New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-05-17


cert of the army and besides, was so swkwardly
conducted as to be hopeless from the outset
Nevertheless he expresses the opinion that tho
succ.ss of the siege was due to the navy, ana
| esnecially to the monitors The errors OF the
| Confederates also helped. Had they not, before
Beauresard's arrival, voluntarily abandoned thelr
positfons on Coles Island, which excluded the
Federals from Stone Inlet, and, later, had they
| not concentrated their defensive works on the
northern part of Morris Island, thus allowing
their opponents to occupy the southern part. the
| task Of the Union army and navy would nave
! been much more difficult even than it was
| The Comte de Paris is evidently not believer
in the capacity of General Banks whose opera
tions in the far West he follows with considerable
dissatisfaction, and over whose Red River ex-
| nedtion he might almost be said to gloat were
such a WORD applicable to so sober and serious
| a narrative The repulse at Sabine Pass opens
this branch of the war-hiStory, and Immediately
| following is a record of that tangled series OF
small engagements, marches, counter-marches'
expeditions against scattered posts, cavalry raids
and generally Insignificant though picturesque
| proceedings which carried on far from the
centres Of action where the fate of the Union was
being decided. Steele, Blunt, Franklin, Sterling
Price, Nlarmaduke, and others, are seen
| .nnearinp and disappearing in the
hurry bury, and on the whole the Confederate
cause loses ground. That is until Banks obtains
the desire of his heart and the Red River expedition
! is at last undertaken. The coast of Texas was
already in the hands of the Union. Banks had
plans of his own, however which involved, IN the
opinion of the Comte de Paris very singular prin-
| ciples TO gain for the Federal Government the
revenue derivable from the sale Of the large quail
titles Of boarded cotton threatened by the Con-
federate Government with destruction General
Banks-prompted, the Comte thinks, by cotton
| speculators-proposed to the Confederate officers
| scheme whereby this cotton might be saved, and
its actual be deprived Of all interest in IT,
while certain part of its value was to go to the
Confederate officers c6nsentng to this remarkable
arrangement. Banks" says the Comte, thought
that the majority Of the officers of the Southern
army beyond the Mississippi discouraged and
eventually separated from the Confederacy, would
be captivated by this combination, which rested
on both theft and treason, and that they would
be seen continuing to fight the armies Of the
| Union while they would openly carry on lucra-
| tive trade in Joint account with its agents.
Nothing proves that such superstition was Justl-
| fed To carry out such @. scheme however, 1t
was first necessary to occupy the districts where
| the coveted staple was, and hence the motive OF
the Red River expedition. The Comte de Paris
thinks that Banks really believed the COnfederates
would offer serious resistance to the invaders
that they would yield possession Of Alexandra,
Mansfield, Shreveport even, rather than lose the
opportunity of getting pay for the cotton.
The failure of the expedition he ascrbes quite
as much to the incompetence Of Banks as TO the
unfavorable state of the river, which parayzed
Porter at the most critical juncture. 1t must be
said, however that whenever the Union CON-
manderS made blunder the Confederate generals
promptly capped it with another, and very often
with a more disastrous one The COmte evidently
believes that if Kirby Smith had been half as
sagacious and president as his lieutenant Taylor,
| there would have been 10 opportunity for that |
magnificent exhibition of American inventive re-
source by which Lieutenant afterward GeneraD
| Bailey rescued Porter's imprisoned feet at Alex
| andria For he holds that if Smith, instead of
calling Taylor back to Shreveport after the battle
OF Mansfield, and setting out on a wild hunt after
Steele, had followed Banks down the river with
all his forces, both the army and the feet could
| have been destroyed. Indeed, had Bailey not
come forward with his famous dam project when
he did, the presumption appears to be that Banks
would have been controlled by his increasing
apprehensions as to have abandoned the feet to
its fate: and in the then state of the river the
ships would have been practically helpless.
Shermans march to Meridian. and the Fort
Pillow massacre remain to be considered. On
describing the first of these events the COmto
expresses very unfavorabe opinion of the course
of General Sooy Smith, who, by his dilatoriness,
allowed Forrest TO stop him, and rescued himself
with great difficulty. Sherman, however, carried
out his expedition with the completeness he was
noted for. 1t deliberately distinctive
movement, like the subsequent march to the sea-
1t was intended to paralyze the rebels by depriv-
ing them Of transportation supplies and munitions
Of war TO rail against such expedition as
cruel is perfectly unreasonable. All war is cruel
in the nature Of the case, but whatever appear
ances may show, the war which produces the most
complete destruction within the shortest space of
time is the least cruel in the end. Sherman was
a soldier, and did his work with thoroughly UNI
sentimental precision The Meridian expedition
accom- lished what it was intended to accomplish,
and but for Sooy Smiths mishaps would have been
even more successful But it could not but deepen
the hatred OF the sufferers for the Union armies,
and Forrest who had the extent of the de-
| structon. and who had lost his brother in one Of
the encounters with Smith, forget that he was
soldier and began to talk if he did not act, like
bushwhacller, threatening to put to the sword
al garrisons of places which gave him the trouble
Of stormns them, and familiarizing his own men
with this way Of thinking by announcing these
terms to the commanders Of several invested posts.
Perhaps the Comte de Paris is reluctant to
cuse Forrest of other than indirect responsibility
for the Fort Pillow massacre. But he does not
shrink from pointing out that Forrest had incul-
Gated the spirit Of massacre, whether he meant it
seriously not and he may be right in the con-
| cusion that though Southern cCmbatants were
often guilty Of very ferocious deeds las in the case
| of Quantrell for inStance) it is not likely that
disciplined soldiers belonging to a regular force
would have so disgraced themselves had they not
believed that they had warrant for what they did
in the openly declared policy and purpose of their
commander. The Comte indeed refuses to admit
the most sensational histories of the massacre.
lie rejects the story of the deliberate burning of
the hospital though he accepts the mutilation Of
! helpless wounded men they lay in their pal