Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-04-18
ANOTHER REBEL YELL.
The Silly yaporfngs of the Late Han
man-General of the Confederacy.

The silly vaporings of the Late Hang
man-General of the Confederacy.
Pumpkin-Vine Rosser's wild yawp
has been promptly echoed by the ire
pressible Bradley 7. johnson, late
General for the Army of
Northern Virginia At the reunion
and banquet of the Baltimore Light
Artillery, C. S. A, at Baltimore the
other evening, johnson made the
speech of the occasion, in the course
of which he said:
agree with General Rosser, who appeared
among us recently, that Southern man is
better any day than Northern man. He was
better on the field of battle, and is so 20 this
day. We whipped our opponents when we met
on equal grounds, and We whipped them when
they outnumbered us two to one.
The concise, effective answer to this
stuff is that it is grossly untrue.
There is nothing in the history of the
war to support it. Nobody denies
that the rebel was superb soldier
Nobody denies the dash and obstinacy
with which he fought on many fields.
But to say that he was better soldier
than his Union opponents to give the
lie direct TO history. History shows
to the contrary that, man for man, the
Union soldier was the better. In a
fair, open fold, with no advantages
on either side, 1000 Union soldiers
would drive 1000 rebels off the ground
every time. They did it scores Of
times. The most significant fact in
the history of the war is that
in no instance did the rebels take
from us single fort, breastwork or
other stronghold that we attempted to
hold, while, On the other hand, We
took from them hundreds which they
did their best to hold. This is the best
test of the comparative soldiership of
the two armies that can be made. The
rebels usually had the immense advan-
tage of standing on the defensive, be-
hind carefully-prepared works. and
compelling us to attack them on
ground of their own choosing. In
such cases one man in position is as
good as three at least in the assault.
1t is very rare that the rebels vent
ured to make such assaults upon us as
we constantly made upon them, and
when they did they were invariably
beaten. They talk necessarily about
Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, but
that was more than matched by a score
of splendid assaults made upon much
stronger positions held by them. 1t
was not equal in determination and
soldiership to Grants attack on Fort
Donelson, where with $4,000 men he
shut up 81, 600 rebels inside their forti-
fications, and with his force increased
to 5000 wrested their stronghold
from them and captured $4,000 prison
ers within three days after sitting
down before them. 1t was not equal
to Hancock's and Mead's attacks at
Fredericksburg, the Army of the Cum
berland's grand rush up the slope of
Mission Ridge, to Hancock's crush
ing blow at Spottsylvania, or to Baird's
magnificent bayonet charge at Jones'
boro, which made a glorious termina-
ton to the Atlanta campaign.
Whenever the rebels attempted the
same thing. defeat was invariable.
Two thousand Union soldiers in ALA
toona Pass drove back charge after
charge of five times their number of
resolute rebels, intent upon capturing
the immense stores of supplies there.
At Franklin, parts of two small corps,
standing in open country, behind very
light works, beat back the entire mass
of Hoods veteran army, inf1icting a
larger proportional loss upon them
than we suffered in any assault made
upon rebel lines.
Bradley Johnson's vaporings will
not change the facts Of history. The
critic. carefully weighing
all the circumstances and conditions,
will not have any difficulty in arriving
at the decision that, well as the rebels
fought, the Union soldiers fought still
better, and that, man for man, the
Northern soldiers were more intelli-
gent, more resolute, more skillful in the
art of war, and more determined in
pursuit of victory than their Southern
As for johnson himself, he did most
of his fighting in the bomb-proof posi-
ton of Provcst-Marshal-G where
he was terrible as an executioner of
spies, of soldiers trying to escape from
the loathsome tyranny of the jeff Davis
and of peaceful citizens
Of the crime of disloyalty"
to that sum of sill abominations-the
Southern Ccnfederacy. - National
Tri hI,na ((; R1