The War news.
Quiet reigned on the lines in front of
Richmond and
Petersburg yesterday.
So very quiet, indeed, has
Grant's army been of late that its existence is, to judge from recent Northern papers, forgotten or ignored in Yankee land.
The New York
Herald has taken down the great sign "
Grant," that used to stare at us in flaming capitals from the top of its first column, and has not a word to throw away upon the Army of the James or the Army of the Potomac.
The Yankee nation is busy with a more important affair — President-making.
Grant has good reason for his inactivity.
He is at his wit's end. On the 27th of October he not only failed to turn either our right or left flank, but was badly cut up, and got himself into such a trap on our right that, but for his hasty midnight retreat from the
Boydton plankroad, he must have lost a good portion of his army.
Had he held his advanced position till daylight on the 28th, he would have furnished the
Northern journals with a sensation article indeed, and one which would have defeated
Lincoln's election, if anything would.
What
Grant saw in that advance or "reconnaissance" convinced him that he cannot attempt to reach the Southside railroad without either storming our works, putting himself in the dangerous position he occupied on the 27th, or making a detour of twenty-five or thirty miles to the southwest.
He may well pause long before attempting either of these experiments.
We see nothing better for him to do than to go into winter quarters and await the completion of Old Butler's canal and the return of spring.
This would certainly be his wisest course; but it is not likely he will be permitted to adopt it. When the excitement attending the Presidential election shall have died away, and the
Yankee press and people have time again to turn their attention to war matters, there will be such a fire in his rear because he does not take
Richmond that he will be forced to attempt something, however desperate the prospect of success.
There is a rumor that
Sheridan is coming to him to strengthen him for future operations.
This strikes us as unlikely.
Sheridan's campaign in the
Valley has long ceased to be offensive.
Since his retreat from
Harrisonburg his movements have been purely defensive.
He has been in the
Valley not to capture any town or destroy any of our lines of communication, but solely to keep
Early out of
Pennsylvania and
Maryland.
Up to this time he has barely managed to hold our troops in check.
If his army is weakened by the withdrawal of a force sufficiently large to render
Grant any practical aid,
Early will march into
Maryland at his pleasure.
In view of these facts, we doubt whether
Grant can expect any addition of strength from
Sheridan.
He must look to another draft for reinforcements.--This draft will not be long delayed; yet the troops raised under it will not be ready for service in this campaign.
Therefore, looking also to the matter of reinforcements,
Grant's best plan is to go into winter quarters.
He has fought it out on this line, and it
has taken all summer, and most of the fall also.
He has kept his word, though it was uttered only as a sounding boast; and now there is nothing for him to do but slumber on the line during the coming winter.
The
Yankees declined to exchange papers yesterday, and the pickets in front of
General Pickett's line are reported to have said they were ordered to fire upon any of our men that advanced with the purpose of exchanging.
Yankee pickets on the same line stated that there had been a great riot in New York city, during which Old Butler had been assassinated.
We discredit this absolutely, as being entirely too good, too delightful, to be true.
If there had been twenty riots in New York,
Butler is not fool enough to expose himself in the streets.
A man who would not go abroad in the down-trodden city of
New Orleans unless when clad in armor so weighty that he could scarcely walk under it, is not exactly the person to risk his precious person in mobs of infuriated and exasperated Copperheads.
Oh no !
Butler still lives, and is now reaping a harvest of honor and glory for having kept New York, the great headquarters of Copperheads, "O. A. K.'s" and rebels, quiet during the election of last Tuesday.
Latest from the North--Lincoln's re-election and call for a Million of men.
Late last night we received from our intelligent agent at
Petersburg the telegram — to be found in another column — containing a summary of news from the New York papers of the 10th instant.
The news is intensely interesting, and most important.--
Lincoln, the moment his re-election is assured, has issued his proclamation calling for a million of men to swell his armies.
Now, for the first time, begins at the
North the reign of the sword, in the heavy hand of the
Illinois rail-splitter.
Hitherto he has but showed it occasionally in terror; hereafter the
Yankee nation are to feel it's edge.
Lincoln is dictator — the sword in one hand and purse in the other.
He calls for one million men. He does not "call spirits from the vasty deep." They will come.
He will have them.
Revolution alone can prevent it, and that revolution must not be delayed to be of any avail.
It may be too late now.
Activity in the Valley.
General Early passed through
Winchester Saturday, at one o'clock, on his way towards the
Potomac.
His army is efficient and enthusiastic.
Our cavalry had a successful engagement with the enemy on Saturday some six or seven miles beyond
Winchester, on the
Martinsburg road.
