All agree in the conviction that the enemy has been defeated—perhaps badly beaten.
Hon. H. S. Foote, just arrived from the vicinity of the field, says Bragg has only some 20,000 or 30,000 men, while Grant has 90,000, and he infers that incalculable disaster will ensue.
And Meade is steadily advancing. Gen. Pickett, at Petersburg, has been ordered to send some of his troops north of Richmond, for the defense of the railroad in Hanover County.
Miss Stevenson, sister of Major-Gen. Stevenson, has written the President for employment in one of the departments. He referred it to Mr. Memminger, who indorsed on it, coldly, as usual, there were no vacancies, and a hundred applications. The President sent it to the Secretary of War. He will be more polite.
Another letter to-day from Mr. Memminger, requesting that a company, commanded by a son of his friend, Trenholm, of Charleston, be stationed at Ashville, where his family is staying.
Lieut.-Gen. D. H. Hill has applied for a copy of Gen. Bragg’s letter asking his removal from his army. The President sends a copy to the Secretary, who will probably comply, and there may be a personal affair, for Bragg’s strictures on Hill as a general were pretty severe.
There are rumors of a break in the cabinet, a majority, it is said, having been in favor of Bragg’s removal.
Bragg’s disaster so shocked my son Custis that, at dinner, when asked for rice, he poured water into his sister’s plate, the pitcher being near.
November 27th.—Dark and gloomy. At 10 o’clock Gov. Vance, of North Carolina, telegraphed the Secretary of War, asking if anything additional had been heard from Bragg. The Secretary straightened in his chair, and answered that he knew nothing but what was published in the papers.
At 1 o’clock p.m. a dispatch was received from Bragg, dated at Ringgold, Ga., some thirty miles from the battle-field of the day before. Here, however, it is thought he will make a stand. But if he could not hold his mountain position, what can he do in the plain? We know not yet what proportion of his army, guns, and stores he got away—but he must have retreated rapidly.