The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1864-06-27
The lrem-Clads.

The Yankees, with oil the immense odd
they possess in this war against US, coult
not rest without multiplying their iron Glade
The New York Herald says they have ex
pended seventy millions Of dollars u2oi
them. We conjecture that the Herald II
greatly under the mark. THAT the Yankees
should have incurred such immense expcndi
fuses for these formidable engines of war on
the water, against the South--which com
mcnced the struggle with no navy, hardly
anything 10 build one out of, and very few
men who knew anything Of the art OF snip
building to use its limited materiai,-s
very striking illustration Of the nature VI
the undertaking to subjugate the Scuthefh
States. With all the world open to tue
North; with the old regular United states
army and navy, while VIC had neither army
nor navy TO begin with; with the arms OF
foreigners added to its twelve million more
of populstiou than we have; with the en-
listment of the Southern slaves to fight
against their masters with all these ODDS
IL has had ever since the war began, thou
sands of men building iron clads to do the
work on the water Of crushing the rebellion!
Aud yet the rebellion rs not crushed. We
are driven from our rivers, and the great
armies of the enemy, when defeated by oar
gallant soldiers, retreat to the protection
of the gunboa's which keep up the police
of those rivers. These are odds agai INST us;
they are advantages for the enemy OF char
actcr that NO invading force ever had in any
war that ever existed. And yet the South
maintains the spirit and force Of its resist
ance with increasing ardor and efficiency
1t will so continue to maintain its rights
until they are finally triumphantly estab-
lished, in spite Of all the unprecedented ad.
vantages which the enemy. yields in his
ruthless war for our subjugation and ulti
mate humiliation.
Now let US suppose, for moment, that
we had commenced this war with the ad-
vantage of navy-with ships on the sea,
and with some iron clads and floating bate
ries to protect our rivers and barbors. This
war would have terminated ere this. Vir-
ginia they could not have invaded at all
except in and near the mountains, and there
they could neither march, manGuyer, nor
support al army of any consequence. They
could have marched a larger army by the
Piedmont route than any other; and that
army once whipped it could not have been
saved from destruction; for the entire re-
serves of the Virginia army could have been
hurled upon it, and have destroyed it, since
they would not have been needed to protect
the tide water and its cities. A Northern
army that could by possibility have pene-
trated as far as Mcclellan or Grant, and
have provisioned itself near this city, when
once whipped must have been annihilated;
for it would have no gunboats to shelter il
from our brave defenders. What earthly
chance would Grant stand now but for hi,
gunbOats? He could never have taken up
his present position, aud would have re-
treated long ago with pIecipitancy back to
Washington, after he was really whiT ped at
the kapidan. Thus our noble rivers, which
would have been our invincibie defenders
were they armed with Confederate iron clads,
have become our betrayers. They give the
enemy all that strength without which the
invasion would have been dead, and it's
spirit fed to the Hades OF all inhumanities
and malignities long since.
While We deplore this condition of the
struggle, and regret the necessity which it
imposes uponus Of submitting to a prolonga-
ton Of the war, We are only inspired to
greater exertion. Our brave Confederate
armies will yindicate our cause and estab-
lish our independence, Notwithstanding the
odds they cope with, while the conduct of
our adversary in this war will damn his ma
ton to everlasting iDfamy, and give to his
tory chapter more disgraceful to human
ity than any yet upon record.