We have nothing additional up to three p.m. to-day; bat
there is an untraceable rumor on the street of some undefinable disaster
somewhere, and perhaps it is the invention of the enemy. We still pause for the
sequel of the battle; for Rosecrans has fallen back to a strong position; and
at this distance we know not whether it be practicable to flank him or to cut
his communications. It is said Gen. Breckinridge commanded only 1600 men,
losing 1300 of them! Gen. Cooper and the Secretary of War have not been
permitted to fill up his division; the first probably having no desire to
replenish the dilapidated command of an aspiring “political general.”
A Mr. G. Preston Williams, of Eden, Chatham County, Ga., writes
to the President, Sept. 7th, 1863, saying he has lost three sons in the war,
freely given for independence. His fourth son is at home on furlough, but he
shall not return unless the President gives up his obstinacy, and his
favorites — Bragg, Pemberton, Lovell, etc. He charges the President with
incapacity, if not wickedness, and says our independence would have been won
ere this, but for the obstacles thrown by him in the way. He threatens
revolution within a revolution, when Congress meets, unless the President
reforms, which will cause him to lose his office, and perhaps his head. To
which the President replies thus, in an indorsement on the envelope:
“Secretary Of War. — This is referred to you without any
knowledge of the writer. If it be a genuine signature, you have revealed to you
a deserter, and a man who harbors him, as well as incites to desertion,
and opposition to the efforts of the government for public defense. Sept. 19th,
1863. — J. D.”
The indorsement was written to-day, since hearing of Bragg's
victory.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
50-1
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