The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-13

The confederacy was now three years old The leader of the Southern move ment of lS60-61, Yancey. was six months in the grave. Foote says in his book .'The Bench and Bar of the South west" that had Yancey lived until this winter, 1S6S-64 he would shave led d movement to bring the war to a close. Fearless advisor that he was, indomit- able in energy of mind, capa ble of tmpressipg his thoughts upon others as few leaders ever have been In the an- nals of nations, perhaps Foote inter- prets him correctly. have "a letter in my possession from confidential third party to frequent conferences in Richmond between Senators from Ala bama, Yancey and Clay, and I gather from this high authority that Foote may interpret correctly, The two re- nowned Senators from the old Missis- sippi Territory were bold statesmen, Foote and Yancey. There is. more over. published letter from Assistant Secretary of War John A Campbell, of Alabama, and a published letter from General J. D. Johnston the latter dated as early as April, 1862, when the armed conflict was only year advanced, and both of these high authorities seem to Justify whatever predictions of disap- pointment the Senator may have fore cast.
 
 and Clay Rhett, Stephens Campbell and Governor Brown. of Georgia. were mistaken in their calculations on the chances of war Events ripened the mii- itary prowess of the Confectionery. Get tysburg did not seal our fate. As far as human decision may weigh, the one rifle shot which dnhorsed Longstreet at the wilderness. May 25. 1867, saved Grants grand army from a Waterioo. As far as military experience and. the science of war may enter the premises, tha Confederacy needed only few days more of the generalship of Johnston. the July following, to have witnessed the route and destruction of Sherman's army in Georgia. Grant lost or Sher- man driven in defeat would have upset all previous forebodlngs of Confederate disaster.
 The great soldiers of the Confed- eracy. the ranking commanders in the field, now with singular unanimity turned to the Army of Tennessee as the point on which the fate of the young republic hung. We have seen bY the last number of these brier memoranda that General Lee. accom- panied by Longstreet. who had carried the plan to him from Tennessee. vis- ited the President with suggestion of certain combinations of armies, to meet the strategy of Grant who had just been promoted to the command Of all the armies Of the United. States in the field. This plan was, that Gen eral Lee should retire from Grants front. in Northern Virginia, to the de- lenses of Richmond, without a battle and thence send about half his army to Longstreet in East Tennessee with some fifteen thousand men. Beaure- gard should move, with about 25,000. men, from the coast of South and. North Carolina. into the upper part of South Carolina. Johnston having been re-enforced from Mobile and Mis- sissippi. should move around the ene-s my. yet at Chattanooga, to Florence, Ala. Thus from South Carolina. East Tennessee and Northern Alabama. three columns would move into Ken lucky and there General Johnston' would take command. of the whole. a grand army of about 100000 seasoned troops with Beauregard, Longstreet, Hardee Polk, Hood, Forrest and wheeler under him. All fighting on. the march toward the Kentucky ren-i tiezvous should be avoided. Johnston's grand army thus organized, would cross the Ohio We have seen that at that time{. there were not sless than 350000 "Sons of Liberty" organized in the upper Mississippi Valley States. tsee Nicolay and Hay) The pbjes