The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-08-22
The Armies I'm virginfa-Who VIII Gain
the Next Battlc3


Whether the reports that have reached this
city from Washington, within the last few days,
OF an impending attack upon the national capt.
tai by the rebel forces, are true or exaggera-
'ed it is certain that battle, upon the fate of
which the future destinies of the republic must
more or less depend, cannot be far distant.
The government of Jefferson Davis has succeed
ed in congregating armies with an aggregate
numerical strength of two hundred thousand
men, upon the soil of Virginia, and it has be-
come condition of their maintenance that
they should be led, at the earliest possible mo-
ment, into action. The Richmond authorities
nave as much to fear from inactivity as from
defeat. Ill clothed, poorly fed, badly disciplin-
ed, nnaocustomed to subordination, the greater
number of them forced into service against
their will, with cause they believe to be des-
perate, and, secretly possessed, in many in
stances, with Union sentiments the Southern
army may, at any moment, fall asunder, and its
leaders know that if the war cannot be rem
dered short and quick one, no violence they
can employ will suffice to keep their followers
up to fighting mark. Despotism which pays
in irredeemable, worthless shinpIasters, and is
sure of eventual defeat, can retain no lengthy
control over hungry subjects. The latter either
rebel, desert, Or 60 openly over to the enemy.
General Beauregard under such circumstances,
will not dare to permit the hordes he commands
to think on what they are doing, and, were he
unwise enough to do so General Mcclellan will,
for reasons equally cogent, goad him on to
action.
The battle of Bull run was disaster m
paralleled, since the days preceding the battle of
Valmy, when the armies of the French republic
met with invariable defeat, on account of the
incapacity of their generals, and the want of
discipline among their troops. The Carmagnole
levies-the raw artisans and tradcsmen, the
clumsy burghers, the base mechanics and low
peasant churls, as it had been the fashion to
term the middle and lower classes, of France
at length, however, found their Kelermann,
just as the grand army of America be ridiculed
as it may be by an English snob. has found it's
Mcclellan. Under the latter as under the for
mer, enthusiastic but inexperienced recruits,
conscious that their lives are in the hands of a
cheftain they can trust, will face cannon balls,
be able to pull triggers, stand their ground, or,
If need be, cross bayonets with any of the mill
tary machines that may be placed in antago-
nism against them. 1t may be said that the loyal
army OF the North has already become awake
to an instinct of its own soldiership. Since tie
primary meeting" colonies, generals and
majors of the first act of the war, have been
swept into oblivion, and tried officers have been
substituted in their places; since the services,
in warfare, OF experienced army officers have
been recognized as superior to the seli-bedazzed
confidence of epaaletted, grogsbop aspirants for
fame, the prospects of the federal army have so
changed that no sensible person can doubt in
which direction success must hereafter tend.
We're battle to take place tomorrow, we
should be safe in predicting that victory
would be gained by the federal troops.
Under the regime of the ''On to Richmond
outside politicians, success was next to impos-
sble. The confessions of General Scott; the
revelations of Colonel Richardson, and of the
members of Congress; the confidential declara-
tions of Secretary of the Treasury Chase, during
his recent stay in this city; and the details that
have been given to the community in official
reports, and by returned volunteer officers,
afford abundant proof that the affair at Bull run
was causeless massacre, which might have re-
suited in the utter overthrow of secessionism in
Virginia, had we properly understood our own
strength and the enemys weakness. The repe-
titInu of Sllrh q 1isaalar ;s 10
Then they We're united and we were divided.
Now we are unit and the elements of insubor-
dination and division exist largely among the
rebel troops Their very leaders have ceased
to agree. General Jefferson Davis eaten I'D by
jealousy and ambition, views with dis,nay the
doubtful successes Of his own generals; men
like Generals Lee and Johnston are thrust into
the background, and Beauregard issues Ma
poleonic proclamations in which the words
" L and "my" abound, and my troops" "my
generals" "my movements are the staple Of
a preparation by him for revolt against the es-
tablished authorities at Richmond, and the pro-
Of sort of Santa Anna dictatorship
which is, most clearly, what he has, for some
time past aspired to.
Experience has demonstrated that ten thou
sand Northern troops, can, at all times, cope,
successfully, with three, il not four, times that
number of the levies of the Confederate States.
under equal leadership. The "relative man
hood" question has been settled, over and over
again. All that the loyal States have had to
fear has been that the officers in command of
our armies would prove cowardly or Inefficient
General Mcclellan has nobly remedied this evil
and no doubt whatever can remain with respect
to the future destnies Of the war. Battle is in
evitable, sooner or later. Whether, however
our forces are attacked, or whether the federal
army marches towards Richmond, to drive re-
belion out of Virginia, it has reduced itself to
a nearly mathematical certainty that the next
battle will decide the ultimate issue of the war
and that the fictitious lasirels obtained by the
enemy will shortly be rent from them forever.
KEEPING THE CUrrON SAFE--We perceive thai
the cotton factors of Charleston have addressed