Year: 1865

Regrets are vain for what is past but we cannot
help thinking that if the Oonfederacy now had the
fine armies that were frittered away and lost in the
Valley of Virginia under Early, and in the last Qux
otic campaign of Gen. Hood, it might make much
more successful Roadway against itSsnemies Not
less than thirty thousand men, with seventy pieces
of artillery, were sent to the Valley last summer
under Early. We could not see then, and We
cannot see nov that there was any pressing neces
sity for that campaign. Gen. Early pervaded the
entire Valley, fought number of battles, and,
after all, only checked the enemy with loss of
some twenty -one or two thousand of his army and
all his artillery. Only seven thousand of his com
mand, we believe, afterwards reported for duty to
Gen. Lee. That he was totally untitled for the
position assigned him seems now to be generally
conceded Even if he had been qualified for so i'm
portant command, his habits were such as to
cloud his brain and render his judgment unsteady
and unreliable. Twelve of the noblest of the
North Carolina regiments were nearly entirely
rifced in the Valley, and the State called upon
to mourn the loss of some of her best and braVest
officers Remonstrance after remoDstrance went
up to Richmond against continuing Gen. Early in
command, but they were not needed until it was
too late At length the remnant of that glorious
army of veterans returned to General Lee, and
the country saw and felt that more than twenty
thousand men had been sacrificed for naught while
the enemy elSted by the disasters which in that
quarter had attended our arms. The same is true
as to the i'll starred expedition of Gen. Hood. At the
very moment when Gen. Johnston had the army of
in q nd Of rrha ha
could strike an effective blow, he was suddenly re-
moved, Gen. Hood appointed to succeed him, and
movement commenced in the rear of Gen. Sherman,
the result of which was the generalization and loss
of as large army that of Gen. Early. Gen.
Johnston, in his mastery retreat, had more thor
oughly crippled the enemy and had killed more of
his men than Gen. Hood in all his subsequent cam
pasns including the battle of Atlanta; but the or.
der was to the rear leaving northern Georgia totally
unfotected in the vain hope that Sherman would
be e&ppeed to retrace his steps, and that at very
early periodic use the language of the President
in his Macon speech-the flag of the COnfederacy
would be "planted on the beautiful banks of the
OhioI" The result is before the country. Sher-
man swept through Georgia and marched ito the
sea, almost without opposition. If the army of
Early and the army Of Hood were now in existence,
and could be brought to bear on Sherman, or Grant,
or Sco6eld the most fortunate results might be ex-
pected from their operations. They would const
tute a force of veterans of sixty thousand men, a
number with which Napoleon frequently won bis
most important victories. But these noble veterans
now


"Sleep their last sleep-they have fought their


last battle,


No sound shall awake them to glory again."


Again, how many of our troops were sacrificed
in those useless and unw;se expeditions into Mary
land and Pennsylvania? Probably not less than
forty thousand One hundred thousand veterans
lost in movements from which no practical good
has resulted to the country land now the de-
mand is made for raw negro troops to supply their
places. Well may Gov. Brown fear that if a thor
ough reform should not be effected and that speed
ilY, in affairs, the result must be "reconstruc-
tion with or without subugation." But it is USE
less to dwell upon the mistakes and blundsrs of
the past. We wish we could find good grounds on
which to base hope for better management in the
future. Common sense seems TO be quality of
which many of our leading men are not possessed.
The wisest forecaste and the most prudent and en-
ergstic application of our resources as a people,
were indispensable to our success in this struggle
for independence A thorough statesman always
looks to a supply of food and clothing as of the
first importance in conducting military operations
and good General is uniformly careful of the lives
of his troops If the country is drained of its pop
ulstiou so as to cut off the production of surplus
supplies, and this population, when placed in the
army, is recklesSly or thoughtlessy sacrificed the
country thus receives blow from winch 1t is diff
cult if not impossible to recover during state of
Uar