New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-04-22
JOE sOnNsToN,s CAMPAIGN.


! is Indifference.
JOE JOHNSTON. CAMPAIGN.
IL tie absence OF news from Gen. Sherman,
il is suggested in some quarters that his pro-
jectcd pursuit of Johnston has been baiiled by
the sudden and rapid retreat of the latter, and
that instead of a brief and decisive campaign,
we must look for the renewal of a proracted
struggle in Georgia and the more southwestern
States. The reported negotiations are taken to
be ruse on the part of Johnston TO gain time
and the abandonment of Salisbury by Stone
man is treated as the consequence OF Johnston's
unexpected appearance near that town with the
main body Of his army, on the way to Georgia.
And the old theory is once more brought ont to
do service in last emergency, that the vast
territory of the South is its permanent security
against suljugation or occupation.
II is the grain Of possible truth mixed up with
these opinions and speculations that gives them
a dangerou. plausbility, and perhaps causes
them TO mislead people who are not OF the tim
orous or croaking kind. We think it likely
enough that Johnston has precipitately aban-
loned the cities he was expected to defend, and
not impossible that he has made bold push to
regain a foothod in Georgia with "a view to
protraei the struggle until terms ear be made
Tor what is left of Rebellion and it, leaders.
Bat We find no omen of i'll fortune in such an
event. nor, are We Of those who contemplate or
credit the possibility of any long contest in
Georgia or elsewhere by the remnants Of the
Confederate military power. And this for sew
cral reasons;
]. There was much shrewdness in the recent
remark of Golden that no great operations in
Imoden warfare could be long carried on without
the possession of. great cities. Mere territory
will not do An army cannot bury itself in u
desert. and trust TO distance for defense. 1t
must have bases OF supply and communication,
a large and productive country behind or around
IL, arscnals, manufactures mills-a hundred
things which only n considerable city can sup
|ply. But there Is no considerable city in
Georgia which Johnston can expect TO hold per-
|manently.
Jti4lrAOl - wv VIM i'' .
not veteran organizatiOn-not even u compact
and homogeneous force, accustomed to fight to-
gethcr aud TO know one leader II il an army
vi odds aud ends--expelled garrisoi.s from Sa-
yannah. Charleston, Whining on--loose militia,
green ievics, and conscripis, and worse than all
tie thrice whipped remnants Of Hoods and
|Taylors, Hardecs and Bragg forces. No
commander can rely on such an army
3. Henceiorth, defensive campaign by a
Rebel army is to BE- conducted against the
will of the people among whom it is MAIN
tanned. No military reader needs to be re-
minded how important an element that is.
1 The Pennsular campaigns in Spain and the
south of France from l-07 Ia 1914 illustrated
the difficulty the impossibility, Of defensive
war for the possession of a country the inhGbit-
|an,s of which were hostile to the army that
sought 10 maintain its hold on the territory.
Now we take il for granted that the Southern
whites must give up the cause of the Rebellion
with the surrender of Lee, and that,
lao matter how far their sympathes
and artipathes might carry them, they
will be found indisposed TO contribute
either actively or passiyely to a war that is
|manlcstly hopeless. The South kno,cs it is
whipped. The invaluable result of Grants last
campaign is the incubation Of that belief into
the Southern mind With Richmond captured
and Lees army prisoners there is, there can be,
no longer a sane pretense that the Rebellion has
a chance OF final success. Were there any
chance, Southern treason might be mad enough
still to suffer and to sacrifice for that chance,
but when hope vsibly vanishes, and the most
desperate partisan Of Rebellion is driven to as
|Sassinaton as the sole means of upholding or
avenging his cause, the people of the South will
refuse to give men or to give supplies TO John.
ston. He is therefore powerless to do anything
but continue his retreat through Alabama and|
Mississippi and 30 on indefinitely westward
The mere progress and continuance of such al
retreat will disperse his army, and if Johnston
and Davis should arrive at the Mississippi River
it will be but the shadow of an army that at
tends them.