The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-15 00:00:00

THE WESTERN STATES.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, Sept. 23.
I had devised to go down the Mississippi River
from St. Louis, and visit the various ports of Cairo,
Memphis, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Natchez, and
New Orleans, when, in an evil moment, the war-
like exploits of General Rosencranz diverted me
from my purpose, and here am I, now, on my way
la Chattanooga, with very little hope ever to be able
to reach my destination. The news of the san-
guinary affairs in East Tennessee of Saturday and
Sun day last only reached St. Louis on Monday, and
threw that city into a perfect fever of frantic ex-
pectation. The movements of General Rosencranz
across the Tennessee River had caused my friends
the officers of the Union party to look grave, and
they professed, rather loudly than earnestly, their
full confidence in that General's prudence and cool-
ness, asserting that " he knew what he was about,
and if he deemed it safe to move forward, there
could be no reason Why he should keep back." That
great uneasiness beset my friends the Union officers'
minds there could, however, be no doubt, and when
the intelligence came, like a clap of thunder, that
Rosencranz had unexpectedly found himself in pre-
sence of superior forces, that he had been attacked
by the combined corps of Bragg, Johnston, and
Longstreet, summing up altogether a force of no
less than 140,000 combatants, people began to feel
sure he had been caught in a trap and decoyed
into a position from which he could not extricate
himself without grievous losses. The first news
reached St. Louis by private telegrams, generally
forwarded by the correspondents of the local press;
these first bulletins—hasty, perhaps, but genuine
s—talked of a positive defeat of Rosencranz's
army, of its centre being broken through, of two
divisions in complete
deroute„ and confusion,
and the Commander-in-Chief being forced back
to Rossville, eight or ten miles from Chattanooga.
Since that first instalment of news the tele-
graph has been closed against all private inter-
course, correspondence is at an end, and all the
information that reaches us in the West comes
in a roundabout way from Washington, where the
United States' authorities monopolise the wires, and
prescribe what we shall read, hear, and believe.
I left St. Louis yesterday at 4 o'clock in the after-
noon, and arrived in this city at 8 this morning, just
a quarter of an hour to) late for the train which,
according to time-tables, should have taken me on
to Nashville this same day—a disappointment too
common to all men travelling byilbregulated Ame-
rican railways, steamboats, and other public con-
veyances. As it turned out, it was just as lucky I
could not proceed on my way, for the people assured
me no man could travel from here to Nashville
without a pass from the military authorities, and on
my applying for it to the officer in command, Col.
Mundy, that gentleman used his best arguments to
dissuade me from a journey which, he assured me,
would be bootless, as the persons in command at
Nashville would never allow me to follow my route
to Chattanooga, or go even a step in that direction.
As I had in my pocket letters for Generals Rosen-
cranz, Burnside, Gordon Granger, and others,
I begged to differ from the gallant colonel, and re-
newed my request that he would supply me with a
pass as far as Nashville, as I there would risk the
alternative of being allowed to travel farther or
being compelled to a backward movement. The
colonel was about to relent and comply with my
wishes when an orderly broke in upon ua, inform-
ing the colonel that the rebel guerillas had burnt
the bridge near Elizabethtown, on the Nashville
and Louisville Railway, only forty-two miles from
this latter place, and that the train had come to
a dead stop there. Presently another pale, breath.
less messenger rushed in to tell of other out-
rages perpetrated by these same rebel bands
at other points on the same railway, and to
'beseech the Colonel to " send as may of his troops
as he could spare for the protection of the endan-
gered line." Going to Nashville for the next day
or two is, therefore, out of the question no less for
me than for any other person, and here I must stay,
awaiting events. Tho information we receive from
Washington respecting the affair at Chattanooga
will be before you much earlier than this letter has
any chance of reaching its destination. All I can
allow myself leave to observe is that, however care-
fully the Washington despatches may be got up so
as to:reassure men's minds, strongly excited by the
first unchecked and unvarnished announcement of
the facts, they do not materially affect the substance
of that same announcement, nor do they make
liosencranz's position a whit better than we were
at first inclined to consider it. Rosencranz, it is
said, " had to bear the shock of 140,000 Confede-
rates ; two of his divisions behaved badly ; he had
to fall back in good order (if so we are to believe
it), and was waiting, either at Chattanooga or at
Rossville, about eight miles above it, such rein-
forcements as General Burnside could bring up to
him from his station at Knoxville, at a distance of
110 miles." Whether these reinforcements would
come up in time, and whether they would enable
the Federals to cope with the force of 140,000 men
whom they have already before them, with such
additional aid to the Southerners as might in turn
be sent up from the other side, events will soon de-
cide. Men of Southern tendencies meanwhile are
wistfully speculating here on what contingencies
might be in store for Rosencranz should the
anxiously awaited reserves chance not to come up in
time, or should they prove to be inadequate to the
want. Even should the Confederates be unable to
drive Rosencranz from Chattanooga and to cut
him to pieces in his retreat across the Tennessee
River, his position would still be extremely pre-
carious, unless he soon found himself sufficiently
strong to take the offensive, as the Washington bul-
letins prophesy, or at least so to protect his rear as
to secure an uninterrupted line of communication
with it. Now, Chattanooga lies at 151 miles from
Nashville, and the latter town is again 185 miles
from Louisville. The distance of 336 miles from his
regular source of supply and actual base of opera-
tion already places him at a considerable disadvan-
tage ; but how much worse would his position be if
either skirmishers from Bragg's army, or rebel
bands, such as have been heardof this morning from
Elizabethtown and other localities, were emboldened
to burn bridges, tear up the rails, and render corns
n3unication imperfect, if not wholly impracticable
The Union men, especially those belonging to the
Radical or Ultra-Republican party, attach little im-
portance to the check which the Federal armies have
"lt is only one more of the
evidently suffered.
bloody, resultless, and almost purposeless battles of
which this luck
less civil war is made up. There
aro thousands of dead and wounded on our side,it is
true," they say, " but the Union abides. We can
afford at any time to put up with losses double those
of our enemies. Victory exhausts the Confederates
more surely and irreparably than any amount of
ude-
feat would ever damages.'' The most ranting
fanatics exult at every mishap that offers any pro-
Probability of an indefinite prolongation of the war.
Their work—i. e., the immediate and violent eman-
cipation of the blacks, and the total ruin and deso-
lation of the South—cannot be effected on any
speedy close of hostilities; it can only be the work
of long, slow, It is of
vital ifiercely contested warfare.
importance for them that there should be in-
cessant &ph •
',sting throughout the country so long at
least as
resident Lincoln and his Cabinet hold
their sway,
upon to The work they have been prevailed
undertake must be accomplished bee
fore the supreme Power comes into the hands of less
listen obstinate men, who might
cortlsten to the suggestions
of humanity and
eto a rational compromise.
, "fen had the fight at Chat-
tanoogarevolution no other results, It must create a great
moral in mew, minds throughout the
States. Since I first landed in this country, after
Gettysburg and Vicksburg, nothing was more con-
stantly dinned into my ears than the fact that the
66 Bogus Confederacy was collapsing,
and their
armies were used up and demoralised, their
Gene-
rals at their wits ends, their means exhausted, their
clothing, shoes, &c., at the lowest ebb,
provisions,
and that there was hardly a chance of Lee himself
again daring to take the field, so that on the siege
of Charleston,
Mobile, and Ric.
All this we heard Richmond the curtain of
this woful drama would fails'
and read usque ad nauseam, and as extreme heat
put a stop to military operations on a large scale