The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1866-09-13
GENERAL GEARY.
The Battle of WaullatcEaie.
ST. LOUIS, August 10, 1866.
E1tfOrs Pin sLurob GozoJfe.

To the Editors Pittsburgh Gazette:
GENTLEMEN: 1 am a Western man &,
have never lived in your noble old State,
nor am Ia sspolitician--having voted but
once during the twenty odd years since
the rights first accrued but wish to give
honor where honor justly belongs, to re-
fute some of the unchartitable aspersions
against that polished gentleman and tried
soldier, General John W. Geary.
wish to prove in the just equity of
things, that not only his native State, but
that the whole United States, own him a
debt of gratitude. that should forever en-
dear and immortalize his name, and place
it among the most illustrious of their
sons.
The country can we'll remember the
gloom and anxiety that pervaded the
North after the disastrous day of Chicama-
qua. Kentucky and Tennessee swarmed
with predatory bands of rebels. Bragg,
flushed with victory, mad hurled back our
shattered columns on Chattanooga, and
Rosecrans, on the first paralysis of defeat,
Cor perhaps of fear, had ignobly aban-
doned Lookout mountain, the key to the
south banks of the river, as far as Bridge
port, where the railroad crosses the Ten
nessee river, and from whence all our
supplies had to be drawn. This moral
error and military blunder, necessitated
She drawing of all our supplies from
Bridgeport to Chattanooga by circuitous
mountain route, Cup the Sagnatchie valley,
near Maclamonis cove, thence over the
rugged mountains to the north bank of
the river by pontoon bridge to this city,)
some sixty miles in length. The country
around, even in times Of plenty scarcely
produces enough to feed its scattering
population, but now trampied, broken,
crushed audsdevoured by the oscilating
tread of hostile armies, it was thoroughly
denuded of all kinds of subsistence, and
even the wretched inhabitants held daily
struggle with famine, and looked with
despair to the rigors of approaching win
| ter.
FROM Bridgeport to Chattanooga by
the South Bank was less than thirty
miles, and by the North Bank, by which
the Confederates forced us to haul, We
were compelled to make an elbow of more
that sixty miles, and that over the most
execrable roads maginable-either through
the slush of fswamps, rendered doubly dan
gerous by the rains of autumn, or over
stony heights, so steep that cat could
scarcely crawl up, with rocky lodges crop
ping out, often three to four feet per-
pendicularly, at each one of which the wa
gons had to be unloaded and hauled up
by hand.
The Ohio river was really our base OF
supplies, and a wretched single track rail
road from thence through Nashville to
Bridgeport, Alabama, distance of nearly
four hundred miles, requiring full ARM y
corps for its defence, was our sole de.
pendence.
Our dispirited army, thus cooped up
and half beleaguered in Chattanooga, was
wholly unable, either to meet the enemy
in the open field or to wrench from him
the southern bank of the river and thus
open gate for food and munitions.
| Reinforcements had been ordered from
Mississippi and from the army of the Po,
tomac, and to hold their position and with
it the great States of Tennessee and Ken
tucky, with all the untold result there
unto belonging, until the promised aid
could arrive, was the great problem ol
both General Rosecrans and General
Thomas, the latter of whom about this
time had assumed the chief command
The depot supplies of Chattanooga were
rapidly melting away every energy, every
resource and every appliance in the reach
of the Government was set In motion t
feed our starving forces and enable us tt
hold on until the expected succor came
to hand.
Our army was too weak to fight, anC
our means of transp ortation too Limited