Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-02-16


Atlanta. The grand movement cOmmen-
ces early in May. Our three great col
!, umDs are advancing on Dalton. Before
them towers the precipitous wall of
Rocky Face and the lofty ridges of Chat
tanooga Mountain Through this insur-
mOuntable barrier there is but one practic-
? able passage Buzzard Roost-and that
brlsties with a score of cannon. To try
to carry it by assault would be madness.
How shall we get over it? The genius Of
Sherman supplies the method. A feint
Is made on BuZzard ROOst and the enc
my thus beguiled Is unaware that the
main body OF our army Is moving South
ward. Every thing works together like
charm. Finally the gateway was found
and through it Mcpherson plunges the
/ Army of the Tennessee. The enemy had
forgotten to fOTtity and garrison Snake
/ Creek Gap. Who indeed would have
thought it necessary? Suddenly the Ar
mics of the Tennessee and Cumberland
debOuch upon Resacca many miles in rear
| of Dalton. Thus with scarcely uOticea-
bic loss of life our army has forced Its
/ adversary from the strongest line IN
/ Georgia-and with the impregnability Of
which that of the Rapidan bears no COM
! parisou. 1t IS easy to say that any man
could have found that obscure pass and
marched his army through it. but let
I LnU6G W uO Sdy JlllS EEuCuDBI LLdb IL was
/ only Columbus who could devise the
r2ethod of making an egg stand on its
smaller end. The movements around
| Dalton were among the most boldly con-
ceived and skillfully executed Of any In
history. If the venial adulatOrs who
have spent so much time and money IN
clarifying the leaders of the army nearest
to Washington-the fountain of official
favor and mushroom elevatIon-had CIV
en- more of their time to studying the the
atre of the war in the Southwest, there
would be fewer persons who disParage the
genius and caluminate the patriotism Of
General Sherman.
The ChattoOga Mountains gained, the
enemy was still strongly lodged behind
carefully fortified position at Resacca.-i
How should we drive him from his lair in
the dense junges of that wild, rough
country? By assaulting his works p
That was being tried in the Wilderness of
Virginia,-sh0uld we try it? To carry
the position would have cost twenty thou |
sand men. But there was an easier way. |
The enemy was again beguiled by feints |
in front and on his extreme right. Mean |
while our gallant Buckeye, Mcpherson, |
was pushing his columns over the ridges |
and through the thickets. and soon, the /
enemy looking to his rear, discovers to /
his dismay that our forces are crossing the |
OOstanaUla. Again he retreats and stop |
ping not until beyond the Etowah leaves /
all Northern Georgia to the mercy Of our /
brave and skiIfuI Tecumseh Thus in a |
few brief weeks the Army of the West, |
with no greater preponderance of num-
bers, and IN the face of greater natural I
and artificial obstacles had, with a mere
trifiing loss of men and none of MATERIAL /
made conquest of more territory than /
the Army of the Potomac achieved during |
the entire summer
We come next to the, except one, most dar- /
ing maneuvre ofthe campaign the advance |
across the Etowah. Many a mind might |
perhaps have conceived. but none but the /
boldest and frmest hand could have exc
cuted such an exploit. Quite as daring |
as the march around Vicksburg, it was
still more so than the crossing of the /
James. Fancy an army advanced four
hundred miles into the interior of a hos
tile country, abandoning entirely its only |
connecting link with its distant base /
plunging across a difficult river and into |
I the passes and defles of wild and barren |
mountains, pushing its columns directly
towards It's object, seventy miles distant
and all this regardless of the powerful |
and well-appointed army of chafDg foe /
70 those who appreciate the peril and |
difficulty besettiug such an adventure, it /
seems infinitely more hair-brained and /
crazy than certain suggestion once made 4
that it would take two hundred thousand /
men to drive the rebels from Kentucky /
Yet the author of that suggestion con- !
/ ceived and executed just such plan, and |
by it gained the next strongest line in /
Georgia-that of the Allatoona Noun /
tains
1t is needless to dwell upon the splen- /
did strategical skill which drove the enc
my to Lost Mountain and from that to /
the twin peaks of the Kenesaw," and |
and from thence to the ChatahoOchee.-I
But one time during all these operations
was a serious assault made upon the enc |
my's wor ks. Though that was more than |
justified by dozens attempted by the Ar
my Of the Potomac, yet it failed as might /
| have been expected. Such works can /
never be taken while defended by Ameri-
cans, remarked Gen. Hooker as he after
wards rode over them. How were they
taken? By the bold, skilful strategy of
our daUntless leader.
The advance across the Chattahooche
Is, for beauty and boldncss of movement,
almost without parallel IN history. An
army IF ninety thousand men executing
grand right wheel almost with the sym
metry and punctuality Of parade And
that, too, In difficult, unknown country
with hostile city and army in front -
! Talk of the crossing of the James Let
/ those who boast of It go and look at those
wonderful exhibitions of patient toll and
| engineering skill--John defensive
works along the banks Of the ChattahoO-
chic.
! How Atlanta was taken has become a j
/ freside story. Lisping childhood can tell
| it, and yet what bold, grand, wonderful
movement Our army disappeared in the
/ depths of rebeldOm as the leviathan set
| ties in the deep For many days it was
out of sight and hearing; people wonder
! ed; the country was breathless in its sus-
! pense, and well it might be. At length
| the thousands of detOnatiens breaking
upon the stiffness of a September night,
/ tell the story that Atlanta is being aban-
! doned. The next days sunset CLEANS up
on the starry flag floating in serene TIL
umph from its spires and pinnaces-I
! And where was Sherman? Returning
/ from his successful march bringing with
him the trophies Of victory.
To say nothing Of the splendid cam
paigns following, let us now refer to that
which every enemy of our great Ohioan
points to with peculiar satisfactorily
| treaty with johnson. True, it was a great
mistake. But those well informed know
| that it was an error of the head, not Of
the heart 1t was an error, too, which
has this great palliation, that it was made
/ "a SnHnauao oF foIeo nj 81