The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1862-01-01

DEcHMsxn AND .rrs Rasulra- ~ ltvll-1
opmsuts Of tie last four weeks 81 - war.
have been lie moss rsnarkable ~ hAve o.
CURED during n entire progress. Tie b.
ginning Of Dscsmbss ~ The Eaakses h.
full ibrcs, apparently ready fsr decisive bat
Tie, q al the important poinss OF the Frontier.
On ths Potomac they had tho bsst appointed
army on the Continent, stated By their own
authorities to hs two hundred thousand trong.
In Kentucky they ksd maasd together two
immense forces, Of thirty 70 any thousand
sach, which menaeed Columbus and Bowling
Green, and oil tho indications pointed with
csrtaiaty % IN immediate advance upon our
lines at time when we were weak, and
were poorly able to withsta nd assault from
heavy columns. Zollicoffer was pressed be
fore Cumberland Gap By force more than
double hin own; Pound Gap was It the mercy
Of Nelson, having only thousand men to op-
pose against ten thousand; Rosencranz was on
the Gaulsy with AN army which he now con.
fesees to have been fifteen thousand strong,
sgainat Floyd, having only twenty three hum
ired Reynolds was on Cheat Mountain with
ave Thousand, opposed by johnson with only
twelve or fourteen hundred; and Sherman
had succeeded In landing ffteen or twenty
thousand men 1t Beaufort, while We had In
that region 1t tho time but . few thousand
forces, little better than militia, poorly pro-
vided with arms and ammunition. And to
crown all, the splendid weather invited them
20 the charge.
Then WA presented the golden opportunity
70 strike at every one Of these pointA Bold,
effective blows, stricken then simultaneously
oy all their armies, could not have failed to
crush our sbrepgtk in several quarters, and
put gloomy face upon our affairs. Success
1t Columbus and Bowling Green would have
been almost annihilating to our fortunes in
The West. Success at Cumberland and Pound
Gaps would have cut our connections with
tennessee aud Kentucky irretiievsbiy. Sue.
cess in capturing our army in the Kanawha
would have laid open all middle Western Viz
ginia next spring TO the easy invasion of the
enemy. A vigorous push from Beaufort upon
The Charleston and savannah Railroad would
have separated those two cities, and cut our
army OF the eeaDoafd N TWO.
But the enemy have let the golden oppor-
tunity slip through their fingers. They have
allowed US time to make good our defences in
every threatened quarter. The energy Of the
southern people has been aroused by the i'm
ninent danger, and we are now safe in every
point where before we were SO vulnerable
Our danger is passed, and we are now at lib
erty to speculate upon the blindness or imbe.
eility which prevented the enemy from using
an opportunity which will never return to
hin.
To what cause is the enemy's failure every.
where to advance attributable 1t clearly
was not due to the want of men, to the want
facilities OF every character. Notroops were
ever better armed, better clothed, or better
furnished witt provisions and ammunition.
This was not Jhe case with particular
corps, but was ase with ALL And vel .
though fully r d for effective operations,
though the Whole world was expecting heavy
blows to be struck and decisive results to be
achieved, their armies everywhere either re-
NAMED stock still, or ignominiously and most
strangely and suddenly stampeded from an
imaginary and non pursuing foe.
There can be but one solution for this most
strange phenomenon. The Yankees do not
enlist to fight; they enlist only to draw pay.
The cessation Of Southern trade having put a
stop to their factories and mechanical trades,
the operatives have had no other means of
livelihood than enlistment; the clerks and
foremen have, under the same necessity, taken
lieutenancies and captaincies; and the bosses
are forced to play colonies. They have all gone
into the army AZ e means of livelihood and
without any sort Of intention to throw away
their lives. They took to the army to keep
body and soul together, and without the re-
hottest thought of employing that method for
separating the two. Accordingly, when Nc
Clellan orders an advance from, the Potomac,
as he is said to have done repeatedly, these
well fed, we'll clothed, we'll paid and salaried
men of war persistently do not march. So in
Kentucky, where they had every opportunity
for victory; and so at Beaufort, when the
panic created by their landing invited an ad-
vance. All around the frontier they exhibit
this same frugal regard for life and comfort,
and the same stolid immobiiity under orders
for an advance. We regard the last four
weeks as decisive Of the war, not merely by
its results, or rather barrenness of results IA
vorable to the enemy, but by its clear develop.
ment Of the fact that the Yankees have enlist
ed in the army for living and with fixed
objection to hard fighting.
New PuBLIcArIoE.-"C Cause and Contrast.
An Essay ON the American Crisis. BY T. w.
McMahon, Richmond. West & Johnston
We have read with great pleasure this able
and brilliant vindication of the Southern
cause. Although the subject has been often
discussed, the authors style and mode Of
treatment give it new attractions. The his
torical statement in the concluding pages Of
the conduct Of the North, since the beginning
of the sectional troubles, and especially of
the Federal Administration, towards the
South, is mastery. 1t is a simple record of
facts, and less ornate than any other part Of
the publication, but he must be q man Of ice