Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1862-03-01

arms aud knapsacks, $50 many as mad KNAPP
sacks and did not discard them to scceler-
ate flight,) hardly stopped running at
Knoxville, fully seventy FIVE miles from the
scene Of their defeat. Probably less than
three thousand of the whole number are
this day in the rebel camps; for volunteers
whose 6rst experience in campaigning has
been so rugged as theirs are apt to make
for their homes when forced and precipi
tate retreat iB that direction dissolyes their
cohesion and compels each to seek safety
and sustenancc wherever he may hope to
find them III whose first experience as u
rebel soldier is summed up in three months
of exposure, privation and hardship, ending
in q crushing defeat is very likely to ion.
prove the opportunity afforded by disor.
derly fight TO get out Of the way Of a
repetition Of that discipline The battle
Of Mill Spring resulted in no mere defeat
of the rebel army of Eist Tennessee. hnl
in its practical unuihiiutlon.
No. less conclusive were the initial sue
cesses of the Burnside Expedition That
expedition was so long in preparation that
the rebel leaders understood its destination
before il started quite as well as did its
projectors, and made their preparations ac.
cordingly; and their exclusive control of
the system Of Southern Railroads enabled
them to concentrate troops and munitions
TO any desired extent Bnt when, after
displaying its strength at Annapolis and
again in Hampton Roads, in full view of
many rebels, among whom were doubtless
some spies, that expedition steamed slowly
10 llatteras, and there encountered tempest
after tempest by which several Of its most
mpoStant vessels were wrecked, being com
PEELED to remain there not days merely but
weeks. patiently working craft that drew
nine feet through tortuous channels over q
bar whose highest water was but eight, and
seeing stores sacrificed and precious lives
lost in the process, it may be fairly con
cluded that its strength was fully known
TO the rebels, and their preparations made
accordingly. They might have abandoned
Roanoke Island; they might have placed
25, 600 men within its deipnSes; they chose
not to exceed 5000, because they deemed
that number sufficient In fact, it did not
serve 10 test the strength aud prowcss of
its loyal conquerors, who swept its chief
slror ghold at the first charge as though it
had been brush fence, and captured all
who die not promptly Zee from the Island
US if they had been so many sheep. When
it is seen that our total loss on that Island
was less than two hundred, European sol.
diers will hardly belieTe it was fortified at
all, or if fortified, that it was seriously dc.
Tended.
The capture of Elizabeth City, with
the destruction Of the rebel hotilla which
had thero taken refuge when its stockade
across Croatan Sound was forced by our
feet, affords a signal example of the sys
tematic falsehood whereby the South was
goaded into and has been madeto persist 10
| rebellion. The Unionists have no more
wish 10 burn Southern city than TO rob q
church. Hampton, Virginia, was the first
village committed to the flames, aud q
howl was Immediately sent up 10y the rebel
press over the vandalism of the Yankee
miscreants who thus charged upon the
homes of the innocent and lowly; vet few
days established incontrovertibly the truth
that it was fred exclusively by rebels,under
the express order of Gen. Magruder So
Elizabeth City was wantonly, madly, d.
abolically fred by the routed end fleeing
traitors, with no more excuse or chance of
advantage than can be derived from the
hope of making the ignorant and simple
believe the deested Yankees the authors
of that shameful ruin. How long can a
people be thus deceived and misled to their
own destruction?
Our recent and overwhelming triumphs
in the capture of Fort Henry on the Ten
nessce and Fort Donelson on the Cumber-
land-forts by which the rebel leaders
vainly sought to bar the entrance of the
armies of the Union into their best fight.
ing State-l leave 10 be narrated and dis
cussed ia other columns than this; but one
significant fact stands broadly out on the
face Of the record which cannot he ganSay-
cd and is in substance admitted by the
rebels. After the capture Of Fort Henry,
three or fonr small wooden gun.boats steam,
cd up the Tennessee River through the en-
tire extent Of the State to which it gives
its name. and TO the head Of steamboat
navigation at Florence, Alabama--the
whole distance through a cotton.growng
region, and one which, unlike East Tennes.
see, had been utterly submissive TO the
traitor authorities ever since the pretended
secession of their State. In that voyage
of $50 miles up an important river. and
back again to It's mouth, through the hears
of what is known as q rebel region, not one
shot was fred at the Union vessels, not one
feeling of hostility was manifested, but eyi
dences OF welcome and Of JOY were every
where proifered; hOspitalites and gratu
tous supplies were pressed upon our officers
volunteers TO man their vessels wore readi
Is obtained; grave men wept with Joy a.
the sight of the old flag under which they
had lived, aud mean to die; and ample as
surances we're given that if arms could bu
be supplied, thousands on thousands woulC
eagerly rally throughout that whole regior
for the overthrow Of the reign of despot
ism aud terror and the re establishment o
the mild and bene6cient sway of the Amer
lean Union. And our officers were posi-
lively assured that the pretended popula
vote of Tennessee for secession was carried
by violence aud intimidation, after the pat
tern of Pro-Slavery tFiumphs in Kansas
that it did emhody the true sentiment o
the people, but only of the desperate, trai