The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-03-06
Monday Morning, March 6, 1866.
The Richmond Examiner on the Situation.
GRANTs GREAT COMBINATIONS.

The Richmond Examiner on the Situation.
GRANTS GREAT COMBINATIONS. M
The Richmond Examiner of the 21st in.
slant gives review of the military situation
from a Southern view, and extracts from it
some rather chilly comfort. 1t fDds that the
movements of our armies are merely cyan
kee combination, which, st says, athough
beautiful on paper, always fails in some essen
tial point when the attempt is made to carry
them out" This is all the hope the Erap1in-
er has for Richmond and Lees army, and
such doubtful chance to lean upon can hard
ly encourage the Southern heart to burn very
fercely. The Examiners article is as fol-
lows: ea.8
The enemy is now gathering all the availa-
bic forces from all Yankee armies and garri
SONS, and directing them for one combined
movement against Richmond. Sherman ad-
vancing through South Carolina, while Beau
regard slowly retreats before him towards
Charlotte-Foster, or some other commanding
Fosters troops, making demonstrations with
heavy force on the Roanoke and Neuse rivers
eastward, while rumor says that the Yankee
force in East Tennessee is, at the same time to
cross the Allegheny and come down into
North Carolina by the west, thus advancing
both by way of Weldon and by way of Sails
bury, attempting to take Beauregard in flank,
or even to cut him off by uniting in his rear !;
while Grant waits patiently within his fortih-
cations for Sherman's appearance on the Dan
vile railroad; so that the whole accumulated
power of the Federal host may close in on
Richmond, cut off its supplies and compel its
surrender. |
1t is all extremely fine, but not new; we
Lnar - - Al.
even more than once. 1t is one of those mag
nihcent combinations, extending over a vast
space, which now form the well-known char
acteristlcs OF Yankee warfare. These super
human combinations satisfy and exalt the i'm
ignation, but they have the disadva 1tage OF
always failing in some one essential part. In
newspaper programme, on the map, and, we
dare say, in the general orders assigning to
each army and commander his especial duty,
all to be accomplished by given day--this
sort of campaign looks majestic; only when
set a-going and brought into collision with
hard facts it somehow becomes dislocated--.
Thus the contemplation of these many armies.
approaching from all points of the compass,
and bound to keep time, has lost good deal
of its intlmidating effect. WHAT'S this cam
paign but a repetition of last year? Then,
also, Butler with $4,000 men was to advance
upon Richmond by the South, Grant, with
10000 from the North, Hunter with 5000
men from the West, taking Lynchburg on his
way, and destroying the railroads both beyond
and on this side of that city. OF course our
supplies were to be cut off, and of course
Richmond was to surrender; and Butler was
to have been reigning over us sometime in
July last, at the latest. What has become of
thoseamighty armies? Nine months have bare
ly passed--and the broken and wearied rem
remnants of them are scarce sufficient to pro-
woke an occasional skirmsh at some point up
on our lines, which no longer causes an alarm
bell to ring in Richmond. sa1m1 1a
Grant demands hundred thousand men !:
and as ior Bnter, now planting his cabbages'
at native Lowell, no Confederate names him
without laugh. Yet those commanders and
their hosts seemed formidable enough to US
nine months ago, especially as portrayed to us
in the eloquent and menacing paragraphs of
Yankee war correspondents, who are really
learning to write campaigns in military slang
quite imposing to persons in civil life. Ac-
cordingiy, in May and June last, many weak
minded citizens were preparing to quit Rich
mond, and Mr.. Memminger, ever mindful of
the safety of his interesting Treasury Employ
ees, packed them off to Columbia. "Now am
I in Arden," quoth Touchstone. more foe
/. When l was at home / was in a better
place." That was indeed one of the great f.
nancial strokes OF Mr.. Memminger.
Now there is not at this moment so much
to alarm us in reality as there was last May.
1t is true we have not so many troops; but
neither has our enemy by great DEAL On
that OCCASION too, Gen. Butler could and did
land his forces at City Point without any eff
fort or loss; but this year Sherman has to
fight his way through many a swamp, and
take or turn many battery, and leave many
a blue coated corpse behinds him ere he can
hope to see Virginia railroad. 1t is hoped,
not without some degree of confidence, that
the President will not this year relieve Gen.
Beauregard in the very crisis of his cam
paign, and appoint General Pendleton in his
place, with orders to the latter to clip round
to Sherman's rear and march away to Mobile.
But barring this, or some other equally enor-
nous blunder or crime, it seems evident that
Sherman has before him much more peril
GUS part of the grand campaign than Butler
had last year. And in the meantime his dew
astating march through South Carolina is no
more conquering that State than his great
raid through Georgia has converted Georgians
to the "Union"
Richmond is safe if all parties concerned do
their duty; that is, if the new Secretary of
War is energetic, and if the new Commissarv
shall be found to have some elementary ideas
about food; especially if Congress proceed at
once with such legislation, for the purpose of
giving Gen. Lee control of large numbers of
negroes, as that General asks at their hands
Promptitude and decision are important in
this matter; yet it is understood that many
members have long speeches to make and one,
they say, has even threatened to be heard for
two days, going down into the very first prin-
ciples of human society, and soaring to the
sublime future which is reserved for the desti-
ny of our species, and the roads almost begin
ming already to dry under the winds of March
Two days! Why. Sherman can march forty
miles in two days!
If this measure is to be adopted to increase
our means OF national defence, it were we'll it
were done quickly, in order that there NAV be
at least portion of the new material ready
for the work of the coming struggle. In the
meantime, let it not enter the thoughts of any
citizen of Richmond that the city is in any
greater danger this spring than it was the
spring before. There is the strongest proba-
bility, too, all the omens indicate, that this
will be the last campaign against the capital
of Virginia.
EXPRESSION OF DRESS Women are more