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THE COUNTRYMAN.
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TURN WOLD, GA., JANIA KY 10, 1865.
Sherman.
“ Sherman despatches from Ossabaw
Sound, on the 14th, claiming a perfect
success. He says the inarch was very
agreeable, and uninterrupted by gueiTil
das. His army was in fine spirits, and had
captured a great number of negroes,
mules, and horses, and destroyed a large
amount of provisions. He considered Sa
vannah as already gained.”
W e find, in our exchanges, the above
telegram from Richmond. This is what
Sherman says of his “retreat”—it was
“very agreeable.” Pr. Davis said it would
be more disastrous than Bonaparte’s re
treat from Moscow. Both parties are
wrong. The truth probably lies between
them, but nearer to Sherman than to
Davis.
Well, Sherman has marched through
Georgia from one end to the other ; and
though we have no idea his march was
half so “agreeable” as he represents it, yet
he has gone through, comparatively unin
jured—hardly receiving a scratch. This
should mantle with the blush of shame
the cheek of every Georgian, and every
Confederate. „W e » for one, leel deeply
mortified—humbled—chagrined—even de
graded. It is a bitter draught we have
had to. quaff; and yet God pressed the
chalice to bur lips. We must accept the
lesson which he has taught us.
That we are subjugated by Sherman, it
is all folly to acknowledge, or to think.
What effect his march through our state
will have, remains to be seen. The effects
of that march will not be half so di-as~
trous as many of our people seem to think.
Our cause is not lost. Our army and our
people will rally again. Let us have faith
in God, and if we cannot help our country,
any, at this time, let us not injure her by
unmanly despondency.
Skins and .Subscribers Wanted.—We
call the especial attention of our readers to
the advertisements of Mr. J. A. Turner,
editor of The Countryman, to be found in
another column. He gives every man in
Georgia a chance to get a hat; and what
is more clever, he gives us Georgia editors
a liberal chance for a hat. Brother Tur
ner will please send ours forward, as soon
as possible. Our size is 7}. This, bro
ther T., is our measure, and you can just
send the hat along, at your earliest conve
nience, for we are among the ‘hatless.’
Badinage aside, we would say to our
readers, that they all ought to take The
Countryman. Ii is just the paper for the
country gentleman ; and, in tact, every
body who wishes to read an excellent pa
per. printed in neat style, and in a form
fit. for binding, and preservation. Price,
$20.0Q pvr aqnum.—La.Grunge Reporter.
The Work of Subjugation.—“We
commend the following article, which we
clip from the New York News, to the at
tentive perusal of any of our people, who
may he afflicted with weakness in the
knees;
Some of our cotemporaries do us injus-
tice, in stating that we have made our re
views of the progress of the war, in dis
paragement of the f< deral generals. The
survey's we make, from time to time, of
the scene of conflict, we make as matters
of fact, but do so regardless of all person
al predilection, in profound respect, and
sympathy for the anxiety with which our
readers follow the fortunes of armies, in
which their whole hearts are bound up.
So completely, indeed, is the statement,
of the opposition journals unfounded, that
we have been led, frequently, in our re
views of the conflict, to pass high encomi
ums on the dash, and genius of Farragut,
and Sherman.
The state of the conflict is, however, of
more moment, than any newspaper mis
representation. Some of our cotempora
ries, in condemning our plain statement
of facts, would have the public believe
that the subjugation of the south is mak
ing rapid progress. Let us examine in
to the truth of that allegation. Last
spring, the federal troops lorded it on the
Rio Grande, and the shores of Texas.
