The War.
summary of recent events.
The news of the great battle and Confederate victory in the Southwest, on Sunday last, having been confirmed by official advices received yesterday, it will be interesting to learn every fact in connection these with that it may be possible to obtain previous to the receipt of detailed accounts.
Judging from the wording of General Beauregard's dispatch, it is presumed that the battle took place at Shiloh Church, three miles southwest of Pittsburg and eighteen miles northeast of Corinth, Miss.
It will therefore probably be known in history as the ‘"Battle of Shiloh"’ The Vicksburg Whig, of the 29th ult, used the following propretic language: ‘ We are in the midst of the deep tranquility which precedes the storm. The armies are concentrating on new and bloody battlefields, and in a short time the clashing of arms will be heard throughout the land, and there will be a carnage with which that of Manassas plains will sink into insignificance when compared to. Generals Beauregard and A. S. Johnston are daily strengthening themselves every way for a tremendous and decisive conflict. The fire, glow, and enthusiasm which made the revolutionary fathers unconquerable.--the same that actuated Leonidas at Thermopy when supping with his companions in a most the moment of executing the most heroic design that human nature ever conceive, he invite them on the morrow to a banquet in a new resistance — the same that made marshal Ney, at the head of a few thousand naked, frozen, half starved troops, refuse to surrender to eighty thousand well armed and equipped Russians-beats in the heart of every true Southern soldier, and we fell confident that when the conflict does commence we will achieve such victories as shall startle the North from its centre to its circumference, and decide the destinies of two of the most powerful republics on earth.
’
Yankee Idea of the "Rebel situation"
A correspondent of the Chicago Times, writing from Cairo on the 26th of March, gives the following view of the "Rebel" line of defence, which, taken in connection with the events of Sunday last, possesses considerable interest:‘ Meantime the enemy is concentrating. The Union forces are in the lower tier of counties in Western Tennessee. Immediately below is Tishomingo county, in the northeast corner of Mississippi, and in it, just twenty-five miles from Savannah, is the important railroad point of Corinth, or Corinth as the natives insist on pronouncing it, at the junction of the railroad from Columbus through Humboldt, Jackson, and Purdy, with the great Memphis and Charleston road.
’ This seems to be the cause of the Rebel operations. Their new line of defence has for its base the Charleston and Memphis road, the preservation of which is absolutely necessary to any pretence of resistance through Northern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Along this railroad are and Florence, at the foot of the Muscle Shoals and the junction with the Nashville and Florence road where the Rebels have had forces since Donelson; Decatur, near the head of the lower Muscle Shoal, where the greater part of the Donelson and Bowling Green forces are said to have concentrated first after the retreat from Nashville; Huntsville and Beliefontain, at both of which there are said to be small bodies of troops; Stevenson, important as the junction with the railroad from Nashville through Murfreesboro, through which the Rebels retreated; and Chattanooga, a strong and important position. All these points are of Corinth, and all, except the last, are in Alabama.
To the west of Corinth the road leads in a tolerably straight line to Memphis, a hundred miles distant, and northwest runs, the road to Jackson, almost in the centre West Tennessee, where rebel fortifications are said to be preparing with great rapidity.
Such is the new line of defence for the rebel "army of the Mississippi." the command of which their crack Beauregard has recently assumed. Beauregard's department is understood to extend at least as far east as Decatur, Alabama, and Westward as far as may be necessary for the defence of Memphis. He is known to have been making his headquarters last week at Corinth — within ten or fifteen miles of our picket lines and during a portion of the week it is also certain that he had around him at the same point Generals Polk Johnston, Pillow, Cheatham, Freeman, and Wright.
Our line on the other hand, for the present, is imply the Tennessee river, from Smithland, Kentucky to Eastport, Mississippi.--There have been numerous ineffectual attempts to oppose our free passage along the river, but the two wooden gunboats, the Lexington and A. O. Taylor, have served an admirable purpose as a roving police, preventing the erection of batteries, and silencing the only one that had been completed — that at Pittsburg Landing, nine miles above. Above East port, at Chickasaw Bluffs and some other points, the Rebels are understood to have batteries that command the navigation of the river, and protect Florence and Decatur from attack by water for the present.
