The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1862-06-06
From the Army Before Corinth.
PREPARATIONS OF THE TWO ARMIES

A letter in the Cincinnati Gazette, dated be-
fore Corinth May 10, says, from the commo-
ton visible among the rebels, it was generally
suspected that they were about to attack Hal
leck.
HOW WE ARE STARVING BEAUREGARD OUT"
Nothing could be more absurd than the talk
about starving them out at Corinth. With two
railroads at command, they are not likely to
starve SO long as the Confedcracy contains 'hog
and hominy," and we may as well get over the
foolish idea that the supply of those Southern
staples is just exhausted. People who talk of
| starving this rebel army seem to imagine that
we have cut it off from sources of supply. On
the contrary, the Mobile and Ohio road, direct
ly to the rear, is not only in good working order,
but apparently beyond our reach. We might
cut them off from Memphis by an advance of
Ohio Sherman on the right; but till we entirely
surround them. E., till we get beyond the
point of fearing immediate attack-and change
the whole present policy of operations, they will
have, by means of the road to Mobile full ac-
cess to the gulf and seaboard States. When the
whole Coniederacy, therefore, is starved out, we
will, under the present system, succeed in star
wing them out of Corinth. The process might
prove tedious.
ABOUT CAPTURING THE ARMY.
+ The probability of capturing their whole ar
my, Or ''bagging them," as the phrase is, seems
equally remote while they have railroad to run
away on. As matters stand now, they might
take off twenty regiments per day, without our
even discovering what they were about. When
we cut them off from Memphis, they still have
their road to Mobile entirely safe so long as they
protect their rear. Suppose we should fight a
great battle tomorrow, and should win victo-
ry, unless we should get inside their works at
once and possess ourselves of the railroad, they
could at once commence running off their troops,
and by only taking the trains twenty or thirty
miles and then returning for fresh loads, they
could in q day reach a point with the mass of
their army, to which we could not come up for
| Il week.
| NO NEED OF APPREIIENsIONS
| That Beauregard has been receiving exceed
| ingly heavy reinforcements svery probable. The
prisoners and deserters all say so, spies bring in
the same story, and our ears tell us that the rail
road is incessantly occupied-and in what more
| probably Than in the transportation of fresh
troops! This conscript law is understood to be
| in full force, and with power TO impress every-
p'uy i'o Hio iu'hS tiil c SctS DIS iilstily us ne
wants, there is little doubt that Beauregard will
have big army.
But beyond certain limit these conscrpts can
be only indifferently armed, if armed at ALL I'm
| willing combatants--as indignant at those who
have forced them into the ranks as against the
enemy-and utterly undisciplined, it is doubtful
whether it is not really the better for us the
more they have of them.
If they attack us / cannot see how we can
| fail TO repulse them. Somebody must bunder
beyond all precedent to produce such a catastro-
phe. If they do not attack us, judging from all
appearances, there is little likelihood of spec
| dy battle. All Gen. Halleck's movements thus
far point to slow advances, the construction of
earthwork deiences, and general siege operations
except in the one essential point of investing the
place before the siege begins. Besides, he seems
to be waiting for operations elsewhere, before
venturing upon anything decisive here. There
is little occasion, therefore, for the feverish anx-
iety with which SO many mothers and sisters
watch the reports from Corinth. Weeks n,ay
yet elapse before their loved ones enter the dread
combat, or the combat may turn out to be a
very small affair after all.