Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1868-08-07

Potomac, "that splendid army Of citizen
soldiery," had its origin in this organiza-
tion, and for four long years steadtastly
struggled under every sort of commander
till It finally found It's hero in the
Lieutenant General, and gained a signal
triumph. .........
ARMY or THE CUMBERLAND.
But fortunately for the cause Of free
government, there were other armies in
the field whose history is not less glorious
than that of the Army of the Potomac.
Buell. organized the Army of the Cum
berland, whose distinctive feature was
rigid discipline and methodical perform
ance OF duty and although its command
er was a military favorite and one Of the
prodigies of the earlier days of the war,
he was permitted to have but limited
assistance of the regular army. His staff
officers alone, with few division and bri.
gade commanders like Thomas, Wood,
Stanley NLcCoolS, Hazen, Terrell and
Harker, with two batteries of artillery and
four new regiments of infantry, were
drawn from the regular army. The case
with Grant was incomparably worse
Sherman and Mcpherson were the only
graduates of the military academy who
were permanently identified with the
Army of the Tennessee. G. +. Smith
made the campeign of Fort Donelson with
ii Rosecrans that of Corinth and Iuka
Sheridan commanded a cavalry regiment
in 1t for a while, and was then transferred
to the Army of the Cumberland Wilson
belonged to the staff, and Ord, Sooy Smith,
and Comstock, and several inferior officers,
joined in during the siege Of VicksbuTg,
but with the exception of small battalion
of the Thirteenth (new) Infantry, and
few hundred of the First Infantry, during
the Vicksburg campaign, not regiment
of regular soldiers ever formed any part
of its columns, 1t was made up, Generals
and all, of raw Western volunteers, with
no knowledge of warfare, except that de-
rived from family tradition, or based upon
their mother wit, and no military training,
except in the use of the rifle. Having
served with all these armies and had am
pie opportunities of observing their
habitual department in camp, on the
march, and in battle at various epochs in
their career, we may be permitted TO speak
unhesitatingly.
THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE.
In the routine and detail of duty, and
in the minor matters of discipline and or
ganization, the Army of the Potomac was
undoubtedly superior to either of the
others. But in the subordination of its
generals, in the promptitude, zeal and en-
ergy of its lower officers, in the self-reli-
ance, earnestness, and physical character
istics of its rank and file in short, in
every moral military quality, the Army of
the Tennessee has never been eXcelled.
No general ever more successfully i'm
pressed his own character upon an army
than Grant did his upon the one which
grew up so silently under his care No
army was ever more loyal to its chief, or
more clearly embodied the spirit of the
people from which it sprung. 1t is Gu.
rious fact, too, not otherwise sufficiently
| accounted for, that it is the only army or
ganized with the war, and continuing in
existence till the establishment of peace,
which, as a whole, never suffered defeat
| Its endurance and courage were uncon-
querable, so much so that before the war
had terminated, it came to be boast in its
| ranks that it was sure to win any battle
that lasted more than one day, no matter
what the odds or what the enemy Officers
and men seemed to be endowed with the
| gift of persistency to a degree never sur
| passed except by their commander As
an organizer Grants reputation must con-
| tinue to increase the more his perform
ances in this direction become known.
GRANT A GREAT sFRATEGIsT.
The attention of the reader has already
been called to his Recommendation of a
united command in the Mississippi Valley,
and to the tardy action of the Government
| in carrying this accommodation into effect.
| 1t is hardly necessary now to say that this
| combination was the foundation of all our
| substantial victories, not onlyi in the West,
but throughout the entire theater of the
war. Fort Donelson. was won by celebrity,
| audacity and heroic resolution. Shiloh
| h1r or, Gcrht nI III
| heroism. Vicksburg by the most brilliant
and original strategy and rapid marching,
iudicious combination and selEreliance,
| which remind one of the invasion of Russia
| by Charles XII. or of the vigor displayed
in Bonaparte's campaign of 1885, but 1t
must not be forgotten that Charles lost his
| army at Pultowa, and that Bonaparte did
not cut loose from his base and plunge
headiong into the interior of the hostile
country, but by judicious and we'll
formed plan of operations he broke
through the enemy's lines at such point
as to retain his communications with
France constantly uninterrupted, while by
rapid combinations and severe battles he
| drove these lines before him. But Grant,
in the Vicksburg campaign, boldly threw
himself into the midst of hostile forces,
leaving an army entirely behind him,
until he had seized the most i'm
portant point in the theater of
| operations, and then turned upon and
| defeated that army and drove it into the
| Notifications from which it was destined
never to emerge except at the will of its
conqueror. The closing victories of the
war were won by rare combination Of
military agencies The consolidation of
four vast territorial departments into one
| grand military division, enabled Grant to
concentrate at Chattanooga a splendid
army, heavily outnumbering the enemy,
and it should be remembered that ProVi-
| dence favors strong battalions.. BY a Sc
ries of strategic and strong tactical com
binatiOns, these superior numbers were so
directed upon the field of battle as to take
the enemy at disadvantage, striking him
in flank, and actually getting closer to his
base of supplies than his base was tJ his
own headquartera &Es
/ The Atlanta campaign and the march
to the sea the selection of Sheridan, and
the formation of the Middle Military Di-
vision; the consolidation of the Western
| cavalry; the establishment of the military
division of the West Mississippi, under
| CanbY, followed by the campaign of Mo.
bile; Sherman's grand holiday excursion
and picnic party through the Carolinas,
again severing the Southern territory, iso-
lating and scattering lis armies, breaking
its communications, and eating out the
vitals of the Confederacy; and lastly, but
not least the magnificent campaign of the
Army of the Potomac, from the Rapjdan
to the James, and from Petersburg 10 APP
pomattax Court house, bear ample testi-
mony not only to the grandeur of Grants
conceptions, but TO The heroic and un-
shakable resolution with which he carried
them into effect. There was no defeat in
all this, no hesitation, no doubling, hut
the clearest comprehension of the ends to
be aimed at, the most careful preparation
of materials, and the most perfect conf
dence in the men and means by which
they were TO be obtained. No modern
general except Bonaparte ever welded
such vast and prolonged power, and not
even that great conqueror displayed such