The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-10-28
From Harper's yyeekIv1



"A good deal of impotence is expressed
by people at the slOwness with which the
war progresses. Our excitable citizens
would like at least battle a week, and
cannot understand why nearly three months
have elapsed since the affair at Bull Run.
and nothing whatever has been done by
General Mcclellan to ef1ace the stain OF
| that day. These murmurs have found ut
terance in one or two of our city journals
Many reasons-amply sufficient TO &C.
! count for our slOwness-Will at once occur
to the candid reader. In April last, only
! SIX months ago, we had neither money, nor
army, nor navy, nor cOmmissariat nor
| transporta ton, nor medical bureau, nor
any thing else requisite for military opera
| tons on great scale. Now the Govern
ment has as much money as it needs, a we'll
| appointed army of 350,000 men, a we'll
armed navy of some 300 vessels, and trans
! portation, cOmmissariat, etc, in good con-
! dIton and ample amount To have created
tirst-class army and navy in six months
is evidence not Of slowness but of unparal-
leled dispatch. The great armies and IA
vies of Europe are the fruit of years of
toll.
But still better excuse for the apparent
slowness of our military and navy move
ments is derived from the extent of country
covered by the war. 1t is safe to say that
there never was a war before prosecuted on
line of such length. From Fortress Mon
roe, Virginia, to Lexington, Missouri is
over 900 miles, and we may be said 10 be
guarding every foot Of this distance. Our
plckets are almost within hail of each other
along line rs long as from Havre, in
France to Gibraltar, iii Spain; or from Vi
emma, in Austria. to Brest. If we compare
this distance with that occupied by the lines
of the great armies whose campaigns are
written IN history, we shall sec how UMPIRE
cedented our present circumstances are
The whole of the great Italian war Of 1853.
in which some 100000 men were engaged.
was waged in an area less than that of New
Jersey or of Vermont, and neither beliig-
erent ever occupied lines extending over
$50 miles in length. The Crimean war of
1854 '55, was waged in an area about the
size of Manhattan Island, and the lines
guarded by sentinels seldom extended be-
yOnd twenty miles front. Wellington, in
the Spanish Peninsula, covered a front line
of some thirty miles; and Napoleon, in Italy
and Germany, about the same Even the
operations of the great French war of 1912
were narrow and contracted in comparison
with those of the army under Gen. Scott.
So with the navy. In the Crmean war
the combined fleets of England and France
devoted their whole energies 10 the block
aiding of three isolated sea-ports, and the /
assault OF three isolated forts. In the old
European wars there never was I'm attempt
made to perfect blockade OF long coast /,
line. England never attempted to close. 1
with ships of war, eUeTy French port. She /
blockaded port here and port there. and |
left others to be looked after by flying I
H. ~
extending along a line 1000 to 1900 miles |
in length, and Theoretically sealing at least
twenty-five established ports of entry. The .
lines of our blockade would encircle all
Europe, with the exception of Russia
" hen it is remembered thar, ri the out
break OF the rebellion, we had but one
available ship of war in a loyal port, il
must be confessed thet this is doing pretty
well.