The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-24 00:00:00

TE E SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY

(Fro ,m the Special Correspondent of thelimes.)
Co FEDERATE CAMP, NEAR CHATTANOOGA,
October 8,

It is my confident belief that, among the many
fruitless victories which, in the last two and a half
year 3, have been gained by the Confederates, two
will hereafter stand conspicuous as having afforded
rare and -unexampled opportunities which were in-
credibly thrown away—the battle of Ball Run and
the battle of Chickamanga. Twice only since the
commencement of the war, have the Federals been
broken. up " without b and ;" twice only has their
defeat been converted into irretrievable rout. In the
many victories gairsed by General Lee in Virginia
the Federals have. always had a river behind them
which has intercepted pursuit, or a fortified camp
wflich was easily reached, or having retained,thongh
defeated, such solidity as robbed their opponents of
the decisive uses of victory. The exceptional victo-
lies of the war have hitherto been Bull Run and
Chickamanga, which by a Napoleon would have been
converted, even with the limited means possessed by
the Confederate generals, into an Austerlitz and a
31arengo. That the advantages of Bull Run should
have been unreaped can scarcely be wondered at,
considering the early stage of the war when it was
fought and the astonishment experienced by the
Confederates upon finding themselves victorious.
That Chickamanga should have been nothing more
than a bloody and unfruitful victory will, when its
deaails are fully known and deliberately weighed,
13,3 imputed to the general who chanced to command
the troops that won it as one of the least pardonable
blunders and shortcomings of history.
A recapitulation for the hundredth time of an.
other American massacre, an exposition of the mi-
nutiae of another sanguinary battle, which possesses
little strategical interest and serves but to swell
the tale of bloodshed without materially altering
the relations of the combatants, would, if I mistake
not, be as little to the taste of your readers as of
him who would be called upon to furnish it for
their instruction. I shall, therefore, confine myself
to general remarks about the Battle of Chickamanga,
convinced that of all the battles which I have yet
attempted to describe it is the least intelligible,
unless a diagram accompanies the description
And here I am compelled to premise that there.
is only one theory which can explain General
Rosencrariz's movements previous to the late battle
without annihilating all his claims to generalship
—the theory that he believes himself thoroughly
acquainted with the General opposed to him, and
ventured upon great liabilities in his presence.'
Whatever my own conceptions as to General
Bogen ' • •
cranz s abilities may have previously been
it cannot be denied that the division of his army
before the battle into three sections of 20,000 men,
each section acting at a distance of 70 miles from
the other, While General Bragg's army, in a com-
pact mass, might strike whichever of these three
isolated bodies he preferred, can be compared only
to the strategy of General Hooker at Chancellors-
and his partition of the Federal army into
two sections, while General Lee acted upon a
shorter and inner line between them. It is certainly
to the credit of General Rosencranz that his three
sections escaped annihilation by detail, although
one of them (the central section) was vigorously
struck at by General Bragg and the whole Con-
federate army. Discovering that a body of 20,000
Federals had entered " the coves" (as they are here
talled) of one of the woody mountains of Northern
Georgia, General Bragg sent Gen. Hindman round
to strike them in rear, while he himself, with the
rest of his army, cut them off from escape by another
road. The coves of the Allegheny cluster of moun-
tains, though far less majestic in feature, resemble
greatly the cirques or °tiles of the Pyrenees, consist-
ing of deep recesses or culs-de-sac (the favourite
haunts of racoons, squirrels, wolves, and bears)
which run into the mountain side, and have
no exit save through the gorge by which they
are entered. Into such a trap did General
Rosencranz venture to lead one-third of his
army into the immediate neighbourhood of the
combined forces of his foe. Never since the
Caudine Forks was there a better opportunity of
capturing an entire army. By whose fault they
escaped and slipped out of the noose I shall not at-
tempt to discriminate. It is asserted by General
Bragg that the failure was General Hindman's, who
is consequently under arrest ; it is asserted by Gen.
