The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-04-01
aEashNlle alaioa.
~. CAMERON s CO.. Publishers.
SATURDAY, AFRIh !, 1865
Tie MASTERING Of Che Forces.

word of the hour To the enemy it is
the policy of necessity; TO US, the policy
II of expediency and OF already SUCCESS
fi1l strategy. The coastwise expedition
Of Newton in Florida to Appalachee
Bay, the Reconnaissance around Char
lesion, and even the great and serious
movement upon Mobile and Selma,
may nov properly be regarded as events
of very secondary Importance, and yet
these comprise the military topics of
the week, outside Of the gigantic moves
and combinations in North Carolina
land Virginia ss.ss-T fr
The enemy opened his final cam
paign by the judicious elevation of Gen
eral Lee TO the supreme command Of
4 his forces. All eyes waited for the de-
velopment of his policy. To a very
great extent, sill Confederate opera
I tons had previously been in General
Lees hand But the responsibility had
never yet been fixed upon him; and his
well-known partiality 10 the defence of
his native State was always pardoned
and commended, In his new position,
the defence of the whole Confederacy
directly fell to his task The question
remained open, as TO where he would
make his stand. The determination of
this problem proved to be amatter of
very few days The whole sea-coast
was abandoned by the Confederate
arms. Georgia, South Carolina, and
now even the greater part of North
Carolina, have been successfully relinE
pushed. Lees stand was still to be, as
it ever has been, in Southern Virginia
and Northern North Carolina, a strip
of territory SPAWNED by two parallels Of
/ latitude. ~ si saidaaa "a rnt4 a
In the choice of this position, some
thing may be justly attributed to Lees
own State pride, and that OF his officers;
something to the preponderance Of
! Virginians in his army; something to
the political and representative signf-
canoe which Richmond has acquired as
the capital of the Confederacy. But
these local and artificial considerations,
important as they may be, must have
given way to military policy. IL SO
happens, however, that, Independently
of extFaneous reasons, the geographical
and strategic character of the narrow
zone within which the insnrrectionsry
armies are now assembled, entirely
jussifes its selection for defence. The
well known surface of the country, its \
very ridges, marshes, forests, streams
and sOil, make il naturally delelisi be 1
II. Is impracticable through many
months of the year Tor 'aggressive ope
rations. 1t rests upon the Blue Ridge, /
towards which, Il Richmend fall, the
enemy may still hope to retreat The
sea-cOast is protected by belt of fats
and marches, sud the streams running
into it are naturally or artifcially made
impenetrable to our fleets Finally,
the left flank of rthis position, facing
the sea, opens the possibility Of dis
tracing our own operations by a raid
into our territory, by way of the Ka
nawba or Shenandoah Valleys. MS
right flank and rear still keep commu-
nieation open indirectly with the en-. |
tire centre of the Confederacy. In his !
perpIexing situation, and with his scan
~ means, the enemy was obviously !
forced to abandon the greater part of |
his territory. he has chosen well the
section to keep. No other position, to |
be gained by moving westward or
southwaFd, would afford such sdvants- |
ges as his present, in at least three par !
ticularS--frst, in its naturally defensi
BILE character; secondly, its proximity
to our territory, for demonstrations
and for distracting movements, should
opportunity permit; thirdly in 10 appu
rent defence Of the Confederacy still on
its frontier, without suTrendering lis
chief State TO our occupation.
But it must be the grossest error to
imagine this policy has not been direct
" forced upon The enemy. Every city.
every inch ofground wrested from him,
has been torn away against his will -
No matter what his future success, he
never can recover his seaports The
conquezt of Georgia was 1 piece of
pure strategy, as astonishing 10 him
as to the people of the North. The
conquest. ofIthe Carolipss. vas deiiber-
ately planned. It was no experiment,
no lucky hit, no sequel of the enemy's
plan of concentration. The opening
of the base at Newbern, and the line of
supply by way of the..Neuse and the At
lantic and North Carolina Railroad,
and even the advance on Kinston and
Goldsboro, were projected before Sher-
man set foot from SaTannah BE him
self distinctly declared st fayetteville,
that his astonishing 500 mile march
had been cendHcted eIrnost without
swerving along the path sketehed out
by him at the outset
The policy of "coneentrstiop against
Sherman" hasfailed utterly--so utterly
that the very phrase, once quite cur
rent, has now died out Of use, or given
way 70 the more general term of con
centration That soldier has brought
his vast Army 20 its destination in
splendid. condition, and .reopened. his
cominuuications, with only a couple Of
petty cavalry ssSirinishss This feat
vas accomplished by skillful general
ship. He was ez pected 70 60 70 Char
lotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, and Dan
vile. , accordingly, Johnston's forces
we're concentrated on that line. Ae-
cordinxlYs also, sShermannaoVedi in ar
other direesionl dad hs- proskouted
the former line of march, he would
have thrown Johnston into direct
supp 0rtipg distance of Lee, with etcl
step - nna al GoEU
His actual march gave Johnston the
option Of moving off from his failroad
communication with Lee, or of aban-
doning his concentration against
Sherman. The direct railroad line be.
tween bee and Johnston permitted
either to reinforce the other for sin
gle great battle, Ehiis each could keen
his immediate. opponent directly IN
front In that nosffiOn also Tohnsfen
fully covered Lynchbnrg, which just
then was ,menaced by Sheridan. All
/ these schemes we're set sside hy Sher~
mans tactics, OF which Macon, Augus-
a and Charlotte are only successive ex-
alnples. He bats q strong force Of the
enemy to gather in his front, then
moves pas. iis flank, forcing il too late
10 hurry across IN a parallel line to get
again in his front In this way SheT.
man hiss swept the Confederacy from
Chattanooga 70 Savannah, and from
SaVannah . Raleigh He hAs swept
sway also j s great cites on bic hne Of
march he has swept eff it, railrcads.
and EiLh them its ,aVailable supplies,
He has literally Swept up" It's armies,
from the Mississippi E3- the Roanoke
So thas, tipon q eThole il nay bennore
appropriately said that sherman has
Demonstrated, the lonfederate armies,
than that they have adopted concen
tration for themselves.
Z 4The serious task ef cspturing or seat
teringto lie four winds in irfeccyera
lbla coRfnsioa. Hhat thus has been driy-
en- together, now remains % Grant and