Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: The result of the operations of the last week is that, in the west, General Canby has gathered in and so disposed of the forces which constituted General Banks’s expeditionary force as to secure important strategic points, and prepare an aggressive movement of considerable importance.
General Sherman writes us yesterday afternoon, from the vicinity of Dallas, as follows: that “the enemy, discovering us moving round his right flank, abandoned his position last night and marched off. McPherson is moving to-day for Ackworth, Thomas on the direct Marietta road, and Schofield on his right. It has been raining hard for three days, and the roads are heavy. An examination of the enemy’s abandoned line of works here shows an immense line of works, which I have turned with less loss to ourselves than we have inflicted upon them.”
There has been much manœuvring by the armies in front of Richmond, attended with battles in which we have lost seven thousand five hundred men, and inflicted equal injury upon the enemy. General Grant’s headquarters are at Cold Harbor. His line stretches from Bethesda church, on the Tolopotomy, to Cold Harbor. Assaults are made, first by the one party and then by the other, thus far always leaving our line unbroken and perhaps a little advanced, while the enemy, though repulsed in all their attacks, yet retain the exterior line of their defences of Richmond. The communications of General Grant with his new base on the Pamunkey are perfect. Abundant supplies are conveyed to him, with re-enforcements equal to the great waste which unavoidably occurs in the army of the Potomac. The obstinacy exhibited by the two parties has not been surpassed in the whole course of the war.
We have, as yet, no advices of the movement recently instituted in the valley of the Shenandoah.
Congress has passed the currency bill, and thus disposed of—I think in a manner which will be satisfactory—the very troublesome conflict between the new national banking system and the old one of State banks.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c, &c.
[Same to other ministers in Europe.]