Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1866-02-16
THE ENGLISH PRESS ON GENERAL
nD NTta nEpnRT.

General Grants report Of his military
operations is attracting large share Of at
tention abroad The English journals com.
ment on It very favorably, and mako the
Lieutenaut- General the subject of many n
high compliment The London Times says:
"Wbat renders this report, too, the more
remarkable, is that it explains a rev, and
as the event proved. successful system
of tactics devised for the OCCASION" This
sy stem was that Of availing hin.self of his
great superiority Of numbers, attacking a
variety Of points at once, and preventing
the concentration Of the Southern troops.
Says the Times:
Man for man the Southerners were the
best troops, partly perhaps, from natural
apsitudcs, but mainly, no doubt, from the
great military ability of their commanders.
On fair field, and in any one battle, the
Fcderals could not pretend 10 reckon conf
IDENTITY on winning but there was one thing
on which they could reckon, and that was
on killing certain number of Gonfederatcs
Of course they musI suffer equal or even
greater losses themselves, but that they
could we'll afford. II every battle cost the
South certain proportion of men, given
number Of battles must destroy the South
ern power, even If 10 battle was decisive
victory. So Grant determined not only to
fight, bu, to Eight on, without stint or stay,
come what might. Hard knocks ard blows
constituted his strategy and tactics. If lie
were to fare as Mcclellan and Hooker had
Jared, he would not do as Mcclellan and
Hooker had done. He opened the new
campaign, resolved to go on lighting whcth.
er he won or los:, and as he himself says,
"to hammer continuously against the arm.
ed force of the enemy and his resources
until By mere attriton, if no other way,
there should be nothing left to him bu,
submission" While recounting til,
events of the Virginia campaign tie
General represents one engagement as vir~
tually failure in these words: ut wa.
the only general attack made from the Ran
1dan to the James which did not infiic, up.
on the enemy losses to compensate for our
own losses. / would not be understood as
saying that all previous attacks resulted in
victories to our accomplished arms, as from
much as had hoped from them but tbev
INFLICTED upon the enemy severe losses,
which tended in the end TO the overthrow
of the rebellion" How much these fac
ties cost the North we need not cav.
AS far as plans can be justified by events
that justification belongs certainly to Grant.
His system waa successful where every 9TH
ersystem had failed. His campaign brought
the war TO an end, whereas every former
campaign had left the contest pretty nearly
as 1t stood before. 1t must be underetood,
too that wherever military science appears
more conspicuous than brute force that
merit is Grants also. The scheme of Sher.
mans campaign was directed by Grant, as
were Others less important and less fortu-
nate: The grand principle of the whole
system was cooperation. Besides the twc
great armies of the Eae. :, west, which,
an fh;-- --"o'vn, were to pull we'll together
Grant Bet half a dozen other armies in mo-
t'oo' to distract occupy and punish the
enemy at all points together. X n That
result is undoubtedly due to- the "militarv
arithmetic" of General Grant. He is not
the hrst conqueror who has adopted the prin.
-c'ple, though he was the first to apply ito
the resources Of whole people instead of
the divisions of single army. He is enti-
tied, therefore, to the credit which complete
success confers; and, indeed, terrible though
tho cost was. it may be questioned whether
an indefinite prolougation Of the war would
not have cost both parties still more.
The Liverpool Post says:
General Grants report Is about to become
"a famous as Caesars Commentaries. nis
infinitely more important, for in the recent
civil war in America Greek met Greek. and
Grant encountered more formidable foe
than Csesat. At first the report escaped
attention. 1t came in bundle of official
documents, all figures and few arguments :;
but when the story of the campaign Of
1854 was looked into, matter was found
In it calculated to interest the world at pres
ent and for all future tine.
General Grant neither writes nor thinks
like an ordinary soldier-heis a philoso>
pher, ap historian, a profound statesman,
and :hs anks self in bis narrative, but nev.
-erts'i' TO praise others with palpable con.
seriousness which bespeaks the utmost Sin.
.cef'ty' IN perfect keeping With personal
admiration and friendshin
The war had endured threesears when
:he'wss called to the command of tbeAs,mv