The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-08-05
From the National In. 'igeneer.
The Late National Humiliation.

| The Valley of the Shenandoah has more
than once been the valley of our national
humiliation. After more than three years
of the gigantic war, our military adrIinis-
tration has not learned to apprehend the
relation Of this valley to the defense of
Washington, and the enemy, safely presu-
ming on the ignorance and shiftlessness of
that administration, has learned to practice
in this quarter wearlsome monotony of
movement which only serves 10 show that
he deems it safe at any time to hope for
success by counting on our official stolidi-
ty as standing substitute for his poverty
of invention.
Talleyrand was wont to say that it is al
ways better to rely on the folly of your an.
tagonist than on your own sagacity, and it
is certain that the enemy, in the use he
periodically makes of the valley of the
Shenandoah, has shown his own sagacity
only in presuming always on our official
want of that quality in the conduct of the
war. Physical geography has ordained
that the occlusion or at least the vigilant
observation, of this side approach to the
city of Washington, shall be a prime ele-
ment in any campaign which starting from
Washington, has the city of Richmond
for its objective point. And yet, with
want of foresight which, in the absence of
all conceivable motive for the wilful be-
trayal ola grave public trust, confounds
the reason of ordinary mortals by it's mag
nitude and by its inveteracy, our militrry
authorities have for four successive summers
permitted this valley to be used by the
enemy at his pleasure for the purpose of
bringing confusion Oh the welllaid plans
OF all our generals operating against Rich
mond. Whether it be at one time from
failing to station in this valley capable
commanding officer; CT at another from
not retaining sufficient force under his
command; or ut still another from not oc-
cupying the proper points of observation
to descry the approach of danger in time
to guard against posi- i've mischief; or whe-
Their, as at some time, it he from commit
ting all these blunders at once, certain it
is that the military administration, iu Civ.
the country much sad experience of ineffi-
cheney, has nowhere made that ineficiency
more egregious and deplorable than in this
quarter.
The first battle at Bull Run was turned
from victory into diaser by the failure of
General Patterson to prevent the junction
of General Joseph Il. Johnston, hrough
Ibis Galley, with General Beauregard in
the very crisis of the conflict failure
which, whether resulting from the incom-
potency of General Patterson, as some
charge, or from the inadequacy of his az
gressive force, as others represent, is one
Of which the responsibility must equally
rest on the central power which appoints
our commanders and directs the operations
of the war.
The campaign of General Mcclellan
was arrested and was frustrated by the
iucursion of Gen. jackson into this valley
in the latter part of May, 1862, compelling
the abrupt retreat of General Ranks, throw
ing our military authorities here into q
most abject panic, and preventing the con-
templatcd junction of Gen. Mcdowell with
Gen, Mcclellan by the Fredericksburg rail-
road-he being diverted from this line of
march to engage in what he knew to be the
impossible chase of jackson and Jack
son, in the meantime, after distracting all
our combinations, succeeded in hurting
his whole column against General McClel-
lan's forces around Richmond at the very
moment when our military authorities, re.
lying on the reports of General Fremont
after the battle Of Cross Keys ON the 9Th of
June, supposed him still to be detained in
the valley by the threatening presence of
that officer.
Then came the brief campaign of Gen.
eral Pope, in which, after having his
flank repeatedly turned and his communi.
cations with Washington broken by an at
tack in his rear, he was badly repulsed,
and driven into the defeuces Ct Washing
ton, while the enemy, with leisurely com
posure, turned from the pursuit of his
broken and mishandled forces to proceed
through this same valley, and make the
formidable irrup!ion into Mary land which
was repealed by General Mcclellan in the
battle OF Antietam on the 18th of Septem-
Der, 1862.
We need not pause to describe the dis
graceful events which preceded the &C.
cupation of Winchester by the enemy at
this time, or which attended the surrender
of Harper's Ferry-results all due to the
incapacity which placed incompetent Off
GERS In important positions; and which,
in the case of Harpers Ferry, was made
doubly conspicuous on this occasion by
the retention of Colonel Miles at that post,
under orders from General Halleck, after
the military availability of the position was
entirely neutralized by the turn which
events had taken. Official incapacity in
Washington, thus combined with military
lncompetency at the post, to erect anew
at the entrance Of this valley, the caudine
forks of an unspeakable humilia ion, which
largely modified the exultation Justly pro.
duced by the victory of Antietam, and
which, in all generous minds, was intensi.
fed by the attempt to throw on General