by John Beauchamp Jones
DECEMBER 28TH.—We have no news to-day from the West. If the great battle has been fought at Vicksburg, we ought to know it to-day or to-morrow; and if the enemy be beaten, it should be decisive of the war. It would be worse than madness to continue the contest for the Union.
Several fine brass batteries were brought down from Fredericksburg last night, an indication that the campaign is over for the winter in that direction.
If we should have disasters in the West, and on the Southern seaboard, the next session of Congress, to begin a fortnight hence, will be a stormy one.