Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-08-10

bHTgh-Ihe Scene and bighfng-the me-
eHanieaL Skill and Industrial Resources Of
the North, 5c.
From the RichmoHd Enquirer, August 8.
Perhaps nothing can illustrate better
the difference between the Yankee and
Confederate habits than the ,circumstanS
ces attending the recent explosion upon
our lines. 1t is the first exhibition in this
quarter of science which has achieved
more for ancient and modern warfare
than perhaps any other. The strategy of
Observation-Disclosures, thorough, and
ALWAYS successful-has been contrasted
with that of Napoleon-rapid, resistless,
but transient-and sagaciOus soldiers
doubt whether the campaigns OF the first
were not more economical of men and
more permanent in their results than the
more brilliant conquests of his illustriOus
successor. The two schools have their emf
nent pupils; but the destructive visits of
Banks, Hunter, AVeril and GriersOn have
passed like tempest over the country,
leaving the people more united and ener-
getio, while the slower and more system
attic approaches by siege and blockade
have been more troublesome to ourselves,
and, when successful, attended with more
permanent occupation of the country.
We mean no reflection upon our engi-
neer corps. No doubt they know and do
what the books teach by fomula and dia-
gram. We do not know that they are
responsible for not having known and
guarded against design limited at by
letter writer's as ''startling," and moro
directly intimated by prisoners, who said
that Grant was thinning" We do not
criticise their failure to detect the point
at which this operation was to take place,
not to infer logicalIy-like King James,
when informed by an anonymous CONS
munication that the Parliament was
threatened with "sudden" destruction
that the danger to be apprehended was
from explosions of gunpOWder. But our
information is, that there is a ravine
within the enemy's works, and not very
distant from our Gnes-that from this ra-
vine q tunnel was driven, terminating at
q depth of forty feet below our salient re-
doubt; that we had trayersed the space in
teiyening between the two lines, with q
gallery calculated to intercept any ordi-
nary approaches, and that we had sunk a
shaft within our redoubt to a reasonable
depth. The command of the ravine, how
ever, gave the enemy the power to direct
their work and plant their mine at any
depth below our Notifications; and it is
therefore, we suppose, that the ordinary
appliances of galleries and tubes for hear
ing the progress of the mine were of no
avail. Besides, it appears that much OF
the work was affected by boring, and was
to that extent inaudible.
The difference between the two bellig-
ereuts is, that the Yankees commenced
this war with all the means and appliances
of mechanical art. The South had disre.
garded this important element of warfare.
The Yankees WOVe cloth and manufactured
iron, The South relied chiefly upon the
importation of these important commod-
tiles, The Yankees cast cannon and built
ships; they constructed wagons enough to
furnish both armies. The South was
obliged to organize all the Industrial en-
t0rpFises necessary to arm, clothe and
transport our men. The Yankees had the
advantage of every improved arm 10 Eu-
rome and America. Their dietetic and
sanitary systems have saved them thous-
ands Of soldiers who would have died upon
the coarse fare of the military hospital.
They copied the Sanitary Commission Of
the Crimean war. Preserved fruits, des-
siocated vegetables, solidi6ed milk, the
condensed nutriment of meat, the concen.
trated essence of tea and coffee, wines and
pure spirits accompany the hospital every
where. Ices and cordials refresh patent
ambulances, spring beds and hair mat
tresses solace the sick and the wounded.
When the field hospitals beyond the Apo
mattox suffered for water canal was cut
and steam pumps pat up, and an abundant
supply was furnished.
The mechanical skill Of these people
was shown in the facility with which they
have intrenched themselves in the field,
and the formidable earthWorks which they
erect to cover their eowardly Dutch and
negroes. 1t has been signally shown by
the perseverance, of Grant before Vicks-
burg, aud by the recent mine before Pc.
tersburg, and, indeed, by works which dot
and deface the whole South. .-.
We are now taking measures to meet
these formidable demonstrations, and to
equalizs this great disparity. Our engi.
ueer corps is intelligent and energetic, and
| its force has been much increased. We
have labored under a want Of many things
which our more skilltul foe employs in
abundance; but With us to perceive de-
feat seems to have been to repair 1t.
Should we not do so2 Modern warfare
demands the most perfect mode of destruc-
tion. Should we send our men TO the field
With interior weapons7 The most rapid
means of transportation. Should We be
content with rattle trap railroads aud brok-
en- down Wagons7 Abundant stores Of
food punotually carried 70 every point oi
military operations. Can oar men be con.
tented with deficient supplies or irregular