February 12, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
(CORRESPONDENCE OF THE MERCURY.)
RICHMOND, Saturday, February 7.
We were exceedingly anxious to hear from Charleston yesterday, for we thought fighting had nearly commenced. But not a word has come up to 10 o’clock today, though the lines are up – no, not even a newspaper came. But it was always a struggle for the Charleston mail to get through.
Fredericksburg dispatches last night indicated movements on the part of the enemy, which the late snow and rain frustrated. Evidently ‘Fighting Joe’ intends to imitate Napoleon crossing the Alps. A friend just from the army gives me an item about ‘Fighting Joe,’ was in the same class at West Point with Major General Jubal Early, of Lee’s army, and one day Jubal got mad with Joe and kicked him out of his room whereat ‘Fighting Joe’ exclaimed, ‘What in the world are you doing that for? ‘and went his way in the most lamb-like manner. If he is this sort of man, he will be a brief morsel in the omnivorous mouth of R.E. Lee. Yankee papers say ‘Fighting Joe’ is going to take an entirely new route, but they neglect to mention that that route, like the one Burnside chose, is a rebel suggestion. Lee’s spy system is marvellous. By April we hear from Joe army something real.
Our papers talk about Yankee deserters coming in by squads to our lines in the Valley of Virginia. A letter from Suray, Page county, says: ‘Twenty or thirty of them passed our house yesterday and as many today. Two of them looked so forlorn that brother consented to let them stay all night. He repented it, for while they told us that 20,000 had deserted since the battle of Fredericksburg, and the rest were ready to desert as soon as they got their pay, many tampered with our negros, and told them the North was determined to conquer the South, and was able to do it.’ This is the substance, not the words, of the letter. It is thought these deserters are emissaries to excite insurrection.
Mr. Hunter publishes in the Whig the Report of the Finance Committee in regard to funding the public debt and curtailing the currency. The plan of the Committee is substantially that of Mr. Memminger. Moseley regrets to think the scheme proposed will rather aggravate than remedy the evil, and may, in a day or two, give his reasons for thinking so.
A fine frosty morning, and now a clear sunny day.