From Chattanooga.
[from our own Correspondent.] Army of Tennessee, Near Chattanooga, Nov. 5th, 1863.
After three consecutive days of uninterrupted sunshine — the longest term of dry weather we have had for a month past — we are again visited by a heavy rain, which is pouring down as I write.
So much wet weather would at any time add greatly to the discomfort of troops who are insufficiently provided with tents, blankets, and shoes; but in a camp like this, located in a wide, muddy valley, where the streams are easily swollen, and where the water passes off slowly, it is almost intolerable.
You may form some idea of the nature of the soil and of the quantity of water that has fallen, when you are informed that upon waking up some mornings since, I found that half a dozen new springs (or wet weather springs, as farmers call them,) had formed in my tent during the night, the water from which was running out in as many miniature streams.
If such was my condition under a good tent, what must be the condition of the men who stand all night on the muddy flats and in the trenches half filled with water, who have but one blanket and a slight fly for their shelter, and sometimes not even that much?
Once more, therefore, would I entreat every man and woman in the Confederacy who has a blanket to spare to send it immediately to the army.
And when they make up their gifts let them not forget the Tennessean, Kentuckians, Texans, Arkansans, Missourian and Louisianian, who for the present have no homes, and who yet have their heads to the blast of battle and the storms of Heaven in our defence.
No troops deserve a larger share of our sympathy and affection than the brave soldiers from those States, and none stand so much in need of our care and attention.
For some weeks past the weather has been very unfavorable to military operations.
Since the date of my last letter nothing has occurred that it would not be impolitic to mention, beyond the daily exchange of shots between the opposing batteries.--No further effort has been made to regain possession of Lookout Valley, where the enemy has been industriously exerting himself to render his position secure, and reopen the railroad from Bridgeport, for the transportation of supplies.
Since the Federal press, following the example of Gen. Rosecrans, persists in attributing their defeat at Chickamauga to the overwhelming numbers of the Confederates, it may not be amiss to correct this shallow falsehood, and especially since even some of our own public prints seem to take less pleasure in contemplating the great victory gained upon that bloody field than they do in finding fault with Gen. Bragg.
The following estimate of the strength of the Federal army is based upon reports obtained from three different and well informed sources just before the battle, and I am satisfied, as you would be if you were in possession of all the facts, that it approximates the truth very nearly:
McCook's corps, three divisions, (Sherman's Davis's, and R. R. Johnson's,) | 18,000 |
Thomas's corps, four divisions, (Rousseau's, Negley's, Brannan's, and Reynolds's.) | 25,000 |
Crittenden's corps, three divisions, (Palmer's, Van-Cleve's, and Wood's,) | 18,000 |
Granger's reserve corps, three divisions, (Morgan's, Steadman's, and Granger's,) | 15,000 |
77,000 |
Sallust.