Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-09-17
The Rebel Raid and its Conse-
QuenceS.
From the Philadelphia Press.


From the Philadelphia Press.
The first establishment is over The
first terror has subsioed. and craven
hearts beat half-freely again. The frs:
tinglin. crimson of rage and mortified ma
tional pride has settled into the steady
flush of vengeance The noble and the
mean: those whose souls are pocket
cramped, as well as those who can find no
| fitting echo 81 their he ,rt-beatS except
| in the boom OF cannon and the roll OF
drum the c1wirlly and the chivalrous
the loyalist and the stetlthy traitor
all have passed through their first rush
of feeling and are able now 10 ask calmly
the meaning OF our position. the cast OF
our prospects. The rebels in Mary land
Is quite an old story. Thirty-six hours
have intervenel since the first announce
inent of the news time long enough.
Is our American affairs 81 10 admit half Il
dozen revolutions OF public sentiment.
That the North Is invaded aud very
seriously. there can be no question II IS
only left Us to ask, what kind Of an inva-
sion il i, its probable course. and our du-
ties in ayerting its disastrous cOnsequen-
ces.
What. then. does the rebel occupation
of Maryland soil mean in purely militia
ry aspect! TO the mind ofthe professional
soldier there may be but one reply In
the view OF the intelligent civilian there
are several replies. First. it may be a
''rsid" upon a magnificent scale. des-
perate attempt to obtain supplies, open
new avenues TO success, rally the spirits
Of the army, rs well as of Northern Sc
cessionists. whose hope is nearly sick, and
| by an unexpected move. confuse the
strategic plans on which We have mapped
ont the campaign. If this IS the design,
the raid will not be carried very far from
the Potomac as a base of operations. 1t
may, and probably will extend into Penn
sylvania: and desolate the richest por-
tions of our State, but it must cease when
its retreat is threatenened. Or secondly,
it may be Il part of n consistent military
plan. In this case. the rebels will either
strike for Baltimore or is vicinity there
by securing prestige and plunder. starry
ing Washington into Il surrender, and pre-
yenting the further sending reinforce
meutS South. Or they NAV march IInme-
diately northward to the State Capital.
proceeding thence eastward TO our city.
or westward to the rich towns that lie be-
tween Harrisburg and Pittsburg. The
objections to the raid" theory are drawn
rather from common sense than military
science. Granted that the rebels succeed
in amasSing considerable spoil by rapid in
cursionS into our State; still. their re-
.reat. whether by the Shenandoah valley
or the Manassas route would be terribly
endangered and even suppoSing them to
have chopped their way through. they
arrive in Richmond about as poor a. they
started, and having inflicted no more
damage than they have received. The
rebel leaders are too wary and thorough in
their schemes TO run such risks for max
ing fragmentary migration like this.
The objections TO an advance on BIlti-
more are first. that the city is und5r I'm
ion guns, and would he destroyed before
surrendered and secondly, that the reb-
els would thus be marching right into the
teeth OF the armies to which, by their
roundabout way, they have given plenty
of time to prepare. So an advance to
Philadelphia would have to be over two
sides of a triangle whose third side our
troops could very rapidly pass.
The objection to a Western advance
from central Pennsylvania lies in fact that,
by leaving the Potomac 50 far behind, the
rebels abandon their base and with 1t all
chances of reinforcements, or co-opera-
tions with Southern movements. Never
theless, if they have staked their all on
this move, and can succeed IN massing
an immense force on the north side fthe
Potomac, this plan is the most feasible of
: any yer coII-4-Ar-~-'
But there is another m0vcr1r,-..- IN: g =
we have not supposed-one due westward.
If this recent '.invasion" i, as most prob
IL
ting the eastern half Of 4 really grand
piece of strategy, the rebels will move at
once westward from their present position
in Maryland, putting as many days
march as possible between themselves
and our pursuing forces. They will. OF
course. subsist on the rich country through
which they may pass, leaving US the desert
of their creation, and their object will he
TO threaten Cincinnati, from the East,
and form a junction in Ohio. with their
other grand army marching up from the
4 Southwest. Ii this end be attained, they
will have every advantage of position,
and, by maintaining the division of our
force which they would thus make, they
may defy successfully our best efforts TO
dislodge them. Then follows their rec
ognition by Europe. and then-the fail
ure of the experiment for the making OF
which the worlds civilization has been has
been, for nineteen hundred years, ripen-
ing.
VIZ We sec it? Shall our eyes behold
it as present fact. and our children read
it as history written in blood, but hound
in the shame Of their fathers? The mus
ter-rolls must answer. If Lethurgy slow
ly scrawls her dull name on them, they
viii be put tinder TO kindle the confa-
grafton of our homes. If Honor embla-
zon their pages, they viii descend to pos
terity as its dearest heirloom. They will
be bound up with the Constitution and
the Declaration; and the names of our
defenders will be cherished with Il rev.
erence equal to that which hallows the
names of our progenitors.