The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1864-07-18

ready % leave tor the nunorod eayDSorvtoo.
10 the recent railroad catastrophe Lackawaxsn sta-
sion rennsylvanIa. thers were sxtesa Union soldiers q
the Eleventh esmsat Reserve corps. killed. and ssvsn
teen wounded on the rebel prisoners forty nine wsre
killed and sixty eight wounded
Alta Msa and aiehmond-Ths Concsntra.
tiOn In virgtnia.
Atlanta and the rebel army under Joe
Johnston are likely to be the objects Of greatest
interest to the country for Z few days to come.
1t will not take great while to determine
whether Johnston is to try and hold that point,
and make final fight there. or whether he is
| to continue his retreat still further. 1t Is
greatly to be hoped that he may fight ct that
point. In that event we may count upon
great success-perhaps upon the destruction or
capture Of bis army, merely in virtue of the
good qualities OF our troops and OF their
number Should be abandon that point 1t will
change the whole military status on that
theatre, and perhaps conplicate matters else
where. Our operations against him will have
to start anew-perhaps with the organization
Of new line-and the necessary consumption
Of time will try the patience Of the people.
General Sherman has not the intuitive percep-
ton Of military genius. He has less vigor than
he was credited with At the commencement Of
this campaign. Johnston is his superior in both
these particulars. A commander possessed of
these qualities, having under him such an army
a. ours, would have destroyed Johnston's army
before it had reached the end Of the long line
between Chattanooga and Atlanta II is another
proof of the possession of peculiar genius by
Johnston that he has been able to carry any
portion Of his army so far under such circum-
stances, and keep it together. As it is, it is
well worn down. demoralized, If accounts re-
present it correctly--and cannot fight just now.
Johnston WILL therefore, in all probability, go
further, and, it is to be hoped, fare worse. II
he cannot be destroyed otherwise he can be
worn out; but it will take time.
Will he cndeavor to take his army to Rich
mond and join it to that under General Lee?
There is great probability that he will
Until now tie conditions necessary TO success
appear to have made it imperative upon the
enemy to keep an army in tie South-in South
Carolina, Georgia or Alabama. But the case is
changed in this respect at present. Such an
army, in such position, was in certain way
accessory 10 the army that held tho rebel CAPT
tai. 1t held the country necessary for the sub
sstence of the latter army, ard could not
leave that country for fear Of the loss
of all supplies. But now the danger Of loss of
supplies comes from another direction. Sher-
man, whose part Of the present campaign was
to destroy Johnston's army and hold the whole
country from Augusta to Mobie-the country
depended upon to keep the confederacy alive
has not done so; but Grant has cut or is cut
ting Richmond Off from that country. The
danger that Johnston was to guard against
mcnaces now not on the Chattaboochie, but
on the Appomattox. The whole question now
of Johnstons ability to keep Richmond in com
muuication with country that can feed it is
narrowed to question Of the ability Of the
rebel armies to drive General Grant from
his present position. Thus the necessities
that formerly made it imperative for Johnston
and bis army to be kept IN Georgia now make
it equally imperative for him to 60 to Viz
ginia-and be will doubtless do It,
Thus events In their natural development
daily give the power Of both governments q
tendency toward yirsinia-the old State whose
immense vitality las kept the rebellion alive,
enVu6h suO WOO IA o&BSA AAtO ~ d&diuct ACt
will, under the delusion that generous regard
for what were called her "sister States" Of the |
South, required her to cast her lot with theirs |
Scott, Mcclellan, Grant and Lee all concur in
the opinion that the great struggle is to be
fought in Virginia. Grant has shown how that
result is necessary. He has taken a position
that forces that result. He has placed himself |
at . point from which the life of the rebellion |
requires that he should be driven at whatever
cost. Lee will concentrate in Richmond every
available man to do it, and Grant will make
an equally great concentration to resist.
Thus it would appear that the great strug- |
gle at Petersburg has but just begun. 1t will
be the final combat Of the war, and will draw
into its vortex the whole power Of the North
and South Many minor combats will eddy aud
ripple round it-sll attempts to influence it in
one way or another. We have already had me
6rst o. these in the late advance to Washing
ton. That was sagacious attempt to change
the venue. Was feeble, and it failed. Yet,
though we we're successful in the main point,
the STAR was disgraceful to us. 1t accom-
plishcd what it did through the evident incom-
potency Of General Hunter. That officers
campaign agains: Lynchburg was the worst
possible failure. 1t not only did no harm at
all to the enemy, but it put twenty thousand
Union soldiers out OF the service. at most inn
portant moment. General Hunter ran away
into the wilderness OF Western Virginia with the
army that should have held the valley, and let
the enemy go quietly to Washington without
knowing Of it. He appears to be in very bad
temper over il just now by the way be is
handling the newspapers and telegraph ope-
ratos in his department A general who is
qu'ta harmless 10 the enemy can always sup
press paper.