The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1863-09-17
THE AMERICAN WAR.
Rapid Consumption Of Men.
From the London Times

than the con x nptlOn OF money. cucI,
however. is the fact. The Federal States
have incurred without murmur a debt OF
which the annual charge is little less than
that of the public debt OF Great Britain.
They are living upon paper currency and
if they have not as yet paHl many taxes
they have at any rate consented to the I'M
position of heavy taxation But the imam
eial aspect Of the war appears to have CIV
en- them very little concern. Mr.. Chase
manages the money market with great dex-
teritv and as there is no difficulty at pres
ent there Is but slight anxiety for the fil-
turc. Far different however. Is the case
with the supply of men - prodlgal has
been the expenditure of life ON both sides
but especially on the part OF the North.
that the most desperate cxpedients are now
required for the reinforcement of the ar
mics in the field. Volunteering. Mr.. Lin
colin himself tells US is -palpably exhaust
eel" recruits are no longer to be purchased
bv boumtieS. and at length Il nation. which
prided itself above all things. on the mill
tarv organization of It's willing and indie
pcndent citizens. finds itself reduced III
the third Year of the war. To the necessity
ot Il conscription. So urgent. in fact are
the needs of the State. that the President
cannot wait till the arrangements ios the
draft are properly completed. The aov-
crnor,of New York writes to him. with Il
statement demonstrating the unfair and
partial operation of the projected levy III
certain districts under his authority. Mr.
Lincoln cannot deny that The figures show
something wrong; but he answers that he
has no time to reetify them. lie will do
the best that he can BY and by. bat at the
present the men must be pressed. enrolled
anl sent off to the dcpot@ without delay
He does not pretend to deny that even the
draft itscl' may be OF questionable legality;
but that point too must be left for future
decision. 1T this moment he must have
the men.
These confessed rcecsSities Of the Fe''e-
rails contrast somewhat strangely with the
boasts of inexhau-tible resources in which
they have indulgel but we canno. be sur
priSed at the results Never. We presume
in the history Of civilized nations. were men
So rapidly cnr:~.iaedas in this civil war.-
Voluntecrin. not exhausted prema-
turely. Nir Linc in calls since the spring
of 1861 have certainly exceeded 900 00G
men. lie began with 10000; he rose pre-
sently to 100 $50. and at very short inter
walls the demands were repeated. Mess.
indeed. we assume that one man out oi ev-
ery two in the Federal armies has been
killed or wounded, we must raise the az
.regate amount Of their lcvies to numbers
even greater than We have suggested; for
it seems to be beyond question that half Il
million men. at least. have been placed
hors DE- comLna since the war began.
In the intercepted correspondence Of the
Confederates which was brought before
our government by the Federal authorities
themselves. the loses at the North are cs-
timated at 80 800 But this was twelve
months ago. and all the carnage of Chan
eellorvillc and Gct;tshurg say nothing
Of the inccssant drain at NickSburg Port
Hudson. Charleston, and many other points
has to be brought to account. Less than
800 900 the total can hardly be. and that.
indeed was the computation Of or CORES
pon,lent in the South some six months ago.
TIL. losse O the Conicderates. even at that
period, We're supposed to be 200, 900. so
that 750. 900 would be the lowest estimate
of the whole consumption. To form an
adequate idea Of the prodigious drain, let
the reader remember our own position in
the Crimean war. The comparison will &c
all the easier because the available resour-
ees Of the Lwo countries are exactly alike.
The United Kingdom contains popula-
ton as nearly as possible equivalent to that
of the northern and southern States put
included-so that we had /
as good stock to draw upon as the Amer
leans have had Our army before Sebas-
tapol was never at any one time, % 600
strong. and yet the $1,000 casualties in
that force were enough to throw England
into mourning, and to reduce the standard
of the army for some time. What would
have been the case if ten or twenty times
that force had been IL the field What
would have happened if 1000 British
soldiers had been killed or wounded in two
years of war;
At this rate of consumption the Ameri-
can war will soon literally become what
some of its promoters desire--a war of ex-
That phrase is mere hy-
perbole in European stories, but it will ex-