Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1863-07-24
FROM The ARMY OF THE POTOMAC

Position Of Lees Army-Des signs of the
rcnisderates-Movem of Gen. Kelly,
ne LGte Fight OF Gen. Gregg, &c.
The New York Tribune publishes The fol.
| lowing letter:
HAkrER's FERRY, July 2i-Thus stands tho
''si'1ation at present a. bet ween the tvo p-rat
! armies OF the Potomac. The light i'm which /
SHAH present it may be new. hut it is also true.
lie main body of our army. which lately
| bad its tase at Berlin, now rests some o5 nils,
nom mat place, ana there is no present an
pearance or promise of q forward movement
Lee mes hetween Martinsburg and Wiuches
lei. ana also rests. He no longer presents 70
Us the aspect of precipitate and dernorslizad
retreat but partly in desperation, PERTAINS. or
p.fhaps In the hopefnlness which moierat,
rtlLforcements have inspired, partly in Llat
willy strategy OF his, which is ever ready tn
assume tho boldest attitudes, he holds his
ground. he even threatens US, he would fam
Inahe us believe that We have grossly exag-
geiated our success; in line, his posture is that
OF one 10 whom another invasion into Mary-
land and Pennsylvania seems neither impos-
slhie or impoiitic. His pickets occupy the Po-
.oIhae river from Cherry run, l3 miles west of
hartinsburg, even Gown to Rarper's Ferry
IN iact, on Friday night they drove in our
p1ekess at the Ferry. They are quite in force
town.
You observe that the two armies have the
Shenandoah river and Blue Ridge between
them, SO that near "a they are, geographically,
tney are morally FAR apart, and the movements
OF either may be mysterious to the other Itis
but truth to say that Lees position (and, as il
now appears, his condition) is such as to de-
mand from General Meade all ms vigilance
ana call into action all his sagacity, all his
genius. Ii he pursuee his original plan and
makes southwark for Warrenton, TO hold the
orange and Alexandria and Manassas Gap
railroads, and procures his supplies by those
lines, Lee may cross him ON the north and
threaten w Washington again. 1t is indeed i'm
posslsie not 10 believe that this is Lees atu-
tuoe-thls, perhaps. his intention-and, there
lore, shali not be surprised to find General
Meade falling back to Berlin and the Balti-
more and Ono railroad, and that very soon.
10 snow you how active the great rebel still
ls-how bold, or rather desperate, his so lately
flying host-it was only on Monday last that
the sRrewd and Industrious General Kelly
who from the beginning Of the year has
guarded night and day so great length Of the
baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and under
whose watchful eye ii has again ana again
arisen from its own ruins to spirited life-wiro
mad projected the new reconstruction as tar
eastward as Back Creek and the North Noun
tain, seven miles west OF Martinsburg was
driven back Is miles TO Hancock. Gen. Averill,
with his noted cavalry force, ACCOMPANIED, II
ne dld not conduct, the retrograde movement.
II is plain that the fight in which Gregg's
1oree played so spfrte. a part was a disaster for
ns-one lar from insignificant, when we regard
II In the moral light of our cavalry fight
A force sent out . few days siPce on an ina
portant Reconnaissance. under Major Farms
worth and other Ulcers, has been captured
between Charles win and Harper's Ferry