The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-08-24

posed to have induced, the adoption of
the overland line of advance against Rich
mond. The InteHigencer concludes, after
candid consideration of the reason
urged in defence Of Grants courss, that,
Thus, in any light in which we may
view this question0it is impossible not to
perceive that the men who were Killed
and disabled by the overland march were
killed and disabled in vain. For If Gen
eral Grant proposed to himself tho
destruction of Lees armyIby hard ponn-
ding, so that the fall OF, ,Richmepd w6uld
follow we noW-see that he weakened the
aggressive power Of his hammer even
more than he damaged the resisting power
of the anvil, for he, was, compelled in tho
end to intermit his. blows and resort to
the slow processes of the mind and, the
sieg. And as the course of events finally
turned him from the line of the overland
rout to the line of the James4lca7ing
the confederate army unbroken as resis-
ting power-it follows. that byfpursuitg
the former line he needlessly sacrificed
all the men who were killed and wounded
in excess over the Confederate killed and
wounded, and that he forfeited By it at
the vital point of his operations all the
strength and energy which had been
wasted in the terrible but fruitless battles
which interviewed between the Sd of
May aud the I4th of Juue-Ei9i 9dj liz
After citing the assertion of the Asmiy
and Nduy Journal that the campaign
thus far had "beeH attended with losses
proportionate to the enemy's certainly as
three to two, possibly as FIVE to three"
the Iteltgencer says: = jusi7eafui Il II
. We shall rot undertake to. estimate the
losses of Gen. Grant in the overland ex-
pedition We shall perhaps never know
them with authenticity OF exactitude!
Mr.. Senator Wilson, speaking in the
Senate in his capacity as chairman of the
Committee on Military Affairs, character
lied them as "immense." We at least
know they were without precedent In the
history of our war, and let it be- remem-
bered they were losses which robbed us
of veterans soldiers-mene seasoned by
servic, whose lives, in a,purely military
point of view, were precious beyond
numerical reckoning. 7f' ~ N'"
But the loss of valuable lives was not
the sole disadvantage of this overland
march. Those of the army-who succeed
and spent by their previous unintermitting
found them out of breath at the very
point where they came to the final tug of
the dreadful struggle. The. enemy had
fought behind his defensive work, and3
though doubtless greatly reduced in num-
Der and vigor, could still fight behind
his trenches at Petersburg OF, Richmend.
But as our forces had been required to
cary riffe-pits and TO scale entertainments
along the whole line of the progress from
the Wilderness to the James, .theyswere,
with hearts as brave as ever, so prostrated
in their physical energies that their charg-
es became Ineffective and u1availing
precisely at the junctufe when success
in; the whole object Of the campaign
depended on the impetuosty and yigor
of their assault. ,.,j.-,--,,, f.,r ....,,.,t r
A review of the operations before
Petersburg, concluding with The affair of
the 30th ult, shows, according to the
Lntelligencer, that tour painting troops,
wearied by the tolls and = conflicts of the
overland march, had little either, of speed
or vigor to spend in assault of the enemy's
formidable line Of redoubts and entrench-
ments." Losses amounting to l Z, 600 men,
apart from those sustained in General
movement against the Danyille
are noticed by the lntelligencer
as having accrued before Petersburg.
After alluding to the defeat Of the 30th
ult., General Grants reviewer conclu-
des:- The result (of the defeat( is not
so important in itself as for its probable
entailing as it must still
longer delay in front of these works, if
their reduction should not be abandoned by
General Grant: But during this interval
of delay will the enemy remain idle? On
this point the Intelligent correspondents
Of the New York Times in this CITY
we allude to Mr.. Swinton-
writes as. follows: 5s.ro-,..i .,r-rr II.
"Under the most favorable circunstan-
ces, with the rebel forces reduced by two
great detachments, we failed tooscarry
their lines. Will they not conclude that
.he twenty fiVe Thousand men that held
Grant in check can garrison the works of
Petersburg? Will they not conclude that,
f they were able thus to hold their own
With the force of from eighteen to twenty
bousand men sent to the north side Of
he James river neutIalized, this force iS
AVAILABLE for active operations elsewhere,
md may we not expect too see 1t join the =
,olumn Of Breckinridge and EARLY with
view to attempt still more aaudaeious
on the soil lofthe loyal States"
These ulterioI consequences of General
Grants failure before Petersburg are as
ret purely speculative" Ard as we propo-
g to confne ourselves stricly to a'rehearsal
f. the zpast,1 welheres close our review of
his eventful but, in the present stage of
is progress, most unsuccessful campaign.
It is not in mortals always to command
Iccess, but none will deny that the
;allant Army of the potomac has, by fS
eroic endurance and by its prodigies of
alor DESCRIBED the success which inalig-
ant foe has again plucked from its grasp.
B~ A down east editor pays his re-
poets to newspaper borrowers thusi.
IL. e. &C rirnrlo nr1arod