“central point of the Confederacy” (VIEW OF THE CITY OF CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, FROM THE NORTH SIDE OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.)
Ever more Yankees, including General Grant, were concentrating at Chattanooga. This Richmond editorial knew the North was going to attack and hoped that if the South won it would break “the backbone of the war.” Otherwise, “the South will be overrun.”
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 16, 1863:
Chattanooga.
All eyes are now turned upon this central point of the Confederacy and of the war. It is useless to deny that the enemy are about to make their supreme effort on that field. –They are consolidating there their greatest strength. The flower of their armies is collected there, with the best of their Generals at its head. In numbers, in equipments, in munitions of war, all their preparations are of the most colossal kind. The stake at issue warrants the magnitude of their efforts, for if they are defeated there the backbone of the war is broken, and all hope of the subjugation of the South banished forever even from their own mad counsels. If they are successful, the South will be overrun, and it may be many years before we can recover from the consequences.
The aspirations of every patriot and Christian must rise most earnestly to Heaven for success in the approaching battle. We believe that the Southern army near Chattanooga, though inferior in numbers, is fully equal to the emergency, and, if properly handled, with the blessing of Heaven, will again victoriously rout the Northern hordes. No better and braver soldiers walk the earth than those collected under the banner of Gen. Bragg. They have just broken the spell of Northwestern invincibility, and they must be inspired to visit upon the foe another and a severer lesson.–Let them remember how much depends upon this battle; that the eyes of their country and of the world are fixed upon them; that their peaceful homes are looking to them for salvation, and the freedom and independence of the South for deliverance.–Let them know no enemies but the enemies of their country; let them banish all feuds and dissensions, till the great, controlling feud between them and the invaders is decided. It is an hour of fearful moment.–The destinies of this generation and of generations yet to come may be involved in this battle. How can any one think at such a time as this of anything but his country?–All personal considerations ought to be as dust in the balance compared with that.–The enemy, great as his numbers are, has no power to defeat us if we are true to our selves and our cause. Rosecrans, their military idol, has been dashed to pieces, and Grant will encounter his fate, if the Army of the West, sustained by the majesty of their cause, and the benediction of Providence, puts forth one mighty and consolidated effort for the deliverance of the land.
The view of Chattanooga was published in the September 12, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South)