Hindman that the fault lay in the orders of Gene-
ral Bragg. Be that as it may, General Rosencranz,
having escaped from this scrape by the skin of his
teeth, showed quick comprehension of the danger
of his position, and with great promptitude got his
three sections together in front of Chattanooga. It
is admitted that every man in his army was en-
gaged in the battle of Chickamanga, and on the
night of the 20th of September the whole mass, not
less when the battle commenced than 60,000 strong,
crumbling like a loosened cliff, streamed in inextri-
cable confusion down the steep sides of Missionary
Ridge, leaving more than 7,000 sound prisoners
and 2,300 wounded and all its unburied dead, and
51 pieces of artillery and small arms, flags, and
guidons ad nauseam in the hands of the victorious
Con federates.
It will be remembered that on the afternoon and
night of Friday, the 18th of September, the Confe-
derate army, which had been marching through
Milling beds of dust and crumbling rock since the
morning of Monday, the 14th, crossed %Vest Chicka-
se7_,ga Creek, which, tortuous and winding as a
bctewilets and traversed 13 times by the railroad
and. between Atlanta and Chattanooga, runs northward
far from lirges itself into the Tennessee river mat
the only secession Upon the morning of the 19th
Bragg had-Zssien of strength which General
three briod:eeived from Virginia consisted of
General Loges under the gallant General Hood.
et had not as yet got to the front,
but was that day
engaged in performing the weary
journey from
Atlanta to Chickamauga, which,
though traversed
bY raitlur?ad and not more than 130
miles in distance, it
includinzbts,:quently took me more
than 40 hours,
of railroad cars, to accompli fights, in the filthiest
Lon street's divisions—that Another of Gen.
Bed still further in ta
t Gen. M‘l, h d
the rear was the
aws— a
not got up ;
Gen. Jenkins
of
noble brigade of
which, much to its own diegnat, has not
Carolina,
battle of Fredericksburgnot been en-
gaged since the
in Decem-
ber last.
It seems to have been the belief of
Gen, B
hurried the battle ragg,
who unquestionably n to thee
utmost of his power, that would not have
more-
than two out of the three sections into which it Was
known that Gen, Rosen cranz had divided his array
to fight; but it is now established that on the 20th
avL----1-•8----
the last man of Gen. Rosenerane's reserve
the spot and put into the field, though it is believed
net the whole Federal army was not up on the 19th.
The battle of the 19th was little more than a
struggle for position, maintained by the Confede-
rates with a view to holding the ground where they
stood; undertaken by the Federals with a view of
driving their enemy across the stream. It resulted
in a decided success for the Confederates, who
not only held their own, bat pushed their enemy
a mile and half back, Two generals were specially
distinguished during the day—Gen. Hood, who met
a large flanking column of the enemy, by attacking
it with his usual vigour, and driving it back in con
fusion; and Gen. Cleburne, an Irishman by birth,
and once a private in the English army, who, solely
by his own merit, has risen to the rankof
General,
and is by many considered
the ablest
General of those belon • belonging to Bragg's array as it
stood before •
forced by the troops from Virginia.
Upon the occasion
upon a forealeee in
question he made an attack
position of the enemy at night-
fall, and contributed
materially to the success of the
next day by the valuable
ground which he occupied
on the night of the 19th,
At 11 o'clock oa the night of the 19th Gen. Long-
street reached the head-quarters
was immediately put in command
Gen. Bragg, and
d of the left wing
of the Confederate army. of his 0
stood in Virgini!, he had but three codrps' as ite s under
Gen. Hood, and two brigades under Gbrien. \
1
,L
There were d
d, however, to his command the
the
General Bummer, including the .
corps of
of Generals Preston and Stewart, and also, outside
of Buckner's command, the Bashrod Johnston.
