The Daily Dispatch: February 17, 1865., [Electronic resource]

The New York Times, conducted by the greatest military strategist now in civil life, glorifies Grant's only exhibition of activity during the winter,--his late unsuccessful dash at the Southside railroad,--as showing that he does not permit any "winter quarters," and gives his enemy no opportunity of recreation.

With the exception of this solitary movement, we should like to know what single move that miracle of human energy has made during this whole winter which entitles him to be looked upon as an American Napoleon. With a tremendous army at his command, with ports open for unlimited supplies of men, provisions, and all the appliances of war, with his enemy within musket shot, he has once put his head partially out of his shell, and then, having received a good thump on it, subsides into quiescence. But this is enough for Yankee-Doodle, Doo. Hurrah for the General that has broken up the old system of "Winter Quarters"! A Napoleon of the New World.

We need not inform our readers that the first man; in modern warfare, who, on a grand scale, broke up this old system of winter quarters was Napoleon the Great, though Pichegru, during the campaign in Holland, is said to have been the first to set the example of disregarding the calendar. Other Generals had been in the habit of making their appearance, like the birds, in the genial days of spring, and disappearing with the first cold weather of autumn. To show what disregard of "winter quarters," in the practice of Napoleon, meant, we have only to go back to the operations which preceded the peace of Tilsit. He had previously shown, in Italy and in the battle of Austerlitz, that the frosts of winter had as little power to paralyze his energies as the burning sands of Egypt. On the 25th of November, a season of the year when Federal Generals (in a climate where there can be said to be no winter) compose themselves and their armies for a six months hibernation, Napoleon left Berlin, and on the 28th his vanguard entered Warsaw, the Russians recrossing the Vistula as he advanced. The troops marched frequently in roads knee-deep with mud and water, suffered severely for want of provisions and shelter, and were, many of them, without shoes. Nevertheless, they only needed to be near the Emperor to forget their fatigues and sorrows, and begged earnestly to be led to the conflict. It was on the 6th of December that Ney crossed the Vistula, obstructed by ice, dispersed a body of Prussians in his front, and in three days was followed by the whole army. The country which the French now traversed was covered with woods and intersected by ravines, and the reads filled at that time with mud, to the depth of three or four feet, from a recent thaw. Nevertheless, in such a country, the French and Russians fought a severe battle on the 28th of December, in which each side lost about eight thousand men in killed and wounded. The execution of Napoleon's manœuvres between that period and the 7th of January was necessarily such as to impose the utmost hardships upon his troops. Some idea of the severity of their sufferings may be gathered from the fact, that even the Russians, inured as they were to the intense cold of northern latitudes and to the most miserable fare, were reduced to such a state of frenzy that, unable to endure the agonies of the campaign, they vehemently demanded that their General would lead them to battle or turn their march homewards. The General accepted the former demand, and having retreated with great loss, closely pursued by the French, arrived on the 6th of February at a position where he resolved to try the fortune of a general engagement. On the 7th occurred the great winter battle of Preuss-Eylau, over a country glittering with snow and frozen lakes, and during a violent storm, which drove with piercing cold the snow-drifts through the air. Through that trying winter, in a region terrible for the rigor of its climate, the French were marching and fighting as if no such season as winter existed. Spring found them where winter had left them — in the field — and summer brought forth the harvest which they had planted under the snows. On the 27th of July, Napoleon reaped the fruits of his indomitable energy in the peace of Tilsit.

We dare say that Grant, a respectable soldier, and familiar with military history, indulges no particular gratitude towards those flunkeys of the Northern press who, because, in this so- called winter, in a genial climate, he has made one little fight, are making a grand fuss over him as the General who knows no "winter quarters." If he knows anything else he has been very chary in communicating his knowledge to the world. Will these people never become tired of making themselves asses? Why will they not be content to wear the lion's skin, instead of keeping up that unmistakable bray which discloses their true character?