The elections in Ohio and Pennsylvania have gone for the
Republican (War) candidates. We rely on ourselves, under God, for independence.
It is said Gen. Lee learned that 15,000 Republican voters were sent from
Meade's army into Pennsylvania to rote, and hence he advanced and drove back
the Federal army. Yet he says that Meade's army is more numerous than his. It
is not known what our losses have been, but the following dispatch from Lee
gives an accurate account of the enemy's loss in prisoners.
headquarters Army Northern Virginia,
October
23d, 1863.
Gen.
S. Cooper, A. and I. General.
Gen. Imboden, on the 18th, attacked the
garrison at Charlestown, Shenandoah Valley, captured 434 prisoners, with their
arms, transportation, and stores. To these, add prisoners already forwarded,
makes 2462.
R.
E. Lee.
Official: John Withers, A. A. General.
And Capt. Warner says he is now feeding them.
Gen. Lee writes on the 19th inst., that it is doubtful
whether Gen. Meade will remain where he is, behind his fortifications along
Bull Run, or make another movement on Richmond. A few days will decide this
matter. He says Meade has superior numbers. If he remains, Gen. Lee will
advance again, provided he can get quartermaster supplies for his army. But at
present, thousands of his men are barefooted, without overcoats, blankets, etc.
He says it was the sublimest spectacle of the war to see men in such condition
move forward with such cheerfulness and alacrity, in the recent pursuit of the
enemy. He deprecates sending any of his regiments to West Virginia and East
Tennessee, and thinks Gen. Sam Jones has not evinced sufficient energy and
judgment in that quarter. He says it would be better to send reinforcements to
Chattanooga, where it is practicable to conduct a winter campaign. He could
drive the enemy from the Peninsula, Gloucester Point, Williamsburg, and
Yorktown, but to keep them away Lee would have to station an army there. If
North Carolina be menaced, he advises that the troops at Richmond and
Petersburg be sent thither, and he will replace them with troops from his army.
He thinks it the best policy not to disperse troops in Virginia.
From this letter it is easy to perceive that the Secretary
of War, in the absence of the President, has been making suggestions to Gen.
Lee, none of which does he deem it good policy to adopt, the Secretary not
being versed in military matters.
A private note from Gen. Lee, dated the 13th inst, which I
saw to-day, informs the Secretary of War that much of the benefits he
anticipated from his movement, then in progress, must be lost, from the fact
that the enemy had been informed of his purposes. This it was the duty of the
government to prevent, but Mr. Seddon, like his predecessors, cannot be
convinced that the rogues and cut-throats employed by Gen. Winder as
detectives, have it in their power to inflict injury on the cause and the
country. The cleaning of the Augean stables here is the work which should
engage the attention of the Secretary of War, rather than directing the
movements of armies in the field, of which matter he knows nothing whatever.
The Secretary of War wrote a long and rather rebuking letter
to-day to Mr. Sheffey, chairman of the Committee on Confederate Relations, of
the General Assembly, who communicated a report, and resolutions of the House
of Delegates, in relation to details of conscripts, and the employment in civil
offices of robust young men capable of military service, and urging the
department to appoint men over forty-five years of age to perform such
services, and to impress free negroes to do the labor that soldiers are
detailed for. The Secretary thinks the Confederate Government knows its duties,
and ought not to be meddled with by State Governments. It touched Mr. Seddon
nearly.
By the last Northern papers I see President Lincoln has
issued a proclamation calling for 300,000 more volunteers, and if they “do not
come when he calls for them,” that number will be drafted in January.
This is very significant; either the draft has already failed, or else about a
million of men per annum are concerned in the work of suppressing this “rebellion.”
We find, just at the time fixed for the subjugation of the South, Rosecrans is
defeated, and Meade is driven back upon Washington!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
80-2
No comments:
Post a Comment