The weekly standard. (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1865-1867, 1866-01-06

did, Beauregard to collect his loose for
ces In North and South Carolina and
bring them to the defence of those pla-
ces, On the 18th the enemy attacked
Gen. Butler in his position in front Of
Drury's Bluff. He was forced back, o1
drew back, into his entrencnments be-
tween the forks of the James and AID
pomattox rivers, the enemy entrench-
ing strongly in his front, thus covering
the railroads, the city and all that was
valuable to him. His army, therefore,
though in a position of great security,
was as completely shut off from further
operations directly against Richmond
as if it had been in a bottle strongly
corked. It Itrequired but compare
lively small force of the enemy to hold
it there.
The question of areinforcements to
Lee from Beauregard" Gas secuted by
Butler Gen. Grant further explains in
the following reference to the strength
OF Gen. Lees army, subsequent to the
battle of SpottsyIvania Court House
wherein the Army ofthe James is rep
resented as being with
GENERAL BUTITR THEORETICALLY SEALED
up AT BERMUDA HUNDRED.
The army sent to operate gainst
Richmond having hermetricalIy sealed
itself up at Bermuda Hundred, the en-
emy was enabled TO bring the most, if
not all, the reihntrcements brought
from the South by Beauregard against
the army Of t1tr Potomac. In addition
to this Reimbursement, a very considera-
BILE one, probably not less than 5000
men was obtained by calling in the
scattered troops under Breckenridge
from the western part of Virginia.
These little episodes in Gen. Grants
report are interesting, in view of the
rumored actiono of Gen. Butler, who, it
is said, contemplates a sharp reply to
the Lieutenant Generals conclusions.
/ After bringing down the campaign
Of, 1864, to the crossing of the Chicka-
honainy, subsequent to the battle near
Cold Harbor, Gen. Grant enters upon
"a brief. r,rrg
/ . GLANCE AT THE SITUATION.
ADuring three long years the armies
Of the Potomac and Northern Virginia
had been confronting each other. In
that time they had fought more despe-
rate battlegt than it probably ever be-
fore fell to the lot of two armies to fight,
without materially changing the van
tage ground of either. The South
lern press and people, with more
shrewdness than was displayed in the
North, finding that they had failed to
capture Washington and march on to
New York, as they had boasted they
would do, assumed that they only de
tended their capital and Southern ter
Iritory. Hence, Antietaln, 6 ettysburg,
and allthe other battles that had been
fought, were by them set down as fail
ures on our part, and victories for them.
Their armies believed this. If nroz
duced a morale which could only be
overcome by desperate and continuous
hard fighting. The battles of the vii
derness, Spottsylyania, North, -Anna,1
and Cold Harbor, bloody and terrible
as they were on our side, were even
more damaging to the enemy and sa
crippled him as to make him wary ever
after of taking the'offensiye. His los
ses in men were probably not SO great,
owing to the fact that we were, save in
the Wilderness, almost invariably the
attacking party, and when he did at
tack it was in the open field.
The defeat of Banks by Dick Taylor
in the Red River country, in Louisiana,
wherein Banks was together with
The Louisiana Campaign, Finished.
By the 26th, Gen. Banks had assem-
bled his whole army at Alexandria, and
pushed forward to Grand Ecore. On
the morning of April 9Th, he moved
from Grand Ecore. On the afternoon
of the 7th, his. advance engaged the
enemy near Pleasant Hill, and drove
him fron9sthe field On the same after
noon the enemy made stand eight
miles beyond Pleasant Hill, but was
again compelled to retreat. Onthe 8th
at Sabine Cross Roads and Peach Hill,
the enemy attacked and defeated his
advance, capturing nineteen pieces of
and an immense amount of
transportation and stores During the
night Gen. Banks fell back to Pleasant
Hill, where another battle was fought
On the 9th, and the enemy repulsed with
great loss. During the night General
Banks continued his retrogade move
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