| From the Memphis Appeal |
| |
| September 22, 1863 |
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| Letter from Grenada |
| Special Correspondence of the Memphis
Appeal |
| |
| Grenada, Miss., September 18, 1863 |
| It is singular that one rides
with perfect safety and tranquility, in a railroad car, along eighty
miles of the border of what Gen. Grant claims as the United States.
Nothing illustrates more forcibly the foolishness of this claim, or more
forcibly the necessity of stimulating the Northern mind by false boasts
of conquest. Surely General Grant is too sensible a man to claim lines
which he does not pretend to maintain, inside of which our cavalry hold
grand reviews, our conscript officers carry on vigorously their peculiar
functions, our preparations go on vigorously for elections of
representatives to a hostile Government, and along which dashes a train
of cars, carrying a full uniformed major general, with no escort
officers of lower grade, in all the magnificence permitted by the
regulations, convalescent soldiers on their way to duty, and unconcerned
citizens, who would be very much concerned were there any danger of
meeting any of Grant's governing classes, unless he is ordered to do so
by his masters to produce a political effect at home, and quiet the
people. Grant is no fool and nothing short of idiocy would prompt so
preposterous a claim. |
| But if the commanding general
is in earnest, and intended to establish the authority of the United
States over the territory which he claims (only in a farcical sense I
imagine) he can furnish no more encouraging argument against the
possibility of establishing that authority over the vast territory of
the Confederacy. Outside of his contracted but real lines, probably not
covering the area of a county, he has no authority whatever, and the
Confederacy is dominant in all essential respects. His raids are mere
accidents by which the Confederate authority is interrupted over the
small and constantly changing space bodily occupied by the raiders. Five
mile in their front, rear and on their flanks, and the places from which
they are but half an hour absent show no diminution of loyalty, nor any
signs of Yankee authority. |
| The road from here to Canton
{Mississippi Central RR} is in perfect
order, running as smoothly as before Winslow tampered with it, and
making about the same time. Along the entire line is seen the wreck,
made partly by our own and partly by Winslow's men, his approach to
total destruction being finished by citizens who carried off bells,
whistles, and copper and brass works generally. These crippled engines
are sublime. Their strength gone, they lie cold, back and blistered like
giants dead of the plague. The terrible spirit of water, strong beyond
the strength of the lightening and the earthquake, has left their iron
hearts forever. |
| The Yankees blight has fallen
on Grenada. She, like the engines, is black and blistered, not only in
her squares and edifices, but as well in the spirit of her citizens. |
| ***** |
| B |
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