Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-12-30
Breaking into the Shell.

Breaking into the Shell.
The rebel papers take comfort from
sn estimate, furnished by some of their
sympathizers at the North, that 10000
young men in the confederacy will arrive
at the military age during the year 1865.
These figures are many times too large.
The census figures show an increase OF
bot 277 500 per year for the whole coun-
try. The rebel states have less than II
per cent. of the military population OF the
country. Their proportion Of the add
tion to this population by annual increase
is therefore only 10000. Bot the con
frderates nave been drawing from this
class in advance. A. Gen. Grant trus,-
fully said, they have robbed the cradle
and the grave to Gil up their ranks" and
it is probably too large an estimate To
put their addition Of young fighting men
At 24000 for the next year. Druid, thu
Baltimore rebel correspondent of the
New York World, estimates The aggre-
gate Of the Union armies at the present
time at half million men. aud The rebel
armies at half that number. That the
rebels do not hope TO get enough white
recruits to keep their numbers good, they
confess by arming the negroes. We are
about to put 100000 more men into the
field, and we can maintain and increase
our numerical superiority to any desira-
BILE extent. This comparison of numbers
shows the confederacy to be mere shell,
as Gen. Grant declared. 1t has reached
the point Of exhaustion.
The grand results achieved within two
months furnish convincing evidence Of
the same fact, When the news reached
England that Sherman had undertaken
TO march three hundred miles across the
most populous and wealthy section yet
held by the rebels, with an army of only
fifty thousand men, the statement Was re-
crived with incredibly. The Manches-
ter Guardian, a paper friendly TO our
cause, declared it moDstrous idea, and /
predicted that If attempted i! would prob
ably end in one of the most memorable |
disasters on record. Our friends as well |
as our enemies abroad will be astonished /
when they hear that Sherman has made |
his grand march safely, aud has come
out with n larger and better supplied ar
my than he took in, and at once planted |
himself before Savannah, laying il under
close siege, with full confidence that h.
shall easily take the place. If the con-
federacy were not mere shell, the
threats of the rebel leaders that Sher.
mans army should be surrounded and
destroyed might have been fulfilled. But
10 attempt was made to interrupt his
march or to do anything more than annoy
mall raiding parties and pick up stray
,Iers. Hoods army that had the prom
Sc of winterng in Tennessee and Ken
lucky, is substantially destroyed, and the
mailer armies cooperating With it are
meeting the same fate. Since the first
# October, we have captured 204 cannon
rom the rebels. while we have lost but
we have taken in the same time near
y $4,000 prisoners, and the rebels have
ost 5000 in killed and wounded, and 20
f their generals have been killed, cap
ured or otherwise put hors du combat
900 miles Of their railroads have been
Destroyed, and their losses ia cotton and
Their property have not been less than
Orty million dollars. Not only is the
shell but that shell is badly
roksn, and as Foote says. it is on "tbe
erge of ruin."-Spriagfeid RepuJlic0n.