Year: 1863

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The Great Struggle for tho Mississippf-
| Vicksburg and Port Hudson.


The great struggle for the Mississippi is now


reduced to two points, the capture of which will
| give to the government the complete control of
the great river from its sources to the sea, and
the loss of which by the rebellion will be as


decisive against it as the cutting in two Of an


army on the field of battle These two points


are Vicksburg and Port Hudson, both COM
p]etely invested by the land and naval forces


Of the Union, and with every prospect in each


case of complete success. aea
General Pemberton, the rebel commander at
Vicksburg, estimates the investing force of Gen.
Grant at sixty thousand men, The rebel force


inside the defences of the besieged city hardly


exceeds, we dare say, twenty thousand men,


Joe Johnston, with the fragment of an army re-


ported as not exceeding fifteen thousand men.


When driven out of Jackson by General


Grant it was less than six thousand. The


additional nine thousand have doubtless been


picked up from the debris of General Pember-


toms army, left behind in his disastrous retreat


to Vicksburg. From these data, not emitting
the powerful cooperation of Admiral Porter's
gunboat squadron, all the advantages Of the
situation at vicksburg appear to be so largely
in the possession of General Grant as to
discountenance the remotest misgiving Of
failure.


Next, with regard to Port Hudson, some


h,,D vcsla kna a.
the chances seem to be as strongly in our favor.
The rebel garrison is represented as not ex-
ceeding ten thousand men. They are invested
on the land side by General Banks, with vete-
ran army which, we presume, musters more
than twenty thousand men, and on the water
side by the gunboat squadron of that famous
and fearless old sea lion, Admiral F~ragut
Here, too, as at Vicksburg, the rebel garrison
is reported to be on avery short allowance of
provisions while all resources from the outside
are entirely cut of. Surely, then, in view Of
all these facts, the fate of Vicksburg and Port
Hudson is sealed, and there Is no escape for
them:


But there may be other facts and probabili-
ties worthy of consideration. We have no
means of knowing what has been going on all
this time behind Joe Johnston. Reinforce
ments from Mobile, Savannah, Charleston,
North Carolina and from Tennessee may have
been moving to Join him BY thousands. He
may thus, possibly, this day have an army
around him of fifty thousand men, and with
this force moving upon the rear of General
Grant there would probably be an end of the
siege of vicksburg. We hope, however, that
before this day the siege has been ended by
General Grants occupation of the city. We
think that the destructive raids Of our cavalry
all through the State Of Mississippi and across
the northern counties of Alabama and Georgia,
and the destructive inland march of General
Grants army, have 80 broken up the enemy's
communications and railway facilities, and
have made such havoc of their depots and
stores Of supplies, that General Johnston has
found it slow work to increase his army and
extremely difficult to feed even the limited
force under his command.


But as we know from experience that the
rebels can subsist almost upon nothing. and
march for week from twenty to thirty miles
q day barefooted, and as Joe Johnston
is the man who stole away from General
Patterson in the Shenandoah valley, and cross
ed over the Blue Ridge and came into the first
battle of Bull run just in time to turn q rebel
defeat into great rebel victory, we know that
he requires vigilant watching. The only way
to make assurance doubly sure at vicksburg
and Port Hudson is to push down reinforce
ments to Grant and Banks. To render them
successful all the forces Of General
Burnside in Kentucky could b., spared; for,
with the much greater objer.,. in view, Kentucky
might be wisely left fer few weeks to defend
herself against epr rreheuded raids ofrebel gueril
las. Gener'.. Halleck and the Secretary Of War
have " game in their hands. If they win they
VII literally share in the glory Of the crowning
triumphs of the war; but if they lose nothing


but their immediate expulsion from Office will


save the administration from penalties Of the


righteous Indignation of the loyal States. The


people have the fullest confidence in Grant


and Banks and in the sterling soldiers whom


they command; but they have learned to be


distrustful Of the sluggishness Of the War Office.


Give us vicksburg and Port Hudson, and


Secretary Stanton and General Halleck will be


excused all their past hlunders; but let them


fail to secure the great prizes within their grasp,


and the President will be compelled TO cut


them adrift.


TRANSATLANTIC TEIEGRAPHs.-Mr. Cyrus W:


Field left for Europe yesterday, to complete


the arrangements for telegraph across the
! North Atlantic, via Queenstown and New
! foundland Signor Arturo de Marooartu,