Yesterday was the fifty-second anniversary of the great battle of Borodino — the greatest, Alison says, ever fought in Europe, at least in modern times.--The French army numbered 120,000 men; the Russian has been variously estimated at 120, 130, 150, 170, 230 and 250,000 men. At any rate, it was an enormous army, with nearly a thousand pieces of cannon, the French themselves bringing about six hundred into the contest. The day was cool, bracing and beautifully clear, as the earlier part of yesterday was. As the first rays of the sun shot above the horizon, Napoleon said to those around him, "Behold the sun of Austerlitz, " ("voila lesoleil a Austerlitz. ") This was the only occasion on which he ever apostrophised that sun, so far as we have been able to discover after a diligent search, although Scott, and after him all the book-makers, will have it that he was continually alluding to it. The battle was desperate, the slaughter awful, the prise Moscow, with its gilded domes and noble palaces, its over-burthened warehouses, and its population of 300,000 souls. Military genius and thorough discipline prevailed at last over fierce fanaticism and patriotism more than Spartan. Moscow fell, but not until she had exacted from those who trod the path that led to her gates a toll of 50,000 men.
We could not but think of this great event yesterday, when, under a sun resembling that of Borodino, we read, for the first time, in Stanton's bulletin, that Grant still required one hundred thousand additional troops to insure him the capture of this city. He started to take it last May with one hundred and forty thousand men. This same Stanton continually assured the Yankee public that he would sweep everything before him. He fought not one, but a series of bloody battles, in every one of which he was repulsed with enormous slaughter, and in every one of which Stanton claimed a victory, proved Stanton's assertions to be falsehoods by ceasing "to fight it out on this line," and crossing the river, after having lost more than one hundred thousand men; sat himself down before Petersburg, twenty-five miles from the doomed city; has met with half-a-dozen disastrous defeats since he got there; and now calls for one hundred thousand men more, after having been already reinforced, at various times, to fully that extent. We could not but contrast the defence of Richmond with the defence of Moscow, and say to ourselves, "Surely city never was defended as this city has been !" The combinations against it last spring and summer, including Grant, Butler, Hunter, Siel, &c., must have reached three hundred thousand men, or very nearly. And yet it stands as defiant as ever; so defiant that Grant tells his employers, through Stanton, it will require one hundred thousand men more to take it. We agree with him, and even then it will not be taken.
Stanton, in this bulletin, tells the Yankees that only three hundred thousand men will be required. Of these Grant is to use up one hundred thousand, and the rest are to keep down rebellion everywhere — in Virginia, in Kentucky, in Louisiana, in Arkansas, &c. Why, his three hundred thousand will not much more than replace the men that have been lost during the campaign. If we take into consideration the fact that they are new levies, who will lose at least half their number before the other half become tolerable soldiers, we may say with truth that they will not fill up the gaps in the ranks. Yet, it is absolutely necessary for our own safety, as well as for the ultimate triumph of our cause, that we should take energetic measures to recruit our ranks.--Upon this subject, we are pleased to see that the whole press is as unanimous as it is possible for a free press to be upon any subject whatever.
The evacuation of Atlanta will be magnified by the Yankee press into a great victory, it will have the effect of facilitating the draft which commenced last Monday, and it will insure the required number of men. It will not do for us to depend upon resistance to the measure in the North by mobs, insurrections and popular commotions. We must recruit our own ranks to meet the accession of force which the Yankee army will be certain to receive, and we must do it speedily. There are numbers of able-bodied men doing what disabled soldiers could do just as well; numbers of white men doing what negroes could do much better; and numbers of young men doing nothing at all. We want the services of all these — the country requires them — the crisis demands them — and the Bureau of Conscription has already indicated who and what they are, and where to be found. The three months that must elapse before the campaign shall have closed are important months to us. If employed as they might be, they would, in all probability, become the period from which to date the rise of a feeling on the part of our enemy that may tend to peace. The campaign thus far has been a losing business to him. We must take care that it continue to be so. Grant promises, if furnished with one hundred thousand more men, to finish all the necessary fighting in six weeks. They will be furnished, and we must enable Lee to meet him. The question as to whether we can do it, is no question at all. We can do it and we should do it.
