Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 8.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[265] resulting from these reverses. The gallant troops so ably commanded in the States beyond the Mississippi, inflicted repeated defeats on the invading armies in Louisiana and on the coast of Texas. Detachments of troops and active bodies of partisans kept up so effective a war on the Mississippi River as practically to destroy its value as an avenue of commerce.

The determined and successful defence of Charleston against the joint land and naval oprations of the enemy, afforded an inspiring example of our ability to repel the attacks even of the iron-clad fleet, on which they chiefly rely, while on the Northern frontier our success was still more marked.

The able commander who conducted the campaign in Virginia determined to meet the threatened advance on Richmond — for which the enemy had made long and costly preparations — by forcing their armies to cross the Potomac and fight in defence of their own capital and homes. Transferring the battle-field to their own soil, he succeeded in compelling their rapid retreat from Virginia, and, in the hard-fought battle of Gettysburgh, inflicted such severity of punishment as disabled them from early renewal of the campaign as originally projected. Unfortunately, the communications on which our General relied for receiving his supplies of munitions were interrupted by extraordinary floods, which so swelled the Potomac as to render impassable the fords by which his advance had been made, and he was thus forced to a withdrawal, which was conducted with deliberation, after securing large trains of captured supplies, and with a constant but unaccepted tender of battle. On more than one occasion the enemy has since made demonstrations of a purpose to advance, invariably followed by a precipitate retreat to intrenched lines on the approach of our forces.

The effective check thus opposed to the advance of invaders at all points was such as to afford hope of their early expulsion from portions of the territory previously occupied them, when the country was painfully surprised by the intelligence that the officer in command of Cumberland Gap had surrendered that important and easily defensible pass without firing a shot, upon the summons of a force still believed to have been inadequate to its reduction, and when reenforcements were within supporting distance and had been ordered to his aid. The entire garrison, including the commander, being still held as prisoners by the enemy, I am unable to suggest any explanation of this disaster, which laid open Eastern Tennessee and South-Western Virginia to hostile operations, and broke the line of communication between the seat of government and Middle Tennessee. This easy success of the enemy was followed by an advance of General Rosecrans into Georgia, and our army evacuated Chattanooga and availed itself of the opportunity thus afforded of winning, on the field of Chickamauga, one of the most brilliant and decisive victories of the war. This signal defeat of General Rosecrans was followed by his retreat into Chattanooga, where his imperilled position had the immediate effect of relieving the pressure of the invasion at other points, forcing the concentration, for his relief, of large bodies of troops withdrawn from the armies in the Mississippi valley and in Northern Virginia. The combined forces thus accumulated against us in Tennessee so greatly outnumbered our army as to encourage the enemy to attack. After a long and severe battle, in which great carnage was inflicted on him, some of our troops inexplicably abandoned positions of great strength, and, by a disorderly retreat, compelled the commander to withdraw the forces elsewhere successful, and, finally, to retire with his whole army to a position some twenty or thirty miles to the rear. It is believed that if the troops, who yielded to the assault, had fought with the valor which they had displayed on previous occasions, and which was manifested in this battle on other parts of the lines, the enemy would have been repulsed with very great slaughter, and our country would have escaped the misfortune and the army the mortification of the first defeat that has resulted from misconduct by the troops. In the mean time, the army of General Burnside was driven from all its field positions in Eastern Tennessee, and forced to retreat from its intrenchments at Knoxville, where, for some weeks, it was threatened with capture by the forces under General Longstreet. No information has reached me of the final result of the operations of our commander, though intelligence has arrived of his withdrawal from that place.

While, therefore, our success in driving the enemy from our soil has not equalled the expectations confidently entertained at the commencement of the campaign, his further progress has been checked. If we are forced to regret losses in Tennessee and Arkansas, we are not without ground for congratulations on successes in Louisiana and Texas. On the sea-coast he is exhausted by vain efforts to capture our ports; while, on the Northern frontier, he has in turn felt the pressure and dreads the renewal of invasion. The indomitable courage and perseverance of the people in the defence of their homes have been nobly attested by the unanimity with which the Legislatures of Virginia, North-Carolina, and Georgia have recently given expression to the popular sentiment; and like manifestations may be anticipated from all the States. Whatever obstinacy may be displayed by the enemy in his desperate sacrifices of money, life, and liberty, in the hope of enslaving us, the experience of mankind has too conclusively shown the superior endurance of those who fight for home, liberty, and independence, to permit any doubt of the result.

Foreign relations.

I regret to inform you that there has been no improvement in the state of our relations with foreign countries since my message in January last. On the contrary, there has been a still greater divergence in the conduct of European nations from that practical impartiality which