| Show mom from the V U S army and navy nty nry THE WAR operations OF THE YEAR the year thus far has seen less lega action in our armies than the first quarter of any of the foregoing years of the war this may be partially owing to the fact that the field of activity is now more limited limited than formerly that the forces of both belligerents are better concentrated and above all to the fact tact that the of small desultory and indecisive action is better understood now dow than ever before the two main armies of the union and the two main armies of the reb rebels is are each of them composed of stupendous masses of men and the principal of our minor armies act as operating cooperating co forces with the main bodies instead of independent expeditionary columns as formerly A large number of our battles and fights in other times were yere the result simply of the enterprise of one ne or other of the numerous commanders of ee se departments and armies and had little bearing upon the tho fundamental operations or the gracd issue of the war wan Genera general lBanks banks might fight in the valley general fremont in the mountains general birnside burnside near the ibe seaboard and ard half a dozen other generala generalda Gene Gener rals rala ils in tidewater virginia without any aby direct bearing upon the work of the army acay of the he potomac and without any operation cooperation co or unity of purpose so there were battles in missouri arkansas kentucky anc ant and tennessee which apparently patently ly had no other al aim m and certainly had no other effect than to show that our soldiers would fight with ceroc c spirit wherever there was a foe to confront them latterly circumstances have made such affairs of rare occurrence and now it as almost impossible that they should ever again take place we have now a single military head of all our torce force who it is understood freely controls one and both of our great armies armless together with all de sched military bodies and who will so operate the whole as to unify their purpose and produce adduce a comprehensive harmony of action K row kow ow now for the first time is the greatest effort of the nali nall naiona onla army possible and now fortunately we have both of our great a mies planted in positions where a victory for either of them worthy of the name must be largely decisive of the fate of the southern cy we have a superb position ac at ga and a victory over joe johns johanaton Joh naton daton toji choul though gh AS yet we are hardly prepared to take full advantage of it a victory such as some sons of general grants grevous pre ous ons triumphs and achieved at the proper moment would carry our western army to atlanta if not indeed to augusta and woul woula 1 make valueless all further rebel struggled les ivest west of the line h ne of the Siv savannah annah annab river so a again I 1 ain a victory over lees leea army now would b be a much more mor disastrous mitter to the confederacy e than it would have been at af any previous tini tim and that mainly be cause the productive capacity of the south as regards men is now exhausted were the lieutenant gereral Gei eral to break lees army as he broke bragga army at chattanooga it would never be itself again ic it might reform once more it is true on the south bank of the jamss janss or on the Ro roanoke antke and almost to t a surety it would for it would be an extraordinary circumstance were an army of such solidity and spirit to be totally demolished by one ong oo 00 bow b ow however great but its thinned d and reeling columns cou bouw nevermore stand full and strong as now dow and with the loss of their capital their spirit ii would ouid be more than mortal it it did not begin tj fail we take it that it is conclusively proved that tho whole able bodied population atlon of the south ia is now in their army as this appears not cot only by the unanimous assertion of persons from that section but is shown by the debates in the rebel congress and by the aston ding conscription raca laca measures bures adopted in thet body and everywhere rigidly enforced it is now nine months since the army of the potomac fought a general battle and that was on the soil ot of pennsylvania it is seven months since the western army marched into I 1 no t and the last battle for th the p possession of that stron stronghold hold bold was fought in nov noy ov em ember ber both armi armies es have done some work it since but it has been fruit fruitless les ies both of them are now stronger than at the time of their last trial and triumph and vve we judge that one of the two rebel armias that lee is stronger than it has baa been at gany any time since its last encounter the th season when the year years campaign must necessarily open isra is rapidly ap ap preaching ings and there is all likel likelihood ih d that it will be a very decisive deci siva Biva one for the enemy it aswell that the energies of our army and the lives of our men have not been wasted of late in ili small desultory and unproductive efforts at a christening 11 while the minister was making the certificate he forgot the date and happened to say let me see this is the thirtieth I 1 the exclaimed the indignant mother ind ceJ but its it only the eleventh it is a surprising proof of the spread of spiritualism that a sunday paper has been started in france professing to be the organ of bf this delusion delu sio it is published at bordeaux a and bears the presumptuous title of le saure same sw des journal du |
