The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1863-02-06
Late Northern News,
MILITANT MATTERS AT THE wEsT-uIE rRo

MILITANT MATTERS AT ThE WEst-fhE fhos'
PECT.
The New York World has an able and
interesting review of military matters in
the West, from which we copy some pas
sages:
We begin at last TO receive coplOus de-
tails of the movements of the several ar
mics in the West, and the new lights, II
must be said, render them hardly more
satisfactory than before.
We are enabled to see now what mlseT-
able miscalculation it was which sent the
army of Banks away to the remotest cor
ner of the Confederacy when it was most
urgently needed at the very core. The
blunder of Fredericksburg has been re-
peated at Vicksburg
The desirable thug was TO open the
Mississippi river, because that would. COM
| plete the circle Of fire around the rebel
lion, would give us important strategic
advantages, and would furnish subslan-
tial evidence 10 all the world of our pow
err to reduce the insurgents. What fol-
/ lows! The first movement is TO detach
/ General Sherman down the Mississippi
with a corps ddIaes of some forty thou
sand strong. The corps of Banks, Of equal
strength, is below Port Hudson. The ar
my OF General Grant proper, still larger,
holds Holly Springs and Oxford as its ba-
SEES. The problem was simple enough
to cut of Vicksburg above, below, be-
hind. This was TO compel its surrender.
Why did Gen. Sherman, then, busy
himself with the police regulations Of his
army, instead of rushing down, the riyerS
Did he think to keep his destination a
secret when all the world had been talk
ing of it for three months? Did he not
see that all maxims of sense and strategy
made Vicksburg the most natural point
in the world for him to move upon! He
gravely moderated the judgment of his
enemy, and must ere this have discover
ed that he did so. At last he attacks
But the attack was made either week
too late or a week too soon. He sent his
men into carefully prepared slaughter
pen.
The defenders of Vicksburg, heavily
reinforced, contemplate The disaster, con
tdent and defiant, from their impregna-
bic heights. The great objective point
OF the Southwestern movement is lost by
an unconserted opening OF the campaign.
In the next place we have series OF
events which wear suspicious resem-
blance to the features Of general panic.
Colonel Murphy makes second surren-
der. Gen. Dayises orders the evacuation
Of Island Number 10, with its sixty heavy
guns, and moves his headquarters to the
boats at Columbus. The commandant at
the island at first refused TO obey the or
der, but it was executed by staff officer,
the batteries spiked, the ammunition
poured into the river, stores burned and
troops embarked. Major-General Grants
whole army, sixty thousand strong, swings
around to confront Van Dorm with his
six thousand cavalry, and jeff. Thomp-
sons guerillias. Major-General Hurlbut
threatens to burn Memphis. The aspect
Of all this is not pleasant.
The central mischief at work to breed
all this confusion it needs no ghost to
point out to us. We have in the West
a chaos OF departments and districts, and
almost every major general in command
Las his own scheme OF operations which
he is constantly urging upon the war de-
partment at Washington. The West has
splendid army, the western campaign
may decide our destiny for yearsto come;
and yet the western. army has no COM
mander, nor the western campaign any
plan.