Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: The military immobility which had begun to wear upon the public mind has recently given way. Activity again appears, although, thus far, it has produced no decisive results.
I am sure that you will read with pride and satisfaction the details of the great naval engagement in Mobile bay. The restoration of the national flag over Fort Powell gives us Grant’s passage, while the recapture of Fort Gaines marks an advance in the work of restoring the Union. Protected by these [Page 283] fortifications, together with Fort Morgan, the insurgents had really made no insurgent demonstration towards the creation of a naval force. The destruction of their gunboat Gaines, and the transfer of the ram Tennessee, which is secured to the national service, have materially weakened the enemy. We learn that the siege of Fort Morgan has begun, and that a portion of our fleet has assailed the land fortifications which surround the city of Mobile.
On the south side of the James river General Grant has successfully seized and he now holds the Weldon road between Petersburg and North Carolina, after having resisted two or three fierce assaults, with great loss to the insurgents. There is no doubt of the fact that the insurgents are suffering a material reduction of their force by casualties and by desertions. General Grant has already sent to the Indian campaign a regiment of enlisted deserters from the army of Lee.
General Sherman still prosecutes his operations against the enemy at Atlanta with unabated confidence. We have official reports that his cavalry have cut off the railroad connexion between that place and Macon.
Lee has re-enforced Early, and he has thereupon moved down the valley from the neighborhood of Strasburg to Winchester. General Sheridan has retired to Oharlestown, and the upper Potomac thus again becomes a theatre of war. The approach of a draft to maintain the armies at their full strength is creating much uneasiness, and this uneasiness speaks out through the press. On the other hand, it is true, although not yet generally understood, that recruiting lias begun in good earnest. Later returns show that the number of men mustered into the army are twelve hundred per day, an increase of ten-fold per day since the proclamation calling for re-enforcements was issued.
You will hardly need to be told that the reports published of armistices, pretended changes in the cabinet, and the appointment of commissioners to negotiate with the insurgents, which figure largely in the political canvass, have no foundation in fact.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.