Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1862-08-19
T1e Kseriss OfG CGssslS0sgss isa sIse
T'aSOO Country!
Operation OF Commodore Davis
and General Curtis
,clsl corresnon,ienc, 81 tbe chicago Times ]

1 Yspard ii as a fuse to deceive our commanders
or a real military expedition. There are un-
/ questionably large number OF rebel troops ~
that direction. and the whole talk of the inhabi-
I tants through Northern Mississippi is that Bragg
has gone there himself If so be has left force
enough to look after his interests here, and that
! force IS in command of a man who knows well
how TO WELD IT, 20 wit: General Price Under
! lhese circumstances we are safe from serious
mOlestaton Just at present. Buell. must first be
conquered
Arkansas is being oyernln by strong guerrilla
bands Hindman has q collected force OF twenty
Eve or thirty thousand, and there are almost SIS
many more ranging the country for spoils. There
have been a number Of sl1irmishes, OF which
nobody seems TO have the rights, and nothing is
known except that strong Federal expeditions
have been attacked and overpo@ered, and that o
large number of prisoners and valuable stores
have been taken from u.s. There viii probsbly
be some important movements in that locality
before long.
a good deal has been said in connection with
the Yicksburg affair, about sending troops there,
and reducing the place by siege. This is all
very well for those who know nothing Of the eli
mate and the country, but they who have been
there are keenly alive to the peTils of that cam
psign None have ventured it and come off un-
scathed Our iotlla is full Of wan countensnees,
and death has been among its brave mon to an
alarming extent Officers and men have both
suffered. The former have been seriously i'll,
and the latter have died ike rotten sheep The
soldier Jared no better, and some of the regi-
meuts went back with almost decimated ranks.
This is the true history Of the siege of Vicks
burg.
The Yazoo river was ftly named by the red
skinned hunters WHO traversed its tOrtuous chan
Bel IN days gone by. Yszoo-Death river
What could be more signifcant8 Their symbol
ical language never failed them, and IN this in
stance it was well applied, for, if it be not =
river of death, then none exist. Old settlers tell
me that no man can drink its water in tho hot
season and live 0ngeT than few months. tits
in pregnsted with such rank vegetable matter,
gathered from the tropical luxursnce which bor-
derS its banks and those of its tributaries, that
its water is converted into slow poison, which is
sure to destroy human life If You would iRd
a counterpart to its sombTe shades and its
stained, muTky waters, you must 90 into the
depth Of swamps, which it drains, and look upon
green scum and crawling reptiles who shun the
sunlight and breed pestilenee and death alone.
On the banks of this river the early settlers
sat themselves down With the chances of death
or a competence, Tor money was to be made in
those days up the YszOO, and, until they abAn-
doned the use OF the water entirely, half of the
new corners never lived to see the second seas
on. They finally dug cisteTns, and contriVed
TO save rain-wster in the spring 10 last them the
year round, and, by due course of acclimatiZa-
tion, they have become hardened to the dangers
even thrive aud grow fat on them. But they
never touch the water. They depend upon the
clouds for their full supply, and thank their
kind fortunes II the YGZOO does not poison their
mules and cattle by wholesale
This is the kind Of fluid our soldiers and sailors
are expected to use and thrive upon. As if the
Mississippi were not bad enough, the YazoO
must pour It's boiling vegetable fermentation into
their cup aud kill them beyond peradventure.
Even the inhabitants do not use It, and how can
it be expected that people who are wholly unac-
custOmed TO it-people who have drank nothing
in their lives but the crystal waters of the great
lakes, or Of their own everything springs, pour
ing from the DrOdigal earth-hmpld streams, as
pure as they are inexhaustible-can exist upon
such foul impurityl The simple substance of
it is, that an army OF twenty-five thousand men
would end their graves between now and the
FIRST of October, without ever facing an ehemy.
The hotilia has already accomplished its des-
tiny in that line, and, if an army is to BE- main
tained anywhere in that locality, it must be re-
moved frem the river, and provided with pure
water-aud you might dig until you lost day
light, in that red-hot soil, and not find enough
to wet the palm of the hand.
| suppose by this time you have undergone
various surmises in regard to the northern "Trip
which Com. Davis and Gen. Curtis are making.
The precise reasons for their pilgrimage to the
seat Of authority are not known, but the nature
of their dereiictiOns is public enough. Davis
proved himself an infant in conception and au
imbecile in execution, from the mOment he left
Memphis 10 besiege Vicksburg until he came
away with the in9eble disgrace of having been
whipped and bullied by the Arkansas into abject
submission The fear of losing vessel was
strong enough TO overcome the hope of glory,
and there was nothing but folding Of hands and
crossing Of arms. The results of the expedition
were these: Gained-nothing Lost-the Caron-
delei shot to pieces, the Louisville disabled, the
Benton riddled, the Tyler demolished, the Essex
and Sumter thrown away, and the rams Ian
caster and Qaeen sent into dry docks for weeks.
The less Of the Essex, alone to the river hotilla,
is irreparable. She has been under Tec0nstruc-
ton for six months, and has cost a mint Of
money, and Oh her first trip she was cut off and
compelled to go to New Orleans. The gunbOat
hotila is actually ruined, and we shall know it
TO our sorrow before sixty days pass over our
heads.
Gen Curtis has made himself conspicuous in
two or three ways. The unlicensed system
which governed his movements in Arkansas has
brought misery to thousands OF unprotected
families, and corresponding degree Of obloquy
to the Union cause. He was Of course COM
PEELED to subsist upon the country through
which he passed, but that was no reason why
houses should be despoiled and burned, inno-
cent white women outraged, and black enes
converted into the instruments Of pTomiscu-
GUS harlotsge which it would be hard to find
parallel for. These performances were the work
Of strsgglers and unknown persons, and should
not be charged to the main army but the cause
VIII be made to father it all, and the commander
must be held responsible. He should have pre-
vented such discreditable occurrences.
His refusal to 90 to Vicksburg was based on
two or three ressons. One was that which has
already been enlarged upon in this letter-the
deadly nature OF the climate and locality. An
other is that his force is nearly all cavalry, and
intended for q moving campaign rather than
stationary siege. A third was that his appointed
field was Arkansas and Missouri, and his prefer
enee a border warfare. Among all these he
found sufficient ground for 8 very peremptory
refusal 10 ebsy the order of his superior officer
Loud complaints were also made Of his cot
ton transactions. Only privileged persons were
allowed to buy cotton, and they boue ht at rates
which made independent fortunes IN q day
/ sll that has been done away by the opening Of
the market to all competitors, and much injustice
has thus been remedied.
| The youthful department. of the Tribune is ct
/ its old trielcs-cavorting about on that Pegasus
whose dangerous flights are worse for unwearied
genius than ever ranger pony or gorilla" was
/ for me. The delicious point of that dab at my
experiences was displayed with a sprightliness
| truly elephantine, and the failure to recognize
its own portrait can be compared only with its
more brilliant failure to detect Herald CORE
spondenee a month old in its bran new Memphis
dispatches. How could you do it
SHILOH
] Special Correspondence Of the Chicago Timesl
MEMPHIS, Tennessee, August 5.--A scoui
/ who has Just returned from weeks journey ia
the neighborilood OF the rebel army reports that
| Bragg bss gone off after Baell, leaving force
] ~ f4nl, Il Il, "a.