Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-12-08
Winter Campaigning.

4
| One of the greatest of popular delusions
| is that OF supposing winter campaigning at
| the South to be feasible thing. The North
have had to abandon many fallacious notions
| and to sustain many chastening disappoint-
ments since the beginning of the war but
this idea of making long marches through
| the South in mid-winter, is one which they
| still cling to with great fondness, and which
| is destined to lead them into much grief It
has been said that "going into winter quar-
| ters " is an obsolete and exploded idea in
| Europe. Perhaps il Is SO in these modern
! times. when the roads over that whole con-
| tinent have come to excel the best streets Of
| American cities in fneness and excellence; !;
perhaps it is SO in densely populated Europe.
where every square mile of territory has
provisions for regiment; and whore tho
| rough system of agriculture can supply
moderate army with provisions at every step
of its progress The necessity of ''going
into winter quarters has ceased in Europe
only, because their roads have been brought
TO perfection, their population has become
denser, and their agriculture has rendered
every acre of surface prolific of human and
animal food. But very different is the case
on this continent.
winter campaign in the North would
be far more practicable than at the South;
compared with those of Europe, their roads
are Indifferent; but the continual frost of
winter renders them as firm as pavement.
The winter, too, is more intensely cold than
at the South; but the low temperature is
continuous, and there is the constant dry
ness of atmosphere which freezing weather
induces; continuous ice and frost is far more
propitious to army health and Transports
tion than alternate rains, SHOWS, thaWs and
freezes, ETC. Invasion of the North in win
ter, therefore, would be comparatively q
feasible performance, rendered more so by
the more dense population and the more
general distribution of food and supplies over
the whole surface of territory. In all these
respects the case of the South is different.
The Northerners are destined to encoun-
ter much more in Southern winter cam
paign than they dream of in their philoso-
ply. The agricultural industry Of our sec
ton is employed in the production of food
to but partial extent. Our great staples
OF cotton and tobacco employ two-thirds of
our labor. Few planters are in the habit
of raising more than their own consumption
of food, except in the districts unsdapted to
cotton and tobacco. Take the South as a
| whole leaving out Kentucky and Missouri,
and it does not more than produce its own
food Toinyade the 3outh is net, therefore,
magazines Of provisions. The invading ar
my must bring along and carry with it its
entire supplies, both Of rations and forage.
What the difficulty of doing this in coun-
try where the weather is always soft, and
almost constant rains keep the roads ii s.
state more fit for navigation than travel,
was experienced by the English during the
Crimean war, when, at q distance of only
thirty miles from abundantly stored maya
zines on the Black Sea, their army was
starving.
The invasion of the South must be made,
if at all, by land, over the deep limestone
mud of Virginia and Kentucky, or the bot
| tomless loans Of the Mississippi Valley. In
no part of those regions of country are the
roads passable in rainny weather after the
wagons and artillery of q single brigade
have gone over them. The town and city
residents of the North, who speak SO flip
PANTY of invading the Southern States,
have little idea of the obstacles which bad
| country roads interpose against the move
ments Of an army. In no part of the South,
except where Southern treachery has let
| them in, have the enemy succeeded in pene-
trating 25 miles into our borders with their
armies during eight months of the dryest
weather and best roads Of the year. We
| think it hardly probable that they will do
| much better during the season of rains and
| mud, when the highways are absolutely i'm
passable. But the deep, boggy ropds are
| not the only obstacles to oppose an inva-
| der.
The climate of the South during winter is
greatly more unfavorable to the health Of
| alien troops than even during the fever
| months of summer. The popularity of
| Southern winters in their sudden, extreme
| a,d fraouanf changes of temneratt1re. THAR
| almost constant dampness, and their great
quantities of rain, which are the conditions
| that tell most hurtfully upon the health Of
| troops. Used to the dry, bracing weather
| of Northern winters, and the tight rooms
| and hot stoves of their Northern homes, the
| Yankee soldiers will find our Southern cli-
mate more severe and trying than they
/ could be induced to believe before actual
| trial Il is source Of felicitation with the
1 South that their foe has taken it into his
| head to conduct winter campaign against
| her. We venture to predict that,n persist
/ ed in, it will prove one Of the most disas-
| trous campaigns to the invader that can be
| found on record.
The invasion of the South overland We
| make bold to say is thing impossible. The
| only chance of the enemy to iniure or an
| noy US before spring win be by coming
down the Mississippi in boats, and by keep
| ing up a system of naval assaults upon
| weak points along the seaboard. We have
| little fear Of their getting down the river !;
and their naval raids can accomplish little
| else than now and then successful thiev-
| ing AS to grand battle at Manassas, it is
| scarcely practicable for the enemy to get
his army that far forward unopposed. They
would be whipped without firing gun, If
| REQUIRED to stand still and wait for sup