Those lines of invas’on are strangers to
their footsteps now. In the beginning of
this year’s campaign, Gen. Banks had to
go to the head of navigation, on the Red
River, to find the confederates. He can
find them, today, within a few days’
march of New Orleans. Steele 'had to
move, last spring, one hundred and twen
ty miles to the southward of Little Rock,
in order to find southern soldiers—and, at
this moment, they swarm as thick as lo
custs, ail aiound that city, despotism
in Missouri, cut throats, six months ago,
with no one to make it afraid ; and only
two weeks ago, an army of twenty-eight
thousand confederates sat eating the good
things of the land, in perfect safety, un
der its very nose. That great force is
even now manoeuvring, with the view of
making a sudden dash, from the luxuriant
valley of the Osage, upon either the po
litical, or commercial capital of that great
state. Texas is gone—Louisiana is gone
— Arkansas is gone—and while all this
has happened, within six months, we are
asked by the Herald, and other city jour
nals, to believe that the conquest of the
South is making rapid progress!
In March, central Mississippi was un
der the heel of SGerman’s advance to the
Tombigbee. Today, the troops of the
confederacy sweep up, undisturbed, to al
most the guns that defend the rear of
Vicksburg. Northern Mississippi has
passed, within six months, from the do
minion of troops, under Dodge, or Hurl-
but, to-that of the confederate horsemen,
under Chalmers. Western Tennessee,
and even the Kentucky part of the penin
sula, lying between the Tennessee, and
the Mississippi, know no sway, outside
Paducah, Columbus, and Memphis, save
that of General Forrest. The Memphis
and Charleston railroad has gone back to
the confederates. Corinth has, within
six months, changed hands, and is now a
point of supply for the army of General
Hood. Tuscumbia has gone back to its
owners, and all of Alabama, south of the
Tennessee, with the exception of, perhaps,
the post at Decatur, has reverted to its
rightful state sovereignty. Immense re
gions that had been held, last spring, in
Mississippi, in Tennessee, in Alabama, are
thus seen to have been wrested from the
hands of subjugation, and placed under
contribution of men, horses, and supplies,
in the, interest of successful resistance.
In Georgia, the work of subjugation
has met with a peculiar undoing. A line
of upward ot a hundred miles, won at a
fearful cost of life, and limb, had brought
Sherman into a village of Georgia, the
‘ city ’ of Atlanta. We were told that ho
had 1 broken the backbone of the rebel
lion,’ when suddenly, his triumphant ar
my, pausing in its vain work, is flung
back, by a mere exercise of will, a hun
dred and fifty milts, to begin the strug
gle once more in the neighborhood of
Tennessee. Flood’s army was at Dalton,
last April; but ft is now a hundred and
twenty miles further north. Horsemen of
the confederate service, are as thick as
leaves in the woods of Kentucky, and
threaten to make that state, which has
heretofore been exempt from war, a scene
of battle. And thus has invasion gone
back from the heart of Georgia, not only
to the Tennessee, in fact, but, in prospect,
to the Ohio.
Eastern Tennessee we held, last spring,
as far as the line of Virginia. The confede
rate troops find, now, no one to oppose
them within even two, or three days’
march of Knoxvilte. In the Valley of
Virginia, Hunter, a few months ago,
swept everything before him, to the works
covering Lynchburg; but, today, Early
is tramping down toward the Potomac,
with Sheridan falling back before him to
ward Harper’s Ferry. In May, last, the
federal army held the country between
the Rapidan, and the Potomac. Today,
the abandonment of the railway between
Alexandria, and Manassas Gap, has placed
it under the undisputed command of the
confederates. About five hundred square
miles, on the banks of the James river,
constitute accessions of territory, by the
invasion of Virginia, but, in the Valley,
and north of. the Rapidan, the losses of
the last few months, amount to four, or
five thousand square miles.
Resistance stands -firm on the James.
At all other points, it has advanced—from
Shreveport to New Orleans—from Red
River to the Missouri—from central Mis
sissippi to western Kentucky—from the
Chattahoochee to the Tennessee. Inva
sion has lost hundreds-of thousands of
square miles in Louisiana, in Arkansas, in
Mississippi, in western Tennessee, in east
ern Tennessee, in Virginia. And yet,
with all this overwhelming evidence to
the contrary, the Herald has the coolness
to ask its readers to believe that the work
of subjugati&v goes bravely on !”
4 Never put off till tomorrow, the man
you can do today.’