New York Times US

FROM HELENA.
GEN. HOVEY'S EXPEDITION.
Correspondence of the St. Louis Democrat.
HELENA, Saturday, Nov. 22, 1862.
The expedition, under the command of Brig.Gen. HOVEY, which left here on Sunday last, returned during the night. It did not accomplish the object for which it set out. Unforeseen and insurmountable difficulties arose to prevent it.
On arriving at the mouth of White River it was found much lower than had been reported, with scarcely four and a half feet on the principal bar. The river is peculiar, in having its greatest obstructions at the mouth -- a fact well known to the commanding General. He succeeded in getting six miles above the mouth, fully satisfied that, having accomplished that task, he could ascend the remainder of the way without difficulty; but, contrary to his expectations and the experience of the oldest pilots, he encountered a newly formed sand-bar on which there was but thirty inches of water. Under this condition of things, no alternative was left but to disembark his troops, and proceed by land over a distance of thirty miles. But, while preparing to do so, he received dispatches recalling him to this post; in order to prepare for a more important movement.
During the time Gen. HOVEY was engaged in examining the condition of White River and the approaches to Fort Arkansas, I learned that the enemy received two regiments of reinforcements across the river at Napoleon. I learned also that the force against us amounted to about seven thousand men intrenched within a fortification mounting twenty pieces of artillery, and that they intended making a stand. If they had, there is no doubt but that the force under Gen. HOVEY would have made a second Fort Donelson of it, as they would have bagged every man of them, and at the time he received the order to return, to use the language of Gen. GRANT, "he was preparing to advance upon their works immediately."
Within the last four days there has been a number of arrivals from above, all of them loaded with troops. This morning the first instalment of OSTERHAUS' Division arrived on its return, and we are in momentary expectation of Gen. STEELE, who is reported coming to resume his command. He is a brave and efficient officer, endowed with great executive bowers, and very popular with his troops. His withdrawal from this post was an unfortunate event. It has cost the treasury a large amount of money, and the country still more, by delaying operations of the most important character, at a season of the year when only they can be carried on successfully in this unhealthy climate. STEELE did not return to Missouri without protesting against it as both absurd and unnecessary, for, like SCIPIO AFRICANUS, he believes that the best way to drive the Carthaginians from the walls of Rome is to carry the war into Africa.
The boatmen have a hard time of it on account of the low water. All of the large boats from St. Louis have been from ten to fourteen days out, and obliged to lighten over all the bad bars, so that trips, which, on leaving St.-Louis, promised big profits, turn out to be great losses.
You may look out for important operations from this point soon.