The Secretary of War has caught the prevailing alarm at the silence of Lee, and posted off to the President for a solution—but got none. If Lee falls back again, it will be the darkest day for the Confederacy we have yet seen.
July 9th.—The sad tidings from Vicksburg have been confirmed by subsequent accounts. The number of men fit for duty on the day of capitulation was only a little upwards of 7000. Flour was selling at $400 per barrel! This betrays the extremity to which they had been reduced.
A dispatch to-day states that Grant, with 100,000 men (supposed), is marching on Jackson, to give Johnston battle. But Johnston will retire—he has not men enough to withstand him, until he leads him farther into the interior. If beaten, Mobile might fall.
We have no particulars yet—no comments of the Southern generals under Pemberton. But the fall of the place has cast a gloom over everything.
The fall of Vicksburg, alone, does not make this the darkest day of the war, as it is undoubtedly. The news from Lee’s army is appalling. After the battle of Friday, the accounts from Martinsburg now state, he fell back toward Hagerstown, followed by the enemy, fighting but little on the way. Instead of 40,000 we have only 4000 prisoners. How many we have lost, we know not. The Potomac is, perhaps, too high for him to pass it—and there are probably 15,000 of the enemy immediately in his rear! Such are the gloomy accounts from Martinsburg.
Our telegraph operators are great liars, or else they have been made the dupes of spies and traitors. That the cause has suffered much, and may be ruined by the toleration of disloyal persons within our lines, who have kept the enemy informed of all our movements, there can be no doubt.
The following is Gen. Johnston’s dispatch announcing the fall of Vicksburg:
“Jackson, July 7th, 1863.
“Hon. J. A. Seddon, Secretary of War.
“Vicksburg capitulated on the 4th inst. The garrison was paroled, and are to be returned to our lines, the officers retaining their side-arms and personal baggage.