Delaware State journal and statesman., 1865-02-24
Prom tho New York Trlbuae.
CHARLESTON.

Since Gen. Sherman started from Sa.
vannah it seems TO been have taken for
granted that Charleston would fall. The
unresisted capture of Branchyille and
Columbia confirmed the popular i'm
preston, and hence the announcement
that this wicked city ia really evacuated
by the enemy, evokes far less enthusiasm
and gratitude than would have attended
Its conquest by any Of tho fleets and
armies which from time TO time have been
directed specially against it. We are
rather amazed, on reflection, that il
should never have been surrendered be,
fore in obedience to some commander with
genius enough to conceive such move
ment as Gen. Sherman is now triumphant.
y executing. And there could scarcely
be better tribute to his supremacy as i
military leader than this same confidence
of the public, which led them to regard
his campaign as an impending fatality
over the Rebellion, and which marked
out Charleston as a sure victim TO hi.
eonqueriug march.
But let us forget Gen Sherman for O
moment, and remember only what Charles
ton has been to the Rebellion and what
its late toretokens. Tho city which fired
the hrst shot against the flag ofthe Union
which Tor thirty years before had unre.
mlttingly toied TO mature the conspiracy
that the gun against Sumter proclaimed
to the world which stood at once as the
representative Of the idea and of the mill,
tary strength of the Rcbellien: from
which proceeded the vital force that ha.
kept these pestilent agencies Of civil war
in motion, and on the defense of which
was lavished the best military genius the
South could supply; the city whose per
manence under the Confederate flag has
been the continuing evidence to Europe
OF tho vitality OF the Capfederacy and tbc
untailing resolution of its supporters the
city which has for four years repelled
every assault the Union could deliver
against it-this city has fallen at last.
Fallen, not because It's walls were weaker,
or its harbor less impregnably protected,
or the spirit of its people less implacably
lnlmlcal TO the Union they conspired to
destroy; but fallen because the Rebellion
was falling because the great States
that had formed themselves into an in
surgent Confederacy were riven asun.
der; because there was no longer conn.
try behind the city because Charleston
stood not for itself alone, and conld be.
como only the unvalued spoil of an army
marching past it instead of the trophy of
a great force spreading its strength to
compass the possession of O fortified
stronghold. The confession of its con-
quest is voice Of doom to every CITY
over which the Rebel flag still floats
Not too much has been said of the moral
effect of its fall. For what is this moral
influence but that which determines or
modihes the whole purpose of doubling
people To-day the South stands irres.
oiute, confronted on every hand by the
accumulating evidences of its weakness
and of its utter inability much longer 10
oppose the armies of the Union. Its
people have been taught to cling with
iondness TO a few names as symbols of
their hopes and representatives of their
dlsloyal cause, and to augur of victory or
defeat as these were upheld or suffered to
iaii. One OF them vanishes, soon to be
followed by the only other that is more
indissolnbly blended with the existence Of
the Coniederacy. Who doubts the effect
the encouragement, the augmeuting con.
yiction among the people of the South
that their cause is lost and the Union i
saved
The Rebels seem TO have evacuated
on Tuesday, as their own account SAYS,
but 1t was not till Friday, the lTth, that
their movement was discovered. On the
latter day Admiral Dablgren sent word
TO the Navy Department that the Rebels