Orangeburg times. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1872-1875, 1873-05-29

recognized, up to that moment. by three
Americans in four. To. General Lee the
Federal service offered everything that
ambition could desire. He was its fore
most man, he vas the favorite of General
Scott; he might have had the chief COM
mapd as lhe price of treason to Virginia.
Histeclings were divided hut as his
letters now published show, he was con-
vineed that his duty was to Virginia,
andEbe decided accordingly. With him
en6Stonewall Jackson, the two John
sony every Southern soldier in high or
lowecommand. The cause so espoused,
and by such men, cannot have been what
ENGLISH Ranters and Radicals call it..
Good or bad in essence, it was SO strong
in. apparent justice that not one man of
character and weight whose allegiance it
prstended to claim declined to support
it. sssa "
itsfailure had nothing TO do with its
alleged demerits. The South was crush
eIhy weight, not broken by weakness.
Tree things determined the fate of the
the closing Of her ports, the supe-
rior wealth, and far'above all, the over
Wheiming numbers of the enemy. The
North was q corn-growing and manu-
taetufing country, and open to her
TIC markets of Europe she had unlim-
tied command of all the resources of the
civilized world. The South was subject
t9 the disadvantages both Of an agricul-
tnral and Off non-agrculturalsco country.
she had no manufactures, and yet she
lived by manufactures and not by agri-
hultpte by producing clothing, not by
producing food Her wealth was at
lilce annihilated by the blockade, which
prevented her from selling her cotton,
and tobacco and sugar; her supplies
were. .cat off, and she had n bare sufficien-
ef' food, and total want of every
other necessary of life and war. She OBJ
famed powder and aims from the enemy;
sss3ats and clothes and blankets she had
3 ant Her finances broke down at
9tice, for her e.Spuf wore erssSgoaatia,. !.
and exports had ceased. But, above all,
she was crushed by numbers; the North
could recruit ut home four men for one,
and could hire the off scourings of Eu-
rope. And it was this alone that decided
the issue. The Edinburg Reviewer adds
the want of discipline: but VIC believe
that in the essentials of military discip-
line the Southerners were always superior
to their foes, and that if the troops of
Grant and Mcclellan had been tried MS
Lees were tried, they would have melted
like snow or died like rotten sheep. Lee
won almost every battle he fought, and
against odds of from two to four to one.
What destroyed him was Grants cold,
cruel policy-whch only Yankee;
Napoleon, or Prussian could have de-
liberately adopted-of sacrificing men
without stint, whom lie could replace, to
wear out ar enemy who could not recruit.
Under different circumstances such a
process might last longer. But II general
who can afford to sacrifice three men to
kill one must always end by leaving his
enemy without soldiers and therefore
greatly superior numbers, thus used, must.
prevail in the long run. 1t is no longer
possible in wars between civilized nations
for prowess to prevail against numerical
odds of great weight. And this terrible
lesson State like England would do
we'll to lay to heart. This, and this
alone, was the cause of the fall of the
Confederacy this is the dark and pain
ful moral Of the Virginian compaign.
Against everything but sheer "attrition"
Lee was victorious.
Great as he was in war-and surely
no captain of any age ever accomplished
greater things against an enemy of the
same race. better armed, better provided,
and outnumbering him by two or three
to one on every battle-feld-G General Lee
shone greater still in disaster. defeat and
ruin. The retreat from Richmond was
masterpiece of moral power rand soldier
ly skill; the surrender was elevated by
-