The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-01-30
A Rich Intercepted Letter frFn One
of Braggs Officers.

letter, written by Major B..
of Braces army, to his dear friend,
NJ, in this city, which show
that the great skedaddler of Stones
River is not regarded as a NAro.
LEON by all of his officers, The
letter is as follows -
WARTRAcE Tenn, Jan. 10, 1868.
Dcar IL My young friend, G.
II. NJ wrote you yesterday morning, and
sent the letter and a number of late pa.
pers by Mrs fl. ~ Hope you
received them. | have been here one
week. Left Murfreesboro Sunday morn
ing last, at daylight on the last train
leaving there. Did not know until ten
o'clock at night that we intended to re-
treat the following morning, or rather the |
same night. Do not believe the retreat !
was necessary. De mol Jelieve Geq. Brcgg |
knc,g ,0Lat he ,cas doing; in other words,
that he IS not man competent 10 command |
on the GeM ECry 7snnesseaa is bitter be-
y0nd crprissioa, Some swear he is a fool.
| think myself he has been blessed with Uery
| little sense, and no genius; and you know
| | have no cause to think hardly of him.
! He has recently had me promoted. Our
! official intercourse has been exceedingly
pleasant, and This is more than many Of lis
! officers can say for several of them have
been under arrest since the army left
Mississippi.
But ii IS useless to Disguise the fact that
Bfagg's career as q Commanding General
has eUenLttatea IN a disaster and diSgrdcetW
failure. Added to this, he is not popular.
| may 60 further, and say he is almost
universally hated by all orr troops especial
IN Jy the TsnResSeanS. At the same time,
think him a soldier; man who has q
sense Of duty and will perform his duty
TO the best Of his ability that he is a
fine dsciplDarian, and an officer of
splendid administrative ability But IL
is sheer Jolly to call him General.
am Of opinion that history will re-
late that all the battles aroud Murfrees-
borO were fought well, contested with
desperate valor, but that they were fought
without generalship. Gen. Bragg at
tackled and drove back their left wing on
| Wednesday, because he had massed his
heaviest forces on their right wing, be-
lieving from demonstrations made by the
Yankees, that their heaviest force was
there. Our attack on the left was sue
cesslul as we drove the enemy back,
the fight extended gradually toward the
| right, hoping to move first one division
after another until the whole army would
be forced to retreat. But having weak
ened ourselves on the right and centre,
in order to enable US to drive back their
right we found on attacking their whole
line that we were too weak to pierce his
centre or drive back his right. 50 We'd
| uesaays battle closed tOitdoW decfSiUe result.
We had captured, il is true, thirty one
pieces of artillery, upwards of three
thousand prisoners, and held the battle
field, which we continued to hold until we
evacuated our entire defencCs. But we
had gained you preCeive, no decisive adj
vantage except on their right Ihey
maintained thar original position everWchere
else, haoiag ycpuisea tie Sereral attempts made
10 carry their position on the centre and
right. On Thursday we Were inactive
except on taking care of the dead and
wounded. We secured the trophies Of
the fight on the left, and shipped all the
PRISONERS captured, ordnance &c, safely
to Chattanooga. On Friday evening
Bragg foolishly q can't conscientiously
use a more expressive tsym) ordered Breck-
inridge's Division to charge their centre
again We took the first front battery
of the enemy, but after capturing il, dis
covered we were immedia'lY under the
fire of numerous other batteries that had
up to that time remained silent The
inevitable consequence was a hasty re.
treat leaving the captured battery on the
field, to fall agan into the enemy 8
hands nor was this all, we lost many of
our bravest and most gallant officers
and men. Gen, Hanson was wounded,
, and has since died. Col Preston Cum
ningham was killed. Captains Womack,
Savage and Spurlock, of Warren county,
were all dangerously wounded. De-
feated in our design, repulssd ,0ih heavy
, loss, we retired to our former position
Early Saturday night
the entire army commenced moving
started Seuen long trains II cyoioael to oror.
2 ao'ojng ioih the sick and rounded
Bragg discovered his mistake, and pre-
pared for an evacuation after having de-
, c1ayed he ,oouH ,Oin that battle or die on N,
, feH Our next line of defence will be
i Immediately South Of Duck River Oar
0 headquarters will be next at Tullahoma
Y We are a thousand times obliged
5 to 900 alias Major B., for hi.
y interesting letter, and will try tC
. forward him a copy of his letter in
r print, "cays Of NasAvUo," sc.
G carefully enveIopod. Goodbye
/, Major God bless you! Take
X care of yourself old fellow
$ Whenever you want to get a copy
t Of the UNION, just drop us note
}, and we will send it quicker than
0 2:4O. Farewell, 900,