fought like heroes
against overwhelming numbers; all the rest is
dark, incomprehensble, and unsatisfactory.
Especially dishearteniDg is it that place OF
great Importance, and battle which was, per-
haps, the very turning point of the rebellion for
the whole West and Southwest should have
been lost with only the old excuse TO urge in
MISUNDERSTANDING Of members. The ques-
ton presses in the popular mind-when are we
to have the right number Of men, in the right
place, at the right time ?
Lexington is the capital of Lafayette County,
No., 100 miles west of Jefferson City, $50 west OF
ST. Louis, and is town of the first Importance in
Western Missouri. 1t has population OF more
than 600 souls, is Oh the direct road to Santa Fe
by overland route, and is the seat of large trade.
Situated on the right bank of the Missouri it COM
mands that river and the Rebels holding it are able
to cut off all our communication by that channel
with Western Missouri, and with Kansas. Thus as
strategical point its loss is serious one to the
Federal cause and its gain one of no small value to
the Secessonists lis possession practically settles
the question for that part of Missouri, for there are
more secessOnsts i'll that section of the State than
in any other and to have gained Lexington will add
very much to their strength. Its loss also puts
Kansas in q very critical condition.
Morally, the loss of Lexington is not less inn
portant than it is in strategical point of view.
At the North we may take it with phiosophic
calmness, our assured confidence in the energy
and strength of the Government sustaining US
under any reverses. But in none Of the Border
| States has the war been so embittered, so earn
eat, and carried on with so much energy, on
both sides, as 10 Missouri. The old Kansas
troubles had left behind the ashes and embers of
only smOthered fires ready to break out again,
| on due provocatiOn with renewed fierceness.
The passions engendered in those times have
bred the people to violence, and they have thrown
themselves at last, willingly if not gladly, into
the war. OF course all this has given
TO the war in that region the fercest
| type, makes the rebellion there the harder
| TO overcome, and renders disaster on our
| side the more serious Lexington follows Spring
| field, and however unimportant they may appear
| to us by comparison, while we watch the great
events which always seem imminent on the Po-
tnc1 otO hNi9 gov i"Neo "a Ne4''N"A'
| We fear there are great many Union men in
| the West and Southwest who wait TO 60 with
the strongest party. And we are afraid that we
can hardly question now which is the stronger
party in Western Missouri. We fear that the
people of the Southwest have been watching
with great interest this struggle in Missouri, and
that their hopes and their determinations have
sunk OF risen as success has seemed to tend now
| toward one side and now toward the other. The
fall of Lexington, the principal city Of Western
Missouri, commanding the Missouri River, and
the kew to the heart of Kansas, is result SO
positive that its influence on the people of the
whole Southwest will be of very certain
| character
| We have bad quite too many blunders and
| disasters without q court.martial, or even
court of inquiry. This one cannot be allowed to
! pass unscrutinized without throwing on the
Government load that it is i'll able to bear.
We insist that the responsible author or authors
of this calamity be held up to public reprObatOn.
Let no one be condemned till the facts shall
have been sscertained; but whoever is respOn-
sible for this cruel blow, no matter how exalted
or how strong in the public favC must be
deprived Of the power to work further mischief.