New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-09-27
LOSSES AND TmBnB MORAL.


Without intending to criticise Military pun
ders or to excuse Military failures in any quarter
we insist on keeping before the puphc mina 'D0
fact that the Union forces maintain rei"'i.e" ."
exterior line of operations. nearly encirchng ,nV
revolted States BY sea and land, while me hooe'
.r,D;es face them on interior lines not only mucn
shorter and requiring fewer men 10 no'u 'n0i"'
but enabling their leaders to concentrate iateo
bodv on a given point far more easi'y anu 4u.cAH
,hor xe can assemble an equal force to confront
them. Let us suppose, for example. that Jeh'
Davis should see fit tomorrow to call Ten thou-
sand men out of Western Virginia to REINFORCE
his main army menacng Washington, those men
would not have to traverse half the distance in
executing this order that ours would in case our
military chiefs were to countervail this move
ment by calling an equal force from the Kama
wha TO the Potomac. SO with regard to kindred
movements in almost every quarter. And IN war
time is everything; fifty thousand men moving IN
an inner line of communication but sixty miles
long being nearly equal to one hundred thousand
operating on an exterior line Of one hundred ana
twenty miles.
Of course, this advantage lie soon Overborne oy
commander who acts vigorously on the oiiep'
siye: but our forces have not yet been deemed
ready for that. Ard if any one knows now an
army of two to three hundred thousand men,
encircliDg hostile territory of nearly million
square miles, and standing on the defensive. can
avoid attacks on isolated points in overwhelming
force by yigilant ard desperate enemy OF nearly
or quite equal numbers, we shall benceiorth con-
slider the squaring of the circle o very easy
problem.
We are not urging a premature aid hasty
assumption of the offensive. We leave oil such
matters to those who are officially responsible for
| the issue. We rest on the fact that, Waht we
shall be ready TO follow rebellion to its dens, we
must be resigned to occasional disasters Ike those
| of Springfield and Lexington.
Az vet the Confederate Rebels have never once
| met the Unonists in the open field, with equal
| OF nearly equal numbers, without being wofsted
if not utterly routed Behind intrenchments aud
masked batteries, or with superiority In num-
bers of three or four to one, they do well
enough; but open, square fighting is evidently
| not to their taste. Up to this hour, they have
not been goaded into publishing their official re-
port of the Battle of Bul Run or Manassas,
| though it was completed and filed at Richmond
at least month ago. They dare not even give
an official statement of their numerical strength
in that engagement, nor of the number OF their
killed and wounded therein. sham official bull
letin has been clandestnely circulated in Europe,
but Beauregard aud Johnston. though not OF oil
scrupuous as to truth cannot make full statement
with regard to that battle which will not lower the
prestige of their victory in the eyes of tho world
If they too grossly uDderrate their numbers in the
battle, the ignored regiments will be dissatisfied;
if they bettle their losses in detailed account,
the friends of the slaughtered thousands will note
and expose the falsehood. That, ia spite of their
great advantage in position and superiority in
numbers, they were beaten at 3 p. m, when
their last reenforcements arrived and would have
remained beaten had our reserve been ordered
up, they cannot help betraying if they publish
their report, and the master-spirits eridentlJ
think the least said is soonest mended. We do
not doubt IT,