Year: 1863

-IEr0m the ~. / Herald.
: The Military Situation.
By way of Baltimore and Washington WI
receive, from rebel, sources, some extrava
CANT statements of the present strength o


the Southern armies. Lee appears by these
allotments to have one hundred and twelve
| thousand men. Kirby Smith and Beaure
i gard to have between them about ninety
thousand, while trifs over one hundred


and fifty thousand are said TO threaten


Rosecrans in Northern Georgia. Such are


the rebel armies on paper. Generals in the
| field, and even colonels and captains, will


give very different account of their re-


spectiye commands from any that are made


up by ardent supporters in either Rich


mond or Washington. Lees army in Vir


ginia, in all probability, never was as great


as the above statement makes it now, and


certainly does not at present number
| fifty thousand men. BeuIegard may very


likely have twenty thousand men; but, as
for Kirby Smith and his sixty-five thousand,


we begin to believe, as was believed of a


certain Mrs. Harris on somewhat similar


occasion, that "there amt no such person" I"


Bragg and Johnston may have two-thirds


of their one hundred and fifty thousand
They cannot have more, and we are inclined
to doubt if they have so many. Allow even
for errors, and we do not believe that a
man over two hundred and fifty thousand
is available in the cOnfederacy at the pres
ent time, Tor the practical purposes of bat
tie.


Beyond question the largest single army
of the confederacy is now concentrated on
Rosecrans front. After all these months
of desutory combat elsewhere the two gov
ernments seem to accept that field, and in
dicate mutual disposition to Join the final
issue there But the manner in which the
two governments prepare for this great issue
differs. Davis & Go. see that the struggle |
there, if decided against the South must be
vital, and they prepare for it with all their
energies. Highly as they value Richmond,
they leave it covered with a fraction of the
force they have usually kept there, and send
the rest to Georgia. Hill was reported in
motion on the right of the army OF the Po-
tomac yesterday. His activity has no other
purpose than to divert attention from a
further reduction of Lees force. Long
streets divisions are good ones; but two of
them are not enough to turn Rosecrans
left. More have by this time gone, and
that is the significance Of Hills present
Mobile is also stripped of its
whilom defenders; and jenkins, with his
South Carolina men, is required 30 defend
Charleston on the Chickamauga river.


But movements at Chattanooga do not
threaten Washington, and the worst result
=. IoCo
ment can stand defeat, so it goes on in the
old way and takes its ease Once already,
by its neglect of all that it ought to do, and
its criminal interference with what it ought
to leave alone, the administration has
caused General Rosecrans movement to-
wards Atlanta to fail At present it looks
on quietly, and while the rebel army that
was in front of Richmond is sent elsewhere
it makes no effort whatever to take advan-
tage of the weakness in which Richmond is
thus left. October is suffered to 60 by
with the Army of the Potomac at rest in
the face of the fact that the three years
men will all be out of service before another
October comes. Mobile, undefended and
is left alone, and men and time
are frittered away in North Carolina with
out even the seizure OF the railrOauS ny
which we could in some degree control the



Unless there is change in this action OF
the War Department towards Gen. Rose
Grams we shall not only not succeed in our
attempt to crush the rebellion by great
blow at it's centre, but we shall hear Of de-
feat in Georgia again. General Rosecrans,
with one hundred and Fifty thousand men,
would go to Atlanta without battle, and
he ought to have that number now and be
at it. Preparations should now be on foot
for the seizure of Mobile, and the Army of
the Potomac should be in motion now to
try how thick shell the rebellion has in
front of Richmond, and to relieve Rosecrans
by the prevention of any fuuther reinforce
ment of Bragg from Lees army.


These are the movements that will give
us success, and none Others can. Let the
divisions and corps that are scattered in
Louisiana, Arkansas and elsewhere be add
ed to our large armies and they will be of
some service. Defeat Bragg, aud Kirby
Smith will not need to be beaten; but let
Bragg be successful and we lose all the i'm
mense advantages gained in this past victo