The New York herald., 1862-03-10
Our Late Brilliant Victories and Their
Important Results.

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tomac, by a detachment from the column of
General Banks, under the command of the in
trepid Colonel Geary, gives us the practical ad-
vantages Of great victory. Leesburg was the
object of that lamentable blunder of Balls
Bluff, the disasters of which, in a military view,
are now atoned for in the stampede of the
rebels from the town and its defensive works,
without even the show of resistance.
1t is manifest, we think, from their hasty
evacuation of Leesburg, that their late instruc-
tive defeats and retreats in North Carolina,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas
have convinced the rebels in Virginia that
their situation is exceedingly desperate, and
that there is no such thing as Southern invinci-
bility against superior military combinations,
appliances, facilities and forces, by land and
sea. But, without assuming to anticipate the
brilliant impending justification of General
McClellans "masterly inactivity" we may find
in the present confusion and Generalization of
the rebellion in every quarter abundant evil
dences that the final issue is completely within
his control.
jeff Davis and his Confederate rulers were
not deceived by their ephemeral and delusive
victory of Manassas; they were content to hold
their ground on the defensive through the sum-
mer and autumn, in expectation that "King
Cotton" would in the winter bring England to
their rescue. The settlement of the Trent affair
dispelled that illusion, and the dependency
and Imbecility of the rebel government from
that day are as remarkable as its previous
confidence and energetic action. In January,
away down in the wilds of Southern Kentucky,
the important and decisive little Union victory
near Somerset came of. 1t created sensation
of alarm throughout the South compared with
which our splendid naval successes at Cape
Hatteras and Port Royal produced only
ripple upon the surface of the water. The rea-
son was, that, while Cape Hatteras and Port
Royal touched no vital point, our Somerset vic
tory made serious breach through the inland
defensive line of the rebellion.
This reverse suggested the immediate neces-
sity of strengthening the works and reinforcing
the rebel army at Bowling Green, while our
menacing gunboat preparations at Cairo and
St. Louis resulted in rebel encampment and
Notifications at Columbus Of the grandest pro-
portions to resist our passage down the channel
of the Mississippi. But while the rebels were
thus expending their strength upon these
widely separated camps of Bowling Green
and Columbus, their two intermediate defen-
sive positions at Fort Henry, on the Ten
nessee river, and Fort Donelson, on the
Cumberland, were comparatively neglected.
Thus the loss of Fort Henry reduced them to
the alternative Of abandoning Bowling Green
to save Fort Donelson and the navigable water
line to Nashville; and in losing Fort Donelson
they lost Nashville, and Columbus ceased to be
useful or tenable; whence its hasty evacuation
In all these movements the splendid cam
paigning and fighting qualities of our troops
were amply proved; but the capture of two
such strongly defended places as Bowling
Green and Columbus, without the necessity of
firing shot, is due to the superior military
combinations of our commanding generals A
month ago, against the defensive works on the
bluffs of Columbus, with their two hundred
pieces of heavy artillery and their exterior lines
of rife pits, with the river in front and pro-
tecting swamp in the rear, an army of hun
dred thousand men, and all our Mississippi gun
boats, and bloody siege, would have been re-
quired to take the place. A few days ago
reconnoitering gunboat found it evacuated,
and thus all the vast labors and expen-
ditures of the rebels to make this place
the Sebastopol of the Mississippi were
thrown away. Columbus was their main re-
lance for the defence of New Orleans; and, hav-
ing abandoned Columbus, where now arc they
to make final stand on the line of the Missis-
sippi this side the Gulf of Mexico?
The expulsion Of Price from Missouri, and his
disastrous fight, with Ben McCulloch, over the
Boston Mountains of Arkansas, vindicate as
forcibly as our glorious campaign in Kentucky
and Tennessee the wisdom Of ample prepara-
tions and skilful arrangements before pouncing
upon the enemy And so with the Burnside ex-
pedition in North Carolina. The very presence
of its overwhelming power reduced the rebels
on Roanoke Island to q surrender, before their
men slain outright amounted to dozen in num-
Der, defended, as they were, by their elaborate
earthworks. Is 1t any wonder that the dispirt-
ing effect Of these defeats and disastrous re-
treats has resulted in the occupation of the
valley of the Shenandoah and Of Leesburg by
our troops without opposition? And who does
not now comprehend the fact that in its effects
the most disastrous battle to the South Of all
the battles Of this rebellion, ten times multiplied,
was the battle Of Bull run? 1t has cost the
South many thousands Of men, and hundreds of
millions of dollars, which otherwise would have
been saved.
Fort Sumter and Bull run, however, still con-
tinue among our outstanding accounts against
this rebellion; nor will it be long, we predict,
before these balances are satisfactorily settled.
We await with cheerfulness and absolute conf
dencc the final development of General Nc
Clelan's magnificent combinations.