The Soldiers' journal. (Rendezvous of Distribution, Va.) 1864-1865, 1864-08-03
The Military Situation.

stead of being waged in detail at multitude of
points along border lines and coast lines, with
intervals of hundreds, and even thousands of
miles, is now made to bear exclusively upon
two northumberland and Atlanta-the one
recognized to be the key to the Northeastern,
the other to the southwestern, portion of the
" Confederacy."
If these places are captured and the armies
which defend them compelled to surrender,
an end at once is made of the rebellion, for the
rebels have no other forces numerous enough to
make any stand, and no remaining able-bodied
population from which to raise such forces. If
the places captured and the rebel armies es
cape, these armies, in order to save their COM
munications will be compelled to fall back into
the southeastern portion of the Confederacy,"
embracing North Carolina, South Carolina, and
perhaps the eastern third of Georgia. Cooped
up into this narrow compass, they will be be-
leagured on all sides by the national armies
When it once comes to that there can be but
one result and that not long delayed. The reb-
ell armies may fortify themselves ever so i'm
pregnably, they may keep the national armies at
bay ever so completely, they will yet find it
impossible to supply themselves from the arabic
ground within that limited region, with their
necessary subsistence. There are no two States
east of Missssippi-Floridae excepted, yet almost
an unbroken wilderness-whose cultivated soil
bears small proportion to the area of the
States North Carolina and South Carolina
There are no two States with that exception, so
extensively covered by pine barrens and swamps
1t is not natural possibility for them to fur
nish in addition to their own home necessities,
a quarter of the subsistence that would be re-
CURED by the two great rebel armies, if once
forced back into their limits. Even were not
"a gun fired on our side in assault, the question
of the surrender of Lee and Hood would be
simply question of months. The will be
virtually settled from the day the national ar
mics close in upon them, on or near the line of
the Savannah River on the one side and on the
line stretching west from the Albemarle Sound
on the other.
If this be a correct view of the present mill
tary situation, it is evident that to guarantee
success, more men are needed in both of our ar
mics. Gen. Grant needs them to prevent rep
etition of such rebel movements into Maryland
as that which has just occurred, which might
have wrought, though it did not, prodigious
harm. Gen. Sherman needs them TO protect his
line Of communications, the interruption of
which for any continued period would obliGe
him to retreat, and might even produce the de-
struction of his army. It is not necessary that
veteran troops should be used to any great extent
loT elClef VI IheSe purposes. Properly oulCcfeu,
and with proper protective works at the right
positions, the greater part of the force necessary
to hold the valley of the Shenandoah in North
ern Virginia and the line of the railroad in
Northern Georgia, might as well consist of short
term recruits. Were they sufficiently numer
Gus and fully awake to the Importance of their
mission, no such thorough discipline would be
necessary for their defensive work as is requisite
when one of the grand armies is pitted in the