The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-09-21

DOL.
The hel Ar3faes or tho south-Their
Oro1sation, Omccrs. Equipment, SO.
we laid before our readers yesterday what we
consider very instructive and valuable COM
pilation of the rebel armies Of the South, their
divisions and subdivisions, their officers, equip
ment and distribution, from Manassas to Mis-
souri, and Arkansas, and from Norfolk to Texas.
This schedule is the result of our careful saw
ings for many weeks of numerous items of In
| formation from Southern official and other well
informed sources reaching us from time to time
| through the lines of that rigid embargo which
exists between the two sections of the Union
We are sure that these statistics have very much
interested, edited and astonished the general
reader, and we are inclined to think that they
will be useful to our government, and some
what surprising to our Southern newspaper CO.
temporaries as an example of persevering in
dustry.
In lookingover this extensive army catalogue
Of two hundred and ninety thousand rebels in
active service, the loyal Union man of the
north, who is aware of the hundreds of millions
|
which have been required to arm and equip the
forces Of the Union in the field, will be en-
barrassed to account for these multtudinous
armies of the South, raised by spurious
government, without money or credit, and
from combination of States hitherto al
most wholly dependent upon the North and
upon foreign nations for all their manufac-
| fura orti oil kbosr hate 10 che
and from their carriages and harness to the very
hoes with which they cultivate their cotton.
How are we to account for these great Southern
armies with all these indispensable external
supplies cut off by the existing blockade by
land and sea? To answer as briefly as we can,
we reply that for many months, and indeed,
for some years before the outbreak of this re
bellion, the conspirators had arranged not only
the bagging an invaluable list ofarsenals, minis,
navy yards, forts, cannon, small arms, ammu
milton and materials of war of all kinds, but
they had instructed the people of the South to
lay in an extraordinary stock of goods of all
descriptions, and to the full extent of Southern
cash and credit in the North. Upon these sup
plies, eked out by the scanty factories, family
States, this rebellion has been armed and
equipped for its suicidal struggle for aSouthern
confederacy.
Thus we find that while this Southern rebel
lion has fortified and armed itself from its
seizures Of United States property and money
its materials of equipment have been largely de-.
rived from extraordinary purchases of Northern
| fy1sv volt oJ Tot al
almost exclusively to agriculture, have found no
serious difficulty in feeding their armies, except
in the important item of transportation. In
this item, however, they have been considerably
embarrassed, for his deficiency in wagons has
doubtless had as much to do in holding Beaure-
gard at Manassas as the strong Union fortified
camps of the Potomac. But in the equally i'm
portant item of clothing the rebels will soon be
falling short. In fact, if they fail to make a
lodgment in Washington or Maryland, and fail
to get our blockade broken up before Decem-
Der, it is altogether probable that these hume
rous Southern armies will rapidly fall to pieces
for lack of clothing. Hence, let us hope that
the backbone of this rebellion will even yet be
broken before the regular meeting of Congress.
We need not be in any hurry for great deci-
sive battle, when it is thus apparent that by
delay and skilful side operations we can win
the day without one. We gain by de-
lay, and in proportion to our gain is the enc
my's loss. If they must fight or fall back from
Washington, we can wait where we are, UPON
our chosen ground, until they make their
election. ~f
| Ia -. H. =
this rebellion upon which we may submit
word or two. The managing chiefs Of
this great conspiracy have nearly all been
showed aside and superseded by new men. In
allgreat revolutionary enterprises few of those
sowing the seed have eaten the bread of their
labors. And so the Rhetts, the Yanceys, tile
Slidells, the Masons, the Spratts, the Browns,
the Greens, the Gwins, the Cobbs, the Thomp-
sons, and Floyds, and Wises, and Pryors, and
all that galaxy of Southern leaders and fire.
eaters involved in the shaping of the programme
of this rebellion from the secession experiment
about California, of 1851, down to the lombard
ment of Fort Sumter, are now holding back
seats in the Southern temple, when they all ex-
peeted to lie among the chief priests and
scribes.
jeff Davis, to be sure, is Provisional Presi-
dent; but even his glory is eclipsed by that of
Beauregard, who was but the other day an OBJ
scure subordinate officer in the United States
army. Now, he and other army officers, late Of
a secondary rank, lord it over the PROSTATE
politicians who founded this experimental
Southern Utopia. They are overshadowed and
manacled by military despotism. The gov
ernment of the United States had no Offices to
give them large enough for their selfconceit
They would have an Independent Southern con-
federacy-they would be the masters of it-and
now behold their humiliation. Wise and Floyd
are reduced to more bush lighters; Slidell and
Mason, and Cobb and Thompson are among the
outsiders; Yancey is in exile, and poor Pryor is
the subordinate of some military master among