The Daily Dispatch: October 21, 1863., [Electronic resource]

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The Western soldiers.

--The common conceit that the Western soldiers of the United States fight much better than those of the East does not seem to be sustained by the testimony of that portion of the army of Gen. Lee which has lately had an opportunity of comparing the prowess of the two sections. The Western Yankees seem to be pretty much the same stuff as those of the East, except perhaps the Kentucky and other Southern elements in their ranks. The armies so often beaten at our own doors have in fact been made up of the best fighting materials that the North and Europe could afford — the old regulars of the United States, and the Irish and Germans, but for whom the Yankees proper would long ago have been annihilated. The Western troops of the United States have hitherto had so vast a preponderance in numbers and munitions of war, that we have been borne back by the weight of enormous odds; but even that advantage is beginning to fail. Properly organized and handled, our troops have nothing to fear from Yankees of West or East, both of whom put their principal reliance in heavy fortifications, and are equally unwilling to trust their fortunes in the open field.