The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1862-08-14
The EetIeat OF stonewan Jackson-Now
Push On the War.

| Push On the War.
| The additional and eminently satisfactory
particulars which we have published concern
Ing the late battle at Cedar Mountain and its
results, eliminating in the fight Of Stonewall
Jackson, and in the vigorous pursuit of his
forces by the cavalry and artillery of General
Pope, will settle all doubts as to whether this
late battle was Union victory or defeat. As
we have claimed from the first and from sim
pie common sense and honest view Of the facts
reported, we have gained the victory, and a
victory, too, of the highest Importance.
From the same malignant spirit, however,
against General Pope, which they have along
betrayed towards General Mcclellan, and
eTery other officer who gives the cause of the
Union precedence over the cause OF negro eman-
cipation, several Of our city contemporaries,
SO late as yesterday morning pronounced the
result a Union defeat and ventilated their SUI
perior military wisdom very much to the preju-
dice of General Pope and his army. How was
it, they inquired, that General Banks, with his
seven thousand men, was entrapped by twenty
thousand Of the enemy, and why was it that the
columns of General Mcdowell and General
Sigel were 80 far in the rear that they did not
reach the scene Of action until the battle was
over? OF course, our would-be military critics
jump to the conclusion that the whole affair
was badly managed by General Pope, if not by
General Banks, in persisting in his efforts to
dislodge the rebels from their strong position
after he had discovered that at the very point
which he had chosen for his assault they were
massed, under cover Of the jungle, as three to
one against him.
But it appears that General Banks was sent
forward as on reconnaissance, and that, shell
tered as the enemy were by the densely wooded
mountain sides which they occupied, the only
way to ascertain their exact locality or their
strength was to stir them up. In view of recon-
noissance, the supporting columns Of Mcdowell
and Sigel were sufficiently near for the protec-
ton of General Banks; for, under ordinary
circumstances, if brought into this collision with
a superior force of the enemy, he would have
fallen back towards the main body of the army
But in this case the ground in the immediate
presence of the enemy afforded too good po-
siton for General Banks to be abandoned. He
therefore resolved to hold it, trusting to the
main body of the army to come to his support
in season to secure this position and to dislodge
the enemy; and all this has been done.
We accordingly accept the battle and its re-
suits as altogether satisfactory, and as betray-
ing no want of precaution on the part of General
Pope and no lack of sound discretion OH the
part of General Banks. We accept the result
as a most important ons-as a success substan-
TALLY settling the question of the capabilities of
the army of General Pope to cope with that of
Stonewall jackson. Nay, more, we conclude
from this experimental battle that the forward
movement of Jackson towards Washington
has been arrested, and that he has COM
menced retrograde march which will be fol-
lowed up by General Pope. We hope and
battles in which the rebel forces can be set
down as three or four times our own in point
of numbers. We have had quite enough of
this sort of warfare, and we expect General
Halleck to see that there is an end Of it.
While the aggregate armed forces of the re-
bellion were of late nearly equal or even two
thirds Of our own, it was almost impossible to
meet them at every point with IN equal force,
considering the numerous points requiring a
special military force around our grand en-
circling lines of occupation of three thousand
miles in extent by land and sea. At this time
last August we had conquered nothing from the
rebellion except some Of its strongholds in
Western Virginia and the forts of Hatteras
Inlet; but since then we have recovered Mis-
souri,, Arkansas, substantially; Southern Ken
lucky, nearly the whole of Tennessee, the
greater part Of Eastern Virginia, including Nor
folk; nearly the whole of the extensive sea-
board and inland sound region Of North Caro-
lima, important portions Of the coasts of South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida, including Pen
sacola; portions Of Alabama and Mississippi,
the most important portion Of Louisiana, in
Guiding New Orleans, and the whole line
Of the Mississippi river from Cairo to the
Gulf These extensive conquests involving
the military occupation of numerous cities,
towns, forts and other military stations, had
drawn SO largely upon our army, in add-
ton to the casualties Of war, that not until it
the recent terrible battles near Richmond,
aroused to the necessity of immediate and
heavy rcinforcements fresh from the people.
But now there is no longer any excuse for
meeting the rebels at any point with inferior
numbers, especially in Virginia. by the end Of
the rre-cgt week there will he . new enroll
meat or tlrr Euirnd thousand volunteers Al
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