Washington Monday Jan’y 5th 1863
Great excitement in the City tonight. We are Victorious at Murfreesboro. A dispatch has been rcd from Rosecrans setting the matter at rest and I breathe easier again. And we also hear that in all probability Vicksburgh is in our possession. All our news from the South West is highly favorable. There is no doubt but the Rebels were largely re-inforced in Tennessee during the five or six days fight from Richmond or rather from the Army before Fredericksburgh. The Rebels make the most of their system of Rail Roads and their facilities for massing troops at any given point has given them a great advantage. Repeatedly have they been able to re-inforce their armies during battle. Especialy were they able to do so at the first battle of “Bull Run” & which won them a Victory and us lasting dishonor. It has been contended that their system of R Roads was designed and the Roads constructed with this very state of things in view years before the Rebellion broke out. But the chief conspirators were silently preparing for it. The worst of it is, they were built (to a great extent) with Northern Capital. At the commencement of the War it is said that the southern States were indebted to the North two hundred millions dollars, much of which was due on Mercantile transactions. We got news today of the loss of the gallant little Monitor off Cape Hatteras. She foundered during a heavy sea and some twenty men went down with her or were lost at the time. The “Rhode Island” had her in tow.