From the army of the Kanawha.
The correspondent of the Lynchburg
Republican, in alluding to the recent retreat of
Rosencranz, writes:
‘
We pursued the enemy as far as
Mrs. Tyrel's — some eight miles--when we returned.
(By the way,
Mrs. T. is quite a favorite with our army.) Though both her sons are volunteers, and her husband one of our most reliable scouts, yet
Mrs. T. positively refused to flee from her home on the approach of the enemy.
She penned her chickens, hogs, and cattle under her own eye, and, armed with nothing but a single gun and a brave spirit, she determined to stand her ground and protest herself and property.
When the enemy approached, they pitched into her chicken-coop and garden and she pitched into them.
With a pitch-fork she run them out of her house, and returning to the other side of her house, she found several Hessians cutting her cabbbage and bearing them off. Snatching up her gun and levelling it at them, they dropped their plunder and retreated in more than double-quick time.
The circumstances not only occasioned great diversion among the army, but her heroic conduct satisfied them that she could only be robbed by being killed, and they never afterward troubled anything she had by violence.
Indeed,
Rosencranz gave her personal assurance that she and her property should be fully protected, but the virtue of this he afterwards destroyed by purchasing of
Mrs. T. several head of cattle, getting the receipts for the same, and then never paying her one cent.
This she says
Rosencranz did himself, and she is a reliable woman.
Mrs. T. is a fine-looking lady, of good character, and extraordinary will and nerve.
She keeps one of the best hotels in
Western Virginia, and it is a favorite resort of all travelers.
The next movement of our army is not determined upon, but my impression is, that we will move immediately towards the
Kanawha in two columns, the one under
Gen. Floyd, and the other under
Generals Lee and
Loring.
The precise routes of these divisions it may not be prudent to state, though the enemy finds out all our movements before the much-abused newspapers do. We have not seen but a single Northern newspaper since we have been in the mountains, and yet we have managed to have all the time a pretty accurate knowledge of all the important movements of the enemy, his numbers, and intentions.
It is just so on the other side.
A newspaper is the last source of information upon which a General moves his army, simply because it is the last one to communicate it. A good General finds out the position and resources of his adversary before the editor, and I doubt whether a single strategic movement of either party has been made during the war upon newspaper information.
It is folly, therefore, to abuse newspapers for imparting intelligence to the enemy, which it is the business and duty of all good
Generals to obtain by far speedier means at his own command.
Long before this letter reaches you, our march will be known to the enemy and to the
Northern public, just as the enemy's retreat was known to us long before it was known to the press of
Virginia.
Still, we had better conform to the wishes and respectful request of our Government, and conceal as much as is prudent.
General Floyd has abandoned the militia under
General Chapman, until their services may be needed again.
(By the way,
Gen. Chapman had about 1,500 of as fine looking soldiers as you most ever saw — men who just left their homes and business at a moment's call, and flew to arms in defence of their homes and country.)
’
