Year: 1864




Between the way in which the rebel States
carry on the war and the way in which
it is carried on by our government. there has
always been great difference on many points,
but this difference has never been so great or
80 distinct as it is now. Hitherto the difference
has been on minor points, aud now it is on
vital one, and Is, moreover all in our favor
Within the past year we have learned to con-
centrate; and we have by the concentration of
troops into large masses delivered within that
time those really effective blows that have put
the rebellion where it is; and the rebel
government has within the same period prac
tised the widest dispersion of its forces


For some months past we have lent all our
energies and given our whole thought to the
prosecution of the war at two great points.
Grant has gone from the Rapidan to the rebel
capital, and, according to the rebel papers, has
been beaten at every step Of the way But no
has not been gobbled up ,or driven from his
position and to-day he threatens the very ex-
istence of the only army upon which
the rebel government can place the least
dependence. Since the lst of May last the rebel
General Lee has deliberately claimed to have
gained at least twenty victories over General
Grant; yet all these victories have not ena-
bled him to get rid Of General Grant and the
army with which General Grant keeps him go
inconvenicntly close in the Notifications of
his capital. And what is the RESULT Lees
twenty victories" have exhausted Lee. Grant
is as strong. as fresh, as Confident as deter
mined as ever Can Lee in the hour of ex
haustion have any hope to do what he could
not do in the hour Of his strength and vigor?
No, his hope is past he can never shake free
from the fatal hold with which Grant will, be-
yond all possibility, soon end the wonderful
struggle in Virginia. That immense issue is
safe in the hands of Grant, and it is the great
and defnitive one Of this war


Sherman has pursued an equally grand ca
reer in the West. He has encountered less
resistance than Grant, and has consequently
had an earlier success This success has given
us possession of the only city that the canfede-
racy, in case Of the loss of Richmond could
have rallied upon. Sherman's capture Of At
lanta has done fer the rebel confederacy just
what one Of the Kearsarge's balls was said
to have done for rebel midshipman on
the Alabama. It was reported that IN that
paval battle one of our shells hit midship-
man (Anderson), and it did not carry away
Mr.. Anderson's head, hand or foot, nor his
right arm. nor his left arm, nor his right leg
or left leg; but it carried all the rest of Mr..
Anderson except that left leg, which remained
on the deck, ready, it might be supposed, to
do what duty it was fit for. And just thus
Sherman has carried away all that was the
rebel confederacy, except that one member
on the James which still heroically holds its
place, but which must fall because II is not a
nation any moro than Mr.. Anderson's foot was
q man. Hood has recently made some queer
movements near to Sherman. not to get into
Tennessee, but to get into Atlanta. His efforts
are, however, pucrile and ridiculous, and will
end either in Hoods ruin or in nothing.


While we have thus waged war with purpose
and great effect on these two vital points,
what have the rebels done: They have
resisted US stubbornly on these two lines, but
they have not resisted us 50 stubbornly as
they might have done, because they have not
resisted us on these two lines with all their
force They have frittered their power avey
in unimportant places they have divided
their energy aud weakened it. They have
pursued still that ignis fat,us OF outside
assistance, absurdly imagining that it was
more important to make arguments for
Northern politicians and European agents
than to overthrow our armies in battle. This
policy tempted them to use men, with whom
-
Grant, in vain advances down the valley aud
raids into Maryland and Pennsylvania. Such
advances aud such raids made arguments for
the copperheads perhaps-and they enabled
rebel agents in Europe to say that the
United States had made no progress in the
war, and that the rebels were nearer
Washington in 1864 than they were in 1861.
In that way these rebel movements kept the
rebel loan up, and kept the copperheals up;
but they kept Grant up also.


At the present time Breckenridge is in East
Tennessee e--probably with not less than ten
thousand men. Price is in Missouri, with
twenty thousand men. There may be fifteen
thousandin Dick Taylor's army. Only few
days ago rebel force threatened Memphis;
there is considerable force in Canada en-
gagged in the organization Of raids, and on the
18th inst. Early had twenty-five thousand men
in tho Shenandoah valley. Here are from
seventy to seventy-fve thousand men. Had
this force been added to Johnston's army,
Sherman could not have taken Atlanta, and
we should have been beaten in the West. But
the rebel government relinquished a
great object like that merely to scatter the
war over wide territory in vain attempt to
flank us out Of the fame Of our great successes,
and to affect the Northern elections. But
Early has been annihlated in the valley;
Price was badly beaten on Sunday last, and
Taylor and Breckinrdge, though they may be