Late reports today indicates that Maj. General George Meade has engineered a crushing defeat of the treacherous Southern rebels in a battle that is a mirror-image of Fredericksburg, except this time, it was the our glorious soldiers in blue who had the stone wall. Battlefield dispatches from a railroad junction named Gettysburg, the seat of Adams County, suggests that General Robert Lee had three of his top division commanders, Maj. Gen. George Pickett from Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's First Corps, along with Brig. Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew, and Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble leading troops from Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill's Third Corps, assault the central position of the Union Army on a ridge under the command of II Corps’ Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock.

We do not know as of now what inspired Lee to make such a charge across an entire mile with both Emmitsburg Road, a trough and farm fencing as obstacles that disrupted the line of march. We are advised that immediately preceding the charge, starting at approximately 1 PM, there was a massive artillery barrage first from the rebels, answerable by the Union. We are then told that General Meade ordered our Union guns to silence to draw out what in reality was to be this massive Confederate charge, all hiding in the woods on what is locally known as Seminary Ridge, our defenders situated on the high ground known as Cemetery Ridge. We also kno at this time is that casualties are massive, indeed almost incomprehensible. Hot wire reports suggests that civilians are compelled to bury dead soldiers where they fell, a highly unusual protocol.

There remains considerable debate as to why Lee ventured off course as all intelligence strongly indicates his objective was Harrisburg, the state capital of the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which obviously has provided more troops in blue, more revenue and more arms than any other of the Union States and which universal Republican sentiment remains unchallenged. Pennsylvania, unlike New York State, has incurred no civil disturbance or unrest from hoodlums staging so-called draft riots. It is all the more ironic, that while the Irish immigrants are blamed for unrest, particularly in the southern precincts of New York City, we hear it is a regiment of Irish immigrants primarily from Philadelphia who suffered the brunt of the rebels’ fatalistic assault. Although obviously unconfirmed, the 69th Pennsylvania appears to have suffered losses of not less than 50% and perhaps even greater in scale. May God hold each of these Brave and Gallant men in His hand!

In any respect, Republican Governor Andrew Curtin, being spared the Great disruption that a rebel invasion of his Commonwealth would have entailed, remains as politically strong as ever. Curtin is the President’s confident since convening the Loyal War Governors' Conference last September 24-25 which among other items, resulted in removing the utterly incompetent General George McClellan, who was nothing but ruinous disaster for our Great Cause of Saving the Union. Curtin’s leadership will remain unabated in pursuing the goals of the aforementioned Conference "to continue in the most vigorous exercise of all our lawful powers, contending against treason, rebellion, and the public enemies until final victory and unconditional submission." It is noteworthy, although we suspect Lee would have no foreknowledge, that Gettysburg constitutes a major portion of House Ways and Means Chairman Thaddeus Steven’s 9th Congressional District.

Meade’s victory also strikes a severe blow at Copperheads in every hamlet. Former Democratic Congressman Clement Laird Vallandigham, who despite Lincoln’s merciful commutation of his well-deserved punishment at the hands of military tribunal , persists running as Governor of the Great State of Ohio after being nominated 411-11 by treasonous Democrats. His rants that Northern states should succeed from the Union if our glorious leader, the President, refuses to negotiate with the rebels, is now dead for all intents and purposes. Democratic Congressman Daniel Wolsey Voorhees, another Copperhead, will be constrained to answer to his constituents for such shamefully disloyal political views. We trust this victory at Gettysburg will wrest control of the legislatures of Illinois and Indiana from the Copperheads this fall and back into the hands of Republicans who believe no man should be enslaved.

We furthermore suspect the Knights of the Golden Circle have, like Lee and his rebel terrorists have been dealt a final, fatal blow. Attorney General Edward Bates should investigate forthwith reports of shockingly disgusting Democratic scam artists who infiltrated a significant portion of the North selling Pennsylvania Dutch farmers $1 tickets issued by the Knights of the Golden Circle for a dollar, which along with a series of secret hand gestures, were to immunize the farmers and their the possessions and horses from seizure by invading Confederate soldiers. What next will the Democrats think!