The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-11-10

necticut, Rhode Island and the indie
pendent State of Vermont, but Mas
sachusettes was virtually undisturbed.
Massachusetts, has fought wars,
protested against wars and opposed
wars, but when one has travelled the
short distance from Concord to the
Charlestown peninsula he has covered
the noted battlefield of the Bay State
and that field is of one great event.
Virginia has offered it's breast to the
deadliest of Americas encounters. 1t
is striking difference of experience.
When geography enters as an ex-
PLANTATION it does not at first explain.
Virginia had buffer colonies between
itself and the Spanish on the south
and the French on the north. The
Spanish proved non-aggressive. The
French fought the English every step
of the way.
In this conflict Massachusetts was
border State. It's citizens gained
their military experience in these
French wars, but the battles were not
fought in Massachusetts. They were
fought in Nova Scotia and along the
St. Lawrence, in what is now Maine;
in New York and Pennsylvania, in the
Shenandoah, by the Scotch-Irish and
Germans on the Virginia, Maryland
and Pennsylvania frontiers, on the
Ohio river and the New York lakes,
but not in Massachusetts,.
After Braddock's defeat the Shen-
andoah frontier of Virginia was
bloodied in Indian raids which re-
quired all of Washington's stanchness
to fight off and control. The earlier
years of the Revolution left Virginia
as peaceful as Massachusetts,, but
when the war was carried south, Vir-
ginia was made acquainted with Tarl-
eton and Arnold, then a renegade,
burning the Virginia cities. Rich
mond suffered this.
North and South Carolina and Vir-
ginia had their Revolutionary expert
ences when a great deal of the chival-
ric generalship had disappeared out of
the British camp and the bitterness
of Tories and Loya'lists dominated. A
dead Tory was a good Tory and dead
rebel was a good rebel.
When CORVALLIS came to the opin-
ion that Virginia would furnish the
decisive field he was right. He ceased
the Carolina marching, which must
seem aimless in spite of his purposes,
and came north, cutting his road from
Wilmington, N. c., to Charlottesville,
Va, with Greene and Lafayette feint-
ing, withdrawing and threatening.
Geography probably had something
of inevitability in giving Virginia the
scars, the elimination and the end of
the Civil War. The Army of the
Northern Virginia and the Army of
the Potomac had the center. Their
fanking movements could be in Ten
nessee and Georgia, or down the At
lantic Coast, but they must pound
each other in the tidewater, the will
derness, the mountains and valleys.
1t might be in Maryland, Penn
sylvania or Virginia, but the strong
er resources back Of the fighting lines
would, in common rule, count enough
in spite of generaIship and valor to
keep the fighting in the opposite ter
ritory. And so it was whether the
Northern failures were led by Nc
Clelland, Pope, Burnside or Hooker,
or whether the final Northern success
was led by Grant.
The great military decision of this
nation has been found in the first
colony and many of the governing mo-
tives have come out of the second.
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