The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1865-12-30
OH A RLE ST O N.
SATURDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 80, 1865.

pEN. URANT naS tOlu, In HIS report just
published, the story of those campaigns,
whose result will justify, in the opinion of
the mass of mankind, his appointment to con-
duct them. The report opens with a survey
of the position of the belligcrents in April,
1864, when the Federal commander could
draw no comfort from his sweeping glance at
the military cchequier, and concludes with
congratulations to tho armies, which, in the
spring Of 1865, shared his surprise ut their
own gigantic successes. The report will in
terest our readers, not SO much as an Or
derly and fairly authentic chronicle of the
battles of that portentous period, but as q
revelation of the desigus and hopes of
the mind which produced and guided them;
and, in this point of view, disappointment will
be felt that the veil has been so charity raised
from tho purposes and expectations with
which he rushed into battle in May, 1861,
10 the dignity of history the report makes no
claim, and the world must learn the sufferings,
the useless heroism, and the sickening despair
of that era at some future time, and from
some other hand.
would necessarily be directed to three distinct
points: the authenticity of its facts, the char
aetteF efthe strategy narrated rs measured by
the principles of military art, and the literary
value Of the narrative. The time has not yet
come to submit, to the test Of historic analysis,
the facts advanced by Gen. GRANT; the evi-'
dence which might contradict Or modify them
has not been given to the world and, until
the great leaders who opposed him have told
their tale, judgment must be suspended on
his claims to accuracy. With the lights we
have, the merit cannot be denied to General
GRANT of having endeavored to give to the
world on impartial narrative. He does not
attempt to conceal the numerical superiority
of his own force, Or to exaggerate the losses
inflicted upon his opponent. "',fhe resources
of the enemy, and his numerical strength"
he admits candidIy, "wero far inferior to
ours" On the Sd June he admits heavy
loss on his part, and comparatively light
one on the part of the Confederates; and, in
summing up the results of the combats which
had taken place between that date and the
opening of the campaign, he frankly acknowl-
edges that ."previous attacks had not. all re-
suited in victories, or accomplished as much
as he had hoped for them" This will be the
first intimation to the people Of the North
that the progress of the Army of the Poto-
mac, from the banks of the Rapidan to those
Of the James, was not the triumphal march
they had been led to believe it. Where in
accuracies occur in the report, it will be but
jnst to remember that commander-in-chief
must rely for the details of battles upon the
accounts of subordinates; and no one who has
had experience of the difficulty, nay, impossi-
bility, Of obtaining a coherent narrative from
the Immediate actors on the battlefield, will
be hasty in charging upon q general an in
tention to misrepresent. Gen. GRANT, we
have no doubt, has been misinforned, when
he commits such errors as stating that "his
troops were withdrawn" on the 3Oth July,
when, in fact, they were driven out of the
lines of Petersburg in headlong rout, by the
bayonets of MALONE; and in relating that,
on the lst April, "Gen. SHERIDAN assaulted
and carried a strongly fortified positSJh at
Five Forks" when, in fact, there was no work
which deserved the name Of fertilization, and
no movement which General SHERIDAN could
claim rs an assault. 2r, .
There is no problem more difficult than that
of determining the relative degrees of infu-
ence which fortune and conduct have exer
cised in the production of given results; and
in discussing military affairs especially, the
difficulty is increased by the acknowledged
fact that war offers unusual opportunities for
the intervention of fortune. CICERO adyoca-
ted in the Roman Senate the appointment of
PoMPEY to command, on the avowed ground
that he was the fayorite Of, fortune. "The
foremost man of all the world pauses ipthe
wonderful story of his achievements, to poh-
Efess to mankind his obligations to fortune.
NAPOLEON complained that not his own
genius, but fortune, abandoned him to ruin
and despair dt Waterloo. The. precise obli-
cations which the Lieutenant-G General owes
to the same tickle divinity, we leave to some
future JoMINI to determine, but the cotempo-
4 rary critic will not be charged with unfair
ness who points to her favors and to the i'm
menso power in his hands, us a sufficient ex-
plunQtiOn of his rreat successes without re-