The news from the
Southwest continues to be of the most cheering character.
Nobly has
General Pemberton vindicated the confidence placed in him by
President Davis.
From all accounts, the defence of
Vicksburg is the most glorious episode in the already crowded annals of our military history.
Hecatombs of Yankees attest the valor of our troops and the skill and success with which they have been handled in every attack.
The heroic garrison has immortalized itself.
The
Yankees give up the attempt to take the city by storm, and now talk of a regular siege — a plan which
General Joe Johnston may possibly interfere with.
The telegraph also brings the report of a brilliant victory gained by
Kirby Smith over
Banks at
Port Hudson.
We have every reason to believe that this news will also be confirmed.
With
Grant's army all but annihilated by the terrific execution of our musketry and artillery at
Vicksburg, and
Banks's "strategic movements" suddenly cut short at
Port Hudson, the great campaign of the
West, from which so much was expected by the enemy, bids fair to prove by far the most dsiastrous and gigantic of all their failures in this war.
The national craving for lies, which is so eminently characteristic of the
Yankees, must have been hugely tickled by the announcement of the hanging of
Pemberton by his own troops.
This stunning piece of news, together with the no less veracious statement that
Grant "has
Vicksburg so hemmed in that the enemy cannot use his siege guns," cannot fail to recommend its author,
Maj.-Gen. Augur, to the favor of
Lincoln and his subjects generally.
Augur is now a made man, and we shall be very much disappointed if he does not shortly supersede
Hooker, whose performances in the same line, although highly creditable to his inventive genius,
Augur has undoubtedly left far behind at one single dash.
