The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1884-06-19
SAVING THE NATION.
TCont;J,ned froqn LIST n11e.J
VIE RESULT.

Night comes. The battle is over 1t has
been fought wholly by McCook with the aid
of three brigades from Gilbert's corps. General
Buell. has lost in killed and wounded more
than 1000. No one will ever know how great
was the Confederate loss, but, as they were the
attacking party, it is supposed to have been
nearly 5000 General Polk had directed
affairs. He had attacked and been repulsed,
and all of 'Bragg's plans upset through the
defeat.
What should he do? He must retreat till
he can concentrate his army. Through the
night his wagon trains were rumbling over the
roads, leaving clouds of dust behind. Before
daybreak his troops were on the march. Cou-
riers rode in hot haste to Kirby Smith, who
also turned his footsteps toward Tennessee.
THE PURSUIT..
General Sill's command, which had been
sent to Frankfort, joined General Buell., who
on the 18th came upon Braggs rear guard
three miles south of Harrodsburg and pressed
him so hard that Bragg abandoned his sick and
wounded q, 200 in ALI as prisoners. General
Bragg had no intention of fighting another
battle in Kentucky. He could retire leisurely,
not compel him to fight and discontinued the
pursuit, at London turning west towards Bowl
ing Green, thinking that Bragg would attack
Nashville.
THE PLUMBER.
General Bragg had been swinging round
loose in the State for more than month. He
had not taken Louisville or Cincinnati but
he had transferred the theater of war from
northern Alabama to northern Kentucky. He
Il Il 4 i
enriched the Confederacy with plumber.
The wagon train," said the Richmond
Examiner, was forty miles long, and brought
million yards of jeans, a large amount Of
clothing, boots and shoes, twoehundred wagon
loads of bacon, six thousand barrels of pork,
fifteen hundred mules and horses, eight thou
sand beeves, and large lot of swine"
During the month trains of cars were run
ming south laden with the plumber the Con-
federates the while living on the fat of the
land.
CUMBERLAND GAP.
AT the point where the eastern boundary of
Kentucky joins Tennessee is the celebrated
gap through which Daniel Boone and Simon
kenton and their felloW-hunters entered the
State to hunt the deer in its forests and build
their future homes. It is grand pass in the
mountains The Confederates held it up to
June but the Union forces had taken it and
thousand men, but the advance of General
Bragg had cut off all his supplies. On Septem-
Der IL he had nothing but beans and rice. His
-four was gone.
General John Morgan with his cavalry was
between him and Cincinnati. No supplies
could come to him. One week longer he held
on, his troops on half rations. He could stay
| no longer. He dismounted the heavy guns in
the forts which he had built, and then began
his retreat You may think of the half-starved
soldiers making their way along the narrow
mountain roads, skirmishing with Morgan's
cavalry, but the skillful commander reaches the
Ohio River with all his field artillery-twenty-
eight pieces-and four hundred wagons, build
ing new roads, repairing old ones, and saving
his whole command.
The invasion of Kentucky by the Confeder-
ates was over. The Confederate government
and the people of the South were greatly dis
appointed. They had expected that Kentucky
would join hands with the Confederacy, but
| the people were more than ever determined to
stand by the Union. Bragg had for a brief
| season removed the theater of war from Ken
lucky, but he was once more in Tennessee.
| He had not taken Louisville or thrown
| bombs into Cincinnati. The seeessionists who
| had joyfully welcomed him, but who now were
fugitiyes, were lamenting their folly and ex-
/ ecrating his want of spirit when he might
| have struck telling blow. The campaign was
/ over; little had been gained and much had
| been lost. He had been defeated in the only
| battle fought. He retreated to Murfreesboro'
There we will leave him and see what is going
on the while in other sections of the country.
To be continued