Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1865-11-10
A REsTROsPRCT.

1 now long IL taxes 10 be man:
/ How very short to be woman
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f1iu A RESTROSPECT.
From the London Anthsn@um, September aoth
A year-a little year-ago, part of
the British public was invited by its teach
ers to believe that the American civil war
was over. The two great armies of the
North were said to be ruined. General
Grant, without a plan, but with demor-
allied mob of armed men, was pictured as
fioundering IN the mud of the James River,
whence ne would find it hard to escape
from Lee, even with the loss of his stors
and artillery. General Sherman having
been withdrawn from his base by Johnston
and being unable to hold Atlanta in the
face OF Hood, was described as breaking up
his camp and flying towards the sea. in
the hope, unlikely to be fulfilled, of find
ing shelter from the enemy in his ships.
Men who felt no objections to the rise of
slave empire, and women who admired
the chivalry ofPreston Brooks, were melted
by their teachings to kill the fatted calf.
and subscribe to the Confederate Loan
Some people did as they were told. Clubs
were jocose, and Chapel Court rejoised.-
Money pored in, and the prospects of the
cotton loan improved. Yet to the soldiers
who paid a fair attention to events. it was
already clear that the South was broken,
and its submission was but question of
detail and of days. Lee was locked fast in
Richmond, just as Floyd had been closed
III Fort Donaldson, and Pemberton in
Vicksburg, with no avenue to escape left
open to him but such as led to capture
and defeat Sherman had split the Cou
federacy into halves separating Lee from
his supplies and paralyzing Hood.
Of course the critics who pratted about
Grant being without a plan, and Sherman
being drawnintO trap, knew little ofthese
great Captains; not even the facts of their
campaign during the current war. A sol
dier who had studied the strategy which
led to the capture of Donaldson and Vicks-
burg would have found nothing to perplex
him in Grants approaches towards Rich
mond. Ulysses Grant is man of genius :
a soldier of new ideas; one who will be
found to have contributed fresh materials
to the art of war. With him siege is
campaign. Instead of driving of the COW
eriug army from the fort or city, as old
rules insisted should be done, before COM
mencing operations against it, Grant ma
neuvers to keep the covering army near
him, to throw it within the lines, to COM
/ pei it to take part in the defence, and to
fall when the beleaugured fortress falls
This plan has the disadvantage of making
a siege appear long, perplexing critics who
cannot see that the close of the siege is to
be, under this new system, the close of the
campaign.
AT Donaldson, at Vickspurg, Grants
plan was carried out; in each the covering
army fell with the fortress, and in each the
blow was final The fall of Fort Donald
son and its covering army put an end to
the war in Kentucky and Western Tennes-
see; the fall of Vicksburg and its covering
army opened the river Mississippi, never to
be closed again by Southern guns. Each
campaign was final; not only sweeping
away the army in the field, together with
the stores, guns, clothing, and ammunition,
but crushing in the catastrophe all sparks
OF rebellous fire. Where Grant has been
it is found impossible to raise second reb
el corps. The fighting spirit is subdued.
And that which had been done by Grant
in the states of Tennessee and Mississippi
was now being done by him on large
scale and with stronger enemy, in Vir-
ginia-was being done precisely in the
same manner, and with precisely the same
object Grant had to weaken the Confed
crate army, shut it up within the lines of
Richmond and Petersburg, and compel it
to surrender when the capital fell.
Hence the battles he fought ON his way
to York River; hence his refusal to assault
the lines on his approach. He was max
ing campaign, not simply conducting
siege. Davis had boasted that the war
could be maintained, in Virginia alone for
twenty years after Richmond fell; but, ike
many other critics; he made the mistake
of altogether misunderstanding Grant,
This captain knew his object and the means
by which he could obtain it, Richmond
without Lee would have given him little;
Richmond falling with Lee would give
him everything he wanted-victory, union,
peace. In spite OF all military critics, bis
plans were crowned with magnificent
success. The war was finished at blow,
and the surrender of Pemberton was JUS
titled in the surrender of Lee.
Sherman, when we came to know him
at all, was in some respects better compre-
hended by the critics than Grant had been.
After Savannah fell into his hands, all nom
sense about his being drawn from his base
and flying to his ships died out among us.
The Horse Guard bagan to study his re-
markable march: and the Duke of Cam
bridge went to preside at meeting of the
United Services to hear an explanation of
it in detail. From that day forward,
simply because we began to know him,
Sherman became our hero of the war.
HEAVENLY CONCERT.
There is in preparation a grand concert of
music which will iDfiniteIy surDass thosa of |