The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-03-05
29asllrille Muioll.
SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 1865.
From the Army and Navy Journal. Feb. Is.
Sherman's Last Campaign.

Like that good knight in the fair.
tale, before the very blast of whose on
chanted trumpet battlements trembie'
and impervious walls lay fat, Sherman
Capturer of Cities, marches through th'
Confederacy, from East to West. Hi
latest and most marvellous campaign i
already crowned with 8 triple victorl
at Brsnchville, Columbia, and Charles
ton itself. That nursery of the Rebel
lion, where its infant arms were laugh
TO brandish in rage then impotent
against the Union, is ours to-day, anC
the starry flag floats over the dishonoreC
parspes Of Sumter. But, with the i'm
pulse Of . great mind, Sherman doe
not pause TO enter in triurnphsl process
sion the city which, after three terrible
years of siege, st length sUccUmbs
Although next after Richmond, Charles
ton was the strategic point whose fal
was destined to carry with it a greater
weight of disaster physical and moral
than any other in the broad domains o.
the Rebellion, notonly in our own eyes
but in those of the South and in the
appreciation Of the world, Sherman dis
dams that personal triumph which HI.
entry therein would ensure him. lie
carries his legions onward to new tri
umphs, and so presses his victory thai
the country may enjoy to the last frag
ment its substantial fruits. Sherman
makes American history faster than
pens can record it.
The people are justified in their dis
charges of cannon, in their bonfres and
Examinations, in their showing of colors
from hundred thousand masss
ever their great victories. In some
respects, the conquests Of Sherman
in the Carolina campaign resem
bic those of his Georgia campaign
while its strategy and its maneuvres
are similar. BranchVille was railroad
centre hardly less important than At
lanta, and, like the latter, fell before q
mastery vault upon its lines of supply
The capture of Columbia, the capital
of the most defiant State of Rebellion
was in every respect, as weighty as that
of its sister capital, Milledgeville
Charleston fell with shock as great as
Savannah, with greater loss in guns
and materials, with stronger forts in its
harbor, with the surrender of advan.
tages as an open port long since wrested
from Savannah, and with moral effect
unequalled by any blow yet struck at
rebellion. If Savannah was Sherman s
Christmas gift to the Nation, Charleston
narrowly escaped being his Valentine.
A month only has gone by since
Sherman's legions marched from Savan-
nah, and yet at this moment they have
accomplished the enormous distance
Of more than $50 miles, straight through
the centre of the Confederacy. How
has this feat been executed2 1t owes
nothing to the condition of the country
traversed. That has been most I'M.
practicable for marching, most hostile
for manoeuvre. Its early stages were
a continuous course of sWamps and
morasses. Slocum's left wing, along
the banks of the Savannah, and How
ard right on those of the Salkehatchie,
waded for many a mile knee deep
through fen and marsh, toiling night
and day, corduroying and grading
roads, extricating trains and ordnance
from the mire, telling forests and ford
ing streams. The country is everywhere
deiensible. Besides its swamps, spsnned
only by narrow causeWays, IL is inter.
sected with broad rivers, formed by the
confluence of myriad smaller branches,
apt for the detention of columns IN
tending TO pass them.
1t has not been the want of men,
even, which has prevented the enemy
from opposing Sherman. He long ago
furnished us with the figures which
were to cipher the Northern general
into annihilation. Nor were all MS
troops mere men in buckrsm. Within
possible call were the garrisons of
Macon, Augusta and
Beauregard. Hardee, ID.
H. Hill and G. W. Smith had forces not
contemplate in their command Hn-
dee, for example, abandoned savannah,
as it was reported with 10000 troops.
were distributed in the regions
of Charleston and Branchville. He
Charleston probably with
1900 men. Besides the infantry,
South Carolina was full Of cavalry.
had two divisions, Wheeler
one, and McLaWs and others, brigades.
From the West, two fall corps of Hood
we're moving rapidly to head off Sher-
man, ss he commenced his ADVENT
rous journey northward, and from the
East, Lees veterans poured down from
their Richmond entertainments, threat
ening him from that quarter.
So respectable a force, in so defensi-
bic q country, opposing an enemy al
ready tired by a weary march of 80 or
200 miles, far away from any base, and
without possible direct support for
miles from either Grant or Scho6eld,
might surely hope to accomplish some
thing. That it accomplished nothing
is due to the genius OF Sherman His
plan framed at Savannah, threatened
20 many points, before any of his move
ments were announced, that the enemy
dared not concentrate his scattereS
troops. The dazzling rapidity of Sher-
mans march, after the movement be-
gan, made subsequent concentration
against him impossible just before
was taken, the enemy con
iessed that whether that point or Au-
gusta, or Columbia, OF Charleston would
be the main point Of attack, it was diff
icult to divine. To the plan Of ma.
1euvre, which lay clear in SheFmans
mind before brigade was moved, and
70 the wonderful rapidity and soldierly
skill with which he executed it, we
must trace our triple victory in South
Carolina. His feint on Augusta not
only cut off D. II. Hill, and all Governor
Browns Georgia leVies, but it held back,
~ well, Beauregards hopes for rein
from Hood The simulta-
leOus movements on Branehville and
Charleston kept apart the several col
INNS of Beauregsrd and Hardee. Nor
vas this all Sherman has actually not
,nly outmarched his opponents, but,
1y tearing up the Augusta and Charles.
on Railroad, be has left all the Georgia
icrces hopelessly in his rear and these,
Ehich alone could have defeated him,
.re as useless to Besuregard nov Is the
roops Of Price or MagFuder.
Shermsn's march has not been so
'apid Is to fail Of being measured and
leliberate; not 50 brilliant IS 70 ne
sIect 70 gather solid fruits. More than
me hundred miles Of important rail-
Dad have been absolutely destroyed,
md from Lees main army it Western
roops and Western supplies Of food
md forsge are cut of These results
AVE been accomplished IS co0lly and
% II there we're no ensmy
o oppose. Oar great victories, TOO,
AVE been almost bloodless, aud there