The situation.
A calm in the moral and political world has been said to bear a close analogy to a calm in the atmosphere, in so far as a convulsion is certain to follow.
If this be true, we are most assuredly on the eve of great events; for we have never, in our long experience of editorial life, known such an entire dearth of news.
The very elements themselves seem to be asleep.
The air which we breathe is hot and stifling the sun shines with a brilliancy so intense that the atmosphere resembles a sea of flame; the earth is parched and crisp; the dust is as though it were again about to be converted into swarms of locusts as it was in the olden time by the great Hebrew prophet upon the arid plains of
Egypt.
Any sort of change in either the natural or political world — a thunder storm or a battle — would bring with it some relief to the insufferable tedium of the life which this community is leading.
It will not be many days, we very much suspect, before we shall have both.
We think is scarcely within the range of possibility that things can remain much longer stationary at
Vicksburg.
Grant is said to have pushed his trenches fearfully near to our works, but as yet we are under no apprehensions.
We remember
Sebastopol.
We remember that it was defended from the side on which it was attacked by earthworks hastily constructed, when the enemy was within a day's march of the place.
We remember that
Pelissier had to push his parallels within twenty yards of the
Russian works, before he dared to rush, even with the grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, upon that "
feu d' enfer" which be described so feelingly, and which, at that day, had never been equalled.
Remembering all this, and taking into consideration the cautions disposition of
Grant, we are not disposed to believe that he will attempt an assault until he shall have pushed his works close up to those of the besieged, and that will require time which may bring in its train a number of incidents to put a new face upon the state of affairs.
The sickly season will come on within a few weeks, and
Joe Johnston is night at hand, with an army already powerful, and every day increasing.
All depends upon the steadiness of the commander is
Vicksburg, and, in spite of the ill-founded prejudices against
Pemberton he has proved himself to be eminently brave and steadfast.
As for the reports in the
Yankee newspapers we have long since learned to estimate them at their true value, as we have, likewise, those that come to us from
Mobile.
We do not believe that the
Yankees will ever take
Vicksburg.
But should they succeed in taking both that place and
Port Hudson they will by no means have opened the navigation of the
Mississippi.
As long as we have a single battery of light field pieces left it will be impossible for any craft short of an iron-clad to navigate that river, and iron-clads are not exactly the sort of craft for carrying on trade.
In the absence of positive information, rumors always rush in to supply its place, as the air rushes in wherever a vacuum has been formed.
There were any number of rumors in town yesterday with regard to
Gen. Lee,
Gen. Hooker,
Gen. Ewell,
Milroy, and the town of
Winchester.
Some of these may be seen in another column.
None of them seem entitled to much consideration.
Hooker, however, seems certainly to have evacuated
Stafford.
That we learn from a sure source, and not from rumor.
What his aim may be, nobody is able to conjecture; but the
Yankee papers have been for some time indulging in every manner of speculation with regard to the movements of
Gen. Lee, and probably these speculations may have some connection with the march of
Hooker.
Upon the whole, we regard our situation as very encouraging, especially when we contrast it with that of this time last year.
