The War | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 5, 1862

The War.

THE N. Y. Independent of July 31, ult., thus discusses on the war:

The war news of the week announces not one movement of importance in the field. Whatever there is of significance must be sought in the North, where the enlistments are proceeding, and abroad, where profound uncertainty and the most contradictory reports conceal the purposes of European powers about intervention.

The picture is at this moment sufficiently gloomy. Our armies are idle. The North, discouraged at the slowness, indecision, and inefficiency of Government and generals, hesitates whether to risk in the same hands a second exhausting installment of men and money; and with increasing frequency the avowal is plainly made, that if the war is to be conducted as heretofore, the sooner we acknowledge the Confederate States of America, the better.

A Few Signs of a New Policy.—There are a few not very decisive indications of an intention to use some energy, and to practice some military principles, in the prosecution of the war. Gen. Halleck has been made Commander-in-Chief, has visited McClellan, and as one reporter says, has "ordered the spades to the rear and the muskets to the front"—too good news, we fear, to be true. Gen. Pope has, it is true, followed his boastful inaugural proclamation with another still worse, offering five cents reward for one captain Harrison who resigned and came home. But Gen. Pope seems both to proclaim and to act; for he keeps his cavalry busy in the Rappahannock Valley, and west and south of it, has rebels forced to take the oath, or else to go South, uses rebel property for army purposes, and really seems to be making war on military principles. Gen. Mitchel is, it is said, about to be put into an important command, and the charge against him by Col. Norton seems likely to result only in the disgrace of his accuser, who has suddenly disappeared, after making his accusation, in a manner which is, to say the least, curious. Thus in the East we may hope for some activity.

In the West there is not so much evidence of it. The attack on Vicksburgh seems to be given up; the army of Halleck is scattered disjointedly along the line from Memphis to Chattanooga, and is undoubtedly being discouraged and exhausted by inaction and the silly "conciliation" policy of guarding rebel property and killing off our soldiers by labor, while the negroes are idle and look on.

And in any event, if the more vigorous policy we speak of is in fact to be pursued, even at this late day, it is not from any energy or conviction or resoluteness in the Government, but in slow obedience to the universal groan of anger and remonstrance that comes up from the North.

Speaking of the Confiscation Bill passed by Congress, and the President's proclamation thereon, the same paper says:

The proclamation is strictly a business statement, precisely as called for by law, and its restriction to such terms indicate, if anything, the non-existence of any enthusiasm or interest in the President about the matter.

The Guerrillas.—It has been estimated that the guerrilla operations which have been made practicable by the inaction of our armies west of the mountains, have already resulted in the destruction of fifteen millions of dollars' worth of public property.

We hear rumors, probably correct, that guerrilla parties are rising in Missouri and gathering toward the Southwest, toward a rebel army supposed to be intended for a new invasion of Missouri.

In other parts of the military field, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, guerrilla bands are rising and plundering in all directions.

McClellan; Scurvy.—The awful scourge of scurvy is beginning to appear in McClellan's crowded camp. This general, long besieged in Washington by an inferior force, and now beaten and besieged before Richmond by a superior one, has of late achieved, it is reported, one complete victory—over the newspaper correspondents. These noxious persons, we are told, are at last wholly expelled from his lines, and at Fortress Monroe manufacturing army letters.

Foreign Intervention.—The late reverses of the Union cause very naturally set afloat all manner of reports about intervention. And of course, they do in fact render such a measure less improbable. Napoleon is sending a strong fleet over the Atlantic, on the pretence of dealing with Mexican matters; and we receive very plausible reports that if there is a chance he willuse them to "intervene" with. If he does so, and wishes the aid of England, he will have it.

The very latest English news is, that "mediation" has been discussed in the parliament, and the consideration of the subject postponed.

More English Friendship.—The large English iron steamer Tubal Cain, heavily laden with military stores, has been captured on her way to Charleston. And the rebel papers claim that so large a number of cargoes have gotten safely into rebel ports, as to supply their armies and people with all the foreign and military merchandise they want during the coming fall.