The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1864-11-26
Sherman Advancing on Savannah and
Charleston.
From the. Chicago Tribune, Nov 81


More than a week ago We were appraised
by private dispatches from Atlanta of the
coming denouenaent of the mystery which
has lately rested over the counter move
ments of Hood and Sherman. There can
no longer be any military reasons for with
holding from the public what the rebels
have by this time necessarily learned,
though too late to avert their catastrophe
1t is already we'll known that Beauregsrd
and Hood, striking westward from the line
Of the railroad connecting Atlanta with
Chattanooga, have crossed the Tennessee
river at Florence, point in Alabama, two
hundred miles west of Atlanta, and about.
one hundred miles equi-distsnt from Nash
vile and Memphis, leaning towards the lat
ter. The design of this movement as boast
fully announced or luminously limited in
advance by jeff. Davis in his recent speech
es, and by the desperately sanguine rebel
papers, was TO make such a demonstration
far in SheTman's rear as would oblige the
latter to abandon Georgia from Chattanooga
to Atlanta, in order to prevent Beauregatd
from capturing Nashville and Memphis.
Events will prove whether Beauregara and
Hood, in adopting this strategy, are genius
es or fools. Certainly it is far above or
much below the standard of prudence and
common sense. Beauregard's entire force
is not estimated to be over forty or forty
five thousand, and to attend to this the
forces under Gen. Thomas will DO found
fully adequate. Indeed, already it is init :
mated that the rebels have halted in their
advance, or are retiring.
Meantime. General Sherman, with two
hundred miles the start of Be8uregsrd, with
no enemy in front, and with, - he express
es it, ''the aShOle Southern States open TO
him." left Atlaata several days ago with an
army Of seventy five thousand men, and
will sweep with the irresistible power of a
tornado down into the heart of Georgia aud
South Carolina to Charleston and Mobile.
He will march in three grand columns or
corps d'arme, each we'll provided with ar
! tillery and cavslry, wholly abandoning and
probably destroying Misunderstanding
the roads and bridges in his rear-gather-
ing supplies from the country, and receiv-
ing the fugitives who will flock to mis- stand
ard probably by thousands. In short, for
the first time during the war, our armies
will have passed through the shell of the
rebellion and will move unopposed through
the enemy's country. An opportunity will
be given to the Union men, black and white,
on his route, to flock to the standard of the
Union. Il is believed that Sherman will
arrive at his objective point with rein
forcement of not less than fifty thousand
able bodied men, plueked from the heart q
the enemy's country. The occupation of
the navigable line of the Savannah river
and the fall of Charleston and Savannah
before a rear attack, would constitute far
more disastrous blow to the rebellion than
the fall of Richmond. JEFF. Davis would
in fact be called upon either to abandon
South Carolina and Georgia to their fate
or TO attempt to rescue them by the abandon
ment of Richmond in the face of Grants
largely superior army, a dangerous and
probably impracticable undertaking. In
deed, it is evident that jeff Davis will have
enough to do to save the Richmond army
from anuihilgtion if he ventures to leave
his strong intrenchments at Richmond sud
Petersburg. On the other hand, Beaurs
gard is already two hundred miles in the
rear of Sherman, and has neither faciitie,
to overtake him, nor strength to fight him
when overtaken.
If Sherman won Atlanta by the blunder-
ing of Hood in sending merely his cavalry
to Sherman's rear, it is difficult to see why
he should not win Charleston and Savannah
now that Beauregard and Hood, in repetition
of the same blunder on a more stupendous
scale, have sent their whole army some two
hundred miles to Sherman's rear, thus un,
covering to his victorious legions the whole
prize which the former seeks to defend and
the latter to possess.