Beginning Of The End

The Rebels cannot stand many more defeats, retreats and evacuations – they have very few gunboats left to destroy – very few forts to be defended, very few cities or ports for us to take, and very few safe places to retreat to with their deluded, dispirited, half clothed and half fed armies.  Without resources, without credit, without money, with a limited supply of arms and ammunition and no hope of getting more, the leaders of the rebellion are in great straits, only sustained in prosecuting their infernal plot by their malice and hatred.  But their devilish passions cannot serve them long.  The Rebellion is, it seems to us, pretty nearly played out.  After they are fairly whipped, if they behave themselves decently and submit to the authority of the Constitution and laws, it will be the best thing they can do – showing that they have come into the possession of their senses again.  But if they persist in continuing a hopeless contest, it will result in the total devastation of the seceded States and the Abolition of Slavery.  We shall see what they will do.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 17, 1862, p. 1