seems to be in danger of forgetting that neuter does not mean both, but neither, and that if, therefore, he would maintain even in words a strict neutrality it is necessary to avoid any demonstrations of friendship to either belligerent[1251].”

This was harsh criticism, evincing a Times partisanship justifying the allegations of the Gazette, but wholly in line with the opinion to which the Times was now desperately clinging that Grant had failed and that Sherman, adventuring on his spectacular “march to the sea” from Atlanta, was courting annihilation.  Yet even Northern friends were appalled at Sherman’s boldness and discouraged by Grant’s slowness.  The son of the American Minister could write, “Grant moves like the iron wall in Poe’s story.  You expect something tremendous, and it’s only a step after all[1252].”

The Times was at least consistent in prophecies until the event falsified them; the Gazette less so.  Some six weeks after having acclaimed Sherman’s generalship in the capture of Atlanta[1253], the Gazette’s summary of the military situation was that: 

“... if the winter sees Grant still before Petersburg, and Sherman unable to hold what he has gained in Georgia, the South may be nearer its dawning day of independence than could have been expected a few weeks ago, even though Wilmington be captured and Charleston be ground away piecemeal under a distant cannonade.  The position of the Democrats would urge them to desperate measures, and the wedge of discord will be driven into the ill-compacted body which now represents the Federal States of North America[1254].”

But on December 17, W.H.  Russell again changed his view and foretold with accuracy Sherman’s movements toward Savannah.  Not so the Times, privately very anxious as to what Sherman’s campaign portended, while publicly belittling it.  December 2, it was noted that Sherman had not been heard from for weeks, having left Atlanta with 50,000 men.  December 5, his objective was stated to be Savannah, and while the difficulties to be encountered were enumerated, no prophecy was indulged in.  But on December 22, Sherman’s move was called a “desperate” one, forced by his inability to retreat northward from Atlanta: 

“If we turn to military affairs, we are informed that the great feature of the year is Sherman’s expedition into Georgia.  We are not yet able to say whether Sherman will succeed in escaping the fate of Burgoyne; but we know that his apparent rashness is excused by the fact that Sherman was unable to return on the way by which he came; so that the most remarkable feature of the war, according to the President, is the wild and desperate effort of an out-manoeuvred General to extricate himself from a position which, whatever effect it may have had on the election, should never, on mere military grounds, have been occupied