The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-01-21
The Situation and the Prospect.

The Situation and the Prospect
The speech-making President Of the
Richmond CoDiederacy, in his late tour
for Che consolation of the faithful, spoke
repeatedly Of the bright evening pros
Pacts of the rebellion. We are great
deal better off than we were one year
ago, says he. His reiterated boastings
xemind one not little of the Scotch
rustic in Burns poem Of Halloween,
who, on venturing out Of doors on that
Night when witches and wsrlocks hold
carnival
whstled az Lord LrssoS march
To keep his eournge CHEEKY"
Let us take the map, and by tracing
out the actual position of the rebel and
Union armies, and the important cities
and districts held by the latter, ascertain
whether The rebel or the National cause
has been progressing within the period
stated by DAVIS.
One year ago The rebel army was as
far North as Bowling Green, Kentucky,
and had the whole Southern portion of
that State under its heel to-day il is on
the banks of Duck River. One year ago
the rebels held Western Virginia, and
TO- day that part of the Old Dominion IL
aseparate and thoroughly loyal State
One year ago the rebels held the Mis-
sissippi River from Columbus, KY, to
New Orleans, and to- day that whole
stream is in our possession with the ex-
oeptiOn of small portion between
Vicksburg and Point Hudson. One year
ago New Orleans, which, from population,
wealth and location, is pre- eminently the
representative city of the planting States
and of the Mississippi Valley, and Mem
phis the most enterprising, fOurishing
and rapidly growing city of the South
west, were both under the rebel Govern
ment, and to- day the National flag waves
oyer them both. One year ago Missouri
was virtually in the power Of the rebels
and TO- day she is not only unequivocally
and beyond all controversy attache d to
Ahe Union, free from the presence of reb-
al armies, excepting occasional invasions
or rather raids, along the Arkansas bOr-
der, but an anti-slavery State. One
year ago, Maryland was confidently
claimed by the rebels, and regarded as
doubtful by hopeful loyalists, and to-
day her position is 80 unmistakably for
the Union that the rebels name her with
disgust maryland, My Maryland" is
no longer heard in the drawing rooms Of
the rebeilious. Within the last twelve
months the Federal Government has
gained important fOot-hOlds in North
Carolina, Soulh Carolina, Florida, Ala
hama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and
Arkansas and 80 effective has been the
klockade established by our navy, that
the arrival of $4,000 or 100000 worth
Of goods, not enough to stock second
class store in Nashville, is published,
with rapturous comments and exultation
from one end of Dixie to the other. TIL G
prospects of the rebellion improving
And this assertion is made by the Pres
ideni of the so-called Confederacy, in a
speech, and published in a Richmond
paper which reports flour selling at $40
and $50 per barrel, coffee SO, and 81 a
pound, molasses $ll gallon by the bar
rel, and other Hecessaries of life in pro-
pOrtionl If this be an improvement then
deliver us henceforward from improve
nents. We haue republished, from
Southern papers, recently many articles
Loudly and bitterly deploring the desti-
sutton which now atilicts that unhappy
section, while intercepted private letters
confirm the testimony publicly borne by
Che journalists. An agony more painful
than the throes Of death cOnyulses the
whole fame Of the rebellion. And no
man living feels this fact more sensibly
than lie guilty leader who in his empty
vauntings and promises only shows the
false courage that arises from despers-
alSR.
Col Dickey in his late report &c Gen
a.