The New York Daily Tribune's front page is dominated by military dispatches from the Army of the Potomac, reporting a failed Confederate attack on Union lines near Fort Steadman on Wednesday evening. About 150 rebel soldiers sortied from their entrenchments but were repulsed by Union pickets and artillery fire, with the Confederate batteries eventually silenced. The paper also celebrates Lincoln's decisive reelection victory—described as a "Double Victory" by General Grant himself—reporting that the election "passed off with remarkable quiet" across the army, despite some unexpected McClellan support in Pennsylvania regiments. Meanwhile, correspondents detail the grim economic collapse of Richmond: board is now $40 per day, flour costs $1.70 per pound, and cornmeal $50 per bushel. Confederate Treasury Secretary Trenholm essentially admits bankruptcy, acknowledging that Confederate currency trades at a 96% discount. The paper includes vivid coverage of General Sheridan's grand review of the Nineteenth Army Corps at Cedar Creek, where "solid masses" of Union troops stretched "almost as far as the eye could reach" across the Shenandoah Valley plain—a spectacular military display on ground still marked by the graves of recent battles.

This November 1864 edition captures a pivotal moment in the Civil War's endgame. Lincoln's reelection just days earlier had been far from certain; a Democratic victory could have negotiated a peace favorable to the Confederacy. Instead, his victory gave the Union moral clarity to fight to total victory. The reports of Confederate financial collapse reveal a nation that could no longer sustain itself—within months, Lee would surrender. General Sheridan's review of Union forces demonstrates the North's overwhelming military strength and organization. For readers in 1864, these dispatches would have signaled that despite the war's grinding brutality, Northern victory was becoming inevitable. The combination of political affirmation, enemy military defeat, and Confederate economic desperation told a clear story: the Union would endure.

• A Pennsylvania regiment intended to vote for Lincoln, but when officers assigned them fatigue duty on election day due to unexpected rain, about 50 men so resented the inconvenience that they suddenly decided to vote for McClellan instead—an amusing example of military morale turning on small grievances.
• Confederate Congress members openly testified to the Senate that soldiers hadn't been paid in months: Senator Iruby of Tennessee said Tennessee troops hadn't been paid in 20 months, while Senator Hill of Georgia claimed Georgia troops went 12 months without pay.
• Mrs. Gordon, a refugee from Richmond, reported that wearing homespun cloth (rather than imported fabrics) had become a status marker—the wealthy could still afford real goods, but ordinary people wore homespun 'except among the wealthier and more aristocratic class.'
• General Sheridan's famous review included his staff racing across the Cedar Creek battlefield at full gallop, kicking up 'a shower of flying clods which shoot parabolas in the air to the imminent risk of eye-sight and the fina store-clothes'—the Tribune's correspondent noted he prudently 'reined in his steed to avoid too familiar contact with that prancing, plunging black.'
• Confederate newspapers in Richmond mistakenly reported McClellan's election as a victory for the South, causing 'a premature display of rejoicing' before the error was discovered—showing how desperate the Confederacy was for any good news.

• Treasury Secretary Trenholm's confession about Confederate finances was devastating: a businessman would need to mortgage his entire estate just to get $6 in ready money for every $100 of debt—the currency had become almost worthless, yet the government had no alternative. Within months, the Confederate government would collapse entirely.
• The Tribune's correspondent covering Sheridan's review quipped about the general's famous ride by referencing 'Sheridan's Ride to the Front'—this article was published just weeks after Sheridan's actual celebrated ride on October 19, 1864, which had become legendary so quickly it was already iconic enough to reference in illustration form.
• General Grant's personal letter congratulating Lincoln on his 'Double Victory' (the election and the military repulse) is remarkably political for a commanding general—Grant was explicitly endorsing Lincoln's continuation of the war effort, something that would have been controversial if McClellan had won.
• The review was held at Cedar Creek, the site of a Union disaster just weeks earlier (October 19) where Sheridan's legendary ride had turned the tide—holding a victory parade on the same ground where thousands had just died was both a show of strength and a grim reminder of the war's human cost.
• Mrs. Gordon's escape from Richmond with a pass from Secretary of War Stanton suggests the Union was already allowing select civilians to leave Confederate territory, indicating the blockade and military control were so complete that the Confederacy could no longer hold its own people.