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July 12, 1862. We have carefully ascertained the character and the results of the recent battles before Richmond, and have considered and adopted such measures as the new exigencies have seemed to us to require. What I have before written to you is in the main confirmed. The seven days' battles were accepted by our army upon a compulsory change of base. Our losses were large, but much less than the first reports represented. They amount to about 12,000 men. The losses of the insurgents were greater. Each battle was, in fact, a victory of our army, although the flank movement from the field towards the new base gave the whole series the character of a retreat. The result is that the new base is a safer one, and the new position an impregnable one. The Federal army, with General McClellan, now thus safely lodged on the north bank of the James River, twenty-five miles below Richmond, numbers eighty thousand to ninety thousand, and a force which is not very much disproportioned to the insurrectionary army which occupies that city. The Federal army, however, has the coöperation of a very large naval force. The Federal army in front of this city, adding those which will probably be consolidated with it, is nearly equal in numbers. This last force is now under command of MajorGeneral Pope, who has achieved great successes in the western states, and is esteemed an officer of great ability. A general military command over all the land forces of the United States will be given to Major-General Halleck, who will come from the western department to this capital.

July 28, 1862. Our assault upon Richmond is for the moment suspended. No great and striking movements or achievements are occurring, and the government is rather preparing its energies for renewed operations than continuing to surprise the world with new and brilliant victories. The tone of the insurgents has been suddenly emboldened, while recent expressions of grief and sorrow, which naturally and justly follow battles attended by great losses of cherished lives, for the moment have seemed to indicate that the friends of the Union are less resolute and hopeful than heretofore. Cotton, the great want of Europe, has not flowed out of the ports which we have opened as freely as was unreasonably expected by the manufacturers, and their disappointment seems ripening into despondency.

It is not upon isolated events, much less upon transitory popular

impulses, that governments are expected to build their policies in regard to foreign countries.

August 8, 1862. — At no former period of our history have our agricultural, manufacturing, or mining interests been more prosperous than at this juncture. This fact may be deemed surprising in view of the enhanced price for labor, occasioned by the demand for the rank and file of the armies of the United States. It may, therefore, be confidently asserted that, even now, nowhere else can the industrious laboring man and artisan expect so liberal a recompense for his services as in the United States.

August 13, 1862. We are at the present moment in a state of uncertainty in relation to the renewal of military operations. Exaggeration of the forces of the insurgents and depreciation of our own have been the busy occupation of too many among us since the disappointment of our expectations at Richmond. It was unavoidable, because it is natural for men, and especially for masses, to be disturbed and demoralized, at least for a time, by the failure of sanguine expectations. You are entitled, however, to the information that in my opinion our forces in the field, although not demonstrative, are adequate to the task of holding the vast territories we have recovered. The new volunteers, 300,000 in number, are beginning to move to-day for the places of rendezvous to reinforce the army in the field, and forty days will suffice to bring forward also the 300,000 militia which have been called for by the President. Within the same time our naval preparations will begin to show important results. Much, however, is dependent on the military operations of the hour, while the preparations for a vigorous campaign are going forward. It is impossible to speculate with confidence on the chances of the war movements which are taking place to-day. The construction of iron-clad ships is going on, on a scale and with a vigor that promises as complete a naval defence as any other nation possesses.

When I have told you of our large preparations, I have told you all that is important to be known, except that General Halleck evinces great skill, activity, and grasp, in reorganizing our forces for renewing military operations. Richmond is at this moment the centre of our anxieties. Our plans for operations against it are not so settled and decisive as to allow me to communicate them, for the reason that they may be modified by discoveries of the plans of the

insurgents. General Pope had on Saturday, the 9th, a successful engagement with a portion of the insurgent army. There is every reason to expect important military occurrences, and, perhaps, a development of the plan for a new campaign before the departure of the next steamer.

All that can be said now is, that the popular spirit is sound, and we expect that the tone of public confidence will be highly improved as the new levies, now moving from their homes, reach and join and reinforce the apparently sedentary forces in their camps.

August 15, 1862. This government, when it considers the military and naval forces that it has at its control, the success that it has achieved already in the present unhappy civil war, and the favorable prospects of the campaign which it is now preparing, is not disposed to be disturbed by apprehensions of interference by foreign powers. Doing all that it ought and can to preserve peace with foreign nations, it will not suffer itself to be alarmed by fears. of wrong on their part, whether victory continually attends our arms, or at times manifests its habitual caprice.

