Progress of the War.
The Fourth of July among the Traitors at Norfolk — companies formed and tendered to the Yankees — Subscriptions for the families.
The
Norfolk correspondent of the Baltimore
American, writing on the 4th ult, gives an account of a meeting of the
Union Leagues of
Norfolk and
Portsmouth, held at 8 ½ o'clock that morning, in accordance with a notice given them by the Union League Central Committee.
We give the proceedings in full, including a Yankee writer's eulogiums upon the speakers and participators
The meeting was called to order by
the Hon. L. H. Chandler, who nominated
Robert Butt,
Esq., of
Portsmouth, as temporary
President, and
John Melton,
Esq., as
Secretary.
These gentlemen having taken their seats, on motion of
George B. Fitzgerald,
Esq., the Chair appointed the following committee to nominate officers for the meeting:
Messrs. George B. Fitzgerald,
James Green,
Daniel Whitchead,
John Melton and
Michael Johnson; who, after a brief absence, submitted the following ticket, which was unanimously elected;
President, Robert Bull,
Esq.,
Portsmouth; 1st
Vice President, Peter H. Whitehurst,
Esq.,
Norfolk; 2d
Vice-President, Thomas M. Brown,
Esq.,
Norfolk; Recording
Secretary,
Judson Bottomore,
Portsmouth;
Treasurer, Robert Kewen,
Norfolk.
The President, in returning thanks for the honor so unexpectedly and unworthily conferred upon him, spoke in language of burning eloquence concerning the present critical condition of his beloved country, imploring his fellow citizens that, whatever others might do elsewhere, they at least would set an example worthy of all ages to follow.
His facetious anecdotal allusion to the "junk shop, old rope, and pickled cabbage," was truly humorous and irresistible.
I would give it here, but have not space; but suffice it to say it elicited roars of laughter and thunders of applause, our highly esteemed
Attorney General,
Thos. Russell Bowden,
Esq., being particularly amused.
On motion of
Thomas R. Bowden,
Esq., the following resolution was unanimously adopted:
‘
Resolved, That in the present critical condition of our beloved country it behooves every true, patriotic, loyal man to contribute his aid and uncompromising support in one way or another towards defending, upholding, and restoring the
Union; that animated by the spirit which impelled our revolutionary fathers, we at once proceed without further delay to the organizing of volunteer battalion, to be composed of citizens of
Norfolk,
Portsmouth, and vicinity, whose services shall be immediately tendered for the common defence of our beloved though imperilled Union.
Mr. Bowden, in eloquently supporting the resolution, was followed by
Thos. M. Brown,
Esq., in an argumentative and eloquent, though brief, speech, his manly and graceful form harmonizing with the patriotism beaming from his noble countenance, inspiring his hearers with the proper sentiments and feelings of true
Americans.
’
On motion of
John H. Berum,
Esq., the Chair was requested to invite persons to come forward and enroll their names for the four companies to constitute the battalion.
In the incredible short space of thirty eight minutes four hundred and twenty five names were obtained.
At this stage of the proceedings, the utmost enthusiasm prevailing,
James Green,
Esq., with his proverbial munificence, came forward and gave a check on the Bank of Virginia for $1,000, to be appropriated to the support of the families of those members least able to leave home for any given length of time.
This announcement was received with over whelming applause, the noble example being followed by the subjoined contributions.
with many others from fifty to five dollars greater of $6,750, thus showing that if our Union brethren have recently been successful in business, they know how and when to properly appropriate a liberal portion of the profit, and patriotically have they done so in this instance, and posterity will bless them for the good deed.
I have attended many meetings, but never have I witnessed such unbounded enthusiasm as was indicated at this.
The following is the list:
James Green,
Esq. $1,000; His Honor, May or Wm B
Brooks, $500; P H
Whitehurst, $500;
Dr. D W
Todd.
