The moral courage of our Generals.
--We have every reason to believe that the
Generals of the Confederate armies are as great heroes morally as physically, and will never suffer themselves to be affected in their movements by the capricious gusts of uninformed public sentiment.
General Scott pronounced himself the greatest coward in the world, for permitting the
Northern popular to force him before he was ready to begin his march to
Richmond.
If he
had yielded to the outside pressure, he would have been not only a coward, but a traitor; for a General, entrusted with grave responsibilities cannot permit his own superior knowledge and judgment to be overruled by the dogmatism of ignorance and incompetency, without a criminally as great as would be involved in the actual surrender of his army to an enemy.
As great a coward as old
Scott may consider himself, he never, in reality.
suffered himself to be forced before he was ready into a conflict which the whole world looked to as the decisive battle of the war, and where the sun of his reputation was to shed an effulgence over his evening sky, which should eclipse all the glories of its rising, forever in darkness and storm.
We feel confident that our commanders on the
Potomac, men in the prime of life and energy, know at least as well as
Gen. Scott how much attention to pay to the clapping, stamping, whistling, and etherealizing which insist that the curtain shall rise and the play go on In all human probability, they know their own business; they know their own means of offence and defence; they are aware of a great many things that outsiders cannot know, and of all the people of the
South, they have the most powerful incentives to energy and wisdom.
The history of the war thus far has afforded repeated illustrations of the injustice and folly of immature and premature judgements of military movements by those who have no means of forming an intelligent opinion.
When
Gen. Johnston evacuated
Harper's Ferry, a thousand tongues were denouncing the movement; when he fell back upon
Winchester--‘"Ah, yes, always falling back!"’ was the doleful complaint at every street corner, and which was even uttered by his own soldiers in the camp.
If
Gen. Johnston had given an explanation of his movements, it might have defeated the very purpose for which they were made, and therefore he waited patiently and heroically till the grand developments of
Manassas silenced all complaints in the roar of its victorious cannon, and converted the querulous notes of fault finding into hosannas of praise and triumph.
We ought not so soon to forget these significant lessons.
What knowledge have civilians of the rules of war?
what data of any kind on which to form an opinion which any General, who is faithful to his trusts, ought to respect for a moment?
If a Lawyer were to permit any clodhopper to direct him what course to pursue in a difficult law suit, or a physician to adopt the suggestions of anybody and everybody in the patient's household, or a navigator to steer his ship according to the directions of the passengers, they could not be more unworthy their positions and recreant to their duty than the military leader who pays the slightest attention to the chatter and criticism outside the camp.
