November 9, 1863, The New York Herald
The Army of the Potomac, after a long period of ease, has commenced a forward movement, and its advance has been heralded with victory. The divisions of Generals French and Sedgwick met the enemy on the banks of the Rappahannock — the former at Kelly’s Ford and the latter at Rappahannock railroad crossing — on Saturday, and drove them across the river, capturing eighteen hundred of the rebels, four battle flags and two redoubts with a number of guns. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded is reported by prisoners to be over five hundred. Our loss in all — killed, wounded and missing — is set down at from three hundred and fifty to four hundred. The Union troops are in pursuit of the enemy.
Upon the lifting of the fog yesterday morning our forces commenced crossing the river, and found little or no opposition. They are pressing forward toward Culpepper. At four o’clock P.M. Sedgwick’s advance had reached Brandy Station. General Buford’s cavalry crossed at Sulphur Springs to cover the right flank several miles above Rappahannock Station, and Generals Gregg and Kilpatrick crossed below Kelly’s Ford to cover the left flank. No definite information of their operations had been received up to noon yesterday. Advices from the front are to the effect that General Kilpatrick occupied the city and heights of Fredericksburg on Saturday, and was in position to hold them until the infantry could reach him. It is probable that the army has already joined him, and is now intrenched on the south bank of the Rappahannock.
The enemy, after their defeat in these two engagements, were so hotly pursued by our victorious forces that they threw themselves into the river in their efforts to escape, where some were drowned and many were killed by our infantry.
There is hot work before the Army of the Potomac yet. The initiative in the new movement, however, is hopeful for the future.
Despatches from Chattanooga to Saturday inform us that everything was then quiet, with the exception of a harmless fire from the rebel batteries on Lookout Mountain.
From Memphis, of the same date, we learn that General Hatch has driven General Chalmers across the Tallahatchie river, punishing the latter’s forces severely. The rebel General Richardson, with a force reported at from 1,500 to 2,000, struck the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, six miles east of Salsbury, on Saturday morning, burning the bridgework, tearing up the track and destroying the telegraph.
On the night of the 2d inst. a party of Union troops, under Captain Ferris, of the Independent Battalion, went in a small boat to Fort Wagner and crawled up the debris on the seaward side of the fort, where they had an opportunity to peep inside. Being discovered, however, they were received with a volley of musketry, and made a precipitate retreat to their boat, fortunately without losing a man. The fort is a mere ruin, but the small garrison inside the broken walls, and dismantled guns, the shattered casemates, and debris of all that once formed that proud fortification, still hold their ground manfully, although exposed to the constant fire of our batteries and Monitors.
We have later news from New Orleans today, by the steamer Daniel Webster, which arrived here yesterday, with dates to the 29th. Political organizations, with a view to overthrow the present military rule in New Orleans by the unauthorized election of a State government, are gaining some headway. An address has been issued to the people, and the names of the candidates have been promulgated. Five thousand bales of cotton, which were said to be intended for shipment to Europe, the property in part of rebel owners, which had just arrived from Natchez, were seized by the Collector of Internal Revenue, but as nearly four thousand bales were claimed by loyal persons, they were given up, and the remaining portion was stored for the present.
New Orleans papers of the 29th ultimo state that owing to the scarcity of breadstuffs and provisions, cotton was arriving there in considerable quantities. The sugar crop was very light, owing to the scarcity of labor and fuel.
We publish in another column a remarkable address to the people of Arkansas, from Mr. Gantt, formerly a Congressman in rebeldom, and a brigadier general in the rebel army, but now a prisoner of war at Little Rock, in which he counsels submission to the Union arms, and denounces Jeff. Davis in unmeasured terms as a hypocrite and tyrant, and by no means the man for the occasion.
Mr. Seward, upon his return to Washington, is said to have declared that the French government, urged by the representations of Mr. Dayton, our Minister, has arrested the six rebel rams lying at Nantes and Bordeaux.