Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton.
Sir: Your despatch of May 22 (No. 149) has just been received.
It brings information of your conversations with Mr. Thouvenel upon the posture of the French government in regard to the civil strife which yet lingers in this country, down to that date. The President is very favorably impressed with the ability and discretion you have employed in those discussions.
You have anticipated and presented in a very imposing manner most of the arguments which are contained in my despatch to you No. 163, which will go out by the same mail which will convey this paper. Nevertheless that despatch is allowed to proceed, in the hope that decisive events are occurring with such rapidity here that the subject presented will not long be shut out from consideration by the maritime powers of Europe, and that renewed evidences of the President’s earnest desires concerning it may not be altogether useless.
During the past week General Pope has cut off the railroads on which Beauregard’s army was retreating from Corinth, and has made captures of prisoners, arms, vehicles, &c., on a scale so large that that great force may be considered as no longer existing. With these successes the entire commands of the Mississippi and its banks must by this time have been abandoned by the insurgents.
Jackson, with the forces which expelled General Banks from the valley of Virginia, was met and repulsed at Harper’s Ferry, and is now, in his turn, harassed by the Union forces in his flight from Northern Virginia.
A fearful battle—the greatest and the most desperate one in the whole war—was fought at Fair Oaks, seven miles in front of Richmond, on Saturday and Sunday last, (May 31 and June 1.) The enemy was driven at all points, and the federal advance now rests within four miles of that city. A final combat is expected to take place within a few days. I forbear to speculate upon its probable result or consequences, since certainty must so soon be developed.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
William L. Dayton, Esq., &c., &c., &c.