The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-11-16
a Retrospect.

u teachers to believe that the American
\ civil war was over. The two great armies
J. of the North were said to be ruined
e General Grant, without plan, but with
demoralized mob Of armed men, was
: pictured as foundering in the mud of the
James river, whence he would find it
4 hard to escape Lee, even with the loss
s of his stores and artillery. General
2 Sherman having been drawn away from
: his base by johnson, and being unable
: to hold Atlanta in the face Of Hood, was
4 described as breaking up his camp and
7 flying toward the sea, in hope, unlikely to
, be fulfilled, of finding shelter from the
7 enemy in his ships.
Men who felt no objection to the rise
ofa slave empire, and women who admired
the chivalry of Preston Brooks, were in
cited by their teachers to kill the fattef
calf, and subscribe to- the Confederate
loan Some people did as they were told.
Money poured in, and the prospects of
the cotton loan improved. Yet to sold
iers who paid fair attention to events,
it was already clear chat the South was
broken, and that its submission was but
a question of details and of days. Lee
was locked fast in Richmond, just as
Floyd had been closed in Fort Donelson
and Pemberton in Vicksburg, with no
avenue of escape left open to him but
such as led TO capture and defeat. Sher-
man had split the Confederacy into two
halves, separating Lee from his supplies,
and paralyzing Hood.
Of course the critics who prated about
Grant being without plan, and Of Sher-
man being drawn into trap, knew little
of these great captains /; not even Che facts
of their campaigns during the current
! war. A Soldier whe had studied the STRAIT
r egy which led to the capture of Donelson
and Yicksburg would have found moth
ing to perplex him in Grants approaches
towards Richmond. Ulysses GIANT is a
man of genius 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 off the covering army from fort
or city, as old rules insisted must be done;
before commencing operations against it,
f Grant manuvers to keep the covering ar
my near him, to throw it within the lines,
: to compel it to take part in the defense
and to fall when the beleagured fortress.
. falls This plan has the disadvantage of
! making siege appear long, perplexlng
/ critics who cannot see that the close OF
: the siege is to be, under this new system,
the close of the campaign.
At Donelson, at Vicksburg, Grants
plan was carried out In each the cover
ING army fell with the fortress, and in
each the blow was final The fall of Fort
Doneison aud its covering army put an
end to the war in Kentucky and western
Tennessee the fall of Vicksburg and its
covering army opened the river Mississip-
pi, never to be closed again by the south
e ern guns. Each campaign was final, not
: only sweeping away the army in the field,
together with the stores, guns, clothing.
ammunition, bat crushing in the catastro-
phe all sparks of rebelious fire. Where
Grant had once been it was found impos-
sible to raise a second rebel corps. The
fighting spirit was subdued. And that
- which had been done by Grant in the
States of Tennessee and Mississippi was
now being done by him on larger scale
and with a stronger enemy in Virginia !;
was being done in precisely the same
manner and with precisely the same OBJ
4 iect. Grant had to weaken the Confed-
| crate army, shut it up within the lines Of
: Richmond and Petersburg, and compel it
r to surrender when the capital fell.
Hence the battles which he fought on
his way to York river hence his refusal
to assault the lines on his first approach.
He was making campaign, not simply
r conducting siege. Davis had boasted'
n that the war could be maintained in Vir-
J. ginia alone for twenty years after Rich
= mond fell but like many other critics
e he made the mistake Of misunderstand-
,, ing Grant The captain knew his OBJ
q iect and the means by which he could
J. gain it. Richmond without Lee would
It have given him little Richmond and
t Lee falling together would give him every
:, thing he wanted--victory, Union, peace,
q In spite of military and naval critics his
i plaus were crowned with magnificent
O success. The war was finished at blow,
e and the surrender of Pemburton was
Il justified in the surrender Of Lee:
d Sherman, when we came to know him
9 at ALL was IN some respects better COM
pretended by the critics than Grant had
n been After Savannah fell into his DOW
t er all nonsense about his being drawn
= from his base and flying to his ships died
y o,t amono ns The Horse Guards began
e to study this remarkable march and the
it Duke of Cambridge went to preside at a
y meeting of the United Services to near
i an explanation of it in detail. From that
r day forward, simply because we began to
y know him, Sherman became our nero OF
h the war.-London Altheueum.
Lowell has added $500 persons to her
i~or,,Iotion in laSS than Siy months. Rms