urselves fortunate indeed.

The agents of the Commissary and Quartermaster-General make grievous
complaints against Lieut.-Gen. Pemberton, at Grenada, Mississippi; they
say he interferes with their arrangements to procure supplies--for
cotton; and it is intimated that he has some little arrangements of his
own of that nature. This illicit trade is very demoralizing in its
nature.

Oh, that peace would return! But with INDEPENDENCE!

DECEMBER 28TH.--We have no news to-day from the West. If the great
battle has been fought at Vicksburg, we ought to know it to-day or
to-morrow; and if the enemy be beaten, it should be decisive of the
war. It would be worse than madness to continue the contest for the
Union.

Several fine brass batteries were brought down from Fredericksburg last
night, an indication that the campaign is over for the winter in that
direction.

If we should have disasters in the West, and on the Southern seaboard,
the next session of Congress, to begin a fortnight hence, will be a
stormy one.

DECEMBER 29TH.--We have a dispatch from Vicksburg at last. The enemy,
25,000 strong, were repulsed three times yesterday, and finally driven
back seven miles, to their gun-boats. It was no battle, for our loss was
only 30, and that of the enemy 400. It will be fought to-day, probably.

It is said an attempt will be made this week on Weldon, as well as
Charleston.

Our Morgan has been in Kentucky again, and captured 1200 men. Glorious
Morgan!

The accounts from the United States are rather cheering. The _Herald_
proposes a convention of all the "loyal States," that reconstruction may
be tried in that way. A dispatch from Tennessee says, even the New York
_Tribune_ expresses the opinion that our independence must be
recognized. The Philadelphia _Press_ proposes another route to Richmond
_via_ the rivers, and thinks Richmond may be taken yet, and the
rebellion crushed.

The surgeon in charge of the Howard Hospital reports that the small-pox
is greatly on the increase, and terminating fatally in almost every
case. He says men die of it without eruptions on the surface, the
disease striking inward. It is proposed to _drive_ away the strangers
(thousands in number), if they will not leave voluntarily. There are too
many people here for the houses, and the danger of malignant diseases
very great.

My vaccination was not a success; very little inflammation and a small
scab being the only evidences. But I have a