The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-05-05

straggle into Washington, instead of
being peremptorily stopped at the bridges
and sent back to the encampments of
their several regiments, is only to be
accounted for on the hypothesis that
the reason of our military magnates
had been temporarily dethroned, SO as
to diyest them of all moral response
bility.
CONSEQUENCES OF DEFEAT.
The consequences of this defeat were
sufficiently serious. Our $4,000 three
months men, whose term of enlistment,
for the most part, expired within the
three weeks following the battle, gen.
orally made haste to quit the service and
seek their several fresides at the earliest
possible moment. Our armies were thus
depleted with rapidity rarely equaled ;
and the Government, which, throughout
the preceding month, had been defend
ing itself as it best could against i'm
portunities and entreaties to be allowed
to furnish regiment here or battery
there was glad thenceforth to take all
that offered, and to solicit where it had
been SO earnestly solicited. The Nation
woke from dream of invincibility and
easy triumph to find itself inextricably
involved in desperate and dubious
struggle for life. And the thinly dis
guised or utterly undisguised exultation
wherewith the news of this disaster was
received by thousands whose sympathy
with the rebels had hitherto been sup
pressed, or only INDUCED in secret,
proved that, in the struggle now upon
US, the Republic could not count on the
support even of all those who still
claimed to be loyal to the Constitution
and Union.
sECEssIoNIsT CAUSE STRENGTHENED.
On the other hand, the rebellion was
immensely strengthened and consolidated
by its victory. Tens Of thousands
throughout the South, who had hitherto
submitted in silence to proceedings which
they condemned and deplored, but
lacked the power or the courage to re-
sist, yet whose hearts were still with
their whole country and the old flag,
now abandoned the Union as hope
lessly lost, and sought, by zeal in the
cause of the rebellion, to efface the recol-
lection of their past GOODNESS and infdel-
ity; while no one who had previously been
rebel any longer cherished shadow
of doubt that the independence Of the
Confederacy was secured. The vote of
Tennessee for secession, the sudden up
rising of a great rebel army in Missouri,
and the strengthening Of the cause and
its defenders everywhere, owe much of
their impulse to the dispatches which
flashed over the rejoicing South assur-
ances that the grand army Of the North,
$4,000 to $4,000 strong, had been
utterly routed and dispersed by Beaure-
CARDS $4,000 to 10000 Confederates.
Yet it is to be added that, whatever
the exultation of one party, the depres-
sion of the other was not without its COM
pensations. The North, at first stunned,
was ultimately rather chastened and
sobered than disheartened or unnerved
by its great disaster; while the South,
intoxicated by its astounding success,
expended in fruitless exultation energies
that might better have been devoted to
preparation for future and more deter
mined struggles.
If, as the Confederates were told,
$4,000 of their raw recruits, badly
armed and provided, had sufficed to rout
and scatter double or treble their num-
Der of Yankees, snperbly equipped for
the contest, what need could there be for
selfdenial and sacrifice and a general
volunteering to recruit their victorious
armies? They hastily concluded that
the struggle was virtually over-that
nothing remained but to prescribe the
terms on which peace should be accorded
to the van9uished; and this delusion
continued for months undispelled and
effective.
And thus, while the instant effect of
the tidings was the doubling of the rebel
numbers in the field and reduction of
ours by half, yet a few weeks sufficed to
efface this disparity, and the expiration
of three months saw our forces swelled
once more till they exceeded those of
the enemy. The Nation, flung headlong
to the earth, and temporarily paralyzed
by her fall, rose at length with truer
appreciation of the power, the purpose
and the venom of her foes, and frmer
resolve that they should be grappled
with and overcome.
Ito be continued)
EDITORIAL NOTE.-The great events of the
civil war were never told in stronger or