At the time Gen. Scott had command of the American forces he was heard to remark, that of all the Generals the one he most feared was General Impatience. The old chieftain knew that it would require weeks and months to get together a large army and discipline them sufficiently to carry out the plans he had matured in his mind; and he knew the impatient disposition of the American people, and that our Government was ignorant of the preparations it would require and the time it would necessarily consume, to collect and equip so large a force as the extend of the rebellion demanded for its suppression. Gen. Scott seems to have foreseen all this, and with the weight of years and bodily infirmity pressing upon him, he was unwilling to undertake a labor that would necessarily expose him to the taunts and reproaches of his countrymen. It came to pass as he had predicted, and one feeling of impatience at the long delay seems to have animated the people from the President down, with the exception of a few whose patriotism it were well to doubt.
Whether it were the expression given to this impatience, or that the plans so long projected were fully matured, certain it is that just at this time the Generals of the Federal forces began to move and their movement has been attended by several of the most decisive victories that the Government troops have yet obtained over the insurgents. The capture of Fort Henry was a brilliant achievement, and had it not been for the unfortunate accident that befell the Essex, would have been an almost bloodless one. Even the enemy confess to the strength and importance of this post, and so far as Tennessee is concerned, the traitor-leaders begin to despair of long maintaining a foothold there. The advance of the gun boats up the Tennessee river was a triumphal procession, everywhere they were received with manifestations of joy, old men wept, young men shouted and women hailed them as their deliverers from a worse thralldom than negro slavery itself. The fact was proclaimed, that Tennessee was virtually loyal, that the mass of her citizens but awaited the opportunity gladly to announce the allegiance, which in their hearts they had never disowned, to the Government that so long had protected them. This fact established and it but remains to the Government to see that the horde of vile demagogues that have so long polluted her soil, either leave it or be laid beneath it, that the stars and stripes again wave in their original beauty and authority over it.
Again, from the eastern shore of North Carolina comes the welcome intelligence of another great victory. The Burnside fleet, from which so much was originally expected, but for which so much latterly has been feared, has made an attack on one of the strongest and best manned points of the enemy, has defeated them with great loss and taken many of them prisoners. – But the best feature of this engagement, as well as that on the Tennessee river, and which as completely taken captive old General Impatience, is, that no sooner is one success achieved, than without stopping for the enemy to rally and reinforce, our Generals immediately follow in pursuit. Elizabeth City was the next point that fell before Burnside’s forces and Edenton, it will be seen, has shared the same fate. - In the West, no sooner is Fort Henry captured than gun boats advance on to Florence, Ala.; return from their bloodless conquest and forthwith start for the stronghold of Fort Donelson. Even from Port Royal, where the most hopeful had ceased to look for anything encouraging, the news received is flattering, and an advance on Savannah may soon be expected. The loyal heart would be better pleased were it Charleston, as every patriot in the land longs to see that city as are the ancient “cities of the plains.”
The next thirty days are big with the fate of the rebellion. A succession of Federal victories on the eve of the expiration of the time of the rebel soldiery, will so dishearten them that not one in ten will have the stamina to re-enlist, but will seek their homes and leave the heartless demagogues to conduct the war they themselves brought on the country. The vigorous measures adopted by the Government, the concerted attacks on so many points at the same time and unaware where the next blow may fall, will cause very many of the rebel soldiers when their time shall have expired, to leave the grand army and be in readiness to defend their own homes. The love of home – of the little spot where first we drew the breath of life, where the innocence of childhood invested every scene with a romantic beauty that never loses its freshness – glows brightly in every heart, though rough be the mould in which it is cast, or rude the world with which it has mingled. Not a rebel soldier but has a longing to return to his home, and of many an one of them it may be said:
“The touch of kindred too and love he fac’s,
The modest eye, whose beams on his alone
Ecstatic shine: the little strong embrace
Of prattling children, twined around his neck,
And emulous to please him, calling forth
The fond paternal soul.”
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, February 15, 1862, p. 2
