Our Army Correspondence.
The report of the
Yankees crossing at
Waterloo is untrue.
The main body of the enemy holds the position along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad it has held for several weeks past, excepting an occasional change of camps.
If I could anticipate them, I could not speak with propriety of our own designs; but if a change in the present situation depends on the will of
Gen. Meade, the utter absence of all indications of an advance by him shows its prospect to be more remote than ever.
Agreeably to the
President's proclamation and the
General Order from the headquarters of the Army, yesterday was generally observed as a day of Fasting and Prayer.
Religious exercises were held in the different camps by the
Army Chaplains.
At the headquarters of
Gen. Ewell a very appropriate discourse was delivered by that able divine,
Rev. Dr. Lacy,
Chaplain of the corps, from 16th verse, 6th chapter, 2d
Kings "
Fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." I will not attempt an outline of the gifted speaker's discourse — powerful, eloquent and embellished with most beautiful imagery, and which deeply impressed a large auditory, principally of soldiers, who attended by regiments, with their respective officers, and whose cleanly, comfortable and healthful appearance furnished a pleasing rebuke to the croakers at home.
Gens. Lee,
Ewell and other distinguished officers were present.
The first named, it is said, invariably attended services on such occasions at the headquarters of the lamented
Jackson.
It has now become a question whether the enemy has not determined on a change of tactics, abandoned the "on to
Richmond" idea, and is not preparing to transfer the seat of war for the present to the West and South.
The frequent attempts against
Richmond have ended in disastrous failures, and the strange inactivity of
Meade, accountable on no other hypothesis than the weakness and disaffection of his army since the
Pennsylvania campaign, proves that he has no reasonable ground of hoping to accomplish what men able as himself, and backed by powerful and as well equipped armies, have failed to achieve before him. Northern journals inform us that he has detached troops — in some instances regiments of them — to proceed to certain points in the
North for the purpose of bringing on conscripts.
A little reflection is sufficient to perceive that this is merely a subterfuge, as such a force, especially in the critical situation of the army, is unnecessary for such a purpose.
The object undoubtedly is to use these ostensible conscript guards to overawe the people at home, and to suppress the first manifestation of another popular uprising against the enforcement of the draft and other obnoxious measures of the
Government, monitions of which have already been given in New York and other cities.
Meade's army, if the abandonment of the design against
Richmond from this direction be correct, will probably be used conjointly for the purposes of maintaining the will of the
Government in the
Northern States, and as a camp of instruction, or reservoir as it were, from which the depleted armies of the West and South may be recruited.
The asseverations of the
Yankee papers to the contrary,
Meade is too weak for offensive operations on the scale requisite for the overthrow of the army of Northern Virginia and the taking of
Richmond; and the practical results of the draft thus far show that it will end in the replenishing of the treasury by millions of "greenbacks," but the securing of few recruits for this army, and the majority of these unreliable, and of the worst material in the districts of the
North.
The evidence is in favor of the belief that the main strength and efforts of the enemy will be concentrated and directed against our strongholds in the South and West, and then to give the "rebellion" the
coup de grace by a united blow against
Richmond.
The
fall of Vicksburg is followed by an exhibition of energy at
Charleston no less desperate and persevering, to be succeeded probably by an attempt at
Savannah and
Mobile.--Against the latter but a moiety of
Grant's army will be directed in combination with the fleet, while the remainder may form a junction with
Rosecrans, with the view, as their avowal and oft-repeated intentions render reasonable, of securing
Chattanooga and
East Tennessee, and then
Atlanta, Ga., the heart of the railroad circulation of the
South.
This done, and the
Confederacy split again, the rebellion is virtually crushed, as they will believe, and the
fall of Richmond only a question of time.
Meantime,
Gen. Meade, too weak to advance himself, and in the event of an advance by
Gen. Lee, has placed his army beyond the
Rappahannock, in a position he is daily strengthening, or so as to easily fall back to another more defensible.
How far these crude speculations are founded in truth, time will reveal.
