The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 22: Juvenilia and Other PapersStevenson, Robert Louis
History
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 22: Juvenilia and Other Papers
Stevenson, Robert Louis
English literature -- 19th century
_Editorial Comment_.--We have been successful in two skirmishes, but the
situation is felt to be critical, and is by some supposed to be
desperate. Stevenson's skirmish on the 11th did not check the advance of
the Army of the Centre; it is impossible to predict the result of
Potty's success before Grierson. The Yolo column appears to meet with no
resistance; but it is terribly committed, and is, it must be remembered,
quite helpless for offensive purposes, without the co-operation of
Stevenson from Sandusky. How that can be managed, while the enemy hold
the pass behind Mar, is more than we can see. Some shrewd, but perhaps
too hopeful, critics perceive a deep policy in the inactivity of our
troops about Sandusky, and believe that Stevenson is luring on the
cautious Osbourne to his ruin. We will hope so; but this does not
explain Piffle's senseless counter-marchings around Scarlet, nor the
horribly outflanked and unsupported position of Potty on the line of the
Cinnabar river. If General Osbourne were a child, we might hope for the
best; there is no doubt that he has been careless about Mar and Yolo,
and that he was yesterday only saved from a serious disaster by a fluke,
and the imperfection of our scout system; but the situation to the west
and centre wears a different complexion; there his steady, well-combined
advance, carrying all before him, contrasts most favourably with the
timid and divided counsels of our Stevensons, Piffles, and Pottys.
[Illustration: _From the original sketch in Stevenson's Note-book_]
YALLOBALLY RECORD.--"That incompetent shuffler, General Osbourne, has
again put his foot into it. Blundering into Grierson with a lot of
unsupported horse, he has got exactly what he deserved. The whole
command was crushed by that wide-awake fellow, Potty, and a lot of guns
and ammunition lie ignominiously deserted on our own side of the river.
All this through mere chuckle-headed incompetence and the neglect of the
most elementary precautions, within a day's march of two magnificent
armies, either of which, under any sane, soldierly man, is capable of
marching right through to Glendarule.
"This is the last scandal. Yesterday, it was a whole regiment cut off
between the Garrard road and the Sandusky river, and cut off without
firing or being able to fire a single shot in self-defence. It is an
open secret that the men behind Mar are starving, and that the whole
east and the city of Savannah were within a day of being deserted. How
long is this disorganisation to go on? How long is that bloated
bondholder to go prancing round on horseback, wall-eyed and
muddle-headed, while his men are starved and butchered, and the forces
of this great country are at the mercy of clever rogues like Potty, or
respectable mediocrities like Stevenson?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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