The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-04-16

I've bcnNy HdFdl guns u1dQe IL co. W AOS'
: fault was that He forgets, in his ankle
ty to defeat the particulars of the charges
in the synopsis to protect his fame al
a general.
Again: He says the President was re
sponsble for his not arriving in time al
Manassas, because he did not send the
general the news from Richmond Thus
supporting the entire charge that he went
TO Manassas under orders, and depended
!. for plan of campaign upon the directions
of the war Department. He, as gener-
! al should have sent intelligence to the
capital instead of supinely waiting to re-
ceIve it. In this case, as far as a forward
movement was concernad, he did not IAN
ticipate the order"
The second charge is that he abandoned
large quantity of stores at Centervllle,
again retreated, and above all, was igno-
rant of the country behind him.
To this the General answers by special
pleadings as to dates, when by his own
statements he did abandon ''mOre than
one-slxth" of "a vast amount of stores
and material of war placed there by the
government against his repeated remon-
strances." Yet, shortly after, he says the
army devoted fifteen days to the removal
OF the public property. Now, if he could
for fifteen days employ the army in NOV
ing public property and then have to
abandon one-sixth of the whole amount,
why could not the general in command
have devoted twenty or more days to the
same purpose and saved all Of 1t!
He says the engineers were sent from
Richmond, at his own request, but not
] for no Of
graphical map and vet the letter he quotes
from Captain Robinson shows that they
were for that purpose, and were inexperi-
enced and slow. The limited country en-
braced in the area of his operations would
seem to have demanded quite an exact
and definite typographical map, but the
general says he had the usual resource of
generals good map perhaps an
excerpt from Mitchells atlas He adj
duces Colonel Cole to prove that he never
received an imperative order to halt upon
the Rappahannock- yet admits that
the Indignation of the Virginians ''may
hare drawn from the President such an
order! But what becomes of Colonel
| Coles proof, which after all is only neg
alive in its character; and he being of
the quartermasters department, was
manifestly not charged with the care of
| the correspondence. 1t was the assistant
Acknowledgements duty to receive and
preserve such orders. But the general
does not examine him.
With reference to the third charge,
that General Johnston evacuated York
town and retreated to Richmond, losing
supplies and stores, and affecting the
morale of the whole people and army,
without going into the whole circum
stances which would be too lengthy for a
newspaper, it will be sufficient to observe
two general facts. First, that if General
Johnston was ordered by the war depart
ment to make a campaign he thought |
would end in disaster, it was his duty to
have resigned
Second, that after General johnson
had received bis desperate wound" aud
General Lee having taken command, of
the same army, drove McClel1and from
the same position.
With reference to the Vicksburg cam
paign he has not answered the two i'm
portant charges in any particular. First
that he did not foresee and prepare against
Grants attack on Vicksburg; second, |
that he did not make his head quarters !
with, Pemberton's corps. His only reply |
is that he was ordered to Tennessee, and |
that afterward he was waiting about for
orders like an idle school boy. Not an I
idea did he advance; not plan did he /
propose, but after having been placed in |
command of the most important depart
ment in the south. he submits to be or
dered about like a private soldier If +
these be the whole facts, then the general /
ha,
own hand There is not an officer of any
rank in the armies of the civilized world, I
whost craving for Office would allow him
to be thus made puppet of, who would
risk the odium of defeats and endanger /
the lives of his men to preserve his nOmi- /
nal rank as a general Such conduct +
must terminate in disaster, as in this |
case. Pemberton was forced back into
Vicksburg and surrendered with thirty
thousand men, while General Johnston I
rested at jackson and saw has OtUn COM
nla1ad thus sacrificed without an attempt to /
relieve them. For less than this was
Bazaine condemned to be degraded and I
shot. He says he would have united with /
Pemberton but for his orders. This is
vague general statement. The record /
does not show that any one was ever Ell |
Their tried or condemned for this; and it |
is the paltry excuse of every incompetent |
that ''his orders were not obeyed."
Again, we find the general in COM |
mand of the largest army in the Confed- |
crate service, at Dalton, Georgia, and |
again he at once commenced to retreat. |
He declares, in most ridiculous man |
ner for a soldier, that his reason was "not |
because Sherman extended his wings, |
but because he moved his army around |
Johnston's TANKS, and that the country |
was as favorable for defense as for attack
Thus confessing that Sherman performed |
tie most dangerous and difficult feat of |
strategy in moving by the flank in the
presence of the enemy; and at the same
time declaring that if the enemy "gave |
favorable opportunities for attack they
were discovered by no one in the army"
This is very evident. But the general
seems to have forgotten to quote the ia
nous Battle Order" at Calhoun, Geor-
gia, when he borrowed General Pope's
pen to declare battle and victory to the
army. In this document he seemed to
have been well satisfied, both with his
opportunity of attack, and position"
But this article is already too long for
the limits of a newspaper. 1t Is not In
tended as criticism upon either Gener-
al Johnston's strategy or capacity, but
because the writer deems him to have
done Mr.. Davis great injustice and him
self more. He makes a grave mistake
whe he imagines because the southern
people found fault with the administra-
ton, in some few particulars, they meant
to make hero of htm. He is also mis-
taken if he supPoses the soldiers viii ever