General Bragg's plan of battle (the same which he

invariably pursues) was to attack along his whole
lice, commencing on his right and allowing the at-
tack to be taken up suecessively by division after
division until it reached the extreme left. And here,
according to General Bragg, commenced the disas-
ters of Sunday, the 20th. General Po! k_ was ordered
to commence the attack at daybreak ; he did not
commence until about 9 o'clock. For this omission
he, like General Hindman, is under arrest, await-
ing the decision of one of those many courts of in-
quiry to which these Western battles never fail to
give rise. It is asserted that if General Polk had
gained two or three hours in the morning there
would have been enough light to reap the fruits of
General Longstreet's victory before nightfall. It is
hard in the light of several other incidents of the
battle to credit this assertion.
Shortly after 9 the battle began raging furiously
along the whole Confederate right, where fought
Generals Polk, and D. H. Hill, and Breckinridge,
and Cleburne, and many more, as gallant men as
ever set squadron in the field. But here, coming,
as I have, to the army of General Bragg, a stranger
to its Generals and familiar only with the
Army of Virginia, where I have spent so many
pleasant hours, 1 must profess my surprise at ob-
serving the want of harmony and the utter absence
of enthusiasm which prevails in this Western camp.
isp ni
voits i
ot
nh aot
etnheer
aml
se nl
easrse
aebniee
wt
hh ai tnletshsobseravuen,doerr
the
It
General Lee; but, if I read tt
ma ers aright, there is
not at the head of this army
gacious, temperate wisdom, before which petty dif-
ferences are hushed, which daunts
political intrigue
and self-seeking, and which presents to every mat,
from the highest to the l
lowest, a living example of
purity, unselfishness, and patriotism, before whose
lustre all historical
characters
of modern times, ex-
cept, perhaps, Wellington end Washington, pale
their ineffectual fires. To the merits of General
Bragg, by no means inconsiderable, I am far from
being blind. But it is no injustice to him to say
that he never can inspire enthusiasm such as is
wanted in a mighty and unequal struggle of this
kind in either his officers or his men. That this
Western Confederate army if subjected to the com-
mand of a General whose character is electric, as
was Stonewall Jackson's, might become the rival of
the army of General Lee I have no manner of doubt ;
but in its present condition its choicest achieve-
ments will be, when engaged, level battles like
Murfreesborougb, or unimproved and unreaped
victories like Chickamanga; and, when at rest, dis-
satisfaction, heartburning, recrimination, such as
have never been absent from the Federal armies,
will continue to sweep like pestilence through its
ranks, and disqualify it daily more and more for
bringing its work to perfection.
The attack of the Federal right was a disastrous
failure. The Confederates fought well, but by noon
were so incontrovertibly repulsed that all fight-
ing ceased for many hours. In the meantime,
long before the repulse of the Confederate right was
confirmed, General Longstreet had commenced his
attack on the left. Steadily and irresistibly ad-
vancing, he swept away the head of every forma-
tion ; though often checked, and for the moment re-
pulsed, again and again he rode to the head of his
troops, and, hat in hand, rising in his stirrups, with
voice and gesture animated his men. The Western
Federals are brave and hardy men, capable of being
surned into as fine an army as ever shouldered mus-
ket, but it is no disparagement of them to say that
they have been trained in a very different school,
and are strung to deeds of inferior daring when put
face to face with such troops as Virginia has sent to
the west, under the leadership of such men as Gene-
rals Longstreet, Hood, sod Jenkins. Never in this
war has any General been found who was superior
to Gen. Longstreet in the art of what is here called
"putting in his men." I have repeatedly during
this last 12 months seen English and Austrian and
Prussian officers in the Confederate camp full of an-
ticipation that they were about to see brilliant and
intricate manoeuvres, because Gen. Lee's name as a
great captain has spread far and wide. But it has
not taken long to convince them that the manipu-
lation in the field of large bodies of undisciplined
men cannot be too simple. Manoeuvres in the face
