The Xenia sentinel. [volume] (Xenia [Ohio]) 1863-186?, 1864-01-26
A ResOlUte PeOPIe-MiIitaFy Pros
poets.

% the last Ene GrSb year WOulQ- pfODaDl,
have ended the war The independenc
Of the Confederaey would have been re
cognized, the Union would have been per
manently divided, and a new Government
Whosecorner-stOne Wasslavery, would bav,
been full in operation. No nation in tht
world but the American, would hav,
thought it possible to whip into suBjectiOr
and obedience such q great military power
as the South showed itself to b. in the
first year of the war. At the head oi
their civil affairs, in the person of Jeffer.
son Davis, they hadashrewd, poWerfulman.
In the field they we're not less ably repre-
sented. They had Beauregard, who had
won great prestige in capturing Fort Sum.
ter, and in defeating and driving back the
Federal army at The first battle of Ma
nassas. They had General Lee, an edu-
Gated military m1n, who gave promise Of
great achievements in the field. Then
also they had Generals johnson, Jackson,
Bragg, LoDgstreet, and others, who ap-
peared to be very able commanders. And
besides the military greatness of their
leaders, they had a powerful army-pow-
erful both in its numbers aud its equip
ments In the beginning their army was
larger than the army of the North, and
by means Of such thieves as Floyd, and
his co-Eorkers, their soldiers we're all we'll
armed.
But bow was it in the beginning of the
war with the army of the North Iu the
first place, it appeared to have no able, or
even ordinary Generals, in important COM
mands. General Mcdowell led the Poo
mac army out to Manassas, and it was
slaughtered and routed. General McClel-
ban then took the command, and organized
a grand army, but it did nothing toward
putting down the rebellion. Generals
Fremont and Hunter were unsuccessful in
Missouri, and General Buel, with his army,
was driven across the State Of Kentucky
to the very banks of the Ohio river by
General Bragg. The armies Of the South
were victor, US and confident, while the
armies of the North were defeated and
discouraged. Peace, confidence, harmony
and agreement, seemed 70 reign in the
civil councils and among the people Of the
South, while diversions, which threatened
to prove fatal, destroyed the efficiency Of
the prosecution Of the war on the part of
the North.
At such a period as this, less cour-
ageOus people than the Americans would
have given up the contest, and quietly
submitted to division of their ter itory
and a destruction Of the prestige of their
Government. But the Yankees, who
could cut solid Jumps of gold from the
very rocks Of New England hillsides who
could bring a savage wilderness to oiviliza-
tion, and make the barren PIains bios
som ike the rose; who could build a
manufactOry in every town and create great
cities and states in less than a century
these men were not to be frightened into
coWardice by the temporary success Of the
South. Not less cool, and even more de-
termined, were the hardy, honest, patri-
otic masses cf the great Northwest, who
looked upon aloss Of the Mississippi river
and diversion of the Union as immedi-
ate and everlasting ruin to all that makes
q people happy and prosperous5 and with
a dissemination which will appear truly
sublime in history the patsiotic people Of
the East and of the West resolved to con
quer the whole South, with It's thirteen
rich and powerful States, and its large and
ably-generaled armies. And what is the
result2
The rebel armies, instead Of being pow
erful as they we're two years ago, are weak
eaed bymany bard-fought battles, in which /
they have suffered. the most signal defeats.
And where are the recruits to come from
to ill up the depleted rebel ranksf The
Old men and the boys are all that remain,
and -they are needed at home to develop
the agricultural resources of the country,
By which atone the rebel armies
are supplied But how is it with the
North? Our resources are inexhaustible.
We can con 'inue to ffl-uP tbe ranks Of
The Union army-by draGG8g e not BY
vOluHteering-f1r years to conc. The.
rebel armies are discouraged, and to q Ger.
tain degree at least, demOralized, by so
many defeats, while the Union armies are
encouraged by SO many brilliant suce. sses.
To the vietorie, 81 Fort Donelson, eoriutb,
Tea Ridge, and New Orleans, We can add