San Andreas independent., 1861-06-22
PROGRESS OF THE WAR.


llstments will be accepted by the War Depart
ment for shorter term of service than three
years The leaders who managed this rebell-
ion laid their plans well and made every prep
aration for success which the abundant means
they controlled enabled them to do. For four
years. with an imbecile and unresisting Presi-
dent, and with all the chief departments of the
Government in possession, the secession lead
ers have been silently sapping the power and
credit of the Union and transferring their steal
ings to the Cotton States. Through the aid
of Floyd, Buchanan's Secretary of War, they
were thus put in possession of more than one
half the infantry arms belonging to the United
States, and through the aid of Cobb, at the
head of the Treasury Department. the finances
and credit of the Federal Government were
reduced to the lowest ebb. Thus they not
only strengthened themselves, but weakened
and disarmed. their adversary. The stealing
of the money in the mints and custom houses
at the South and even the subsequent repudi-
alton of the debts owing to Northern mer-
chants, were mere nothings in moral abandon
ment when compared with the magnificent
perfdies of the late heads of the Treasury
and War Department OF the United States-
Through them the rebellion was hatched nurs-
ed into vigorous life and plumed on strong
pinions before the uninitiated even suspected
the breed OF the mischieyous egg They faith
fnIIv liant their eoorat mill orrno eJfunliae ~
munitions were secured enough to equip and
maintain on war footing 1900 through a
longer campaign than the leaders ever dream
ed of having to fight. Thus far they have
been getting along smoothly enough. Many
of their calculations have been realized; as
for example, the unity of the rebellious senti-
ment in the Cotton States, under pressure of
armed conspirators, and the secession of the
great Border State of Virginia through the
same violent causes; but in one or two essen
tial points they have been sadly disappointed
When Jefferson Davis gave the order to as
ssult the starving garrison in Fort Sumpter,
he reckoned upon more than the mere ordi-
nance of secession from Virginia, and the Chi
valrous courtesy shown toward Major Ander-
son was but bid for Kentucky and her vigo-
rous offspring, Missouri. Itwas expected that
all the Border Slave States would secede from
the Union and take shares in the Cottonocracy.
This was the first grand mistake.
Davis knew very well that President Lin
coin would issue the proclamation be did issue
as soon as news of the assault upon Sumpter
reached Washington, and that war would be
opened at once on the rebels. But he counted
on Northern aid-on the detection of such
men as James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, D.
S. Dickinson, B. +. Butler, and all those who
bad faithfully defended the South whenever
her constitutional rights were threatened by
the abolition cohorts. He never dreamed that
the pro-savery Democracy of New York city
and the conservative masses of Pennsylvania
would march together to the same music with
New England. This was his second grand
mistake. 1t was a mistake, too, which not
the greatest general who ever lived could af-
ford to make. 1t involves him in war with
the odds of three to one against him, with the
additional odds of all the money the navy,
and the prestige of law and established gov
ernment in the possession of his Adversary
If every Southern soldier were as brave as
every Southern orator and newspaper would
make the world believe, even then their cause
is hopeless as against the enemy they have to
right. fhey have not ashacow of hope exceprin
the division fthe loyal States. Let US suppose
that they are fortunate enough to win battle
over a Division of the United States army
that they even succeed in achieving Waterloo
defeat of General McClelland, Butler, or Mans
field. Does anybody suppose that this would
profit their cause? Never was there greater
mistake. So far from profting them, victory
in the outset will be their ruin. The loss of a
great battle at Norfolk, Harper's Ferry or
Richmond, on the part of the Federal army,
would arouse such indignation against treason
throughout the loyal States, that army of
half million would instantly take the place
of the ten or twenty thousand defeated troops
The entire area of treason would be over
whemed with armed invaders, and the spirit
of the war would be colored with all the dar-
kcr shades of strife. Every success of the
rebel army will result in an injury to their
cause. The taking of Snmpter called into the
field Federal army of 200, ,ooo a success of
the rebels at Harper's Ferry or Richmond,
would trebel the nnmber of Federal troops
But with equal numbers Scott has out-gen-
eraled the rebel captains Three months ago
they boasted that they would spend their May
picnic IN Washington anu celebrate whatever
was left of the Fourth of July, in Philadelphia
Now General SCOTS men are in possession of
the Potomac from Norfolk to Washington
have taken Alexandria; menace the rebels at
Winchester and along the line OF the Shenan-
doah: hold all of Western Virginia have cut
off communication with the intrenched rebels
at Harpers Ferry menace Richmond hold
10000 rebels in check at Norfolk and Ports
mouth and from Cairo threaten all the trea-
sonable plots connecting on the lower Misss-
sippi.
The rebel forces st Harpers Ferry are esti-
mated at $4,000. LATEST news from the East
hints at an attack upon that point BY General
McClelland from the west and General Patter-
son, from southern Pennsylvania We do not
think snch an attack will soon be made With
all of Northern and Western Virginia in pos
session of Federal troops, and with the line
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