The season.
We have rarely ever seen a season so well adapted to military operations as the present.
The weather is splendid, the air bracing, and the sun brilliant.
It is neither too hot nor too cold, but exactly tempered to the convenience of man and beast.
That our leaders will take advantage of it to complete our late victories, we do not doubt.
We have more than once had occasion to observe that September and October have been favorite months in American military annals.
In the first Revolution, the operations that ensured the capture of
Burgoyne and his army were begun in September.
The two battles which crippled his force were fought on the 7th and 19th of that month, and on the 17th of October he surrendered at
Saratoga.
Washington performed the long march which brought him from the banks of the
Hudson to those of the
York in September and October, and captured Cornwallis and his whole army on the 19th of October. The
battle of Brandywine was fought on the 11th of September, and on this very day (8th September)
Green fought the desperate battle of Entaw.
In the war of 1812, the battles of Lakes
Erie and Champlain were fought in September; the one Sept. 10th, 1813, the other Sept. 11th, 1814, both on Sunday.
Brown made his famous sortie from
Lake Erie on the 2d September, 1814. On the 12th of the same month the
British army was repulsed in its advance upon
Baltimore, and the next day the bombardment of
Fort McHenry took place.
On the 8th of September, 1847, our troops gained a victory in front of
Mexico, and on the 14th, (the anniversary of the entry of
Jerusalem by
Titus, and of the entry of
Moscow by
Napoleon,) they took possession of the city.
It is worthy of remark that the allies landed in the Crimes on the 14th September, 1854, and one year after, on the 8th of September, carried
Sebastopol by storm.
Our leaders, no doubt, keep these mighty events in their mind while they are preparing to add new trophies to those of which the month of September is already crowned.
Of all the events to which we have alluded, that of the capture of
Jerusalem was of course the most important.
It effected the entire overthrow of a people which God himself had selected, of all others, to be the repository of his law, and to whom, of all others, he had chosen to reveal himself as the God of the Universe.
It had been foretold sixteen hundred years before by the great
Jewish lawgiver, in terms so exact that his words read more like history than prophecy.
The Saviour of mankind himself had announced the consummation as near at hand, not more than forty years before.
It was intimately connected with the proofs which establish the truth of Revolution, and therefore affected the eternal welfare of mankind.
The entry into
Moscow was also of great significance.
It was the beginning of the end, so far as the fortunes of
Napoleon were concerned.--But should our army push its successes so far as to enter
Washington on the 14th, it will have accomplished a feat of far more memorable significance than any other of the events enumerated, save only the capture of
Jerusalem.
It will have put the finishing stroke to the boasted Union, that fabric reared by our fathers in good faith, as a temple of freedom, and converted by Yankee rascality into a den of robbers.
We confess to a slight touch of superstition — a very slight touch indeed.
We make the acknowledgment because we believe all men — how anxiously soever they may strive to conceal it — have more or less of the same weakness.
We
almost believe in lucky days, and have a very strong propensity to put faith in coincidences.
We will not say our troops will enter
Washington on the 14th; but if they should do so, would it not be curious?
