Sunday Dispatch

WHAT WE HAVE LOST AND GAINED.

There are, unfortunately, hundreds, nay thousands of people at the North, believing themselves loyal, who would consider it an insult to their manhood if it were insinuated in their hearing that they aided and abetted treason, who are continually crying out, "You can never conquer the South—you can never subdue it by battle!" when it is notorious that in two engagements out of every three we have whipped the rebels, and have reconquered more than one-third of the territory over which they claimed to have undisputed jurisdiction twelve or fourteen months ago.

Let us see what we have done since the breaking out of the rebellion:

After the battle of Bull Run, on the 21st July, 1861, the traitor Congress, then sitting at Montgomery, Alabama, resolved that all the Slave States and many of the territories were within their Confederacy; and subsequently, at Richmond, it was enacted that there should be no peace until the U. S. Government conceded that the slave States yet without the "Confederate jurisdiction" should be handed over to the "Confederate authorities." During the winter of 1861-2 the Potomac was blockaded by rebel guns, and but a small area, hardly large enough for the army at Washington to deploy in, was all that was left in undisputed possession of the legitimate Government; while, in the Southwest, we had but a precarious foothold. Missouri and Kentucky swayed to and fro, like weeds in the wind, now for and now against the Federal authority. In Tennessee and Arkansas there was not an acre that we could call our own, while South of St. Louis to the estuaries of the Mississippi, the country was sealed to army and fleet.

Along the Gulf and Atlantic shores we had not a harbor into which a ship could enter for refuge, until Chesapeake Bay was reached, and even along its eastern shore there was but one point, Fortress Monroe, near which the anchor of a war ship or merchantman could be cast with safety.

It is true the war has not been pushed forward with that dash which many expected on the breaking out of the rebellion; but he who looks calmly and intelligently over the vast field of operations, will find that in modern warfare, in a task so gigantic, not so much has been accomplished by the most warlike people in the same period of time. The area of the rebellion has indeed been reduced to a comparatively limited surface.

Let us glance hastily over the field:

In Eastern Virginia, the lines of our army have been pushed to the Rappahannock from the Potomac, while on the west we have redeemed a territory large enough for a new State. In other words: Of Virginia proper, the rebels to-day do not exercise undisputed control over more than one-third of its area. In North Carolina, we have regained one-third of the State and that the most important section of it—the seaboard.

In its western part, that adjoining Eastern Tennessee, the people are not loyal to the Richmond traitors; and should Rosecrans, in the battle which it is believed will shortly be fought near Tullahoma, defeat Bragg or whoever is in command there, the government will at once resume jurisdiction, and without opposition, over the mountainous districts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The coasts of South Carolina and Georgia are actually under Federal control; and, looking further South, we claim that the Peninsula of Florida, south of the river St. Mary, is without the lines of the rebel army. The State of Florida has been practically reconquered. It needs but an effort to restore it to loyalty. In the Gulf we have undisputed sway. It is true the coast of Alabama is not yet in the possession of our fleet; but there is little doubt that when Port Hudson is reduced, Com. Farragut will turn his attention to the subjugation of the forts defending Mobile Bay. We have regained one half of the State of Louisiana, and two out of its four Congressional districts are now represented in the National House of Representatives. Going up the Mississippi river, on its western bank, we have nearly undisputed possession. Of Arkansas we have reconquered, it is generally acknowledged, the northern half, and with the fall of Vicksburg we shall have the whole of it—for with our possession of the great water highway falls within Federal control Northern Louisiana and Southern Arkansas. On the eastern bank, we may regard within our possession (they are certainly within our military lines) Northern Alabama, Northern Mississippi, and Middle and Western Tennessee, while Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware are recognized as fixed planets in the constellation of the Union. In addition to this, all the territories, without exception, are within the Federal authority.

The "Confederate States" are practically dismembered. They have not one State, not even Texas, wholly beyond the reach of the armies of the Union. They are broken fragments, and should (as we are firmly persuaded they will) Grant and Porter compel the rebels at Vicksburg to capitulate, while Banks and Farragut are successfully at work on the fortifications near Port Hudson—Rosecrans meanwhile driving the rebels out of Eastern Tennessee, and the great combinations of Hunter and Dupont working disaster to the traitors at the gates of Charleston and Savannah—the rebellion will be really ended.

The rebel chieftains may offer stubborn resistance for a time; but their opposition will arise rather from a spirit of bravado than from any hope of conquering what their deluded followers are madly fighting for—their "independence"—of what?

In the present aspect of affairs there is everything to hope for—nothing is there left for despondency.

He who doubts or despairs of the ultimate success of our arms, with these facts in full view, must be governed by other than patriotic impulses or loyal views.

"The South cannot be conquered?" It can. The end is not more certain, if the loyal States are true to themselves, than that light follows darkness—day night.