The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1868-03-14
An Overrated Man.

forbearance and good feeling of
his contemporaries than any military
chieftain who has ever lived. Not
withstandiug his being 'ignomini-
ously defeated" at Belmont by
Polk aud Pillow, two of the fee
blest officers in the Confederate
service, and the castigation adj
ministered to him at Shiloh by
Albert Sidney Johnston, who died
in the moment of victory-just be-
fore Buell. came up and prevented
a total MISUNDERSTANDING his
siege Of Vicksburg-anothersiege
of Troy-the success of which is
due to the Cabinet at Richmond,
in sending Lee to Gettysburg in
stead of Longstreet to the sup
port of Johnston; and notwith-
standing the awful sacri0ce of
more than one hundred thousand
Federal soldiers in attacking Lees
feldwOrks from the Wilderness to
Cold Harbor, instead of Selling
Petersburg the key to Richmond
and, in spite of his remorseless
cruelty in keeping thirty thousand
United States soldiers imprisoned
at Andersonville, refusing to ex-
change them lest Lees 1000 men
around Richmond should be an
overmatch for his 100000 veterans
yet, in the face of all this, this
hero of a hundred defeats, and
Uictor only Deer Bragg at Chatta-
TOOgG, is supposed at the North
to be a very great man.
We of the South know better.
We know that our cause was de-
stroyed by Sherman; that his
"march to the sea-" and the feet
of Farragut broke the backbone
of the Confederacy, and rendered
it impossible to hold Richmond.
or any other stronghold in the
Southern country.
We are glad to see that the
light is now breaking on the heads
of the people who were not in
Dixie.
The following extract from the
Louisville Journal tells truly what
Prentice saw in Richmond in 1864.
and the next campaign for the
Presidency under Grant will be
sure to disclose many facts which
will strip him of his undersigned
fame:
We think the whole country I'M
derstands the truth that Grants
march from Washington towards
Richmond in the face of Gen. Lee
was one Of the most disastrous
campaigns ever undertaken. He
was brave, or rather obstinate
enough. He would, whenever
and wherever Lee chose to stop
and throw up battle works, adj.
vance and attack him at a terrible
expenditure of life, and in every
case he was repulsed. And at
each repulse he would walk his
army round, make a flank move
ment, giving another disastrous
battle, and then going again into
the thanking business. At last he
got to City Point on James river
after losing a hundred thousand
men. There he stoppedA There
he squatted. He didn't do any.
thing. He said that he would
eight it out on the line, though it
should take him all the summer -
but his fighting was simply squat
ting. There wasn't the first sign
OF aggression about him.
The senior editor of the Journal
was in Richmond in the winter of
1866, and we know that the Con
federate officers, soldiers and citi-
zens had no more apprehension of
Gen. Grant than if he had been
on the other side of the Ocean.
His proximity didn't keep a man
or woman awake single minute.
He was held in contempt. The
whole terror was in regard to the
march of Sherman. And it was
Sherman's march, and only that.
which conquered Lees army and ali
the other Confederate armiea