$300,
Dr. Z
Sykes, $200, Wm A Mehagen, $200;
John Belote, $150; L W
Webb, $225;
Joseph Bunkley, $170;
Samuel Frost, $200; John T
Daniels, $280,
Frank Zautzinger, $200;
Hon Charles H
Whitehurst, $100;
Thos M
Brown, $200; John H
Borum, $300; R B
Lovitt; $200; D C
Crowell, $200;
Asa Jennings, $150; George R
Fitzgerald, $200; George P
Kneller, $100; L Waterfield, $150;
Robert Kewen, $200;
Magee &
Freeman, $200;
Peter Dilwock, two hogsheads tobacco, proceeds to be applied.
What is more, the greater part was paid immediately or checked for.
The meeting then proceeded to the election of company officers resulting as follows:
- Company A.--Capt Peter H Whitehurst, 1st Lieut Geo B Fitzgerald, 2d Lieut Robt Butt, 1st Orderly Sergeant R B Lovitt, 2d Orderly Sergeant Daniel Whitchead.
- Company B.--Capt L W Webb, 1st Lieut Jno H Borum, 2d Lieut C Saunders, 1st Orderly Sergeant Jos Bunkley, 2d Orderly Sergeant Frank Zantzinger.
- Company C.--Capt Peter Dilworth, 1st Lieut John T Daniels, 2d Lieut Jas Belote, 1st Orderly Sergeant Wm Hodges, 2d Orderly Sergeant Robt Kewen.
- Company D.--Capt Samuel Frost, 1st Lieut Geo P Kueller, 2d Lieut Thos P Crowell, 1st Orderly Sergeant D C Crowell, 2d Orderly Sergeant Edward C Doming, Quartermaster Edward M Keer, Surgeon Doctor D W Tod. Assistant Surgeon Doctor Z Sykes.
James Green,
Esq., was unanimously elected
Major.
This was an excellent choice, as were all the rest.
Mr. Green is grandson of
Geo. Nathaniel Green, of Revolutionary fame.
Dr. Tod is brother of
Governor Tod, of
Ohio;
Dr. Sykee first cousin of
General Sykee, of the United States Army; so you see patriotism is well represented in this little group.
The meeting adjourned over to Monday next, at 4 P. M., same place, in order to join in the celebration of this glorious day, the Fourth of July.
The procession is just passing the
Hall, preceded by the splendid band from
Fortress Monroe, followed by a large platform on six wheels.
beautifully painted
red,
white and
blue, and drawn by six milk-white horses.
This vehicle contained thirty-three fair young maidens, members of the
Butte Street Virginia Classical Institute, conducted by three accomplished and refined gentlemen,
Messrs. Cohen and
Tyler, A. M. Each maiden, dressed in a robe of pure white, had a brilliant golden star in the centre of her forehead, and bearing in her right hand the glorious Star Spangled Banner, which was gracefully waved as the procession moved up the main avenue of the city toward the
Fair Grounds, where Edward A Mosely,
Esq., and
H. W. Mills,
Esq., the orators of the day, addressed the large assemblage.
The 173d Pennsylvania regiment constituted the military escort, and made an imposing appearance.
I regret to say that such was the concussion of the guns fired early this morning in honor of the day a great number of window glasses in the lower part of the city were broken.
A splendid flag, 16 by 30, is now floating from the
Methodist African Church, Butte street, presented by
P. H. Whitehurst,
Esq., who gives a ball to-night in his beautiful mansion, formerly owned by
Commodore James Barron.
All the military dignities of the place are invited.
Lets Army must be caused — no Headway against the rebellion until that is down
The New York
Times thinks the "one supreme necessity" of this war is the destruction of
Lee's army.
Its history has been "mainly cord of success — invariably so when it acted on the defensive." The
Times continues:
It has stood like a wall of fire between us and the rebel capital; and to day we are just as far from that point as when two years ago last week we fled back from
Bull Run.
On the
Chickahominy, at
Fredericksburg, at
Chancellorsville, and on scores of minor fields, enough of patriotic blood has been need to make a river, and yet in vain.
The same tremendous foe to-day confronts us. The most we have done has been to cheek it — when it, in turn, become the invader.
By the most corporate fighting we succeeded in harting it back at and at
Gettysburg, but in neither of these did we do anything more than best it back.
