Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1864-08-18
RUTLAND HERALD.
TUESDAY, AUGUST Is, 1864.
The situation.


hands of the rebels, any person who is
not e.determined to croaking blind
ness can easily see the steady and sub
slal.ia progres llready made by our
arms this year; and the grand promise
of still more rapid and irresistible pro-
gress On Atlanta and Mobile shall
have our possession. The
prospe by the time ATTAIN
ia is captL > Gen. Sherman very
little of the rebel army defending that
city will be left. The rebel material for
new armies we know is pretty thorough
ly exhausted, and it is by no means out
of the range of possibility that Sher-
mans army, or large portion Of it, at
least viii be moving to operate more or
less directly in the campaign against the
army of Lee. That to such condition
the war will sooner or later come, We
have little doubt, provided Grant in the
meantime obtains no decisive victory
over Lee, but merely holds his own and
threatens the rebel general with sufii-
eient consistency and pertinacity TO pre-
vent his sending any portion of his army
against Sherman. If the army directly
under Grants eye shall do more than
this, so much the better, but this at least
Graut can now do. How long Lee alone
could hold out against both the armies
of Grant and Sherman cooperating
against him, it is not difficult to fore
see.
Some impartial journals abroad are
already beginning to take such a view
of the military situation in this country.
The London Spectator of July 23d al
ludes to the possibility of Gen. Sher-
mans cooperating with Grant in the
Virginia campaign, and compares the
situation, generally, with that Of last
year. In spite Of the constant misrepre-
sentation Of our affairs made by South
ern sympathizers in that country and
by correspondents sent here for that pur-
pose by journals hostile to the preserva-
ton Of the Union, the Spectator talks as
follows:
Last year, they [the North) were
contending in the West for the Missis-
sippi, apprehended the loss Of New Or
leans, were doubtful of the fidelity of
Missouri, and wavered in policy for fear
lest they should attront irretrievably
the neutral politicians of the state of
Kentucky. This year the army of the
Mississippi has quilted the banks of that
river, and fought it's way steadily and
surely to the very heart of the confed-
eracy, has traversed such a section Of
Georgia that military critics already dis
cuss the possibility Of Gen. Shermans in
teryening with decisive effect in the Vir-
ginian contest. This great result has,
moreover, been accomplished in the
teeth Of the strongest resistance, of bat
ties so severe that southerners estimate
Gen. Sherman's losses at thirty thou
sand men, of efforts so great that the
South is obliged to explain defeat by
the Northern device of calling every
fresh retreat a new strategical move
ment Missouri is eithes repentant or
SO completely controlled that the GOV
SIulilcHG Gun Aely upon Gne dCblOn Oh the
state legislature, and Louisiana has es-
tablished a government which, however
little it represents opinion, still prohib-
its the state from eXerting any organ
lied force on the confederate siGe. Ken
lucky which ruled the situation, has
just been placed under martial law, and
even southerners have ceased to speak
of the campaign in the far West. In
Virginia, where the case seems SO much
worse for the federals, it is in reality
even better. Those seventy miles be-
tween Washington and Richmond which
were pronounced so impossible have
been raversed-traversed in spite of
resistance rising into the heroic
traversed with such loss to the defend
ants that Gen. Lee, boldest of all South
ern generals, is reduced to policy Of
comparative inaction, suffers Gen. Grant
to march past him without attacking
his exposed line, and leaves his adverse
ry south Of Richmond rather than risk
another general action"