William Boynton, Sherman's Historical Raid

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The General-in-Chief of the armies of the Confederacy has capitulated, and his army, the largest and finest within our country, is irretrievably lost.

The soldiers have been dispersed and remain at home as paroled prisoners.

The artillery, arms, and munitions of war are lost, and no help can be expected from Virginia, which is at the mercy of the conqueror.

The army next in numbers and efficiency is known as the Army of Tennessee, and is commanded by Generals Johnston and Beauregard.

Its rolls call for more than seventy thousand men. Its last returns show a total present for duty, of all arms, of less than twenty thousand men. This number is daily diminishing by desertions and casualties. In a recent conference with the Cabinet at Greensboro Generals Johnston and Beauregard expressed the unqualified opinion that it was not in their power to resist Sherman's advance, and that as fast as their army retreated, the soldiers of the several States on the line of retreat would abandon the army and go home.

We also hear on all sides, and from citizens well acquainted with public opinion, that the State of North Carolina will not consent to continue the struggle after our armies shall have withdrawn further south, and this withdrawal is inevitable if hostilities are resumed.

This action of North Carolina would render it impossible for Virginia to maintain her position in the Confederacy, even if her people were unanimous in their desire to continue the contest.

In the more southern States we have no army except the forces now defending Mobile and the cavalry under General Forrest. The enemy are so far superior in numbers that they have occupied within the last few weeks Selma, Montgomery, Columbus, and Macon, and could continue their career of devastation through Georgia and Alabama without our being able to prevent it by any forces now at our disposal.

It is believed that we could not at the present moment gather together an army of thirty thousand men by a concentration of all our forces east of the Mississippi River.

Our sea-coast is in possession of the enemy, and we can not obtain arms and munitions — from abroad except in very small quantities and by precarious and uncertain means of transportation.

We have lost possession in Virginia and North Carolina of our chief resources for the supply of powder and lead.

We can obtain no aid from the Trans-Mississippi Department, from which we are cut off by the fleets of gun-boats that patrol the river.

We have not a supply of arms sufficient for putting into the field even ten thousand additional men, if the men themselves were forthcoming.

The Confederacy is, in a word, unable to continue the war by armies in the field, and the struggle can no longer be maintained in any other manner than by a guerrilla or partisan warfare. Such a warfare is not, in my opinion, desirable, nor does it promise any-useful result. It would entail far more suffering on our own people than it would cause damage to the enemy; and