Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1862-09-04

TIE Richmond papers bring ttls 10 addition to TIE
telegraphic announcement by General Lee. that our
army obtained great victory over tn combined forces
of Pope and Mcclellan on Saturday last
The Northern accounts represent the affairs OF Thurs
day and Friday as g Union Victories" These affairs
were efforts made by the Federas to break through our
lines add re establish their lines of communication with
their base of operations They faea in accomplishing
their object either day. and forced to general
engagement On Saturday, which General Lee says re-
suited in signal victory for the Confederstes 1t is
said that suniry semio fcia dispatches reached Rich
mond Monday announcing genera lily that the enemy
had been routed and that our army was in pursuit.
Mcclellan landed his forces drawn from the peninsula
at Alexandria ard Acquia Creek. AS will be seen by
orr telegraph, he has drawn all his forces from Freder
icksburg He will concentrate everything for the defence
OF Washington city, and il he can make good bis re
treat to Alexandria aud Arlington heights, he may be
able to maintain himself and await renlorcemGnts.
There are now in Washington and its vicinity good
many men just arrived some OF whom had not even got
their arms at the last accounts aud all of them wholly
raw and undrled. Should the Federal drilled troops
be thrown back in defeat the camps of these green
presence would work decided injury to their own side
But we may be assured that the enemy will work like
beavers in drilling and otherwise fitting their levies
for actual service.
The NEWS from the West continues to be rather
vague and uncertain. We can only CLEAN from the gen
eral tenor of the information from that quarter that
the enemy retreating from bis positions the up
per Tennessee-that Morgan, the Federal leader at
Cumberland Gap, is in critical position, if he has not
been forced to capitulate, and that communca-
ton between Nashville and Louisville and Gin
cinnati has been cut Of, the railroad lines
having either been rendered unseryittahle or fallen
into the hands Of the Coniedeaes and the Cumberland
River has less than thirty inches of water. What
amount of water there may be in the Tennessee River
we do not know, but should think ii was at low
stage, inasmuCh drought has been prevailing
all along its in Fast Tennessee Western North
Carolina and upper Georgia. We hear of no move
ments OF the Yankee guDboats On that stream lately.
The retreat of Bucl5 forces from the line Of the Mem
phis and Charleston Railroad will rc-0Ien ore OF the
great lines of communication between the Atlantic
States and the Southwest, while if The hopes of some of
our people are realized may again get sugar and
asses from Louisiana to carry over this and other roads
Hudson, some twenty five miles above Baton Rouge
and by water probably three hundred miles below
Vcksburg Vicksburg is a break water against de-
scending fleets, and if Port Hudson can be made a
break water against ascending ones there will then be
that long reach of the Mississippi River open for the
sugar planters of Western Louisiana and Texas to send
over their sugar to the States East of the river where
sugar is not produced. But of course all this depends
maintaining Vicksburg and upon the still unsolvcd
question of the daiensibilty o. Port Hudson or Baton
Rouge. This question, howevl will probably soon re-
Ceive solution.
We in September. Already we begin to
notice that the heats of summer are declining, and the
fall of the leaf will be with us. Ia two or three
months the active campaign frontiers will have
closed for neither in Northwestern Virginia. Maryland
Kentucky nor Pennsylvania, would the roads admit Of
much advance being made by troops on either side, af
ter the winter had fairly set in
With the suspension of active operations III the
field along cur more Northern lines, and the advent Of
FROST VIC may lock for renWHal of the naval exped
tons against the towns and cities of our Southern SEQ
board Little Of this kind has been dUne since the fall
of New Orleans, but may expect it to be renewed
this winter with greater violence and discrimination
than ever. Now is the time to look out for the de-
fences OF Mobile Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington
and such other ports left to US. No doubt cur
OF defence have been increased since last winter
all these points, but have they been increased in pro-
portion to the increase in the enemys of ata,k
Recocct that they will attack this winter with iron
cads or at least with some ironcadS in each expedi-
ton and that these ought to be by something equal
y impregnable, and by powerful distractions. II OBJ
structions are strong enough to stop feet ard de-
Tended by battery that cannot be silenced of course
the feet cannot pass and the distractions cannot be re-
moved, the battery would cut off any working party
that might attempt their removal.
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