Year: 1862

In civil war audacity is everything


ferhaps nowhere are single battles reduc.


ed to perfect science. Much of the issue


depends always on the imagination aud


fears OF either side When the presence of


Napoleon was reckoned by his adsersares
as equal TO a corps of forty thousand men,


II was not merely his strategical combna.
tons that they were regarding, but the
moral effect he produced both on the spir-
its of his own men and of those opposed to
him. When this same great leader laws
down as a maxim of war that you should
always, in your public estimates, double
your own force and halve the force of yonr
enemy, he has in view especially the effect
on the Imagination of men. 1t is true. in
the long run, that war is contest of sci.
ence and wealth, and no weak Power can.
after q length Of time, overcome a strong
one, where both ere equally in earnest.
But in portions Of a campaign this may not
be the fact, and especially in struggle be-
tween volunteer armies.


Troops without long discipline arc un.
certain what can be done and what cannot;
they do not know how very often the appa-
rently desperate cause is won again by
steady military discipline and by the or
ganization which holds men together when
there seems no refuge but destruction; they
are not experienced in the almost absolute
certainty that intreuched positions, with
heavy artillery, cannot be taken by assault
provided the defenders nerves do not fail
them. This has its advantages, in some
respects. No doubt few European regulars
would have ventured the assault which at
Newbern carried our volunteers, with n
dash, over several lines Of intrenchment.
On the other hand, no regulars would ever
have allowed the batteries to be carried
In this war, audacity has gained most of
the victories, Nothing but this improvi-
dent quality forced wooden ships through
the fire of stone forts and against ir0n.clad
gunboats at New'Orleans Audacity alone
stormed the difficult heights Of Donelson,
and carried the powerful batteries of New
Madrid with such little loss. Audacity
sent Jackson down the Valley of the She
nandoah with two separate columns on
either flank, which might at any time cut
off his retreat 1t was this same reckless
trait which drove Gen. Stewart through
our weak right wing, aud exposed its codi-
tion to the enemy, and which prompted the
rebel leaders TO lay open all the Gulf
States, and even their line of defence in
Virginia, for the sake OF massiug portion
Of Beauregard's army and all Of Jacksons
on our flank at Richmond. II is apparent
now. looking to the past, that audacity
would have kept Patterson in close pursuit
of Johnson, aud have saved Bull Run, and
that the same quality after the action
would have given Washington to the
rebels


The truth is-what Napoleon so we'll
proved-lhat more than half Of the power
Of military movements is on the imagna.
tion. The great value Of reinforcements
In battle il more often their effect on the
spirits Of the combatants than the amount
OF real force they add to either side.


in this vital quality OF civil war 1t is
natural that the rebel should somewhat
excel us. They are undoubtedly more
earnest and they are more reckless. We
cannot afford to expose for a moment any
part of our territory. We have TO build
az well as to destroy. Our leading Gener-
al is OF th9 Wellington rather than OF the
Napoleon order Of mind. In personal dar-
ing our soldiers seem superior TO the Sou
therners. What we want now is the dar-
ing of large and bold enterprises which
gain half their object by the terror they in
spre. We trust that the various national
armies Of Virginia will soon resume Wig
or0us ohensve.-lN. Y. Times.