The New York herald., 1862-04-01
The Great Impcndfng Battles.

The Great Impending Battles.
The most important events in the history of
modern times are now at thand-events which will
determine whether the conflict in the United
States will be terminated in the restoration of
the federal authority in every State of the
Union, or whether it will be an exhausting
struggle ofyears. 1t is the greatest civil war that
has ever taken place in the history of the world
"A million OF men are arrayed in arms-soldiers
OF the Union 650,0O0, Confederates 100000.
Since the French Revolution and the struggle
to make it good against the combined Powers
OF Europe, no other nation has sent so many
men to battle 1t is no wonder that the people
of Europe should take so deep an interest in
the contest; for the result will not only affect
the condition of the present generation of every
country, from the Pillars of Hercules to the
North Pole, and from the British Islands to the
Ural Mountains, but generations yet unborn.
There are three decisive points where bat
tie may be expected at any moment The first
is on the line of the Rappahannock and the
Rapidan, in Virginia, on which Joe Johnston
commands the rebels in defence of Richmond
and Norfolk. The second is on the Tennessee
river, near the line between the State Of the
same name and the State of Alabama, and not
far from Mississippi. The conflict will proba-
bly, take place between Corinth, at the north
east corner of the latter State, and Decatur, in
Alabama. There the Confederates are making
their stand, with the Memphis and Charleston
Railroad as the base line of operations line
of communication for reinforcements and sup
plies absolutely necessary to them. The third
blow is at New Orleans.
The operations of Foote Burnside and
Hunter are only subsidiary to these three stra-
tegical points. In Virginia, Joe Johnston,
aided by Gustavus Smith and Stonewall Jack
son, will be compelled to give battle; for they
are surrounded at six or seven points, and can
not escape to effect junction with Beauregard
and Albert Sidney Johnston, in the Southwest.
In Louisiana, to fight at once is a military ne
cessity on the part of the rebels; for they must
either fight desperately in defence of New Or
leans or surrender it Immediately to the formi.
dable force sent against it.
These are combined movements, the result
Of well laid strategical plan, which can hardly
fail to result in decisive victories; and we are
and movements of the various bodies of troops
and the resources at the disposal of the govern
ment, that in three months the rebellion will
be crushed out and every Southern State re-
stored to the Union, in the same manner as
Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida. Two-thirda
of the Southern people were always for the
Union; and as our armies advance the loyalty
of the population will be made manifest by the
most indubitabls evidences.
This is the best answer to all the doubteH.
and the English Journalists, who say that the
overthrow of the rebellion is impossible, and
that nothing is possible as the result of the war
but anarchy or military despotism. Neither
one nor the other is possible. 1t is to prevent
anarchy that this gigantic war is waged; and
among a people so devoted to liberty as the
Americans, people who have the game in
their own hands, and who elect their Chief
Magistrate every four years, no would
be military despot can ever be successful.
The army he would attempt to WELD against the
liberties of the country would crumble to pieces
in his hands like rope of sand, and he would
soon find himself successful candidate for the
gallows The English journals fear such des-
potism, because they know it would be enabled
to direct the whole military force of the country
against the British empire, and in6ict upon ID
deadly blow from which it could never recover
There is feeling enough in the country against
England to render such an enterprise feasible
to a military despot. But the American people
have too much practical common sense to per-
NIT dictator to rise'u among them, to tho
destruction of the cherished institutions for
which they are now fighting on scale of vast
ness without precedent among modern nations
The United States have two to one in the field
They have more endurance than Southern men,
owing to the climate in which they were born
and the activity of their lives. They are
superior in mechanical skill, so valuable
in war. They have more money and
superior resources, or greater abundance
of the materie of war, and they have arms
without stint, whereas the rebels are only half
armed. But the browning point is that the SUI
perior quality of their weapons renders every
man that wields them equal to two Confede.
rates. The physical force of the North in the
field is thus on the lowest calculation as four
to one to say nothing of the formidable navy
on the coast and on the navigable rivers, and
the moral force of the cause of the Union
against rebellion. How is it possible, under
these circumstances, that the arms of the federal
government should not be triumphant, and all
the Southern States restored in a very brief time
to the national fold whence they strayed, one
of the most extraordinary political hallucina-
| tions to be found in the annals Of organized
communities?
THE RUSSIAN MIssIoN-The mission to Russia
is, we see, at last completed by the appointment
| of Mr. Bayard Taylor as Secretary of Legar
ton. Mr.. Taylor is ltteroter of the penny-a-
| line, or rather of the half-penny-a-lne, stamp
shallow, nippant, unsuggestive and without a