What of the night?
[From the Mobile Advertiser, of August 1.]
Let those who think because
Vicksburg has fallen that we are whipped, use what little brains and heart they possess, to reflect and feel.
The
Mississippi river is conquered they say, and is open from its mouth to its tributary sources to the uninterrupted commerce of the enemy.
Let us tell them for their comfort that Yankee trade on that river slumbers on a volcano.
In sixty days that great current will be come a river of death from New Orleans to
Cairo, and no Federal prow or bale of goods will dare to tempt its waters.
The plan is laid and ripe for execution.
Look to the
West and watch its realization in the howls of the disappointed foe. The blow will be as sudden and unexpected as it will be sure and deadly.
Brave and energetic men are engaged in it, and the
Government backs the enterprise.
From the yet extensive land boundaries of the
Confederacy comes up cheering words of strength.
The great
State of Texas, an empire in itself, and a conquest single handed of no ordinary magnitude by the most powerful nation, stands intact in her strength.--Not a Federal soldier's footstep pollutes her soil, nor is one of her ports in hostile possession.
Louisiana West of the
Mississippi, conquered and overrun six months ago, has been since wrested from the grasp of the foe, and with all the strong points in our possession, is defended by skillful
Generals and the bravest of troops.
Mississippi is only occupied on the borders of the great river, and to these borders the enemy can be restricted if
Mississippi will put on her armor, send back her truant soldiers, and gag the months of her timid croakers.
Johnston,
Ruggles, and
Chalmers, each with an army, and at least eight thousand cavalry, are on her soil to defend it, and, with the help of the people, can defend it, and drive the
Yankees to their gunboats.
Alabama is freer from the enemy than she was a year ago, and has only to unite her reserved force to that of
Georgia and join
Gen. Bragg for delivering both States from the presence of the enemy.
Except an occasional raid on the
Atlantic coast from gunboats, the powerful
State of Georgia holds the integrity of her soil.
We have lost that part of
Tennessee between
Murfreesboro' and the
Tennessee river, but it is only to embarrass and checkmate
Rosecrans in his movements.
Even in
Kentucky the guerillas are busy, and we just read of their driving the
Federal troops back into
Columbus, Ky, and holding away over all the country around it.
South Carolina, except a few Islands on her coast, is free of the enemy, and is now gallantly breasting the fire and steel of the enemy at
Charleston.
The same may be said of
North Carolina.
Virginia, God bless her!
stands erect in the fullness of her manhood and the panoply of her arms, with not one plume in her war-creat drooping, although the fires and storms of battle have been poured upon her devoted head.
Never was the
Virginia press so buoyant in hope and so full of the spirit of fight.
Lee is yet at the head of an unconquered an unconquerable army that has proved its mettle and its discipline on fifty battle fields.
It fights next on the sacred soil of the "Old Dominion," a ground every inch of which is known to the commander, and almost every mile of which has been made classic by its victories.
Of materials of war we have abundance — arms, powder, and ball.
Of food, God has given us a harvest of unprecedented bounty.
Of men, there are enough
on the rolls of the army to outnumber the
Lincoln forces in the field, and off of these rolls enough to clothe five hundred thousand in the harness and mail of war.
With such elements of strength as these in efficient abundance, to talk about being "overrun" and whipped!
The work of whipping has not fairly begun, much less nearly ended.
When the
Yankees shall have taken every seaport,
Mobile,
Savannah, and
Charleston, and we are driven to the interior, the real troubles of subjugation will just have commenced.
Then comes long marches to the interior of a hostile country, huge and unmanageable supply trains, the peris of communication out off, of starvation, of enemies behind every stump and tree, and all these insurmountable obstacles which a people determined to be free can ever interpose to an army of invasion and subjugation.
No, we are not "whipped, "and we never shall be until we throw down our arms and bead our backs like slaves to the lash of the
Yankee master.
