Despondent Reporter

This story is interesting. It shows how confident the writer is in the southern cause, yet expresses disappointment over what he perceives as a lack of aggression on the part of southern leaders, as the year neared its conclusion. It seems like a rather exaggerated description on the mood at the time, but it is also likely that he was not alone in feeling at least some disappointment.

The Covington Journal of October 19, 1861 reports:

A correspondent of the Richmond Dispatch is manifestly dissatisfied with the aspect of affairs on the South side of the Potomac. He says:

"The most dispiriting news which has ever reached our camp, is, that we may probably go into winter quarters on this  side of the Potomac - than which nothing could be more disappointing and dissatisfactory to the Southern soldiers, with the unmurmering patience with which they have endured the diseases which have decimated their numbers, and all the privations and wants of a first campaign; and now that a benign Providence has rebuked the disease, and health and vigor again returned to our ranks, they cannot appreciate the policy which would keep 250,000 Southern men - a number sufficient to do almost everything - inclosed in ice and snow five or six months, to defend Virginia alone." 

Example of the Dispatch, courtesy http://www.lib.unc.edu/blogs/civilwar/