To make your point, these images obviously made an impression on the gentleman who wrote the review for the New York newspaper. We can only imagine what impression they mave have had if they had been seen in the print media of that day.
To reply to your other comment, let me offer that what our ancestors attempted in that time seems little different to me to what others attempted during the Revolutionary War. The actual chances of success may have been more remote in that earlier period. Eventual victory or defeat in a civil war appears more obvious to us today that it seemed to those actually involved in those wars.
The same thing frequently happens before our eyes in football games. If something unlikely or unexpected works, the coach is praised as a genius and everyone "knew" that team would win. On the other hand, should it fail, the coach is derided as bone-headed and his team destined to defeat. As a famous coach who led teams from both Auburn and Alabama to victory once said, hindsight is fifty-fifty.