We have no particulars of the fight.
Sheridan's army had, as stated in Saturday's
Dispatch, been weakened by sending two corps across the
Potomac in the direction of
Washington.
From Manassas Gap Railroad.
The enemy removed the rails from the Manassas Gap railroad as low down as its junction with the
Orange and
Alexandria road.
They have now left that section of country altogether.
Forrest's operations — destruction of Yankee gunboats and transports and Immense supplies of stores.
The following official dispatch was received at the War Department on Saturday:
"
General Forrest reports on the 5th instant that he was then engaged fighting the enemy at
Johnsonville, having already destroyed four gunboats, of eight guns each; fourteen steamers and twenty barges, with a large quantity of quartermaster and commissary stores, on the landing and in warehouses, estimated at between seventy-five and one hundred thousand tons.
Six gunboats were then approaching, which he hoped to capture or destroy.
Forrest is a trump.
Seventy-five thousand tons of quartermaster and commissary stores ! This would almost fill the
Capitol Square.
General Forrest is the first of our generals who has been obliged to compute by the ton the enemy's stores which he has destroyed.
The loss to the enemy in stores, to say nothing of gunboats, transports and barges, is many millions of greenbacks; but even this is not the worst of it. They relied upon these stores to support
Sherman's army, and their destruction must very much embarrass its movements.
Johnsonville, which is named after
Andy Johnson,
Military Governor of
Tennessee and
Vice- President elect of the
United States, is on the east bank of the
Tennessee river, four miles above
Reynoldsburg, and is the terminus of the
Northwestern railroad, which connects
Nashville with the river at that point.
Andy Johnson caused the
Northwestern railroad to be completed to this place in order to supply
Nashville by the
Tennessee river whenever the
Cumberland should be too low for steamboat navigation.
Since the completion of the railroad it has grown to be a place of great importance, being the depot of supplies for
Nashville,
Knoxville,
Chattanooga and
Atlanta.
General Forrest attacked the place from above and below at the same time.
Having planted his batteries during the night of the 4th, he, the next morning, opened a concentrated fire with eight pieces upon the four gunboats lying at the wharf, which, after an engagement of ten minutes, during which the boats replied vigorously, were set on fire and consumed.
The enemy also directed against us a brisk fire of howitzers from their fort.
After setting fire to the gunboats, our batteries opened on the transports and barges, which were also soon destroyed.
The vast quantities of stores which crowded the warehouses of the place and covered acres of ground along the wharf, took fire in some places from the burning boats, and in others were fired by our batteries, the rapid play of which also deterred the enemy from making any effort to extinguish the flames.
Though, as we have said, the enemy's fire was very heavy, it was not efficient.
General Forrest's entire loss in this affair was only ten men wounded.
At last accounts his batteries still commanded the town, which, after he disposed of the six gunboats that he mentions as approaching, he either destroyed or captured.
From our Southern accounts, the report is confirmed that
Sherman has returned to
Atlanta with four corps, having been unable to catch
Hood.
He has in
Tennessee, however, a force of about 40,000 men, under
Thomas.
We may now expect an early advance by
Sherman on
Augusta or
Macon, with a view of forcing
Hood to return to
Georgia.
Hood did not take
Decatur, as has been so positively stated, but marched around it and crossed the
Tennessee near
Tuscumbia.
His new base of operations is near
Tullahoma.
This is a little town on the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad, about seventy miles from
Nashville and a little more than seventy from
Chattanooga.
Tullahoma is in the edge of
Coffee county, and contiguous are the counties of
Warren,
Franklin,
Lincoln,
Bedford and
Maury — a rich section, and filled with a brave people.
If
General Hood can hold the
Nashville and
Chattanooga road at this point a while, we do not see why he may not so utterly destroy
Sherman's communication as to make it necessary for him to wagon and foot it out
via Sparta or
East Tennessee.
The seaboard.
From all points on the seaboard we find nothing but the monotonous "nothing stirring. " There are the same argus eyes on the watch, and the same hulls and tapering masts of the blockaders stand out against the sky to-day, to-morrow and to-morrow, till one thinks they must wear away with the eternal lashing of our Southern coast waves; but they will beleaguer our cities until this accursed war shall close.
At
Mobile the situation is scarcely interesting — the enemy merely lying off in the bay and every now and then taking a turn up towards the city to see what is doing.
At
Charleston and
Wilmington the fleet are occupied mainly in watching blockade-runners, and occasionally cruise along the coast as though they were sentinels pacing their watery beat.
