The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1884-08-07
PERyERrrNa HISTORY.

A source of continual irritation to every
well-infornled man is the persistent Justification
of history by the majority of those who write
about the rebellion from the Southern stand
point The burden Of the song Of these men is
an echo Of the old vaunt that one Southern
man was equal to FIVE Yankees. The idea is
continually held out that the South was only
conquered by being OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES it was
the immense masses of men which the North
hurled against the inferior forces of the South,
that gave the Government the victory. 1t
seems nearly impossible for Southerner to
write of any thing in the war without making
rebel regiments successfully contend with
Union brigades, and even divisions. For an
example, in recent issue of the Philadelphia
Times, paper mainly devoted to absurd glorif-
cation of the beros of the Lost Cause, occurs
this sentence in notice Of the rebel Gen.
Wheat:
Placed In position on the extreme left of line OF
battle eight miles long it fell to his lot to meet the
first advance of the Federals and for more than an
he fought desperate battle and held in check Heint-
eeIrsan's division Of 1900 men.
This is the customary tone of these produc-
tions. They rarely admit that the Northern
soldiers were at all equal to the Southerners in
either courage or military drill. Whenever
victories were won for the Union it was inva-
riably by such preponderance of brute
strength that the most determined valor in the
world could not have changed the result. 1t is
asserted with the calmness of uttering truism
that the war only ended by such masses OF
men being hurled against the decimated bat
talions of Lee and Johnston that they were
crushed by sheer brute weight.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
| The men Of the South undoubtedly fought
well all the time, and sometimes splendidly.
But they fought no better than the Northern
soldiers We really think it can be demon
strated that they did not fight SO well. They
were almost always standing on the defensive
and the development Of the art of war at that
time gave the defensive immense advantages
The musket had an accurate range of over hal
mile, and it could be fred quite rapidly, 81
that men standing in position where then
TANKS were protected could, as rule destroy
any force advancing directly in their front. Bu
in spite of being compelled to continually as
sault places of immense natural and artificial
strength, the Army of the Tennessee hewed it
way from Cairo to The Gulf. and the Army o
the Cumberland wrenched stronghold aftel
stronghold away from the insurgents until i
marched from Louisville to Atlanta. Thc
rebels never gave any such proofs of the high
est soldiership such as these exploits afforded.
1t is most significant fact that while the
Union troops wrested from the rebels scores
almost hnndreds-of places which were as for
midable as nature and engineering could make
! them, the rebels never took a single place o
Importance from their opponents. This tell
the story Of who did the boldest and hardes
work very clearly.
Now, as to disparity Of numbers. The fol
lowing table shows the population of the Unior
and rebel States al the outbreak of the war: