The daily Chattanooga rebel. [volume] (Griffin, Ga.) 1864-1865, 1864-07-27

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less % these &C ; distance asiss ssinl, saiscu
lated the chances of success of failure. Til
!; Ncrthern and Southern .1peopls Of the Iai
union, sT'rnng from the Same stock. suiura,
In the sapae traditions, did not seem % dis
similar that either side could be suppnsed h
have a moral advantage which would neu
tralize disparity in numbers.
Subtract from them the doubtful popula
tion OF the border States and we hayo less thar
SIX millions of Sonthernefs tc contend with
at least twenty million of Northern men.
II did not seem possible at FIRST that the
small minority should suSseed ia asserting
Its rights without the active assistance OF
some powerful friends. No such friends
volunteered to the rescue, aud most of MS re.
garded the caise Of Independence as Lost,
4 and booked Pltyingly on the 'Southerners as
doomed men. The event has most happily
disappointed such melancholy forebodinps &c.
We are now in the middle Of The fourth year
| OF the war. and at every poins Of the wide
battle field the Southerners have by this
the best Of it.
Hopeless, desperate in The last stage of er-
hanstion OF money and men. the North has
hraced itself for one more isonveisise on
slaught on the Confederate lines. Fresh
| as at the first, and stimulated with conf
denee Eaifs'i BY repentcd- vicfoSy. with re-
sources which are just deyelossng. and a
supply OF material. and men Hho seem to
soring from the gronnd in der country's
nead, the South Inns set iself defantly
against the mighty hosts Of It's antagonist,
and harled them bacl. bleeding and wounded,
from tie lines of Richmond sse
Such spectacle as this has never been
| seen in the world. II is satiafactory to find
that now ana then the righs can triumph
over micht-tAat the Just csuse,' however
weak. can prevail by the mere reason of the
confidence in i,s justice. which arms the
breast of it's champions with triple steel.
The Southerners haze acted urto their brave
motto and we'll earned the apalause of Eu-
rope, Of the world, ofpasterity.
We may venture alresdy to speak of this
campaign of Lee as the gNeatcst of the many
triumphs of a great Geucsal. If his p. evi-
GUS exploits had not earned il his successful
resistance to the immense nsmy OF Grant
would have -iHdicnted for hins alone among
American Generals of this second revolnkon-
ary war, the title to rank, with tho great
Captain Of Europe. LIE Ia prohabs x the only
man in America who knows how ~ handle
100. 600 mon The attacks made upou him
hays been disiointed attacks by general of
a division of 10000 or 40. 600 men.
There has been no effective combination
between his assaihnnts Sedgewick does not
come up until Hancock is Debated. Burn
side is somewhere in the rear. while War
ron is being nnnihilated. TIM whole mass
of the Confederate army, kept well in hand,
and played altogether like the pieces on
vast chess board, has been Set at work to
crush these Geferals in detail. Vigor is, |
doubtless, a quality most essential for q SOL |
dier, and this military attribute may be
claimed for Gen. Grant
But the history of the campaign so far con
firms the opinion which we ventured tn ex-
press at the outset, that in science and STRAIT
egs. the qualities which command success in
such extended operations. Grant is q mere
infant in the hands of Lee.
The statements Of Northern kilograms, and
the comments made upon them in Europe,
to the rennlse of Loo and h, retreat over
u vast extent of country, are SHOWN by this
time to be fictitious and illusery. He has
not been defeated.
In all the sanguinary struggles from the |
9th to the 18th he was victorious. He gain
ed two pitched battles-one to Wilderness,
- 81 .h>. aai~>i Snatt.. vlrania on the
Eth lie hos not retreated over single
mile OF gronHd, but has assumed and sue.
cessfully defended the position which from
the very lrst he intended to occupy, which issi
eight miles southeast of the Rapidan F.rds, |
and bars the road to Rishmond With his |
camp behind and in front of the Po river, |
he fights behind earthworks which were la |
boriously constructed under his directions
after the battle of Gettysburg.
On billy vantage ground. or in thick woods,
where the Confederate colder, invisible to I
the enemy, can shoot him down mt hi. leis-
ure. the guns and rifles Of the Southern army
can play with most deadly effect on bodies
of the enemy which may jmperil themselves
on the plain in front. In the battle Of the
18th the advantages of this positinn were
we'll seen. The losses Of the Confederatcs
are supposed to have borne no comparison
with those of the army of Grant. The slaugh-
ter of the Fcderals was such All has no paral-
lei in history.
Whole regiments have disappeared from
The muster Iole, whole division ms have been
.nnihilated. There is no.roora for the woun-
led in the town of fredericksburg. where
he open streets have been turned into hoe
pitai wards, and the foot of man and Nurse
'tumbies rs it treads on the gaunt and pros
rate forms of dead and dying. The wisdom
If Lees strategy has been terribly vindicated
in q Judgment which rccnlls tes the minds Of
remorseful Northerners the destruction of
he host Of Sennacherib by the breath Of God.
1t will take 10000 men to repair the gaps !
hat have been made in the federal army.
md with what sort of conidsnce can. this .
of fresh victims bs expected in
march to the death for broken Union,
y hose kneli has now been sounded on these
,lood-stained Virginia fields Gen. Grant
,as paid the penalty of his overwhelr- ing
Mcclellan long ago pronou me-
ID the direct advance to Richrsond TO be Ut +,
erly impracticable. Hooker attempted it ,
ind was ruined. Meade reeonnoitered il, !
md coincided in the opinion Of Mcclellan.
& Grant, nothing daunted, rushed forward
md gave battle on the presum ption that TO
he long run two men must conquer one,
his being the simple secret Of his vaunted /;
trategy. 1t is possible iDdeed, that when he
'rossed tho Rapidan at Gerananna Ford,
srant intended a flank march upon Rich
nond by way Of Gordonsville ,rhsre he would /
lave approached it on the west side. compar-
,tively undcfeudsd. Lee rendered this q
Tsspossible by moving forward at
nee and attacking Grant at Wilderness.
3ermanna Mills and the Rspidan River,
irving him eastward upon Iredeficksburg
$ a base of operations. and leat-ing' him no
hoice- bus to take the direct rpad to Rich
noud or. retreat. Having acc cemplished his
Iarpcse III tho battle Of the Bth Lee again