Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-05-09

The following article from the Richmond
Examiner OF March 18th, is similar in tone
and sentiment to many others that appear in
the Southern papers. We copy as repre-
sentative of Confederate feeling:
Scarcely doubt is entertained, or can be
entertained, that the entire force OF the
United States, after deducting the numbers
necessary to defend the Notifications Of Chat
tanooga, of Vicksburg and New Orleans, will
be thrown upon Richmond. From the first
day Of the war this point has been naturally
regarded by the enemy as the key Of the or
ganization known as the Southern Confeder-
acy. Richmond was their first word, and
Richmond will be their last in this war. They
have sent each year an army always greater
than that which they sent the year before.
Defeat and disaster has hitherto been the in
variable result. But perseverance is quality
in which the Yankee was never supposed -
be deficient, and in addition to the rcasc. s.,
so manifest that they need no rccapitu!a- al,
why the whole country should regard he
capture of Richmond as all achievement
worth the double OF all their barren conQucSts
in the West, Grant, and the generals ;yho
have distinguished themselves under his
command, have added the weight of their au-
thority in the fullest extent to the counsel Of
those who now, as ever, regard Richmond as
the alpha and omega of Southern conquest.
Grant and the Western generals have discov-
cred that they cannot advance further into
the Southern country, while Richmond
stands, without laying their heads on the
block over which is an uplifted axe. They
feel Longstreet on their flank and rear, and
know that, if they penetrated Georgia, the
forces from Virginia could sever their lines,
and destroy them between the upper and the
neither millstoncs. AL they can now do in
the West is to defend what they have taken.
This may be done with few men. They have
erected enormous Notifications on the Ten
nessee and Mississippi. Leaving the requi-
site numbers to hold them. the rest Of the
troops will be thrown on Virginia, and the
first steps of the concentration have probably
already been taken.
The army of the United States is not now
what it has been. In GO the most rrodlgious
effort of which the country was capable was
made. At the beginning Of that year it held
4 million of men under arms, its finances
were firm, and the brilliance Of assured hope
still sparkled on its sword. Fredericksburg
and Characteristic, Winchester and Gettys-
burg, Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, un.
successful campaigns in Texas, in Florida,
in Mississippi, in South Carolina, the salient
points in a long line Of fighting, which
stretched from the Atlantic to the Rio Grande,
marked with thousands of minor combats,
with innumerable skirmishcs, broad trail
of blood; the losses in these, and the Still
larger losses from disease, hardship, and de-
sertion, have brought down that huge mass
into very narrow limits. The new lcvics,
tba in hpen hu
drops in the empty bucket. The military
fecundity of the nation was exhausted to
create the armies of 1868. If il can bring
four hundred thousand effective men, al!
told, into the campaigns OF this year, that
will be greater number than we have appar-
ent reason to expect.
But setting aside half of this force to guard
its conouests, the United States may still!
send a hundred and seventy-fiye, perhaps
200, 900 men against Richmond. What are
our means OF resistance? There are two
means of resistence-the first which occurs
to many is an offensive movement on grand
scale into some part of the encmy's own
territory. But this measure is the least pro-
bable of adoption. 1t has been deemed the
best policy Of our rulers to sit still at home
and wait for the cnemyto come when, where,
and how he may think best; and this policy
will be, more or less, consistently pursued by
them to the end of the war. The only other
plan to be adopted is new defense OF Rich
mond. 1t was most successful in 1862, when
we had Jackson to drop from the clouds on
the flank and rear Of Mcclellan. 1t may be
successful again without Jackson, provided
we can get a hundred thousand troops
here in time, and maintain them through the
summer.
Distributed in the Notifications OF Rich
mond from Petersburg to Fredericksburg, we
may wear out all the armies in the United
States, one after another. But il this is to
be done, now is the time when the real de-
tense of Richmond-which is the defense, the
only possible defense of the whole Southern
country, must be made. Success depends
entirely upon the preparation made now
noy-in this and the coming month.