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

T HE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY

(From the Special Correspondent of the 7imes.)
CONFEDERATE CAMP, NEAR CHATTANOOGA,
October 8,
It is my' confident belief that, among the many
fruitless victories which, in the last two and a half

years, iv ive been gained by the Confederates, two
will he,:eafter stand conspicuous as having afforded
rare arld unexampled opportunities which were in-

eredibly thrown away—the battle of Bull Run and

the b&.ttle of Claickamanga. Twice only since the
commencement of the war have the Federals been

broken up " without hand ;" twice only has their
def,eat been converted into irretrievable rout. In the

many victories gained by General Lee in Virginia
the Federals have always had a river behind them
which has intercepted pursuit, or a fortified camp
which was easily reached, or having retained,thongh
defeated, such solidity as robbed their opponents of
the decisive uses of victory. The exceptional victo-
ries of the war have hitherto been Bull Run and

Chickanaanga, which by a Napoleon would have been

converted, even with the limited means possessed by
the Confederate generals, into an Austerlitz and a
Marengo. 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 Chickamauga should have been nothing more
its
details a bloody and unfruitful victory will, when
details are fully known and deliberately weighed,
be imputed to the general who chanced to command
the troops that wren 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 i
their instruction. I shall, therefore, confine myself
to general remarks about theßattle of Chickamauga,
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 hero I am compelled to premise that there
is only one theory which can explain General
Rosencranz'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
Roseneranz'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-
Tine, 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
called) of ono of the woody mountains of Northern
Georgia, General Bragg sent Gen. Hindman round
to,strike them iu 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
greeely the cirques or oules 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 er.tered. Into such a trap did General
lloserieranz venture to lead one-third of his
astrey into the immediate neighbourhood of the
covibined forces of hii foe. Never since the
Cenidine Forks was there a better opportunity of
fcapturing 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 Genera
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.
eel Bragg. Be that as it may, General Rosencranz,
heving 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
leis 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
61 pieces of artillery and small arms, flags, and
guidons ad nauseam in the hands of the victorious
Confederates.
1e will be remembered that on the afternoon and
Fight of Friday, the 18th of September, the Confe-
derate, army, which had been marching through
snitlilingtibeols_ of dust and crumbling reek since the
manogcrteMonday, the 14th, crossed West Chicka-
serpent,
and traversed
which, tortuous and winding as a
between Atlanta
13 times by the railroad
and disehar:ta and Chattanooga, runs northward
far from it,rrisitself into the Tennessee river not
the only accession
Upon the morning of the 19th
Bragg had received of strength which General
three btigade,
er from Virginia consisted of
had
gallant General Hood.
General Longstreet
but was that day enga,(,l not as yet got to the front,
journey from Atlanta e in performing the weary
•
though traversed by rtiirote, _ ‘uckamanga, which,
miles in distance, it „üb:n and not more than 130
than 40 hours, including twqeutientlY took me more
of railroad cars, to accompueilights, in the filthiest
Longstreet's divisions—that
of
uaAnother of Gen.
not got up ; and still further th.eNPLaws—had
noble brigade of Gen. Jenkins, of southrear was the
which, much to its own disgust, has Carolina,
gaged since the battle of Fredericksburgot. been en_
Decera.
her last. Bra
It seems to have been the belief of Gen.
who unquestionably hurried the battle on to gfi,
the
utmost of his power, that he would not have more
than two out of the three suctions into whi pigt was
known that Gen, Rosencranz had divided array
to fight; but it is now established_ that on the 20th_
the last man of Gen. ROSellerallZ'S reserve was on
the spot and put into the field, though it is believed
that 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, but 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 and driving with his usual vigour, • •
it back in con
- an; and Gen. Cleburne, an Irishman by birth,
and oueb •
a private in the English army, who, solely
by his own .
and is
has risen to the rank of Major-
General.,
General
of nis by many considered the ablest
stood before those
belonging
to Bragg's army as it
reinforced by the troops from Virginia.
Upon the occasion
in
question he made an attack
upon a formlthibi e
night-
fall, and contributca m
position of the enemy at
valnabalterially to the
success of the
next day by the
on the night of the 19th, e
ground which he occupied
At 11 o'clock on the night of the 19th Gen. Long-
street reached the head quarters of
Gen. Bragg, and
was immediately put in command
ofth
of the Confederate army. orhis
own corps,
left wing
c
stood in Virginia, he had but three brigades under
as
it
Gen. Hood, and two brigades under Gm 11,Lu'nder
There were added, however, to his command the
corps of General Buckner, including the divisions
of Generals Preston and Stewart, and also, outside
of Buckner's command, the Bushrod 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 divisicn after
division until it reached the extreme left. And here,
according to General Bragg, commenvd the disas-
ters of Sunday, the 20th. General Poik 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 ono 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 tight, 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.
It is not that the men are one whit less brave, or
the Division Generals less able than those under
General Lee; but, if I read matters aright, there is
not at the head of this army that firm, mild, sa-
gacious, temperate wisdom, before which petty dif-
ferences are hushed, which daunts political intrigue
and self-seeking, and which presents to every man,
from the highest to the lowest, a living example of
purity, unselfishness, and patriotism, before whose
lustre all historical characters of modern times, ex-
cept, perhaps, Wellington and '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
Murfreesborough, 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 Longstrect 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. Tho Western
Federals are brave and hardy men, capable of being
turned 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 Lougstreet, Hood, and Jenkins. Never in this
war has any General been found who was superior
to Gcn. 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-
'er. 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, Longstrcet ; back wards and forviards 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 weal-
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, he gradually swung
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 Erica 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 his 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 struggle of the
Battle of Chickamauga 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
Federate, was silenced, and desisted for several
hours from further fighting. Meantime the steady,
°llward current of Longstreet's men could not be
'tetemed, as they swept everything before them on
the
Gen,
_oConfederate left, and compelled the attention of
the left, he Hav-
ing disposedtt sencranz to his own flinching right. Hav-
his left
column after
of Gen. Polk and the Confederates on
to
ila:iftly commenced moving troops from
of the coefi,areight, aided materially by the inaction
column
right. For upwards of two hours
at Zeno of Federals streamed west-
ward, until
inaLthGen. Walker, who had long
watched their
nisent to apprise Gen. Long-
upaogun.itude of which does not
street of a move, the
bit any notice from Bragg,
Immedie.telyY
seem to have drawn
:ielantewed operations on
or to have been checked
he
threw
information
reached right.
viGietnh.
aLobnagasetrryeet
of
12
pieces:
Fedtehrea lc ;true w3h, Gen.o.ionol: Buckner
nietrs
Ilcifeutti.ch opened
forwardu
upon the
rear, and compassing
heavily
Federal
But before the interference of
prisoners. Buckner
a large body of Federals had crossed from their left
in the afternoon faced
to their right, and General
Longstreet, taking their. _ stand upon the - bare and
bluff termination of Missionary Ridge, ape, which
they had thrown up breastworks, and which, as
being their last stronghold sou
tenacity of th of the Chatta-
nooga works, they held with the despair.
It was, I believe, about the same time that Gene-
ralsngech
interchanged
d
Bragg and Longstreet met, or
oommunicstions, this being, if I am not mistaken,
ot
the only intercourse which passed between them
during the battle. General Longstreet, alluding to
the fact that all fighting had ceased on the Con fede-
rate right, observed that if another division could
be spared to him ho could make excellent use of it.
The answer of General Bragg is stated to have been,
"Our troops have been di• ass rously repulsed on tht'
right- Even if you bad
any of them you could get
.