Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-02-28


The e1ultation of the North over the
late success in their arms Is as extravagant
and delirious as their terror last summer
and depression through the autumn. For
this we might be well prepared. We are
by this time sufficiently well acquainted
With the Yankee character to understand
their decisions, their pauics, manias, ex-
elements, unreasonable hopes and fears,
and to give them the contempt that insta-
bility and levity merit. Because they have
gained two advantages, in positions COM
Tanded By all their naval forces on the
sea and river, by employing armies Eve
fold greater number than the Confederate
troops opposed TO them ,on the frontiers
of the country itself, they have come TO
the conclusion that the confederacy is an
nihilated; Lincoln declares that the f.rebei-
lion is on the waneii" the people believe
that the fighting is all over; tina the South
is groyelling in abject terror; that its gov
eminent is in state of dissolution; its ar
mics a mob of demoralized towards, that
they have only TO march forward and sub
jngate without resistance Such is the
baseless fabric of the Northern imagina-
tion at this moment.
Far different is The truth. The rsrerSsS IRE
hare lately suffered are scratches on the skin
Of The country. THY are the biors that
rouse, not the rounds that IceakeH. The fetc
thousand troops that tee hare lost are drops
from TIE bucket The armies Of the United
States hare to carry hundred positions
stronger than Dcnsison and Roanoke: they.
hare to eaptuTe HUNDRED draies LIKE those
they hare overcome; they hare 10 march ooer
many thousand miles Of ground; they must
trin mgny a hard campaign, before they shall
hare reason to Grrire al the conclusions dteta-
6ilse. f
For we must defend ourselves to helast.
A battle must precede every retreat, and
every retreat must end with a battle. We
must no longer take human life, money or
property into consideration, when we have
the opportunity to infiict the least injury
on advancing oppressors and robbers
While we have single county uncouquer-
ed. we must make our stand on it; while
there is single Southern regiment alive,
the Southern generals must make ii fight:
while solitary individual of the Southern
Congress and Executive is free, he must
declare the liberty of the country, the SUI
premacy of the laws, aud command their
defence, with all the force of his soul.
The struggle with the North once begun,
necessity compels resistance, with or with
out hope, to the last hour of life. But
even it it did not, the inclination of the
Southern people has set forever on it, with
a rigidity that for5ids the faintest iden of
an alteration. The late reverses have
caEsed much pain and much serious retlec-
ton, but not the least shade of submission.
Very contrary, indeed, has been the effect
Before the news was received the war SEN
timent had much decayed. Volunteers
insisted on their discharge when their time
was up, and the original alacEity in the
new enlistments was not visible But ;he
whole face of the affair has changed since
we heard that we were beaten. There are
no more returning volunteers. Regiment
after regiment has re-enlisted. New COM
panies have sprung up like the flashes of
the aurora. The draft is no longer men
toned with sigh. There is sincere de-
termination never to yield to Yankees, and
q universal conviction that, whatever evils
can beiall us in the coming trial, none are
comparable to the consequences of sub
mission tst so "a 4Itt ~
We repeat, though these EaYsrsess are.
depressing, they have had u good effect on
the vitality of the Southern confederacy.
7hsy are the G8airs Of the oWtpostS only; they
are the trounds Of the skin. If we have
twenty lost battles in Tennessee before the
spring begins, they do not tonch the heart
or break the limbs of the Southern giant.
If SdshviiLe is tdken--no impossible event,
unless General Johnston can defeat the
enemy In a pitched battle, or out man
Ruvre him in his evolutions between the
Cumberland and Tennessee rigers-and if
we lose in consequence all the country of
which Nashville is the centre aad capital,
it is a, question whether the Southern
forces would not be stronger and better
able than before TO carry out the defensive
81, he L.. l.:
war. They would then go down TO the
water shed which divides the rivers that
flow North, like the Tennessee and Cum
berland, from those that tend towards the
Gulf of Mexico. They would surrender
the greater part of the State of Tennessee,
and concentrate the whole energy of the
contederacy on the defence of the South
proper. They would in this position
render the road from Virginia, by
Chattanooga, to Georgia impregnable.-
They would then be delivered from all
territory with the faint of disloyalty,
and stand where the whole population
is unit. Kentucky, Missouri, the great
er part of Western Virginia and Ten
uessee would be temporarily in the enc
my's possession, but that very fact would
render his task more perilous and difficult.
He would then have to march his columns
and draw his supplies from a distance,
while our lest resources would be under
our hands. He would suffer the same dis
advantages that we have felt in Northwest
ern Virginia, ola hostile population under
his feet always conspiring and ready to
cripple him in case of the least strife. We
should then hold Eastern and Southwest
crn Virginia, the Carolinas aud all the Gulf
States. There is the true South, the heart
and the right aud left arm of the revolu-
ton, and the power OF immediate resist
ance would be strengthened, not weakened,
by the temporary losses of territory.
1t is hoped that the Southern govern
ment will not have TO defend new line, or
trust to the contingencies of war and ne
gotiatiou for the future recovery of It's soil.
1t is hoped that General Johnston will lose
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