What the North Thiske of the war thus far.
The Cinclunati
Daily Commercial presents the following
coup d'ail of the military situation at the present moment.
It should serve to comfort impatient and desponding quidnunces:
"The man who has been most constant, energetic, and efficient in the work of converting the crude masses of volunteers into disciplined soldiers, and thus preparing in the camps for successes in the field, is
General McClellan, We do not claim, for him the exclusive credit of the marked and momentous improvement of our armies; but his has been the highest place, and there is no reasn to doubt that he has performed his duty.
Others of our military educators have performed their duty, but not on as wide a field, and not under the pressure of such tremendous responsibilities as have devoived upon him.
"Six months ago the three months men were disbanding in the face of the
Bull Run disaster; cowardly peace men lifting their voices in the
North; the department of Missouri in confusion,
Lyon dead, and the guerilas swarming over the
State;
Kentucky was reeling tinder the shock of secession victory and torn by the contentions between those whose doctrines were the teachings of
Clay and those who were the followers of
Calhoun; the city of
Washington was menaced by a powerful army, flushed with victory, and infuriated with the lust of conquest, and passion for revenge, and the blockade was far less efficient than it should be to strangle our enemies and command the respect of foreign powers.
Now, the safety of
Washington has become an old joke.
Our lines have been advanced from a defensive to an aggressive position, and the brief but destructive encounter at Drainsville has taught the enemy prudence in their manœdvres.
"The victories at
Hatteras and Port Rayal have closed to the enemy and opened to us the sounds and chanels of the
Carolina coast, tightening the blockade by securing in our power waters wonderfully adapted to smuggling.
Our forces at
Ship Island have cut off the rebel communication by water from
Mobile to New Orleans.
In
Missouri the rebels are no longer in force, except in the extreme southern counties of the
State, and their marauding bands are constantly shapped up by our movable columns.
We have an immense and well appointed army in
Kentucky, and the soil of than State has been a dark and bloody ground indeed to the rebels who have invaded it. In no considersble skirmish in that State have the rebels been auccessful, and their centre is broken by a splendid Union victory, which practically annihilates a whole division of their army.
The rebels have been entirely foiled in endeavoring to wrest
Western Virginia from the United States troops.
General Lee retired in despair from
Greenbrier, and
Gen. Floyd ran away from
Cotton Mountain.
Two rebel raids into
Eastern Kentucky have been met and repulsed, and at last accounts
Humphrey Marshall, and his discomfitted followers, utterly demoralized, were running through
Pound Gap.
An army of near twenty thousand men, under
General Lander, looks up the
Valley of Virginia toward
Winchester.
The gun-boat fleet at
Cairo is well advanced, and there will be no difficulty, presently, when
Gen Halleck pacifies
Missouri, in starting the long talked of
Mississippi expedition by land and river, in proportions commensurate with the conquests expected of it, On the
Western frontier, also, an expection that will be thirty thousand strong is being organized, with which it is designed to penetrate from
Kansas.
to the
Gulf, and leave no secessionism in its path.
And throughout the
North, from
Maine to
Minnesota, are tens of thousands of volunteers in camps of instruction, forming an immeuse reserve, ready to be poured along the rivers and railroads, and the seacoast, to repair any disaster or back up any advance.
