The New York herald., 1862-02-28

4 MS r.,--, Up OF the Confedcrates an
| Up OF the Union Com
| mandcrs.
The inaugural adsss.. Of Jefferson Davis, tn
spsecbes in tbe Cons.sss, 'e Congress, the ton
of the Southern papers siss ''o capture o
Fort Donesoa, and the WIN - 49,. ~
Governor of Tennessee, all show ""', 'No"s'
the rebels have rsceived severe blow. , 'ney art
not yet conquered and that they wE. mani
desperate resistance as long as they h ~
chance. The necks Sf the leaders depeHA y"
their success The recent victories, slough N
portant, are aot decisive and it is illogicas 10
! draw any gene-tl inference from them. II may
be that th Confedcpates never obhtenr-
plated being aS9e to permanently hold Mis-
souri,, Kentucky and Virginia, and that shSir
osect in occupying Virginfa and the 0cher
bOS1er States wass to obtsin subsistence soY.
thcis armies, to keep away sRe rsyages Of wsr1
from the cotton States, and TO- produce noraal
effect In Europe by TIE apparent extent of f,eir
territofy and by their quasi investment of Wash-
ingtors The questions now IT,. what is their
prospect Of success, even iu the cotton
States. which depends 10 ssome extent upon TIA,
capacity of their generals, upon which they
have Hitherto relied With considerable confA
dence. Their caloulati ms; based upon their,
railroads. to maintain their communications. !.
have been completely bsAied. \
The asbates in the relsel Congress. which we \
published ION Wednesday reveal she fact that
the generals apparently chad no. plan OF
campaign" and hence, when thsir strong po-
sitionS were suddenly assailed they were, un-
able TO- reinforce them. There seemed to Q no
military mind to combine and idneeb the " hole
operations. The Confederate geuaralshir was
denounced by Boyce and others as utter imbe-
cility. In the same tone thu RahxaonQ, the
Charleston and the New Orleans papers had
spoken long before; and recent ersnts seem to
justify their censure. With the exception of Joe
John aon outgeneraling Patterson on the She
nandsah, and reaching Manassas in time to rein
force, ,Beauregard for the battle Of July 21 and
the exploits of Price, and Floyd in runniag
away, the Southern generals appear to have izs-
played no strategy. In the battle of Manassas
itself there was no generalship. 1t was wea by
the Southern troops against raw soldiers, nst in
pursuance osany, plan Of battle, as Bea,gagard
battle waawon there was not sufficient general
ship to t1ke advantage Of it and capture Wash
ington, as, might easily have baea done.
Beauragard has net as yet proved that he is
more than goo2 engineer officer. He has ex-
hibited neither strategical ability nor much
tactical skill Whether Albert Sydney John
ston, commanding in the West, is either
strategist OF tactican still remains to be scen
Appearances, as we'll the caxse, are against
him.
A good general would have seen the
importance of the defence of the Tenaes-
see and the Cumberland, and would
have rendered those rivers impregnable to any
but an overwhelming force. Instead of that,
only small forces were posted in the forts on
each river, and the forts-partioularly Fort
Henry-were erected at the wrong places. 1t
is now admitted that the proper position for
these forts was at the Narrows, where the two
FLYERS, bending towards each other, contract
the distance between them to three or four
miles. Infinitely more important was this po-
sjtion' than Bowling Green, on which 80 much
labor had been spent in vain. Here was the
bama, apd the loss Of it has spread terror
throughout the South. 1t is candidly admitted
by our soldiers, and by all the Northern ac-
counts of tho battle at Fort Donelson, that the
Southern troops fought admirably. But in war
what avails the most desperate valor without
generalship and a good cause?
So far the generalship of the rebels appears
= W1ok1 orsan
from the selfconceit Of Davis, who does not
give to some one military mind the chief com
niand, so as to devise plan of defence and
FORM strategical combinations, but either
directs everything himself or allows his Secre-
tary Of War to do so.a man who knows
nothing of military matters-or whether there
is no general in the Confederate army Of the
requisite calibre to be commander-in-chief, is
a problem still to be solved; for VIC must not
conclude too hastily that everything is accom-
plished by the capture of Roanoke Island and
the fall of the forts on the Tennessee and the
| Cumberland. All these are only outposts; and
though Norfolk is turned by Burnside, and
Bowling Green and Columbus have been
| turned by Halleck and Buell., the end is
not yet. Though our troops have captured
thirteen thousand men, the rebel army in Ten
nessee and Kentucky is not yet destroyed, and
| may be reinforced and combined. This army
must be captured or dispersed before the work
| is done in that region.
| Again. the flower of the rebel army is still at
Centreville, Manassas, Leesburg and Winches-
ter, commanded by Joe Johnston and Gustavus
Smith. The best officers in the whole Southern
army are with these forces, which have also the
advantage Of possessing superior arms. The
reports that large portion Of these troops had
been sent to the Atlantic coast and to the
Southwest turn out to be unfounded. Not a
single regiment has left. The rebel armies of