The general understanding of the Rebel movements is that, with Corinth as their base of operations in opposition to our force at Savannah they are endeavoring to station troops and erect defences at the exposed points east and west along the railroad, so as to be ready to oppose our advance, and concentrate their force by rail at any point we may attempt to pounce upon.
Accordingly, for the present, the Rebel troops are pouring into Corinth, both as the nearest point to the body of our army, and as a convenient rendezvous for the railroad line. In two days last week our scouts saw fifteen trains, loaded with soldiers, enter the town many of their troops are supposed to be the raw militia, half armed and unorganized, that have been gathered by the recent levies; but the numbers are becoming formidable. Sixty thousand is the lowest figure to which the official information will reduce them; and, after making all the necessary discounts and deductions, I cannot see how we can work them down to an actual number of less than thirty-five or forty thousand. With Beauregard at their head, it will be seen that this force will not let our expedition remain without anything to do.
The Yankees in Stafford county, Va.
The Fredericksburg Herald, of Friday last, says:‘ The narrow escape of pickets and couriers may be gathered from the following incident. A counter from the Lancaster cavalry had been dispatched from Stafford Court House early yesterday morning (and before the enemy's advance was known) to a camp in King George. Returning from there last night, and all unconscious of the new state of affairs at Stafford Court House, he rode up briskly, dismounted his steed, turned him into an with a large number of other horses, and walked into the tavern — Approaching the keeper of the house he inquired for the Lancaster cavalry. "How did you get here? The enemy are all around and about," were the quior expressions of "mine host," and they were rather startling; but nothing daunted, our Lancaster county courier quietly left, for the horse out from the company into which he had turned him, mounted, and was soon making tracks forced Fredericksburg. He arrived in to friends not a wait the worse for his narrow escape.
’ Mr. George Moncure made a narrow escape from some of the Federals. He was sending off furniture, &c, from his house. They took off his two teams, throwing the furniture in the road, but his servant escaped during the evening and came to their master.
We have it on pretty good authority that willing at Stafford C. H. the enemy destroyed and muti the records of the county. One reports is that they burnt them, but this is not well authenticated.
They also took the silver from several private families in the neighborhood, and perpetrated several other acts of infamy.
[The miscreant invaders seem to have a passion for old county records. When they last came to Fairfax they ransacked the Court-House and carried away many old and valuable papers, including several documents in the handwriting and bearing the signature of Gen. Washington; while one person was reported to have found the original will made by the Father of his Country. This is on the authority of the New York World.]
The fight in Scott county, Tenn.
The Knoxville Register, of Saturday last, has the following account of the rent of the Jayhawker in Scott country, Tenn., a brief notice of which has already appeared in this paper:We learn through a letter received in this city yesterday, that a detachment of General Lydbetter's forces, consisting of part of Col. Vaughan's regiment, part of the 2d Alabama regiment, and a body of cavalry all under the command of Col. Vaughn, encountered a body of Jayhawker near Huntsville, in Scott county, on Tuesday last, who scattered, took to the woods, and commenced "bushwhacking" Lieut. Taylor, of Capt. Lillard's company, was killed, and three eithers of Col Vaughn's force. The letter does not say what the loss of the enemy was, but rumors from other sources say that from thirty to forty of the jayhawker were killed, and fifteen or eighteen taken prisoners, these subsequently attempted to escape, and in retaking them five more were killed.--The enemy thus routed is supposed to be a part of Byrd's force of Kentuckians and renegade Tennesseeans.
Later.--A gentleman, who arrived from Clinton yesterday afternoon reports that the force of the enemy encountered by Colonel Vaughn was the whole of Byrd's regiment and two companies of Federal cavalry. The casualties on our side were four killed and ten wounded. Col. Vaughn himself made a narrow escape. Riding up to a party of the enemy, whom he mistook for friends, he made himself known to them. They immediately levelled their guns at him, but before they could fire he threw himself from his house down a steep embankment and escaped.
One hundred and fifty of the horses of the enemy were captured by the Confederates, and more bacon than they could find transportation for, besides other commissary stores of the Federals, among which were a great quantity of green apples. The victory seems to have been a most complete one, and as usual the Federals greatly outnumbered our forces. If the reports of this affair are confirmed by the official accounts, the gallant Vaughn has added new laurels to those he achieved at Manassas.
