THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY: Its Present Military and Political Prospects; Interesting Argument Between a Dying Union Officer and a Rebel (12/5/1863)

New York Times - Times Machine ^ | 12/5/1863

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Nov. 30.

It is quite possible that a battle will have been joined on the field of Chancellors before these lines meet the reader's eye. Although Winter has evidently begun in Virginia, the Federal Government has decreed that neither rain nor mud shall prevent the "Army of the Potomac" from its last venture. The long lines of the old adversaries confront. The first blood has been draws, and the good omen has once more fallen in favor of the Confederacy. Gen. Meade is perhaps the best officer who has commanded his often beaten army since McClellan, but he has not displayed a spark of genius; nor is there any reason to believe that be will be more successful in the enterprise he has undertaken than his best predecessor. But it is useless to speculate on this great matter. The Lord of Hosts now hath his band upon it, and arbitrament may be known before the sun goes down.

We have the Northern accounts of the late miserable affair at Lookout Mountain. They will create as much surprise as BRAGG's vague and gloomy telegram lately occasioned. The discrepancy of the two accounts is of a most unusual character. For once the Federal Generals do not claim the advantages which the Confederates were very ready to award them. They claim, it is true, a decisive victory; but one of them has six hundred prisoners, while the other has only the authority of the veracious HOOKER for two thousand in all. These official bulletins were written after the evacuation of Lookout Mountain, where our loss, if anywhere, took place. They represent the Federal loss in killed and wounded as light, but they appear to antedate the fight on Mission Ridge, where HARDEE is reported to have made away with "twenty thousand."

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1861-1865: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: May 2025.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4201125/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Southern Confederacy: Its Present Military and Political Prospects – 2-4
Affairs in Tennessee: Thanksgiving Day in Nashville – 4-5
News from Washington: Our Special Washington Dispatches – 5
The French Navy-Its Present Strength-Recent Additions – 5
The Armies in Virginia: Threatening Demonstration by the Rebel Army – 7
The Fifteenth Army Corps: Marches of the Corps – 7
From Gen. Burnside’s Army: The Rebel Repulse at Knoxville Confirmed – 7
The War in North Carolina: Attack Upon a Band of Guerrillas – 7-8
The War in Louisiana and Texas – 8
Condition of Union Prisoners – 8
Affairs at Chattanooga: The Weather Favorable for Military Operations – 8
News from Charleston Harbor: Cessation of the Fire Against Sumter – 8-9
Department of the South: Charleston not Taken – 9
From Norfolk – 9-10
The Battle of Chattanooga: Official Record of the Progress of the Struggle – 10
Battle of Pine Bluff – 10
From the Rio Grande: Revolt of the Mexicans in the Rebel Service – 10-11
Editorial: Military Prospects for the Winter – 11
Bragg, the Great Retreater – 11
The Alabama: Some Statements about Her Departure from England – 11