Dark and gloomy. At 10 o'clock Gov. Vance, of North
Carolina, telegraphed the Secretary of War, asking if anything additional had
been heard from Bragg. The Secretary straightened in his chair, and answered
that he knew nothing but what was published in the papers.
At 1 o'clock P.m.
a dispatch was received from Bragg, dated at Ringgold, Ga., some thirty miles from the battle-field
of the day before. Here, however, it is thought he will make a stand. But if he
could not hold his mountain position, what can he do in the plain? We know not
yet what proportion of his army, guns, and stores he got away—but he must have
retreated rapidly.
Meade is advancing, and another battle seems imminent.
To-day a countryman brought a game-cock into the department.
Upon being asked what he intended to do with it, he said it
was his purpose to send its left wing to Bragg!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
106-7
