Year: 1863

meantime they must submit to disagree
able position with the best philosophy they
can, knowing that it is the result OF neces
sity and not of wanton cruelty on our part


We have abstained from referring to the
unspeakable horrors which our prisoners
have suffered in Fort Delaware and other
Yankee prisons because two wrongs do not
make right. But we may at least say to
the Yankee prisoners that if they suffer
here it is not our fault, we cannot help it ;
but the fault of their own government, who
will not exchange prisoners-who will
only send back our sick and wounded men,
and, when we return Others in the same
condition, bassly and of wanton malice pre-
tend that their sufferings are the result OF
starvation in Southern prisons,


Rebel Lament Over Affairs tn the West.


From the Richmond Examiner, Nov 81


The country may as well prepare ITSELF
for another retreat in the West. The indi-
cations of the annual migration of birds
are scarcely more unerring than are the au-
guries which foretell the disappointment of
the high expectations formed Of the results
to be attained in that quarter. After con.
tinuance of favorable prognostics, to which
additional strength was given by the conf
dent tone of the President since his recent
tour Of inspection; after reiterated assu,
RANGES of the straits to which the euemy
was reduced; or the precarlous tenure of his
communications, the difficulties of subsist-
ence by which he was pressed, and the i'm
possibility of his long continuance in his
his present position, we now note certain
and somewhat inde6nable change of tone,
which, to a people rendered doubly acute
by long habit and deep interest, serves to
mark the fall of the barometer, and to give
warning of the coming storm.


The newspapers were enjoined, at the
beginning Of the war, and they have IN gen
eral displayed cemmendable disposition to
observe proper reticence az to the move
ments of troops and the probable plans OF
our Generals. 1t may be doubted, en- pas
SAINT, if the practice now prevalent at
Charleston, of publishing the exact number
of the enemys shots which strike, and the
amount of damage they do, is exactly in &C
cordance with tho prudent policy usually
observed.


But no matter what may be the general
freedom from censure in this respect, there
is one point on which there is much to
blame, not so much for any warning or in
formation it gives the enemy as for its sad
effect upon our own people. 1t is the con
tinual and extravagant representations that
are made of the advantageous positions oc.
cupied by our amy, and the great results
that are soon to ensue. The enemy's army
is at one time hemmed in between a river
and our own forces, at another his flank is
turned, one corps entirely cut of, and its
destruction certain; again, his communica-
tions are so embarrassed that he must fight
to save himself from starvation.


These fanciful statements excite the
contempt of the observer, who knows from
general history of how rare occurrence is
the absolute destruction or surrender Of an
entite army, and how difficult to bear all
avenues of retreat. Applied TO our own
position, and read by the light of the his
tory of the last two years, they excite an
uneasy feeling of apprehension.


They recall too many glowing promises
of the same nature, all of which, after be-
getting an undue feeling of elation and
high expectations, inevitaby doomed to be
disappointed even by more signal success
than usually waits on military operations,
have followed by feeling of desp 'ndency
at the unsatisfactory sequel. Let all such
extravagant predictions and swelling pro-
logues" be considered contraband in future.
The serious difficulties of tho war are
enough to try all our fortitude. Let US not
add those engendered by reaction arising
from ovsr.wrought expectation.


Consistent accounts reach us, not only Of
mistakes in execution, but of disagreement
and discord in the councils Of the Western
army. 1t is certain that with such state
of things full efficiency cannot be expected
from an army. The chief should be made
to suit the lieutsnants, or the lieutenaats
made to suit the chief, Until this is done
the valor of our troops will probably win
success upon pitched field, but the full
fruits of the victory will not be grasped, nor
the decisive results attained, which depend
upon the elaborate execution of extensive
combinations.