The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1873-06-18

four. To General Lee the Federal SER
vice offered every thing that ambition
could desire. He was its foremost man;
he was the favorite of General Scott;
he might have had the chief command
as the price of treason to Virginia. His
feelings we're divided; his interests
we're all on the Federal side; but! las
his letters now published show, he was
convinced that his duty was to Virginia
and he decided accordingly. With
him went Stonewall Jackson, the two
Johnstons, every Southern soldier in
high or low command. The cause 80
espoused, and by such men, cannot
have been what English ranters and
Radicals call it. Good or bad in es-
sence, it was so strong in apparent JUS
tice that not one man of character and
weight whose allegiance it pretended
to claim declined to support it.
Its failure had nothing to do with its
alledged demerits. The South was
crushed by weight, not broken by
weakness. Three things determined
the fate of the war-the closing of her
ports, the superior wealth, and above
all, the overwhelming numbers Of the
enemy. The North was corn grow
| ing and manufacturing country, and
had open to her the markets of Europe;
she had unlimited command Of all the
resources of the civilized world. The
South was subject to the disadvanta-
ges both of an agricultural and of a non
agricultural country. She had no man
ufactures, and yet she lived by manu-
features and not by agriculture; by
producing clothing, not by producing
food. He wealth was at once annihila-
ted by the blockade, which prevented
her from selling her cotton and tobac-
co and sugar; her supplies were cut off,
and Sue had bare sutficiency of food,
and total want Of every other neces-
sary Of life and war. She obtained
powder and arms from9 the enemy !;
boots and clothes and blankets she had
to want. Her finances broke down at
once; for her exports were her wealth,
and exports had ceased. But, above
. all, she was crushed by numbers; the
North could recruit at home four men
for one, and could hire the off-scour-
,Jings of Europe. And it was this alone
? that decided the issue. The Edinburgh
Reviewer adds the want of discipline;
but we believe that in the essentials oil
military discipline, the Southerners
were always superior to their foes, aud
that if the troops ofGraut and McClel.
; Ian had been tried as Lees we're tried.
they would have melted like snow OF
! died like rotten sheep. Lee won al.
p most every battle he fought, and
against odds of from two to one to foul
, to one. What destroyed him was
Grants cold, cruel policy, which onl,
, a Yankee, a Napoleon or Prussial
could have deliberately adopted-o
r sacrificing men without stint, whom HI
4 could replace, to wear out an enem.
who could not recruit. Under differ
. ent circumstances such process Nigh
= last longer. Buta general who can at
ford to sacrifice three men to kill on
q must always end by leaving his enem.
without soldiers; and therefore great,
T. superior numbers, thus used, mus
prevail in the long run. tits no longe
q possible in wars between civilized ma
), tions for prowess to prevail agains
!. numberical odds of great weight. An
= this terrible lesson state like Englan
will do we'll to lay to heart. This, an
y this alone, was the cause of the fall {
- the Confederacy; this is the dark an
- painful moral Of the virginian cam
a paigns. Against everything but shee
- "attrition" Lee was victorious.
= Great as he was in war-and surel
!, no greater captain of any age ever az
~ complished greater things against a