A failure.
--We hear that there are some eminent martial men, at present in civil life, who have no hesitation in expressing their opinion that the military operations of the
Southern Generals have, thus far, been a failure.
These distinguished military volcanoes have let off a good deal of excoriating lava since the war commenced.
Vesuvius, in full blast, has become a mere tea-kettle to the wrath and noise of their eruptions.
They have never been able to approve a single movement that
Johnston,
Beauregard, or
Magruder, have made.
Nothing but an excess of magnanimity has prevented them from extinguishing the
Generals aforesaid, by proceeding to the seat of war and taking command of the army themselves.
It is believed, however, that unless
Johnston,
Beauregard & Co., do better, and make their winter quarters in the North Pole, these warlike lights, which are at present under a bushel, will transfer themselves at once to
Manassas.
They will not have the slightest hesitation in doing so, in the event that Prince Sa-am Sa-am supersedes
General McClellan.
Probably the Prince Sa-am Sa-am has no equal this side of Hindustan except these masked batteries in private life, who are waiting for him to come over.
We therefore advise, invoke, and exhort, the said
Johnston,
Beauregard and
Magruder, to disperse the enemy forthwith, or else disperse to their own respective places of abode.
If they do not capture
Washington forthwith, and annex
Pennsylvania and New York to the Southern Confederacy before
Christmas, let them give place to those who will.
For ourselves, being profoundly ignorant of the science of war, we are not able to gaze into a mill-stone with the piercing vision of those war-hawks who are looking down contemptuously from the peaceful roosts of private life upon the camp and battle-field.
We are not able to see that the military operations of our
Generals have been a failure.
We can see that the military operations of the
North have failed, because they undertook to capture
Richmond by the 20th July, and they are no nearer the object now than they were when they first crossed the
Potomac.
But have the
Southern Generals undertaken to do what they have not accomplished?
They undertook to defend the
South from subjugation.
Have they failed in that?
They undertook to hold and maintain a line of defence which would render the capital of
Virginia secure.
Have they failed in that?
They undertook to hold the important key of
Manassas, and has that been wrested from their hands?
They never did undertake to capture the city of
Washington, or to do more than compel the enemy to ‘"let us alone,"’ to prevent them from striking a fatal blow at our independence, and from bringing us under the dominion of
Lincoln.
Have they failed in that?
A failure!
Was
Bethel a failure?
Was
Bull Run a failure?
Was the
battle of Manassas a failure?
Were Carnifax Ferry and
Greenbrier River failures?
Was
Leesburg a failure?
Is the possession of
Norfolk and its immense Navy-Yard a failure?
Look back at the hour when the
Pawnee was expected to come up the
James River, and could have come up without passing one fortification; when the
York River had not a gun upon it: when five hundred men was the extent of our force on the
Peninsula, and fifteen hundred the whole army at
Manassas; when there was not one solitary cannon on the
Potomac.
Look at those places now, bristling with enormous camps and the most formidable artillery, so powerfully manned and defended that in every attempt made upon them by the enemy he has been scattered like chaff before the tempest, and call all that a failure!
One of the most quiet and effective operations of the war, the blockading of the
Potomac, is a curious kind of failure.
In our untutored judgment nothing could have been more creditable and successful than the manner in which that failure was accomplished.--It was a work of tremendous labor, and which occupied months, and had to be performed almost in the presence of a vast fleet of the enemy; yet it was conducted with such discretion and silence that the enemy knew nothing of it till the batteries were unmasked, and the principal avenue to his capital was blockaded.
A failure!
Look at
Virginia when the
Pawnee was expected up the
James, and when
Jackson fell at
Alexandria, and look at it now, and call the summer campaign a failure!