Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1885 — CORRECTLY STATED. [ARTICLE]

CORRECTLY STATED.

Chicago Times: The war articles in the latest issue of The Century are fully equal in interest to many of their predecessors. Like the others, they throw a vast amount of light on events which have hitherto been obscure, or have been distorted willfully and grossly by the partisanship which was so conspicuous during the|progress of the war, and which concerned itself far more with its own often infamous ends than with the interests of the nation.

The present, papers are by the the confederate, Imboden, and by the national commander, Fitz John Porter. They cover the operations of “Stonewall” Jackson in the Shenandoah valley in 1861-2, and the earliest of the seven days’ battles before Richmond, in the peninsular campaign conducted by General McClellan. In the operations oj Jackson, including th* capture of Harper’s Ferry, the showing is one which demonstrates how very much/jmo;e earnest, energetic, aud active the confederates were at the outset than were the nationalists. "Tud plans for the occupation of the Shenandoah valley and the capture of Harper’s Ferry were conceived a few hours before Virginia passed the ordinance of secession, and were carried into execution with a celerity that gave the Washington administration no time for protective measures.

The main interest of these war papers is to be found in the operations of “Stonewall” Jackson} by which he extricated himself from the Shenandoah valley, and reached the Chickahominy in time to assist in crushing the federal right, and thus saved Richmonfrom the attack of McClellan. In the spring of 1862, Jackson found himself in the Shnandoah va ley with thirteen thousand men, and hemmed in by four federal armies, commanded respectively by Milroy with ten thousand, Fremont with thirty thousand, Banks wjth some twelve thousand, and Shields with a sufficient number of men to make the total federal force about sixty-four thousand. McClellan’s plan was to hold Jacksou in the valley and move on and capture Richmond by way of the York river. “Had his subordinates been equal to the task,” says Imboden, “and had he not been interfered with from Washington, it is probable that the confederate army would have been driven out of Virginia, and Richmond captured by midsummer of 1862.” Had these four armies of sixty-four thousand men been able to capture Jackson with his thirteen thousand, then they, in connection with McDowell, with his army of forty thousand men at Fredericksburg, would have swept down on Richmond, where they would have united with McClellan, and wo’d have driven Lee out of Virginia, and secured possession of the confederate capital.

McClellan’s “subordinates were not equal to the task.” With his thirteen thousand men, Jackson struck the sixty-f >ur thous and of his opponents in detail, and whipped them without unusual effort. — And then, while Washington was in a tremor es apprehension from a fear that Jackson would swoop down on the national capital, that leader moved swiftly through the £aps of the Blue ridge, and joined iee in time to save him from anni.

hilation and to preserve the confederate capital from federal possession. Probably this movement r y which Jackson extricated£bimself from a force five times his own in number, and changed the pending confederate defeat before Richmond into a victory, was, in all essential respects, the most brilliant event of the war.. It is at this precise point in the operations in Virginia that were most clearly shown the inefficiency, tlie poltroonery, the mean jealousy of the Washington administration. When Jackson broke through the federal cordon, the authorities should have known the direction of his movement. They should have learned that Richmond and McClellan were his ol jective point, and they should have ordeied McDowell with his forty thousand men to move for Richmond. He was nearer the confederate capital at Fredericksburg than Jackson was wh n he broke through the federal cordon and issued from the Shenandoah through the defiles of the mountains, and it would have been very easy for him to have reached the federal position and assisted in the battles offMechanicsville and Gaines’ Mills. His assistance would have won those battles, and in all probability would have ended the war, at least in Virginia. In place of sending McDowell in this direction, the strategists in Washington were shaking in their boots over the belief that Jackson was advancing on the national capital. Hence they ordered McDowel to fall back to cover Washington against an enemy who was just then moving with incredible celerty in a direction exactly opposite that leading to Washington. McClellan’s movements against Richmond were predicated on the belief that sixty-four thousand federals could hold in check, and possibly capture Jackson, with his thirteen thousand men; and on the further belief that, as promised by til\ strategists in Washington, McDowell should advance and support him on his right. The imbecility and cowardice of the Washington s rategists frustrated all these essential features of his plan, with the result that the war was prolonged several years, and \tens of thousands of additional lives were sacrificed.

Probably the Washington coterie found one profound satisfaction in the result. Richmond was saved, the war was extended indefinitely, and McClellan was killed off as a presidential candidate, —all of which, there is every reason for believing, was exactly what was wanted by the pseudo patriots who were then manipulating the conduct of the war. At that particular period, and for some years later, one of the main objects of the war was not so much the subjugation of the southern revolt as the perpetuation in power of tne republican regime. The defeat of Lee and the capture of Richmond in June, 1862, wo’d have both ended the war and the party. It was deemed better to save the party and lose Richmond; hencs MeDowell was called to Washington, and McClellan was left to his fate.

A Pennsylvania exchange says: The ancient “fence law” enacted in the year 1700, whi h requires all fences about farms to be “horse high, bull strong and pig tigat,” was finally repealed by the assembled wisdom at Harrisburg last week. - □American consuls are strengthened in spirit since democracy came into power. ’ Mr. Mackay shot a demonstrative South American. This is the first time our government has been felt in foreign affairs for many years. Ross Winans, the Baltimore millionaire, shelled out to Mrs. Alice O’Keefe the snug little sum of $20,000 in settlement of her divorce suit. This didn’t suit her lawyer, who had nor the handling of the game.

NOTICE. —The agents we employ are not allowed to carry samples of Fruit in glass jars. Any one leaving their orders with “Turkey” Joe Sharp or Allen Catt, will receive prompt attention. J. B. Harris & Co., Proprietors of Home Nursery, located at Champaign, 111. Remember! that trees brought from Eastern Nurseries are not as well adapted to our soil as are those shipped from Illinois. Inquire into the standing of the Nursery of J. B. Harris & Co. Bela C. Kent, Gen. Agent