Lee does not follow up his blows on the whipped enemy, and
some sage critics censure him for it. But he knows that the fatal blow has been
dealt this “grand army” of the North. The serpent has been killed, though its
tail still exhibits some spasmodic motions. It will die, so far as the
Peninsula is concerned, after sunset, or when it thunders.
The commanding general neither sleeps nor slumbers. Already
the process of reorganizing Jackson's corps has been commenced for a blow at or
near the enemy's capital Let Lincoln beware the hour of retribution.
The enemy's losses in the seven days' battles around
Richmond, in killed, wounded, sick, and desertions, are estimated at 50,000
men, and their losses in cannon, stores, etc., at some $50,000,000. Their own
papers say the work is to be begun anew, and subjugation is put off six months,
which is equivalent to a loss of $500,000,000 inflicted by Lee's victory.
By their emancipation and confiscation measures, the Yankees
have made this a war of extermination, and added new zeal and resolution to our
brave defenders. All hope of a reconstruction of the Union is relinquished by
the few, comparatively, in the South, who still clung to the delusion. It is
well. If the enemy had pursued a different course we should never have had the
same unanimity. If they had made war only on men in arms, and spared private
property, according to the usages of civilized nations, there would, at least,
have been a neutral party in the South, and never the same energy and
determination to contest the last inch of soil with the cruel invader. Now they
will find that 3,000,000 of troops cannot subjugate us, and if subjugated, that
a standing army of half a million would be reipaired to keep us in subjection.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 141-2
No comments:
Post a Comment