Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-01-13
A Lesson from the Encmv,

/
the old Latin proverb, and just now the
rebels are painting us most instructive
lesson. We find it in the Richmond Dis
PATCH of the I'd of January, where that pa
per is discussing the imminent and awful
danger from which, fits views, the South
has just escaped. 1t says:
"The developments of the last four weeks
of the war have been the most remarkable
that have occurred during its entire pro-
gress. The beginning of December saw
the Yankees in full force. apparently ready
for decisive battle at all the important
points of the frontier On the Potomac
they had the best appointed army on the
continent, stated by their own authority to
be two hundred thousand strong. In ken
lucky they had massed together two i'm
mense forces, of thirty to fifty thousand
each, which menaccd Columbus and Bow
ling Green, and all indications pointed with
certainty to an immediate dvance upon
our lines, at n time when we were weak
and were poOl ly able to withstand assault
from heavy columns. Zollicoffer was press
| ed before Cumberland Gap by n force more
than double his own: Pound Gap was at
the mercy of Nelson, having only thous-
and men to oppose against ten thousand.
| Rosecrans was on the Gaulcy with an army
which he now confesses to have been ff-
teen thousand strong, against Floyd, hav.
ing only twcnty-threc hundred; Reynolds
was on Cheat Mountain with five thousand,
opposed by johnson with only twelve or
fourteen hundred; and Sherman had sue
cecded in landing fifteen or twenty thous-
and men at Beaufort, willis we had in that
region at the time but few thousand for
ccs, little better than militia, poorly provi-
| 0pd with
crown all, tue splendid weather invited
them to the charge.
"Thcn was presented the golden oppor-
runity to strike ut every one of these points
Bold, effective blows, stricken then stimuli
taneousy by all their armies, could not
have failed to crush our strength in sever
al quarters, and put gloomy face upon
our affairs. Success at Columbus and
Bowling Green would have been almost
annihilating to our fortunes in the Vest
Success at Cumberland and Pound Gap
would have cut our connections with Ten
nessee and Kentucky lrretrieY0bly Sue
cess in capturing our army in the KHnawha
would have laid open all middle Western
Virginia next spring to the easy invasion
of the enemy. A vigorous push from
Beaufort upon the Charleston aud Savan-
han Railroad would have separated those
two cities, and cut our army of the seaboard
in two.
"But the enemy have let the golden OPP
pOrtunity slip through their fingers. They
have allowed us time to make good our de-
fences in every threatened quarter. The
energy of the Southern people has been
aroused by the imminent danger, and we
arc now safe in every point where before
we were so vulnerable. Our danger is
passed, and we are now at liberty to spec
ulate upon the blindness or imbecility which
prevented the enemy from using an oppor-
tunity which will never return to him."
There is some truth in this. Our mill
itary leaders have had the rarest opportu-
mites for striking an effective blow, which
they have neglected. Dupont's expedition
was delayed one month behind it's time,
and then went off only half furnished with
troops. Blrnside's fleet is still kept back
in the same way and by the same inhu-
ences, though he and his transports have
long since been ready, and thousands oi
soldiers eager to take part in the adven-
ture.
But the Richmond print falls into great
errors when it proceeds to account for
this singular want of enterprise on the
part of our forces. 1t argues in this wise:
t'To what cause is the encmy's failure
everywhere to advance attributable? II
clearly was not due to the want of men
to the want of supplies, or to the want OF
preparation in facilities of every character.
No troops were ever better armed, better
clothed or better furnished with provisions
and ammunitionS This was not only the
case with particular corps, but was the
case with all. And yet, though fully pre-
pared for effective operations. though the
whole world was expecting heavy blows to
be struck, and decisive results to be achiev-
E ed, "their armies every where either re-
mained stock still, or iguominiously and
most strangely and suddenly stampeded
from an imaginary and non-pursuing foe,
"There can be bnt 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 stop to their factories and
mechanical trades, the operatives have
had no other means of livelihood than en-
istments; the clerks and foremeu have
: under the same necessity, taken lieuten-
ancies and captamcies, and the bosses are
lforced to play colonels. They have al
gone into the army as a means of liveli-
hood, and without any sort of intention tc
throw away their lives. They took to the
army to keep body and soul together, ant
without the remotest thought of employing
that method for separating the two. Ac
i cordingly, when Mcclellan orders an ad-
: lvauce from the Potomac, as he is said tc
have done repeatedly, these well-fed, we'll
paid and salnried men of war perSistentlJ
do not march. So in Kentucky, where