Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-10-27
w OR C L S Err:
TUESDAY. OCTOsER "a. 1853.


The free comments OF rebel journals in the
southwest on the object of JEFF Davis visit,
show how important the operations in that
department are regarded. His own appeal to
the army, and subsequent confession at Selma,
indicated in general way that he looked ON
this as the vital point in the struggle where
success was Indispensable to farther effort.
The newspapers are more explicit, and leave
no doubt as to the precise value they put on
the chances of success or defeat. The At
lanta Confederacy states the object of this
presidential mission to be one of ''intense in
terest," and adds:
at is to save Georgia from the evils that
have poured in one bitter tide over the states
of Mississippi and Louisiana; to save the
army of the Tennessee from the dculoYaliza-
ton that marked the army of the west last
spring and summer; to save the people of the
central south from the discomfort that marked
thuse of the west under the timid and unsuS-
tanned military operations that ended in'the
loss of the Mississippi river and its cOnse-
quences and above all, to save our holy
cause and the government we have chosen
from the evils that will betall them if aew
Uigor and energy are not infused into the
\. councils and operations OF the army that
shields the heart of the confederacy."
This is not the expression of light or mo-
mentary passions. 1t is significant of the
Impotence and bitterness which has accunu-
lated against the military management at
Richmond, since the tide of ill-success turned
against the southwestern states many weeks
ago. 1t is also a vigorous warning to the
rebel chief that it will not be safe orprudent to
allow the interests OF Richmond or Virginia
to stand in the way of ''the army that shields
the heart of the confederacy." On this point
the late Knoxville Register, which has of late
led kind of peripatetic existence, is more
precise and earnest:-
1.-THE very existence of the confederate
States depends on the re-occupation of Ten
nessee by Gen. Bragg Our enemies know
this well our own commander-in- chief
There is no risk nor sacrifice, no concentra-
ton of strength, that will be spared in the ac-
complshnlent of the re-conquest of Tennes-
see. The army of Virginia will be thrown
upon East Tennessee, and that of the Missis-
sippi valley upon Rosecrans' rear, in the d.
recti0n o! Murfreesbor.o The calm that
followed the storm at Chickamauga is the
presage of more terrible events, and the
coming shock of contending armies on the
soil OF Tennessee, will be decisive of the fate
of the confederation. If any one doubts the
necessity which would impel president Davis
to sacrifice Richmond, Charleston and Mobile,
all to re-acquire eastern Tennessee, he need
only ask the commiSSary general by what
agencies and from what source the armies
of the south have been sustained Dur
ing the first year of the war eastern Ten
nessee furnished the confederate states with
over twenty-five million pounds of bacon.
Last year the State of Tennessee fed the
army"
If JEFF. Davis did not promise that ''no con-
centraton Of strength should be spared for
the reconquest of Tennessee" even to the
sacrifice of the long protracted campaign in
Virginia, he yet was not wanting in the yigor
and earnestness of his appeals. He urged
the on-conscripts of Alabama to gather their
guns and go to the rescue-confdent that
thus ''Rosecrans would be crushed to dust"
and that the ''defeat of Rosecrans would prac-
tically end the war" 1t is not doubtful that
at the time these appeals, official and others,
were made, it seemed indispensable to gather
all the rebel forces that were possibly availa-
Die INTO cooperation Tor regainlng possession
of East Tennessee. But the new combination
of the Union armies in that region were not
then matured, and it is hoped that before this
time Gen. Grant has his foe on the defensive,
and is giving him small opportunity to plot
for the recovery OF territory from which he
has been driven out forever.
The exigencies OF the season are such as to
demand the most watchful attention on the
part of the government, and to excite the in
terest of the whole people. They call for the
most energetic use of the means at the dis
posal of the former and appeal to the latter to
come up once more, as in the early days Of
the struggle, and, by one more gallant sacri-
fee, accomplish the work, and win the laurels
of the victors in the last, decisive battle of the
war.