The President was called out of church yesterday, and was
for three hours closeted with the Secretary of War and Gen. Cooper. It appears
that the enemy were occupying Bristol, on the line between Virginia and
Tennessee, with seven regiments, and Carse's brigade was ordered (by telegraph)
to reinforce Gen. S. Jones. But to-day a dispatch from Gen. Jones states that
the enemy had been driven back at Zollicoffer, which is beyond Bristol. This
dispatch was dated yesterday. It is unintelligible.
But to-day we have a dispatch from Gen. Bragg, announcing a
great battle on the 19th and 20th insts. He says, “after two days' engagement,
we have driven the enemy, after a desperate resistance, from several positions;
we hold the field, but the enemy still confronts us. The losses on both sides
are heavy, and especially so among our officers. We have taken more than twenty
guns, and 2500 prisoners.” We await the sequel — with fear and trembling, after
the sad experience of Western victories. The Secretary of War thinks
Longstreet's corps had not yet reached Bragg; then why should he have commenced
the attack before the reinforcements arrived? We must await further dispatches.
If Bragg beats Rosecrans utterly, the consequences will be momentous. If beaten
by him, he sinks to rise no more. Both generals are aware of the consequences
of failure, and no doubt it is a sanguinary field. Whether it is in Georgia or
over the line in Tennessee is not yet ascertained.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
49
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