of the enemy, sometimes, though rarely, attempted
by the Federals, have never failed to lead to disas-
ter. Having now observed upon many a battlefield
the way in which the Confederates fight, I can
attribute their almost invariable superiority in the
field, and especially in pitched battles, gained as it
has been in every instance by inferior numbers, to
nothing so much as the method employed by Con-
federate officers in "putting their men in." From
the very outset this has been for the Confederate
army, from the highest to the lowest, a war of self
sacrifice. Shirking danger, or avoiding hot places,
or fighting a battle by deputy—that is, by means
of orders carried to the front by staff officers, have
been practices invariably eschewed by Gen. Lee
and his right and left arms, Generals Jackson and
Longstreet. Right in front in every battle rides
Gen, Longstreet ; backwards and forwards along
his lines unweariedly he circulates, the target at
which thousands of bullets are aimed, of which not
one has as yet ever struck him or his horse, observ-
ing where his men are wavering, and swiftly riding
to their support, and carrying with him his wea-
known and inspiring presence, equivalent at the
moment to a thousand fresh men. And here let me
at once and finally state that from 11 in the morning
until sunset Gen. Longstreet's onward career was
not for more than intervals of a few moments
arrested or delayed. Commencing with his line run-
ning north-east and south-west,hegraduallyseseng
round until it ran due east and west, and comprised
within its control the main road to Chattanooga,
and at nightfall, having described all but a circle,
he found his lines again stretching almost in the
same direction as in the morning, but with their
backs turned at night towards the point, whither
their faces looked at daybreak. It was shortly after
the troops had gained the Chattanooga road that
Gen. Hood, riding in front with hie men, was
struck by a minie bullet, which shattered his thigh-
bone four inches below the hip. I am happy to
record that he is doing admirably, and has suffered
less from the amputation of his leg than he did
from the wound in his arm received at Gettysburg.
He is believed now to be out of danger.
The great and most momentous straggle of the
Battle of Chickamanga was that which comprised its
closing scene, and to which I will now devote a few
words. I have said that by noon the Confederate
right, vigorously repulsed in its onslaught upon the
strong mountain positions and earthworks of the
Federals, was silenced, and desisted for several
hours from further fighting. Meantime the steady,
Onward current of Longstreet's men could not be
stemmed,.. as they swept everything before them on
the Confederate left, and compelled the attention of
"In Rosencranz to his own flinching right. Hay-
' en' disposed of Gen. Polkandthe
the left, ,_ Confederates on
aii left I.oelaswiftly commenced moving troops from
of the
column
c Confederate
right, aided materially by the inaction
after
right. For upwards of two hours
ward, until
aTlemn of Federals streamed west-
:tilt
street of a move,
the
magnitudeapprof which
or to have been Gen. Walker, who had long
watched their
areh, sent to ise
Gendoesong
seem to have draw not
eelPeedh
hit an
ch y notice from Bragg,
his right. Inamediatebry renewed operations on
reached Gen. Longstreet hatha tht this information
forward with a battery of
12
pierew Gen. Buckner
heavily upon the Federal 001u:ilia which opened
rear, and compassing the capture of natting off its
But before the interfer ,000 Federal
prisoners. elle, of
a large body of Federals had crossed from Buckner
their left
afternoon to their right, and in the. race.
dGeneral
Longstreet,taking their stand upon the
.
bare and
ary
bluff termination of Missionßidge, uponwhich
k
breastwors, and
they had thrown upwhich, ,
being their last stronghold south of the Chette.
nooga works, they held with the tenacity of despair,
It was, I believe, about the same time that Gene.
rats rals Bragg and Longstreet met, or
oommunications, this being, if I am not mistaken,
the only intercourse which passed netween them
during the battle. General Longstreet, alluding to
the fact that all fighting had ceased on the Confede-
rate right, observed that if another division could
be spared to him be could make excellent use of it.
The answer of General Bragg is stated to have been,
"Our troops have been disastrously repulsed on the
right. Even if you had any of them you could get