The croakers.
The fraternity of the Dismal Swamp have had an entertainment of unusual richness in the late misfortunes of the country in Tennessee. Never since the beginning of the war have their croaking been combined in a more solemn and guttural chorus. The Dismal Swamp never yielded such lugubrious melodies at the frogs who have sate upon the banks of the River of Death and groaned themselves hoarse over its bloody tide. It is almost a pity that their sweet voices should be checked by the stern war-cry of Cleburne and the angry roar of the undismayed warriors whom Grant has found to be lions at bay.It is a mistake to suppose that the race of croakers is a forlorn and broken-hearted race. On the contrary, they are never so happy as when they are miserable. Their solemn, guttural utterances only arise from the peculiar conformations of their organism. Were the sky always bright, and the atmosphere clear and healthful, the whole generation of croakers would die off from the face of the earth. It is only when night lets fall her black curtain that the owls and bats come forth from their hiding places and exult in the universal darkness.
If the croakers of the Southern Confederacy would confine themselves to the luxury of war, and refrain from acting as censors upon the conduct of their civil and military superiors, they would not be worth the powder and shot necessary for their extermination. But they consider themselves competent to criticise anybody and everybody, and are as obstreperous in their censures as their sorrows. They are not content with being out of the army, with being protected in their persons and estates from even the eight of an armed foe, but they must keep up a brisk fire in the rear of their civil and military protectors. Not being engaged in fighting the Yankees, they give exercise to the valor which might otherwise rust in inaction, by furious assaults upon Confederate Generals. They could manage affairs of State and of arms much better than they are managed ! Why don't they do it, then? If they are so much wiser than our rulers, why can't they convince the world of the fact, and persuade somebody to put them in a position where their magnificent brains would be of service to their country?--If they know better than our Generals what ought to be done, why have they never given the army the invaluable aid of their presence and counsels? If they are as great in action as in speech, and will go to the front, they will bring the war to a close in six months. It is very easy to find fault, and to saddle every misfortune upon the misconduct of our leaders, but the public at large ought to bear in mind that, unless they know all the facts, and are well instructed in military matters, they ought to withhold their verdict upon the public men charged with the responsibility of a military misfortune. The Government, which knows all the facts, must be presumed to have grounds for its action or non-action which, for reasons of public interest, cannot always be made known to the people. When General Sidney Johnston was at Bowling Green, Ky., he was universally denounced for falling back, the critics assuming that he had eighty thousand men, when, as it was afterwards discovered, he had but twenty thousand. When Gen. Jo. Johnston was at Winchester, in the beginning of the war, he was as roundly abused for not fighting the Yankees, and it was not until he swooped down upon them at Manassas that some of his critics believed there was any fight in him. We have suffered a defeat at Chickamauga, and we gained a victory there also; but the victory did not stop the mouths of the croakers, for it was not followed up. Do they know, or can they pretend to know, why it was not followed up? Are they sure that Gen. Bragg had the means of pursuit or was in a condition to follow? If he had, why should he, a soldier, whose business it is to know all about following up, neglect to win laurels which he must be as anxious to obtain as others to obtain for him? If he was afterwards defeated, who can tell us what his means of resistance were, how many men he had, and whether he was expected, with possibly one man to four, to accomplish impossibilities. If all the croakers of the Confederacy had been at his back
he might have contended with Grant on terms approaching to equality, and the result have been different.
The truth is, we have been struggling from the beginning of this war against such enormous odds that the wonder to our mind is, not that we have occasional disasters, but that disaster has not been the rule, and success the exception. At the outset of the struggle there were not percussion caps enough in Virginia to supply a single regiment. In all the other munitions of war we were lamentably deficient. As for men, our sparse population did not seem to afford a mouthful for the hungry giant of the North, backed by the inexhaustible swarms of the Old World. The United States had everything at its command; we nothing and shut up by the blockade from obtaining anything. Yet what a fight the Confederacy has made. But, not withstanding all this, the croakers demand universal and uninterrupted victory and success. We are as sorry as themselves that we cannot have it, but we must limit our expectations to our means; we must be thankful that we have done so much better than we had a right to expect; we must draw hopeful auguries of the future from the past.
