The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-20

stimulated by moral impulse over
which they could exert no control. The
great and loudly trumpeted cotton cam
paign of the Confederacy was It's most
signal failure: and that failure was de-
cisive of the war.
Foreign intervention being thus Withheld
and the control Of the sea by the Union
made absolute, the blockade was gradual
ly perfected. The fateful process then
went steadily on. Armies might be re-
sisted In the field; the working OF the
air pump could not be stopped: and. day
and night, season after season, the air
pump worked. So the atmosphere of the
Confederacy became more and mora at
tenuated, respiration sensibly harder
Air-hole on air-hole was closed. First
New Orleans fell; then yicksburg, and
the Mississippi flowed free; next Sher-
man, securely counting on the control
OF the sea as base OF new operations
on land, penetrated tho vitals of the
Confederacy; then relying still on mari
time cooperation. he pursued his almost
unopposed way through the Carolinas;
while Grant, with his base secure upon
the James and Fortress Monroe. be-
leagured Richmond Lee with his Army
of Northern Virginia calmly out watch-
fully and resolutely confronted him. The
Confederate lines were long and thin,
guarded by poorly clad and half-fed men,
But. veterans, they held their assailants
firmly at bay.
As Lee. however, fully realized, it was
only question OF time. The working
of the air pump was beyond his sphere
either OF influence or operations Moth
Ing could stop it.
AS early as the close OF 1869 Lee wrote
OF his men: Thousands are barefooted,
greater number partially shod. and
nearly all without overcoats, blankets or
warm clothing" And later, In the dead
OF winter. referring to the elementary
necessities OF any successful warfare. he
said: 1.-The supply, by running the block
ade, has become 80 precarious that
think we should turn our attention to
our own resources, as a further
dependence upon those from abroad can
result in nothing but increase of suffer-
ing and want" The conclusion here
drawn. while necessary, was extremely
suggestive. Our own resources." The
Confederacy had always prided Itself on
being purely agricultural community.
With institutions patriarchal in charac-
ter, 1t had looked upon the people of
the North as its agents and factors. and
those of Europe as its skilled workmen
and artisans; and now that community,
shut up within Its own limits, under con-
ditions OF warfare active and severe, had
only itself to rely upon for a supply Of
everything its defenders needed, from
munitions to shoes, from blankets to
medicines. and even soap. Viewed in
half century's perspective. the situation
was simply and manifestly impossible OF
continuance. To it there could be but
one outcome; and when at last, on the
18th of January, 1865, the telegraph an
nounced the fall of Fort Fisher. the Con-
federacy felt itself hermetcally sealed
Wilmington, its last breathing hole, was
closed. Still, not the less for that, the
air pump kept on in its deadly, silent
work.
Lee and His Men Stood
Every Test Of Adversely.
Three months later the long-delayed
inevitable occurred. The collapse came.
That under such conditions it should
have been so long in coming Is nov the
only legitimate cause of surprise. That
adversely is the test of man is n COM
monplace; that Lee and his Army OF
Northern Virginia We're during the long,
dragging winter of 1S64'5 most direfully