War rumors.
Painful rumors have reached the city, announcing a very serious disaster to the command of
Gen. Garnett, and tending to confirm the telegraphic dispatch from
Cincinnati, reporting the capture by
Gen. McClellan of a thousand of our forces, several guns, and two hundred killed, including
Gen. Garnett among the dead.
This would argue a bloody fight and a desperate resistance on the part of our brave soldiers.
If these tidings be true, the primary cause of this calamity to our forces would seem to have been a zig-zag march over
Rich Mountain, in the night, by a few thousand of
McClellan's command, by which
Col. Pegram was taken in the rear and cut off from communication with
Gen. Garnett, producing the misfortune that befell that gallant officer and leading to the others which overtook the rest of the command.
Two to three thousand of our troops are conceded to have withdrawn in safety according to our accounts; while it is reported from
Washington that they are again occupying
Laurel Hill.
It must not be supposed that this misfortune, if correctly reported, would put the enemy at
Staunton.
A long road, of more than a hundred miles, and many ranges of high mountains, utterly impassable to an enemy, intervene between
Laurel Hill and
Staunton, affording innumerable rallying points, and ample time for the muster in force of our troops and militia.
The country is the wildest and most unexplored in
Virginia.
It is not possible that
McClellan would attempt the march to
Staunton.
It is, on the contrary, to be presumed that having cleared his rear of danger, he will proceed to
Grafton, and thence make good his way by railroad to
Martinsburg, whence, in conjunction with
Gen. Patterson, he would precipitate himself upon the command of
Gen. Johnston.
We have given the bad news from
Laurel Hill just as it has reached this city.
For ourselves, however, we take the liberty of doubting the correctness of it. A letter to
General Lee from
General Garnett, written Saturday morning, represents
General Garnett to have been making good his retreat with all his stores and baggage in good order, without mention of the probability of an engagement.
A gentleman also is in the city who left
General Garnett late on Saturday safe and in good condition.
Yet it is on Saturday that the desperate misfortune is said to have been inflicted upon him. The Cincinnati dispatch in itself amounts to nothing, for it has been preceded for a week by daily dispatches of a similar character, every one of which has been falsified.
We trust and believe that the authentic details of this affair at
Laurel Hill will relieve the news of all its worst features, and reduce our misfortune to the mere falling back, after hard fighting, of a smaller force before a greatly larger one.
At all events, be this news ever so true, it is far more than counterbalanced by the glorious tidings from
General McCulloch's command in
Missouri.
P. S.--Since the foregoing was written, we have had the positive assurance of the authenticity of the following facts: That
Gen. Garnett was mortally wounded in the disaster alluded to, and that the Confederate forces lately under his command retired in good order.
General Garnett was wounded during the retreat of his forces.
The enemy outnumbered him seven to one, but after their partial success did not advance in force beyond the point from which they drove
Gen. Garnett.
