The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1870-03-31

eFhl. lie test Is nOI tue HlOSt certain
one, but the correspondent referred tc
has chosen to interpose 1t, and however
Insignificant this act Of ingenuity may
be in his own person, there are not a
few Southern newspapers which have
solemnly adopted it.
AS to the general question of compar.
alive merits as commanders between
Mcclellan and Grant, what we have
said of the former suggests the main
difference between the rivals McClel-
Ian may have been an excellent
organizer of armies; it has been said of
him that he had the pedanry of war
without its inspiration. There could be
no greater contrast to his moral timidi-
ty, the mechanical sense OF order, the
slow genius, If genius at all, of "Athel.
stane the Unready," than those quick
instincts Of fight in Grant which gave
him this merit of great commander
that he never declined battle, and
that he went at it with force of decis-
ion that sometimes appeared irregular,
simply because it never calculated the
inferior circumstances of the situation
His military genius might have been
the unbrilliaDt and ponderous one of a
commander determined to conquer by
repeated strokes Of physical force; but
no one can doubt the readiness and de-
termination with which he struck at all
times. If he had no tinesse, he had no
procrastination, He was never bother
ed by that nice attention to details which
is always adjusting and read djusting,
which never realizes precisely the com
bination it desires, and which, instead
of making real preparations, keeps
itself only in a constant state of unread
mess and distrust.
But the fact which we wish especially
to bring to light, and which may sur
prise some readers, is that the Southern
Confederacy, so far from being in the
extremity of despair described by the
Washington correspondent when Grant
undertook the campaign of 1864, was
never at any time of the war, in a mill
tary point of view, more able and des-
perate. The lapse from this condition
was sudden and awful before the year
was out and from causes at which we
will lpresently"glance. But the trut': is
indisputable to those who lived in the
South at the time, and made careful and
intelligent observations around them,
that the Confederacy never turned upon
her foe more imposing and determined
aspect than when, in the early months
of 1864, Grant took command Of the
Northern forces in Virginia, an..fpund
on his front an army which, enough
somewhat less numerous than that
which defeated Mcclellan around Rich
mond, was much more formidable. 1t
was an army of 60, 600 men, all told-the
best seasoned army that Virginia had
ever put in the field-composed entirely
of veterans, and inspired by comhina-
ton of every circumstance that could
breed courage or insure devotion.
Yet the contest was hopeless before
the year was out. In this time the
South had been conquered, not, indeed,
by the transcendent Generalship of
Grant, but by the consumate folly of
Jefferson Davis. Superior numbers
never conquered the Houthern Confed-
eracy, and here on this point we may
dismiss the comparison Of Generalship
between Grant and Mcclellan, as no
longer applicable, or as having been
treated to the extent OF justice, and pur-
subject, viz: What were the real cause
of the failure of the Southern Confeder-
acy?
We answer that the South was con-
quered in 1864 by acts of its own gov
ernment, occurring principally after
General Grant had fought the most inn
portant battles Oft the campaign. 1t was
conquered by the removal of Johnson at
Atlanta, which broke the heart of a
great Army, and struck down the conf
dence of the people by single deceitful
blow; by such destruction of discipline
in. the Confadar"t" "..,- ,~ $50, f''', :, ~>
Longstreet reported in December, 1854,
that in single day, out of brigade OF
twelve hundred men, there were four
hundred confined in the guard house for
desertion; by such mismanagement OF
the commissariat that there were Con-
federate soldiers actually starving, while
there was grain rotting in depots, from
which the government had neglected to
remove it,and the enemy was constantly
exclaiming his surprise at the richness
of subsi stence in every district he
invaded; by physical exhaustion SO pre-
maturely and wantonly brought about
that but two months before the surren-
der, 11th February, 1869 Gen. Lee
had written in an official report that
must now remain the clear and everlast.
ing condemnation Of the authorities to
whom it was addressed, "our resources
fifty and vigorously employed, are
ampte!"
Such were the things that conquered
the Southern Confederacy. The theory
that it fell under an accumulation of the
superior numbers Of the North, sounds
nlaasautly tn the vanity of the South