The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1863-11-20
(From the New York World.)
Battles i'm prospect.

The military situation has suddenly be
come of unusual interest. General Meade's s
army has advanced to the Rapidan, and If
the weather is not unpropitious it is under
stood he will attempt to cross and force the
rebels to fight battle. General Lees
army, from all accounts, does not number,
cavalry and all, more than fifty thousand
men, while Generals Meades force is at least
a score of thousands stronger, Cur army is
in splendid condition, which its recent
successes have in no wise tended to dimin-
ish, while its cavalry arm was never in bet
ter trim for changing defeat into rout.-
The storm which has prevailed aloug the
Atlanticslope the past few days may have
ted the movement from being con-
summsted, but unlass the roads are very
bad General Meade's army is by this time
maneuvering to bring on battle with the
enemy. This last advance. it is understood
was distinctly ordered by the President
while General Meade was recently in w ash
ington. 1t seems the administration does
not wish Congress to meet. with the Army
of the potomac in winter quarters.
From Chattanooga, also, the news is all
good, and promises soon to be exciting
General Sherman, with his twenty odd
thousand men, has reinforced General
Thomas's army, so that there cannot be
much less than 10000 Union soldiers OF all
arms in the neighborhood of that strong
hold. 1t is incredible that with this splen
did army of veterans, General Grant will
long remain on the defensive and submit to
a state of quasi-siege in which Bragg has
recently kept 6eneruf Fhomas's army. By
this time an abundance Of supplies must
have reached Chattanooga, and as there are
thirty-one inches Of water in the Oumber-
land at Nashville, and the rivers are rising,
there can be no further anxiety touching
rear communications. Our dispatches this
morning report great activity in the rebel
lines, aud vigorous shelling of our camps;
but we suspect this means that Bragg IS
preparing for General Grant to take the Of
fensive, or has commenced the retreat to-
Atlanta for which the Richmond papers
we're preparing the southern people. Still
all the indications are that another great
conflict will soon be fought near the "River
of Death"
At our last mail advices from Knoxville
General Burnsides army was in precarl-
Gus condition. The enemy seemed to be
closing in on both sides, and he seemed to
without force sufficient to hold more thanthe
region Immediately around Knoxville. The
War Department reports that the Union ar
nv in East Tennessee is safe, and we are IN
clined to believe Secretary Stanton Just
once, for the probabilities look that way,
Bragg cannot spare force large enough to
oyerwhelm Burnside without exposing his
main army to attack and destruction, and it
is incredible that rebel army of sufficient
size to be efficient can have approached
Knoxville from the east.
The movements of the flying column un,
der Generals Averill and Dufie, in Central
Virginia, must not be overlooked. in review
of the general military situation. The
country has already been informed of their
victory over "Mudwall'' jackson in Greeu-
brier; and the last rebel accounts report
General Averill at Covington, Allegheny
county, point not more than fifty miles
from Lynchburg, and less than twenty
miles from Salem, town on the great rail
4 Dad, and midway between Abingdon and
Lynchburg A raid at any point along the
road would be of incalculable advantage
lust now, and General Averell is just the
man to make it, He certainly has not ad'
yanced SO far into the enemy's country
without a purpose,