Why was it?
There are so many things in the course of the war that need explanation, that Congress will have a great deal to do if it undertakes to investigate them.
The disasters of
Hatteras,
Fort Henry,
Roanoke Island, and
Fort Donelson, are all fit subjects for rigid scrutiny.
And we have just had
Fernandina and
Newbern added.
Here we have nothing but disaster, and the public mind has settled down to the conviction that, with proper forecaste and precaution every one of these sad and mortifying reverses could have been averted.
They present a catalogue of blunders and defaulte that would, under experienced military Governments, be fatal to all by whom they were committed.-- Feris improperly and fatally located and engineered; men isolated on indefensible positions, and in one case an alleged impregnable series of fortifications abandend to the enemy.
Capt. Dupont, the
Federal commander, considered the fortifications below
Fernandina very powerful — sufficient to have defended the place against an immense forse.
They were reported by judges on our side to be very strong, and predictions were made that the enemy, unless he brought an immense feet of frigates and gunboats to bear upon them, would be certainly repulsed whenever he assailed them.--Yet they were abandoned — not a gun was fired — and the enemy took quiet possession of some of the very best cannon we had !
Should these disasters, so painfully numerous, yet teach the controlling powers of this war to avoid similar sacrifices of men and means, not to continue efforts to defend indefensible points, and not throw away means on points it is not intended to defend — the sacrifices they have caused will prove to be no sacrifices, but among the last special providences for our ultimate good.
