The Approaching battle.
The forces of
Grant are already on the North Anne, and the two armies stand facing each other, and prepared for the desperate struggle which is certain to ensue.
For our own part, we cannot seriously entertain any fears about the result.
Anxiety we certainly feel — we should be the most callous of mortals if we did not — but, as for any serious doubt, we have none.
This is the pervading sentiment among our citizens at this moment, who, while they necessarily feel the pain of suspense on an occasion so momentous, yet place the firmest confidence in the army and in
Gen. Lee, and do not believe it within the power of the enemy to prevail against them.
From a number of concurring circumstances, from the testimony of many eminent officers, and intelligent soldiers, from the issue of the battles in
Spotsylvania, and the explicitly declared opinion of one whom we are not at liberty to mention, but whose judgment, were his name known, would be pronounced decisive, we are induced to believe that
Grant's enormous losses have brought his force down to a numerical equality with those of our own army. --
Stanton, we are told, telegraphs the
Yankee press that he has sent on reinforcements to the amount of 25,000 veterans; but we believe this statement to be a gross exaggeration.
If he had really sent on 25,000, he would have telegraphed that he had sent on 50,000.
But where was he to get 25,000 veterans?
He had already stripped
Washington,
Baltimore, and all the
Northern cities of their garrisons, and their places had been filled by militia.
He had already drawn from
Northern Georgia all the men that could possibly be spared.
He could get no men from New Orleans, or from any point west of the
Mississippi.
Dick Taylor has laid an embargo upon the whole Yankee force in that quarter, and will not let them come on. By abandoning
Newbern, he might relieve a brigade or two; but he could hardly obtain 23,000 men. In our opinion, if he has added 10,000
veterans to
Grant's army since the battle, it is the most that he has done.
Ninety days men and raw militia — the sweepings of the streets of the great cities — he may have sent onto the tune of 25,000; but they will prove a poor reliance in the hour of danger.
We know nothing of the numbers sent to
Gen. Lee, but we do know that, be they as great or as small as they may, they are good troops, worthy to stand side by side with any that over drew a ramrod.
The numbers of the two armies, then, we take to be nearly equal; but they are unequal in everything else.
The
Yankees are cowed, broken spirited, and hopeless, from the result of the late battles, in which they saw that no superiority of numbers could prevail over the superior valor of our troops.
The Confederates are buoyant, hopeful, eager for the fray, confident of victory, and anxious to begin.
They have been in the habit of beating the boasted army of the Potomac when they numbered three or four to one.
They feel no doubt of their ability to beat them now when they are not greatly more numerous than themselves.
It is for these reasons that we entertain no fears of the result.
On the contrary, we feel assured that it will be in our favor, and if
Grant is badly defeated here he is a lost man. It should not be forgotten that
Gen. Lee receives the attack behind breast-work, as he has done throughout the campaign, thereby occasioning to the enemy the most enormous slaughter without suffering any great comparative loss himself.
