P. M. —
“Rosecrans [at Chickamauga] has been badly beaten”! Such is the shock the
dispatch gives us this evening. After months of success one of our great armies
is defeated. A concentration of Rebel armies has overwhelmed our noble Army of
the Cumberland. How these blows strike my heart! I had just read a joyous
dispatch from “L. W. H.”, “Billy Rogers has a baby.” But nerve ourselves, we
must. We shall recover from the blow.
I have thought over it and feel easier. I suffer from these
blows more than I did from the loss of my sweet little boy. But I suffer less
now than I did from Bull Run, or even Fredericksburg. Can Rosecrans hold
Chattanooga? Has he lost his army? Will he be driven across the Tennessee? He
ought to have stopped his campaign with the capture of Chattanooga, fortified
the place, and awaited events. Easy to say so now, but impossible before, I
suppose. Jim McKell, Lieutenant Nelson, Colonel Mitchell (Laura's husband), all
with Resecrans. Anxious hearts at home.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters
of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 436
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