The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1862-01-11

n great portion Of Tennessee ssnageveo
give - NashsiIls With scsree another tlew.
Polk and Pillow, Who six weeks ago threat
eaed S.. Louis and Cairo, are nov defend
ing Memphis and Nashville. General Hal
Ieck has his gunboas expedition nearly
ready. and viii quickly seize any advantage
be may End resulting from operations IL
Kentucky. HaIleck .nd Baei threaten the
rebels BY tn, eonverging lines; they vii
attack, doabsle.s, whenever Polk IS weakest;
and they will advance with the knowledge
that successful blov, either At Memphis
o. toward Nashville viii roa.e the East Ten
nesseean, to open demonstrations.
The campaign has closed in Western Vir-
Siris, and the country IS ours. Floyd, whc
h-s .xice escaped capture within 81. months,
each time With the loss Of all his camp
eqeipage, is sent wish bis ragged fellows to
aid ZollieoTar IN Kentucky; and meantime
Beaura.ard and Johnston mancuSer before
General Mcclellan.
For the insurgents the war has arrived
ct that critical point where q single defeat
will ruin their cause. Ons decisive battle
might end the campaign and the war-jas'
as the capture Of Delhi virtually pu' an end
10 the Sepoy mu,iny, and converted Nena
Sahib from ferecious conqusror in Grim
inai fyiug for life. Already there are plen-
,iful signs ,ha. the people Of the South are
heartily tired OF the oppression and lawless
cruelties Of the insurgents. In Arkansas
several secret Union clubs have been dis
covered, bu, more are probably in existence;
the New Orleans papers complain OF the
reviving Union sentiment there as 'danger-
Gus to the Confederacy - in Florida, Union
men are lifting their heads hopefully and
when East Tennessee rises in force, the Un-
ION Gag will be hoisted in Northern Ala
bama and Georgia, and in Western South
Carolina. In Texas, too, The rebels are
having trouble with ssUnion sentiment," and
the sugar planters Of Louisiana will hail our
arrival as deliverance from an oppression
which grinds them to powder. In every
Southern State Union men are impatien,ly
waiting for deliyerepce; aud we are as anx-
ious as they, that they ehall be relieved.
1t is the policy of the insurgents; now, to
avoid great r.sks-,o avoid even great
battle, Of which the result mast always be
Doubtful. 1t Is their cue to waste cur
strength and patience by feints and unm-
portan, attack; to spread their forces, and
thus keep ia from concentrating cur hosts
upon any one point. IL is ours to force
them to decisive engagement; and all our
movements now tend to that object. How
soon we shall gain this end depends upon
our generals, bu. there is every reason to
believe that Halleck and Buel, in the West,
will accomplish it before many days are
over. Everything, 50 far, tends to Inspire
respec. for General Halleck's abilities. lie
is both silent and active; he has immense
material ct his command, and he has it in
his power to strike one blow which mus; tell
more loudly againssthe morale of the insur-
rec,ion than any one blow which can be
struck by land forces in the East.
The insurgents are now surrounded on al!
sides. If they had an army ten times as
numerals as ours they could not defend
themselves ut all the points where we are
steadily advancing upon them. They do
not attempt it, indeed the seacoass they
leave almost bare, the forces now in South
Carolina can not oppose such an army as
General Mcclellan will gather there before
he advances toward Atlanta; and the lack
Of means Of transportation, not only makes
it impossible for Davis to move his forces
quickly from point to point, bat it makes
more fatal to him the consequences of re. |
treat, in which his army must inevitably |
leave all its equipage.
Though our affairs advance slowly, i. is
evident that they do not halt. The tide has
turned; it sets in slowly at first, but it isas
irresistible now rs when, BY and by, it will |
rush with the headong speed of mill-raee.
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