The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-30 00:00:00

int SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY•

(From th, Special Correspondent of the lanes,)
CONFEDERATE CAMP, NEAR
CHATTANOOGA, Oct. 19.

T en days, utterly void of incident so far as these
two western armies are concerned, have flown since
the date of my last letter ; and before turning my
face again towards Virginia, I desire to record the
imprest4ion which after three weeks' residence on
the spot and after much thoughtful observation the
army of Gen. Bragg has produced upon my mind.
There are obvious and not unfrequent occasions
when the chronicler of events on this continent,
although writing for the instruction of a neutral
nation which will read his words at a distance of
4,000 miles from the spot where they were penned,
is compelled to exercise far-sighted vigilance as to
his utterances, lest the great disparity of strength
already existing between the belligerents should be
still further augmented to the prejudice of the
Weaker by indiscreet or thoughtless revelations.
Such revelations, it is obvious, could not be made
bY anybody, however disposed to make them, who
writes from the Nottb. They usually have refer-
ence to such matters as shortcomings in supplies
of war material occasioned by the blockade, and
which, at the commencement of this war, were so
grave and numerous, that astonishment as to the
possibility of successful Southern resistance grows
and increases in proportion to your knowledge of
Southern poverty and weakness during the first 12
mouths of the war. Many months have now flown
since the supply of saltpetre—the most important
ingredient of gunpowder—became so abundant as to
extinguish all apprehension in regard to the ability
of the gunpower mills at Charlotte, Columbia, and
Augusta, to work full time not only during the
present year, without an increase of supply, but
also far into the year to come. But there is a
second class of revelations with respect to which
reticence would not be necessary were it not for the
dangers whichbeset all such letters as this. There
would be no objection to my furnishing such infor-
mation about the movements, numbers, and de-
signs (so far as the immediate future is concerned)
of Confederate armies as would be not without in-
terest for the English public, were I assured that
my letter would not be read in the North until its
return thither from England. But no such cer-
tainty can be felt in reference to letters which
hive to be smuggled through the blockade, and
which are liable to be overhauled and read in Wash-
ington within a few days of their being written.
There is a third class of revelations which demand
f rota a foreign correspondent no scanty exercise of
tact and discretion—those which exhibit weak
joints in the harness of the Southern Confederacy.
It, is hardly necessary I should state, that the stran-
ger who can reside 12 or 14 months in a weak and
small community which is wrestling superbly with
a gigantic opponent—who can witness daily traits
and incidents of sublime heroism and uncomplain-
ing endurance in almost every household which he
visits—who is cognisant of the enormities committed
by an enemy more unscrupulous than the hordes of
Attila, and more larcenous than the bands of Wil-

liam de la Marck—who can see the poor suffering
half-starved units which compose a Southern army
launched against an antagonist vastly superior in
number, in equipment, and in food, yet driving him
headlong from the field in nine battles out of ten—
and who cannot sympathise loyally and cordially
with the agony of a noble people—must be either
more or lt-ss than human. But although (micas
Plato, magis arnica veritas, and therefore, in the
belief that an honest opinion, emanating from a not
unfriendly observer, will in the end be advantageous
to the Confederacy, although possibly distasteful
to some whom I would not willingly wound, I will
frankly state my opinion of the prospects and
condition of Gen. Bragg's army, as I have now seen
it.

It will be necessary to carry your readers back for
some months. It will be remembered that when
Gen. Beauregard retreated silently and successfully,
some time after the battle of Shiloh, from Corinth,
leaving GensHalleck, who was then facing him, as
ignorant of his movements as was the rest of the
North, he fell back with what remained of his army
to Tupels, in Mississippi. Shortly after wards Gen.
Beauregard's health gave way. He withdrew to
some springs in Alabama, was relieved from his
command, and Gun. Bragg took his place. Gen.
Bragg found the army, which had at one time been
the finest force numerically which the Confederates
ever had in the field, reduced to 40,000 men in the
worst possible condition of discipline. deciminated
bf avact tfuu eUllmequeu, upuu 1.• '
action at Corinth, and swept by disease. It was
an occasion for the display of many of the finest
qualities of a general, as a promoter of discipline,
and an organiser of imperfect or broken-down army
departments; and everybody cheerfuay, and most
people gratefully, confesses that Gen. Bragg was
equal to the occasion. He exhibited much of that
firmness and indifference to popularity which are
so rare among republican generals, and, acting with
a lofty self-reliance, he took upon his own shoulders
the odium of causing some 12 or 15 men to be shot
without court martial; and finally, by the total
expulsion of whisky from his camp, and by divers
other salutary measures, restored his army to a
higher degree of discipline and efficiency than it had
ever before attained. In the operations of the
autumn of 1862, Bragg manifested superiority over
an able Federal commander, Gen. Buell, whom he
drove out of Nashville and Tennessee, and whom he
l'ventually forced up to Louisville, on the northern
borderw of Kentucky. It is true that Gen. Bragg's
titegy in Kentucky has not escaped damaging cri-
l!n; but it must not be forgotten that at a critical
mo
eta General Rosencranz defeated the Confede-
rateotrural Van Dorn at Holly Springs, and thus
the Neat the main army of the Confederates in
abundant e necessity of falling back. There is
battle of mllll7llll for the assertion that up to the
with his asy, army General Bragg stood high
shown himself deserving and with the country, and had
Bnt, it seems to :er'ing of the confidence of both.
he a;a ithat even at the battle of Mar-
, freesborongh
General
little of the energy and
tenacity against
aihetllGoser.cranz which he had
previously shown ag
denieefineral Buell. It is now
well known, and not
after
believe, even in the
North, that Itosencranz,
24 hones
abyrbsehad not Bragg
must have fallen back in
anticipated and relieved him
any attentive ing the first to
retire; nor canobserver be blind to
the fact that the spirit of the old prover.
° that," Brag
is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better
," which is said
'
to be constantly in Rosencranzmonth, strikingly
animates the whole of the Federal generara
strategy
y at this tr,,
and may possibly induce
Chattanooga,
h.
nowt, in nient to
cling so adhesively to spite of the
embarrassments and discomforts of positiou there'.
After the battle of Murfreesborougn,
the
dies there'
which had so long slumbered among rank and fat
of Bragg's army, engendered by the Draconian
•
verity of his rule, extended to his genera's of division
and to their subordinates, pervaded the officers of the
army, and became chronic and deep•seated. It is my
belief that from this moment General Bragg ceased to
be qualified efficiently to command an army of Re
publicans animated by a spirit so high and haughty
as that which pervades his troops, who demand from
their commanding general qualities and personal at-
tributes which inspire not only respect, but also en-
thusiasm and affection. It is also my belief that the
motives which led Gen. Bragg to cling tenaciously
to his command, and President Davis to turn a deaf
ear to all suggestions for his removal, were pure and
commendable. Nevertheless, I think that in both
inataecea they were foueded in error. Gen. Bragg
Would h:tve better Consulted his fair fame had he
escaped
tiPaa a position
he won convert the narrow fissure which separated
him trots his army after Murfreesboro' into the wide
and gaping
chasm
which now divides them after
Unicanaano.
Tare ill little difa
terioratio4 of the eulty in tracing the gradual de•
the two great Westernbattles
Confederate army be-
tweennot that Generals Polk, Cheatham just mentioned. It is
Cleburne, find others,
who have always
Breckenridge,
belin attached
to this army, are one whit less valiantor have:lost a particle of their raellis andfi patriotic,
it is that the harmony, homogeneity, confidence ; but
of the aggregate foree have been constantly one
decline, by resort of their growing dissatisfaction