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August 18, 1862. General Halleck, upon taking command of the army, made a careful survey of the entire military position, and concluded thereupon to withdraw the army of the Potomac from the Peninsula, and to combine all our forces in front of Richmond. The measure was a difficult and delicate one. It is believed to have been substantially accomplished without any casualty. Our new levies are coming in in great numbers and in fine spirits. The gloom has passed away from the public mind. Although our arrangements for resuming offensive operations are yet incomplete, we have much confidence in being able to do so speedily and with decisive effect.

The disturbed condition of affairs in New Orleans is giving way slowly, and commerce is reviving there.

Discontents, which naturally enough found utterance in the loyal states in a brief season of despondency through which we have passed, have died away already, and with them the apprehensions of organizations to embarrass the Union. It is represented to us that the popular determination to maintain the war has at no time been as unanimous and as earnest as it is now.

August 23, 1862. The tide of military success which had been so strong, and had continued in our favor so long, was checked at Richmond, by what has practically proved a drawn battle.

The country for a time, unaccustomed to reverses, seemed at first. to be confounded by their disappointment. Disputes about responsibilities for the failure, apprehensions, multifarious and passionate counsels, succeeded, encouraging the insurgents and their agents and sympathizers abroad. The period that has intervened since that event has been marked by few exciting or striking events. Guerilla bands have been emboldened, but have not effected any material change in the military position. The fall of the Mississippi has obliged the sea-going part of our fleet that was engaged at Vicksburg to fall down the river, and owing to the same cause the canal that had been made to divert the stream has not yet proved effective. The assault upon Vicksburg has, therefore, been temporarily suspended. A combined land and naval attack by the insurgents upon Baton Rouge has been successfully resisted. The casualties of the service insensibly reduced our armies so much that, after the battles before Richmond, we found ourselves obliged to let them remain comparatively inactive. The period of inactivity has, nevertheless, been well improved. The President, early in July, called for six hundred thousand troops. The country has responded with earnestness and alacrity. The new levies began to enter into the field a week ago. During that period about thirty thousand of them have joined the different armies, and the increase is now going on, and will continue, at the rate of five thousand or more daily. The army of the Potomac became divided in the battles before Richmond. The large body under the command of General McClellan has rested on the banks of the James River, unable to renew the attack without reinforcements, while the small body under General Pope was not deemed competent to march southward, and it was even doubtful whether it would be strong enough to protect this capital if the insurgents should abandon Richmond. General Halleck, the new commander of all the forces, therefore, determined to withdraw General McClellan's army from the James River, and to combine it with Pope's on the line of the Rappahannock, and in front of Richmond. The operation was one of admitted delicacy and difficulty. It is not yet fully completed. The first part of it has been accomplished with consummate ability and entire success. The whole of General McClellan's forces-100,000 strong-have evacuated their position on the James River, and are now on their way to the new front on the Rappahannock. Whether

the junction shall be successfully effected is the question which remains undecided, but which will be solved probably before this despatch will have left the Department.

Our condition may be summed up in the few words, that we are reorganizing and preparing for a new campaign, which we believe will be successful, and which, we trust, will close the war, with the return of the authority of the Federal Union.

Rumors of intrigues abroad for foreign intervention or mediation reach the government continually, but they do not at present produce any real uneasiness.

August 23, 1862. It is a day of uncertainty and suspense, but not altogether unmingled with apprehension. General McClellan has safely retired his great army from the James River, and is rapidly moving it around to reinforce the small force with which General Pope is holding the Rappahannock, midway between this capital and Richmond. The insurgents have brought their main force from Richmond up to confront General Pope, with a purpose of attacking him before he can be joined by General McClellan and by the new levies now coming into the field. The telegraph reports skirmishes, but as yet no battle. The question is, or seems to be, which side can practise superior energy and despatch.

You will read of guerrilla demonstrations and partial successes in the west. But the disturbers will find themselves obliged to encounter the volunteers now pouring into that region from the loyal western States, and it may be expected that the Union arms will again be everywhere assuming the offensive within the coming month. Our naval force has destroyed all the insurgents' iron-clad vessels which have thus far appeared, and have just now been augmented by the addition of the Ironsides.

September 6, 1862. Recruiting here is now very rapid, and there is likely to be no deficiency of volunteers which will not be supplied by a light draft, or if the time be extended the army will be filled with volunteers without draft. At the same time it is very manifest that labor has advanced and is advancing in price, and there was never before a time when this country presented so great inducements to emigrants.

Our two armies in Virginia, which were so long and so unfortunately separated, have been brought together at last in front of this capital, but not without a loss of some six thousand or eight

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