Arkansas true Democrat., 1862-05-08

! for miles was covered with punches of the raw material and the thickets that fringed the wa ter were whitened as if snow drifts were piled up amidst their green spring foliage. The heart sick e,ed at the sad spectacle that necessity had forced upon us, and as volumes of black smoke wreathed ED far ahead the conviction was rreslstibly forced upon all present that we were in tie great theatre 1 of the war. where blackness and desolation meet vor at every step The farms were inundated by the overflow. and the houses left tenantless and desolate the only living things to be seen, were the cotton burners at their patriotic work. The pros nect was sad for us, but when the news reaches Encland, sniyelling, abolitionized England, vail of sorrow will arise that will shake the foundation of her ancient throne. The destruction of the crop on hand. and tue failure to plant this season, will oneu her eyes to the folly of her position. ln ten days there will not be 10000 bales in the whole Mississippi valley, and none planted!! The golden time has passed when England might have saved herself but she would not; the fruits of her folly must rest on her own shoulders. The breezes laden with the stiaing scent of burnt cotton, that filed the cabins and staterooms of our steamer for miles and miles, were not more provocative ot tears to us than the stern fact will be to England, that cotton is no more for a season; and the deep como, and stentorious breathings of the manufacturing world will seem in after ages as the baccehanaan snorings of a giant lulled into drunkenness by the cunning Seward Before this reaches you, the great Missis sppi valley will have no cotton, and if the enemy conquer the river it will be barren conquest, for like the Russians, we have destroyed our Moscow
 All sorts of rumors are rife at Memphis, some plausible; but most of them, simply amusing for their exaggeration and monstrosity. One would think that they are fighting desperately at Ccrnth every day, and that gigantic struggle is imminent at every point where two or three are gathered together It is believed here that the great battle has been fought and won on the Peninsula, and Gems Lee and Johnston are both killed. Such a rumor is certainly current and credited, and that our loss of two such men is compensated by bril- liant victory, surpassing that even of Manassas.
 Yesterday the enemy advanced three miles nearer our lines. and gave some show of battle. Heavy skirmishing ensued, and all day the two armies were approaching. To-day we expect the grand shock of arms and the fierce onset of man, animated by deadly hate, and stung. on both sides, by late disasters. The concussion will be awful and the effect disastrous upon the losing side
 Memphis is under martial law, and her citizens under the law of fear; and well they may be. With the fall of Pillow and New Orleans, her conquest is certain and matter of the time and pleasure of the Lincolnitcs. Her wharyes are lined with steamboats, whose heavy whistles seem sadder than the notes of dying swan, for they are all doomed to be burned upon the approach of the enemy's gunboats Not Southern steamer will be left to ply the waters of this grand stream.
 C. R. r.