The great battle ground
The situation of the Confederate forces, of the movements of which some slight indications only are afforded, together with the advance of McClellan's troops, justify the expectation of a grand battle shortly, if not in a few hours. The earlier the better. To know as soon as possible what is to be the result of the latest attempt to get possession of this city, is the desire of every one. Indeed it is the only way to save the city, to meet the enemy and frustrate his schemes, which all understand to be to invest Richmond and take it by gradual approaches.There could be no more agreeable news to every person in this city, and, we are sure, to the citizens of the South everywhere, than that of a great battle raging near Richmond. All have confidence in the Southern troops — all believe that when they meet the invaders of our soil they will repel them as the firm rock does the wave that beats in vain against it. Let them but meet the foe who has marched into our country to desolate our homes and rob us of our property — nay, to commit the most horrid of outrages — and they will rush upon him with a bravery and determination that he will be utterly unable to withstand — They fight for their country's rights and honor, and in defence of the women and children of the South. They will defend them or die.--There is nothing so disheartening to those gallant sons of the South as to be ordered to ‘"fall back,"’ as it is called. They advance with avidity and joy — they retreat with heavy hearts and deep mortification.
We trust that they are not to be compelled to pursue the retrograde any more, but that, brave patriots as they are, they will be ordered to do what is to them most agreeable of all things. --to meet and drive back the enemy.--If the soldier is gratified, the fields near Richmond will be our Marathon. If the public feeling is consulted, those fields will bear that same undying name; and if the pledges of the Governments, Confederate and State, and the concurrent opinions of high military authority, be maintained, the soldier and the people will all be gratified, and the foe will be defeated, Richmond saved, and the common cause of the whole South be placed on a new and solid basis.
To surrender Richmond would entail consequences that we fear to look at. They may be too disastrous to contemplate. We have an abiding faith in our people, and believe they would continue faithful to the end, but nevertheless it is too plain that the handing over the metropolis to the enemy would bring upon us embarrassments so great that rather than place the State in such an exigency as that, we should fight before Richmond as though all were lost if we were defeated. We have the most confident belief that there will be such fighting, that we shall triumph, and that Richmond will be finally saved from the enemy; for if he cannot take her now, with all his means, he never can.
