The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-10-04
A Balance Sheet.
Correspondence Of the Cincinnati Gaze EFT.

.
Correspondence Of the Cincinnati Gaxette)
WASHINGTON, Sept %
How the rebels invaded Marylsnd, and how
they left it has been told. The record Is made
up. It 10 time for balancing accounts. Did we
gain or lose?
When the rebels began to threaten Maryland,
it was boastingly announced that nothing would
please rs 90 much q to have them cross the Pc.
tomac-that then We could annihilate them at
our leisure. Such were the outgivings of those
who have come to be regarded the opponents of
eur military management Sta.
+ The rebels were kind enough to crafty U.s.
they gave us due and ample warning of their
coming, then crossed the river, unopposed;
placed themselves in the "trap," We had been
wishing to get them in; moved about.in it very
composedly for some days; sent what supplies
they could collect back again out oft; fought
couple of battles With us on ground of their own
selection, and then crossed back into Virginia
Is quietly as they came, with thirty or forty
pieces of artillery and eight or ten thousand
stand Of small arms more than they had when
they entered this strap" of ours. TIE balance
the plain simple footing on the books.
Yet it is unfortunate for US that we must a..
ways be judged by the standard: our OWE fools
set up for US If We had not boosted about the
trap We were setting for the rebels in Mary
land, we had not been exposed to the ridicule
the miserable failure of our strap" entsiled. If
we had honestly acknowledged that, during the
stupor that followed our crushing reverses at
Bull Run, the rebels had disgrsced US by inya-
ding Maryland, and had simply promised that
now We should drive them out again % speedily
as possible, our military movements might, per-
haps, have been characterized as little slow
and hesitating at the outset; but it could not
have been denied that they had been successful
In accomplishing their purpose.
Judged BY our standard, therefore, tho rebel
campaign was success; judged by their own, it
Was not quite an entire failure. They not only
escaped from our strap" but they did It with
comparative impunity, in6icting when we est
mate Losses Of material a. well Is men) quite Is
heavy punishment a. they received; and thus
were successful. But they avowed that they
came to liberate Maryland; their General issued
fore the world to accomplish this lberation.-
They were to carry Maryland into the Southern
Confederacy, to isolate Washington from the
North, and thsu to Stand ready, with. banner,
brand and bow" to carry the horrors of war
from their own soil into that of the free States.
In all this-to which they stood explicitly
failure was miserable. aud som-
plete. gQi q 100 Z Oh ssgs, she ,.-, ..g
But for two terribly unfortunate things, their
expulsion from Maryland would have been as
infamous % their entrance was insolent. Most
unluckily the disaster at Harper's Ferry enabled
rebels to retreat after success, and with de.
cided measure of success Then, but for the
equally ill-fated delay after Wednesdays battle.
they might have been routed; that delay ena-
bled them to march out with flying colors, with
long lists Of prisoners they had paroled, with
splendid trains of artillery they had captured,
and with supplies of small arms that they could
fairly balance against their losses on the field
As it was, politically they failed in militia
~ point of view, while they certainly did not
entirely succeed, if pe claim the success they
can retort with force that never was victory
more dear or barren.
know no good to be gained by persistent de-
,eption through official dispatches. The rudest
blow the faith of the American people in their
Government has yet received is when they learn
hat that Government is untruthful. There has
been disposition, now that General Mcclellan |
lad taken fresh start, to judge him most chart
ably; but no charity can cover such statements
Is that, Tin his official dispatcb) that Pleasanton
vas driving the rebels across the river, when
hey retired perfectly unmolested and under
cover of their batteries, in position on the other
tide of the river, while the cavalry force that
vas said to be "driving" this immense army
vas bare three thousand strong or such se!f.
.lorifying bits of description as the story that
,ur victory was complete, when they didn't
now that the rebels had left their positions,
n that the battle might not be renewed any
moment.
Nor can any charity explain away that terrible
ateful delay that-after claiming glorious vic.
ory-failed to make the slightest step toward
it, and under the gauze- like hidine,ofl
half and half srmistics, permitted the whole
ebel army to move out Of our reach. It will