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

thed ou
sfl os
toodrgma t
of
e fs
thunderf H e av e n were a
na
lightning
opened.
etdr emn-
alonge
the vallley which divides Missionary Ridge from
Lookout Mountain ; the deafening reverberations
of the thunder were tossed backward and forwards
from mountain to mountain, and the lightning
crashed among the trees, rending trunk and limb.
The consequent condition of the miry yellow clay
roads which surround Chattanooga may be con-
ceived. Bridges were carried away over Chicka-
mauga and Chattanooga Creeks—the Tennessee
river arose in its might and swept away the Federal
pontoons and trestle bridges. The position of the
Confederates, with only six or seven miles of wag-
goning from Chickamauga station, is uncomfortable
enough—that of the Federals, with 45 miles of wag-
goning from Shell Mound, near Bridgeport, across
Walden's Ridge to the rear of Chattanooga, must
be irksome in the extreme. Nevertheless, both
armies continue to maintain their inactivity, and
seem as though they intended to winter in their
present lines. Unquestionably the rain which
has fallen will greatly enhance the difficulty of
extended operations in the field. But, although
I have not much faith in the inaugura-
tion of an active campaign by General Bragg,

it seems to me hardly probable that the Federal
General, strongly reinforced as he has undoubtedly
been, will abstain altogether from some attempt to
uproot his antagonist from Lookout Mountain,
which commands the railroad between Bridgsport
and Chattanooga, and impends over the river road
which approaches Chattanooga from the west. The
successful foray of General Wheeler and the Con-
federate cavalry in Rosencranz's rear, which wit-
nessed the destruction of some 800 waggons and
2,000 mules, is not calculated to increase Rosen-
cranz's good-humour. There is evidence that the
Federals in Chattanooga are greatly in want of fa-
rinaceous food, as the Yankee pickets eagerly seize
every opportunity of offering bushels of Federal
papers, or five dols. in greenbacks, for a pint of
corn meal or flour. It is a strange and unexampled
circumstance that for once the poor Confederates
should be better provisioned, as far as breadstuffs
are concerned, than the pampered Yankee. Occa-
sionally there is active shelling between the two
lines, but the batteries are too remote from each
other to do any harm.

Altogether, I carry away with me from this army
but one grain of comfort, which arises from the fact
that the brilliant and illusive glare which, prior to
this battle illuminated General Rosencranz and his
army, has been finally and effectually annihilated
and dispelled. Admitting that the hazardous and
unsoidierlike division of his army into sections,
which Rosencranz adopted prior to the battle of
Chickamauga, was attributable to his intelligent
comprehension of the calibre of the opposing Gene-
ral, it cannot for a moment be pretended that in
the battle itself Rosencranz showed any ability or
fertility of resource. As for the actual fighting of
his men, I have only once seen anything so dis-
creditable among the Federal troops fighting in
Virginia ; I mean the behaviour of the 11th Corps
of Yankees at the battle of Chancellorsville. My
belief is that the army, of which General Bragg is
now the head, is fully a match for any which the
Federals can bring against it at present; but how
long it will remain so, in presence of the disheart-
ening effects of inactivity, of a winter passed in a
cheerless and unhealthy location, and increasing
dislike which exists between General Bragg and
the Geueralsboneath him, it is impossible for me to
say. It is not my province to attempt to discrimi-
nate, or to distribute praise and blame between
General Bragg and his Generals, but it is utterly
impossible to blind my eyes to the fact thaT—
`• Quicquid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi,"
and that the best interests of the Confederacy and
of General Bragg himself demand that he should
seek some position which will emancipate him from
the prejudices, animosities,and heartburnings which
now surround him on every side.