Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1864-12-29
rnK LAST MAMMOTH MISUNDERSTANDING OF
WILMINGTON


wILNiNoroN
The Richmond Examiner of December POD
says:
OF all the mammoth armadas yet sent forth by
the North, the Porter and Butler expedition
against Wilmington is perhaps the mammothest
Each successive colossal enterprise OF that gigan-
tic people is always more enormously huge than
the last and We perceive by the report lately
published by Mr. Welles, Yankee Secretary of
the Navy. that our enemies are impressed with
due sense OF the difficulties of The feat they have
now undertaken. and with the necessity of max
ing their effort large aud stupendous IN proper
ton
Mr. welles admits with regret. that not only
have the Yankee army and navy failed hitherto
TO take Wilmington. but they have failed so much
a. to blockade Il against foreign trade. Indeed
he goes so tar as TO declare that all experienced
naval officers who have been of that coast "do
not concur in the opinion that the port OF viii
mington can be entirely closed by blockade"
The Secretary may ssy that we write now up.
on paper and with ink imported regularly through
the port Vt Wilmington, and most persons IN
Richmond eat, drink and wear every day articles
which have passed through the Confederate Gus
tom House at that place: not that We could not
we'll dispense with these foreign luxuries, having
. all necessares at home; but men will not. aud
especially women. will not deny themselves En-
gllsh and Fcench products when they can have
them without any difficulty in spite Of Welles
and his steam ma mmoths. This IL very sad
from the Secretary's point OF view. and he sets
himself to account Tor the untoward fact. He
saws proudly: The navy has been always rea
dy TO perform its part in such an expedition Ito
capture Wilmington; but the army has not been
able to unite in a conloint movement, and neither
branch OF the service cen expect 10 be success
fully independent Of the other
This seems an unkind imputaton upon the
army, as il IL also was not always ready BIT
In truth the Yankees never had armies enough,
nor large enough, TO do the work they undertake
II General Grant 60 Co take Wilmington, he
must let 20 that hold which he says he has upon
Rchmond's throat. sherman cannot be In two
places At once. on the ogeechee and on the
Cape Fear Thus the mighty comprehensive
IDEAS OF the Yankee mind are often spoiled by
the inadeQuacy of the material to be worked
With: and IL Is 10 wonder the great soaring. un
bounded soul OF the nation grows impatient. not
only az the peryeFsty with which even nature
herself sometimes appears to delight in thwart
ing the most mammoth undertaking. For ca
ample the Cape Fear river Is not altogether the
kind OF river which Mr. Welles could wish, aud
which. Ia fact his couutrymcn might have rca-
sonably expected it 20 be; Tor The Secretary
says
At New Orleans. Mobile and Port Royal, either
OF those operations could have been repeated At
that point. but bv reason ct the shoalness OF The
water, al exclusively naval operation cannot &c
relied upon - he successful
Hence, no doubt. the necessity for that mon.
slrous expedition. half naval and half military.
which we learn has just appeared oil Whining
ton II Butler can once get IA how glorously
he will rob the stores OF our worthy importing
merchants But the comfort l.. that Butler has
never taken any place whatever: aud although
il were Grant or sherman Who led the land troop
81 that wondtous expedition, the enterprise l.
one that would tar aud test their very utmost
provess
The couiedesaey is not. We apprehend. aboui
20 be deprived this time Of it, chief port OF entry
for foreign commerce Neither is Il Our only one.
Tor many vessels do. even nov, enter many an
other harbor which the enemy battered himself
ne had Dramatically sealed long ago.
The business OF closing the port OF Whining
ton, too. u an affair which will rather sirourl,
excite ,he Br,tsh government and commrrcisl
pablic Secretary Welles mentions the eateu,
10 which the knglish interest themselves with a
certain disnlasd regret. aud that exalted tone OF
stern morality which 30 we'll becomes the Yan.