The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-04-18
5BURLINGT ON WEEKLY sHAWKEYE

But the brilliant triumphs Of our armv
ana navy elsewhereswere surpassed by the
capture Of the great city of the Gulf the
depot 81 the great Valley Of the Mississippi
nmaoed by the importance Of the conquest
ana the noble daring of it's execution. is
scarcely surpassed in history. BY this I'M
Poftant conquest we obtained control Of a
large portion of Louisiana, and accomplish
ed the most important and difficult stem
toward obtaining the entire control of the
mississippi River, and caused the surren
der of the harbor of Pensacola. with the
forts yet held by the Rebels.
In these hastily sketched military and
naval operations, extending in the West
through the States of Arkansas, Missouri.
Tennessee and Kentucky, and on the At,
lantlc seaboard from Hatteras to Florida.
ana on the Gulf from Pensacola to the
mouths of the Mississippi. we really made
conquests as vast as it often falls to the lot
OF the most powerful and warlike nations
to make in so short period of time. We
pushed our conquests by land through Mis-
souri,, Kentucky and Tennessee to the yerv
boundaries of the Gulf States; obtained con-
a 1roi OF the Mississippi River, except about
NW miles; occupied the coasts Of North
Carolina, South Carolina and Georpia-a
large portion OF Louisiana; seized every i'm
portant tort and harbor in the Rebel terri
tory, save three Wilmington, Charleston
ana Mobile, reducing to corresponding
extent the labors of the blockading SQUAD.
ron; captured fourteen permanent sea coast
forts, among which were the largest on the
Southern coast, such as Pulaski, Barran-
cas-, McRae, Jackson, and st. Phillip. Fol-
lowing these conQuests was the reduction
OF yorktown and the evacuation of Nor
folk, by which the waters of the James and
York Rivers were laid open to our fleets.
and the Rebels deprived Of the facilities
nv
PEELED to destroy their only means of mem
acing our fleets in Hampton Roadside
Merrimac.
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.
Had the success of the Army of the Poto-
mac during this period correspondent with,
the success Of our arms in other parts Of the
country, there is reason to believe that the
termination ofthe campaign of 1862 would
have seen the Rebellion well-nigh, if not
entirely, overthrown.
Had Norfolk been captured during the
Winter of 1872 and the Merrimac taken
possession Of or destroyed, the way to Rich
mond, by means of the James River, would
have been open, and the fatal delays of the
Peninsula avoided ;or had the enemy when
at Manassas, some time during the Autumn
of 1861 Or Winter of 1S6l-62, have been COM
PEELED to have come out of his entrench-
ments and give us battle, as he might have
been, by threatening or actually interrupt
ting his communication between Richmond
and Manassas, on which he wholly depend
ed for his supplies-a line so long and diff
cult to maintain that we subsequently, did
not deem it practical for us-we could have
met him with an army greater than it was
ever proposed to take against Richmond,
and either have opened the way to the Reb-
ell capital or made it unnecessary to go there!
In military movements delay is generally
bad-indecision almost always fatal In
N xSyp RI fCo oft ION
forgotten that momentum is made up of
weight and 0elOclty; that the force of the,
blow may depend as much upon the celer-.
ity of the movements as upon the weight of
of the body moved. The worlds history
shows that the successful General has met
his enemy the day before he was expected
not the week or month after, Some of our
points of attack have been so clearly indica-
ted to the enemy beforehand and our move
ments made with SO much delay and hesita-
ton, that he has been able not only to forth
fy his positions and concentrate his forces,
but even to call into the field new armies to
meet us. At such points we have failed.
1t is particularly worthy of note that, in
the reverses which followed the failure of
the Peninsula campaign, at the time when
the army of the Rebels had reached it's
greatest strength and its highest state of en-
thusiasm, they did not permanently regain
any territory or recapture and hold any Of
the important or controlling points before
held by us on Rebel soil. Their marches
upon Washington, Maryland, and also
Louisville, We're little more than raids, from
which they were obliged to retire before our
opposing forces. This fact clearly shows
that while il is impossible for us to constant
ly retain military possession Of all the vast
Rebel territory over which we may be call
ed upon to pass in our operations against
their armies, still the territory once held or
occupied by us cannot be permanently re-
gained by them-a sure indication OF our
ultimate success.
The past, Notwithstanding its errors and
reverses, is full of encouragement and gives
full assurance of final success. No great
war was ever conducted by any people or
ing to the critics of the time and those of
succeeding generations q wide and ample
field for their labors. No people on earth
were ever called suddenly into a great war
more totally unprepared than wero the 10y
al people of this Government. We felt SO
well assured Of our position among the pow
ers of the world that we had almost conclud-
ed we had fought our last battle, and our
army and navy had come to be regarded by
many as useless appendages to the Govern
ment. We had concluded that, doing JUS
tice to the nations of the world, we should
receive justice in return and the loyal por-
ton of the people were devoting all their en-
ergies and powers to the arts of peace, the
advancement of civilization, the develope-
ment OF the rich and varied resources of our
new and great country and in these every
man found full occupation for his talents
and wide field for his ambition-no man
ever,dreaming that the parricidal arm would
ever be raised against Government so
mild in its sway, SO benignant in its influ-
ence over all its subjects. a4 19
1t was indeed difficult for people thus
enorOSSa6 suddenly and almost without