CHICKAMAUGA—THE GREAT BATTLE OF THE IVEST.

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The condition of our railroads even in 1863 was wretched, so bad that mystaff and myself concluded to leave our horses in Virginia and resupplyourselves in Atlanta . On the 19th of July I reported to General Bragg atChattanooga . I had not seen him since I had been the junior lieutenant inhis battery of artillery at Corpus Christi, Texas , in 1845. The other two lieu-tenants were George H. Thomas and John F. Reynolds . We four had beenin the same mess there. Reynolds had been killed at Gettysburg twelve daysbefore my new assignment. Thomas , the strongest and most pronouncedSoutherner of the four, was now Rosecrans’s lieutenant . It was a strangecasting of lots that three messmates of Corpus Christi should meet under suchchanged circumstances at Chickamauga.

My interview with General Bragg at Chattanooga was not satisfactory. Hewas silent and reserved and seemed gloomy and despondent. He had grownprematurely old since I saw him last, and showed much nervousness. Hisrelations with his next in command (General Polk) and with some others ofhis subordinates were known not to be pleasant. His many retreats, too, hadalienated the rank and file from him, or at least had taken away that enthusiasmwhich soldiers feel for the successful general, and which makes them obey hisorders without question, and thus wins for him other successes. The onething that a soldier never fails to understand is victory, and the commanderwho leads him to victory will be adored by him whether that victory has beenwon by skill or by blundering, by the masterly handling of a few troopsagainst great odds, or by the awkward use of overwhelming numbers. Longbefore Stonewall Jackson had risen to the height of his great fame, he hadwon the implicit confidence of his troops in all his movements. “ Where areyou going 1 ” one inquired of the “ foot cavalry ” as they were making theusual stealthy march to the enemy’s rear. “We don’t know, but old Jackdoes,” was the laughing answer. This trust was the fruit of past victories,and it led to other and greater achievements.

I was assigned to Hardee’s old corps, consisting of Cleburne’s and Stew-art’s divisions, and made my headquarters at Tyner’s Station, a few mileseast of Chattanooga on the Knoxville railroad. The Federals soon madetheir appearance at Bridgeport, Alabama , and I made arrangements to guardthe crossings of the Tennessee north of Chattanooga . | On Fast Day,

be far off. But I was as cheerful at that interviewas was Mr. Davis himself. The bitterness of deathhad passed with me before our great reverses onthe 4th of July. The Federals had been stunnedby the defeat at Chancellorsville, and probablyWould not have made a forward movement formonths. A corps could have been sent to GeneralJoe Johnston, Grant could have been crushed, andVicksburg , "the heart of the Confederacy,” couldhave been saved. The drums that beat for theadvance into Pennsylvania seemed to many of usto be beating the funeral march of the dead Con-federacy. Our thirty days of mourning were overbefore the defeat of Lee and Pemberton. Duty,however, was to be done faithfully and unflinch-ingly to the last. The calmness of our Confeder-

ate President may not have been the calmness ofdespair, but it may have risen from the belief,then very prevalent, that England and France would recognize the Confederacy at its last ex-tremity, when the Northern and Southern bellig-erents were both exhausted. Should the Northtriumph, France could not hope to retain herhold upon Mexico . Besides, the English aristoc-racy, as is well known, were in full sympathy withthe South.—D. H. H.

4. A regiment was placed at Sivley’s Ford, an-other at Blythe’s Ferry, farther north, and S. A.M. Wood’s brigade was quartered at Harrison, insupporting distance of either point. The railroadupon which Rosecrans depended for his suppliesran south of Chattanooga , and had he crossed the