Memphis Daily Appeal CS
NORTHERN NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
PROBABLE MOVEMENTS OF BRAGG!
Guerrilla Operations in Arkansas
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Operation of Commodore Davis and General Curtis!
Special Correspondence of the Chicago Times.]
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 8
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Arkansas is being overrun by strong guerrilla bands. Hindman has a collected force of twenty-five or thirty thousand, and there are almost as many more ranging the country for spoils. There have been a number of skirmishes, of which nobody seems to have the rights, and nothing is known except that strong federal expeditions have been attacked and overpowered, and that a large number of prisoners and valuable stores have been taken from us. There will probably be some important movements in that locality before long.
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I suppose by this time you have undergone various surmises in regard to the northern trip which Com. Davis and Gen. Curtis are making. The precise reasons for their pilgrimage to the seat of authority are not known, but the nature of their derelictions is public enough.
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Gen. Curtis has made himself conspicuous in two or three ways. The unlicensed system which governed his movements in Arkansas has brought misery to thousands of unprotected families, and a corresponding degree of obloquy to the Union cause. He was of course compelled to subsist upon the country through which he passed, but that was no reason why houses should be despoiled and burned, innocent white women outraged, and black ones converted into the instruments of a promiscuous harlotage which it would be hard to find a parallel for. These performances were the work of stragglers and unknown persons, and should not be charged to the main army; but the cause will be made to father it all, and the commander must be held responsible. He should have prevented such discreditable occurrences.
His refusal to go to Vicksburg was based on two or three reasons. One was that which has already been enlarged upon in this letter-the deadly nature of the climate and locality. Another is that his force is nearly all cavalry, and intended for a moving campaign, rather than a stationary siege. A third was that his appointed field was Arkansas and Missouri, and his preference a border warfare. Among all these he found sufficient ground for a very peremptory refusal to obey the order of his superior officer.
Loud complaints were also made of his cotton transactions. Only privileged persons were allowed to buy cotton, and they bought at rates which mode independent fortunes in a day. All that has been done away by the opening of the market to all competitors, and much injustice has thus been remedied.
SHILOH.
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Special Correspondence of the Chicago Times.]
Memphis, Tennessee, August 8.
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Guerrilla raids in Arkansas are becoming frequent, and some bloody battles have been fought. Reports reached Helena yesterday that six hundred Texans had surrounded one hundred Federals near the head of the L'Anguelle river. The steamer Hamilton Belle was immediately ordered up with a force of infantry on board, while five or six hundred cavalry were dispatched by land. The reinforcements arrived only in time to find that one hundred of the 1st Wisconsin cavalry had been literally cut to pieces by a regiment of Texas rangers.
Our wounded, about forty-five or fifty, were immediately taken on board the boat; while all the cavalry that had arrived started in pursuit of the enemy. Out of one hundred men only eighteen or twenty escaped; the balance were killed wounded, or taken prisoners. The whole train, numbering twenty-five or thirty wagons, was taken or destroyed, together with all the horses, arms, and ammunition. Some twelve or fourteen of our men wore killed on the spot, and about the same number of rebels.
The Hamilton Pike arrived at the wharf late last evening from the scene of battle, with forty-five or fifty wounded on board.
The Bulletin, abolition-republican sheet of, this city, makes the following assertion this morning: "Never since the war begun have the Confederates been more determined or felt greater confidence in the success of the rebellion!"
SHILOH.