July 4.—The day that a few years ago by us was commemorated with so much pride as a nation’s anniversary for liberty won, now how changed! Part of that nation seeking to enslave the other! A gloomy, rainy day, such as last year. Nature’s horizon, as the nation’s, “in woe, like Rachel, weeps.”
At the present moment our cause looks bright. In Virginia a star has arisen: his name (“Stonewall”) the haughty foe has found, to his cost, has been given prophetically, as he has proved a wall of granite to them. For four weeks he has kept at bay more than one of their boasted armies.
News has just been received that our brave Virginia army under General Lee has been fighting for days, and has driven the enemy back step by step, placing thousands of them hors du combat, taking many prisoners, and spoils of all kinds. These battles have raged with an intensity and ferocity on both sides that have never been equaled. They commenced on the 26th of June, and the battle of Malvern Hill, which was fought on the 1st instant, as far as we can learn, has closed the slaughter. The enemy were under their young Napoleon, General McClellan, and had it not been for blundering again on the part of one of our generals, there would not have been one man left of the foe to tell the tale.
It would be invidious to say who on our side won the most laurels, as the valor shown by men from every state has proved that the same spirit lives in every one. All have been conspicuous for bravery in this eventful struggle. Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, Hill, and a host of others of our leading men, have won fresh laurels. The brave dead and wounded—alas! how the thought of them comes up, like a specter, to mar our triumphs.
