Arkansas true Democrat., 1862-09-10
To p Ncrollun, F. " Elliott A. l.. Winfield and others.

country have the honor. gentlemen to oe,
 Your obedient servant JOHN s. II. RAISIY
 To p Mc(ollum F. " Elliott, A. H. Winfield and others. @.~<ss---ss~-------
 Gen. Mitchell and the Charges against Him.
 From the Cincinnati Commercial I7th. There is Q great deal said all over the coun> try about the somewhat vague publication of charges made against Gen. Mitchell, and there
 IS general demand for specifications. As we happen to be pretty well informed about those points, we presume it is our duty to make known
 definitely what the charges against Gen. Mitch ell are. He is accused of speculatons in cot> ton. It is alleged that he granted special fla cilities to certain cotton buyer, in tho way of guards and government wagons, and that this individual was detected in passing counterfeit and bogus money upon the people, and being | arrested for it, was summarily discharged by order of the general. We have seen in the hands of Col. Norton, of the 2lst Ohio, docu-
 nents on this point, which, if genuine and he assured us they were--would be exceedingly difficult to explain. It is not charged that Gen. Mitchell had anything to do in the way of showing bugus money upon the people, but many of his officers do believe that he was in- terested in the cotton business, and used his official position for speculative purposes. While we desire distinctly to disclaim any personal knowledge or responsibility as to the justice of these charges, we feel bound to state that we know more than one prominent officer who has served under Gen. Mitchell who IS firmly per~ suaded of it's truth.
 The panic which at one time prevailed in Gen. Mitchelrs department about being cut off by the right wing of the rebel army at Corinth, is charged to the general, and was wholly opI ;tnI, was nc reason to suppose that Beauregard, with his handful, as they were at Corinth could reach around beyond the breaks in the Charles ton road made by Gen. Sherman, and strike Gen. Mitchell. But just after one hundred thousand rations were sent by Gen. Halleck for the subsistence of Col. Turchin's brigade at Tuscumbia, q party of guerrilas made clat- ter in that quarter, and Turchin was ordered to faT back in hot haste, which he did, destroy. ing three,fourths of the one hundred thousand ratious sent him by Gen. Ualleck. The next thing was the destruction of the great bridge
 across the Tennessee river near Decatur-a most unwiso proceeding, uncaled for by any exigency, and which has seriously embarrassed our military operations in the far South. Since the man who was trimming tree sawed off the limb upon which he was sitting, betwixt him. self and the trunk, the case has not been more thoroughly paralleled than by Gen. Mitchell in burning the Decatur bridge, by which he com- municated with the commanding general of his department.
 The panic>Fke retreat from Athens, Ala, was, likewise, grave mistake. A force of rebel cavalry, said to have been precisely one huns dred and four in number, crossed the Tennessee river, and were magnifed into vast host by an "intelligcnt contraband" who is believed to have been manipulated by the rebels for the occasion. The consequence was a precipitate retreat from Athens made by Turchin's brigade.
 which resulted in considerable destruction of government property. We once suppressed letter from a correspondent about that affair. as we thought the account incredible. We have since been informed that it was strictly true. The retreat was made by order of Gen. Mitchell. It was when Colonel Turchin return ed to Athens that he permitted his soldiers to pillage the town. The fact that he had fled from the town in fright was certainly no
 reason why he should allow the people to be robbed and outraged on his return. The sackt | ing of Athens was the most shameful affair of the war. Soldiers of Turchin's brigade were then and there guilty of outrages unfit to be named. Gen. Mitchell, for the sake of disci- | pline in his army, should have brought them to 1 punishment. He did nothing of the sort-and
 this is what some persons, whose perception of
 facts are not very acute, style "making war
 vigorously"
 The advance upon Chattanooga was about as purposely and imbecile an affair as the re-
 treat from Tuscumba and Athens, and the 1 destruction oi the Decatur bridge. The force
 sent on the Chattanooga expedition was utterly
 inadequate to take or to hold the place, and if l 1t had been competent in other respects was
 unable to cross the Tennessee river. The re- | treat in this case was about as rapid as the ad- l vance, and the result was Q premature display
 of loyalty by few East Tennesseeans, who
 were immediately set upon by their traitor
 neighbors when our forces retired
 Gen. Mltchells measures fo- the suppression
 of guerrilla warfare are also complained off, It is stated that wherever, along the line of the
 railroad, his trains have been fired into. he has
 burned houses indiscriminately, and to an ex- l tent that IS astonishing. It also appears that
 this vigorous policy has not decresed the num- l Der ot marauders, but rather the reverse. How
 ever, we imagine Gen. Mitchell has little to ap>
 prehend from public wrath or official displeasure | because he has desolated the neighborhoods
 where guerrillas have been harbored, and have
 carried on their barbarous system of warfare
 At the same time, if the representations made I to us are true, he deserves censure for his want 1 of discrimination and his hot haste to take ven
 geance in places where trains had been pep
 pered by the shot>guns of the butternuts. Ht was master of the country, and could have ha( an investigation into all acts of outrages, anG
 might have inflicted punishment in more reg
 ular, impressive and useful style,