11. June 9, 1864 The Charleston Mercury [continued]
With this basis of approximate estimate, and the further fact
that the number of wounded that had been sent to the rear up to
the 19th, by those devoted men, the Richmond committee for the
relief of the wounded, had not reached, including those disabled
by sickness, ten thousand, there can be very little doubt of the
conclusion that Lee total losses, in killed and wounded, inclusive
of the battle of the 12th, have not overrun, at most, eleven or
twelve thousand. About three thousand five hundred prisoners
added to that, the depletion of his forces by the battles of the
campaign, up to this time, is fully represented, I should think,
by fourteen or fifteen thousand men. Grant army has shown, in the
increasing feebleness of, and longer intervals between his
attacks, in his change from offence to defence, from fighting to
maneauvring, unmistakable evidence of the crippling unavoidable,
under losses that, including about four thousand prisoners, must
certainly amount to fifty, but that fall, in all probability, not
much short of sixty thousand.
Defeated in forcing the roads covered by Lee at the battle of the
Wilderness, and again at that of the Ny, Grant slid a second time
upon our front. Moving off from his position before Spotsylvania
Court House, at an angle forty degrees to the east of the line to
Richmond, he marched fourteen miles to a place called Bowling
Green. By way of Port Royal on the deep waters of the
appahannock, he might have reached that village, if it had been
in the route of his first intention, without firing even a shot.
Once there, however, he has admitted that the original plan of
his campaign has been abandoned; and that having ceased to
contemplate the inland route, he has settled down on the adoption
of that attempted in vain by McClellan.
Lee had maintained his original line of defence - that of the
Mattapony - unbroken. The offensive having brought the contest
within the limits of tide water, the Confederate chief was,
therefore obliged to adopt a policy in keeping with those new
conditions; and for that purpose, crossing the North Anna, placed
in his front the navigable depths of the Pamunkey. He thus
covered Richmond and hiw own rear from any attempt at a coup de
[m ]. His front adapting itself to Grant change of base is now
swinging around to the eastward. The Federal cammander has
crossed the Chickahominy, and is now within a few miles of the
White House. He has, therefore, reached a position which he might
have occupied, by having had the courage to adopt McClellan
route, without any serious opposition, whereas, that by which he
has done so has cost his army seriously in morale, and even
terribly in its numerical force. Shorn of his strength, he yet
may - if Lee do not find it expedient to take the offensive -
give a color, by his position near Richmond, to electioneering...
at the North. I think it very probable that he may not take the
aggressive until after the meeting at Baltimore of the Black
Republican Convention for nomination of a candidate for the
Presidency.
The danger of the opening campaign in Northern Virginia is now
virtually passed. If that in Georgia should not turn out
unfortunately, in the face of all my reasonable anticipations,
and thereby arouse the war spirit at the North I think we have
arrived at the beginning of the end. Last August, you will
recollect, I ventured to condition the return of peace during
this coming August, on the miscarriage of the heavy and quick
blows that I looked for during spring, and now that these have
taken a form which leads to the conclusion of their total
failure. I find some justification in them, and even now,
somewhat bold speculations touching peace, in the fact that
regiments, whose term of service have expired, have already
commenced to stream from the army of General Grant homeward.
[end]
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