Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-11-03

The Richmond WING of Oct. goth, De-
fends EarIy-whst EarIy's object
was, and what IL may yet be. l--
We take the following from an article
in the Richmond Whig of the 29th.
General Early, if we understand the
matter, was sent to clear the valley of
Hunter and his thieves, to penetrate into
Maryland, TO threaten the capital of the
United States, to spread alarm throughout
Pennsylvania, and to check any force of
the enemy that might attempt to open a
way through the valley to the highly i'm
portant post of Lynchburg. Another
great object of his expedition IS understood
to have been to force the transfer a por-
ton Of Grants force from the borders of
the James TO the borders of the Ohio The
force with which he was expected to effect
these objects has been variously stated by
the enemy, but We are ignorant of its ex-
tent and should not communicate it if We
knew it. That his operations aave been
very etheient is proved by the fact that
the enemy nabiLually rated it at forty
thousand men, which assuredly it never
reached. The force agsinst which it has
operated has also been variously statad by
the enemy. "A writer in the New York
World whose statement we published a
few days ago, says, that from first to last,
ninety thousand men have been employed
against him, and of that number sixty-five
thousand have been either killed or wound
ed, or missing. Now we really do think
that if General Early, with the force which
he had. has kept the whole valley, except
two counties, against ninety thousand men,
preventing them from taking Lynchbu1g,
and thereby closing up Richmond on the
west and from coming down upon it from
the north, and closing it up in that direc-
tion-and has at the same time, compelled
Grant to send large portion of his army
away, and slain, wounded, taken prisoners
or stsmpeded sixty-fve thousand out of the
ninety thousand aforesssd-we say if he
has done all this, with the force at his COM
mand, and still holds his ground and is ready
for battle-hs has done GOonderS. There are
no doubt, many gentlemen who could have
done much better, had they been SO in
clined; but unfortunately, such persons
are to be found outside of the army and
persistently refuse to the country the
great benefit of their military genius.
Within the army we are disposed to think
there are few who could have done better
than General Early has done. He was
sent to drive off Hunter, as well as to in
wade Maryland and Pennsylvania, and he
did it to draw off portion of Grants
army, and he did it; Napoleon or Jack
son might possibly have struck down the
rev eral armies of the enemy In pitched
battles, captured the enemy's capital,
seized Baltimore, rayaged Pennsylvania,
and even carried the Southern Cross with
in sight of Philadelphis. But is is pos
sibility merely, and very far from even a
probability 1t is very important con-
sideration whether the country can afford
to lose the men that would undoubtedly
have been lost in such an enterprise, how
ever successful and what would have been
our condition had they been lost2 As it
is, General Early has his army safe, though
); and it certainly is no small COM
pliment that the force which fought last
week at Cedar Greek should have been |
by the enemy to have been re-
nforced by Longstreers corps.
"CiYilians propose to relieve General |
Early. He is under General Lees com
mand, and no doubt that officer is much |
obliged TO them for their advice. Posi-
bly,, however, be may take it into bis head
that he does not need advice upon a sub
ject purely military, and from such quar-
ter. At any rate, we have not heard of
his making any preparation to that effect
and the probability is that his confidence
NAV not have ceen shaken, and that he
still reposes it in General Early. So our
civil friends, we suspect, will not be graft
fed this time.