From Petersburg.
[from our own correspondent.] Petersburg, Virginia, September 7, 1864.
Since the terrible shelling to which the city was exposed last Monday night, matters have remained comparatively quiet along the lines.
This morning, about sunrise, a party of Lane's North Carolina brigade, who were on picket in front of the Davis house, surprised, by a flank movement, the enemy's videttes, twelve in number, who were stationed near that point, and captured the last one of them.
The enemy are evidently making preparations to winter here, and are strengthening their works daily.
Grant has just issued the following as an offset to General Order No. 65.
It is, however, having but little or no effect.
I give it, however, as showing the straits to which he is reduced:
Headq'rs Armies of the United States, "In the Field, Virginia, August 28th, 1864.
"Special Orders, No. 82.
[Extract.]
"Hereafter deserters from the Confederate Army who deliver themselves up to the United States forces will, on taking an oath that they will not again take up arms during the present rebellion, be furnished subsistence and free transportation to their homes, if the same are within the lines of Federal occupation.
"If their homes are not within such lines, they will be furnished subsistence and free transportation to any point in the Northern States.
"All deserters who take the eath of allegiance, will, if they desire it, be given employment in the quartermaster's and other departments of the army, and the same remuneration paid them as is given to civilian employees for similar services.
"Forced military duty, or service endangering them to capture by the Confederate forces, will not be exacted from such as give themselves up to the United States military authorities.
As giving you a view of the situation from a Yankee standpoint, I subjoin a part of a letter from "the Chronicle's special." It shows that they rely for success very greatly on holding the Weldon road — miserable deception:
"near Petersburg,"September 2, 1864, 7 A. M.
"We have entered upon the fifth month of this terrible campaign. General Grant could not have supposed the obstacles first met after crossing the Rapid Ann would so long have resisted his powerful blows. He avoided them on one side to meet them vis-a-vis. to-morrow. Commanders of more feeling and less determination would have despaired of overcoming difficulties which seemed insurmountable, and gone to protect Washington, or have the causes for the failure of their late campaign investigated. "If Grant was deceived in regard to the magnitude of his tas, Lee was astonished that his was not more easily performed. A few days campaigning was all he was accustomed to endure on the south side of the Rapidan. All true Confederates believed in that line as they did in special Providence. No Yankee could cross that sacred boundary and live any more than a slave could exist in the Tyrol.--Imagine how the 'great Virginia's' reputation must have suffered at home and abroad when we marched perseveringly on, in spite of strength, strategy and opposition, until we settled around Petersburg, and look from the 'sunny South' upon the five steeples that shoot up in stately beauty among the trees. Lee is the greater sufferer in these under-estimates. Grant loses time, and men, and money; Lee loses the Confederacy and his immortal past reputation. To be mistaken in your foe and then conquered is a great trial. Deceived in an enemy — defeated by an expected easy prey. This is the 'Great Chieftain's' fate, and a hard one it must be to so successful a general. "Three months are left us for field service. We can endure even unto the end. Will our enemy, already weakened and worn, live and fight much longer! I think not. Already they betray signs of desperation. In place of the former cool, cunning calculations made to insure our self-destruction, signs of restlessness appear. At last our presence is painfully felt, and as each frantic effort to shake us off only results in damage to themselves, they rally their forces for another deadly assault, and raise the price of flour two dollars a pound. Little more is required than to hold this situation firmly, and make it the base of other operations, similar to those which deprived them of the Weldon road.--This can be done; the soldiers are confident of their position, and feel competent to maintain it in the face of one-half of the rebel army. And the soldiers know what they can do — better than any one else. "Picket practice in the centre, and artillery firing on the extremities of the line, we have regularly. Sometimes Petersburg is visited regularly every day with a shower of shells; then there is an interval of rest for that tormented and beleaguered city. "A few citizens remain scattered over the country. Their condition is very unenviable. If there is anything that has a tendency to make rebels say they are Unionists, it is hunger. Orders have been issued to supply the immediate wants of those actually suffering. "General Meade left here last night on a seven days leave of absence. General Parke commands during his absence." All accounts, by deserters and Yankee papers, represent that McClellan's nomination takes well in the Federal army. X.