We did not disable it; we did not even cripple it. We broke down no part of its organization.
We did not even deprive it of any of its artillery, or any important portion of its material of any kind.
Its only loss on both occasions was a loss of strength; and as this was repaired after the
battle of Antietam by new accessions, so the same thing will quickly follow upon the
battle of Gettysburg.
Other armies will be depilated, if need be, to bring up this old giant champion to his old strength.
We may as well accept it at once as a fixed fact that, whatever also has to be sacrificed, the rebel Government will keep up its Army of Virginia to the almost possible efficiency; that it will make that army its forlorn hope, as it always has made is its main bulwark; and that on the fate of that army hangs the fate of the rebellion.
The gravest mistake in our military management thus far has been that this rebel Army of Virginia has been confronted by an army of only about the same magnitude, or, at least, of no such preponderance as was necessary, considering that the proper
role of the latter was attack, and that of the former only defence.
An army operating in a hostile country, against an enemy having all the facilities lines necessarily labors under great disadvantage; and this can be counterbalanced only by a proportionate superiority in numerical strength.
The Army of the Potomac has never had any such superiority.
However true it may be that its generalship has been often very faulty, still the main cause of its failures has been its insufficiency of force for the work in hand.--From the outset, the true policy has been to approach
Richmond simultaneously from different directions, so as to compel
Lee to divide his army, and expose each fraction of it to a largely superior force.
As it is, he has always been able to pit his army as a unit against us; and, with the consummate skill with which he has handled it, the wonder rather is that on the whole we have held our own so well than that we have not overrun
Virginia, as was first anticipated.
The first object of
Lee's army is undoubtedly the defence of
Richmond.
But it does not necessarily follow that the first object of the Army of the Potomac should be the capture of
Richmond.
If
Lee's army fails, so does
Richmond; but
Richmond may fall and leave
Lee's army still as formidable as ever.
The Confederacy can give up the one and yet be a great military power; but to loose the other is death inevitable and immediate.
Too much importance has been attached to local conquests.
These of course have their value, but a secondary value only.
Just as far as they can serve as footholds from which the rebel armies can be more effectually assailed, just so far are they to be prized.
They are to be estimated solely by a military standard; not at all by territorial measurements.
The Confederacy has no geographical entity.
It is but the shadow of military power.
Strike down that power, and itself at once disappears.
But this power lies in, the armies and nowhere else.
The first duty, therefore — we may say, in fact, the only duty; for that done, all is done — is to destroy the armies.
And as
Lee's army is now almost the only one of any considerable power existing in the
Confederacy, it is the duty of our Government to make, now and henceforth, the destruction of that army its one great purpose.
There is but one way to secure this, and that is the
concentration of overwhelming forces into Virginia. Our recent successes in the
South weet have released from active service an immense number of veteran soldiers.
Probably it would not be too much to say that from the armies of
Grant, Banke, and Rosecan, sixty thousand men could be spared, and yet leave forces amply large enough to meet all the troops that could be mastered against them by the rebels in that quarter of the country.
With the aid of the rapidly multiplying negro regiments, whose fighting qualities are now universally acknowledged, it would seem that there could be no question of this ability.
of the
Western soldiers — some thirty or forty regiments there made up of Eastern man — thus to be thrown, by the
Knoxville road, through
Eastern Tennessee and
Western Virginia, upon
Lee's flank, and were the old Army of the Potomac at an early day to be reinforced up to its proper standard by the new draft, it would be physically impossible for
Lee to hold out for any long period.
Of course he, too, would be to some extent reinforced, as he has been already since the
battle of Gettysburg.
But the forces and the resources of the
Confederacy are now too much reduced to admit of any such contribution to its favorite army as thus lies in our power, in respect to the Army of the Potomac.
Undoubtedly.
Jeff Davis will strain every energy to the utmost to keep up the efficiency of
Lee's command, for he knows that his fate depends upon it. But our own Government has to put forth only limited measure of the same energy to insure the completes breaking up of that command and with it the instantaneous and absolute collapse of the
Confederacy.
