"It is, in fact, easy to see how little the enemy respect truth and justice when speak. ing of their military operations, especially when, through inability or over-confidence, they meet with deserved failure.

"If the result be all he desired, it can be said that Major-Gen. Halleck is easily satisfied; it remains to be seen whether his Government and people will be of the like opinion.

"I attest that all we lost at Corinth and during the retreat would not amount to one day's expense of his army. G. T. BEAUREGARD."

CAPTURE OF MEMPHIS.

A few days after Gen. Beauregard's movement from Corinth, the city of Memphis having been abandoned by the Confederate garrison departing to another scene of action, was easily captured by the large Federal fleet in the Mississippi River. The capture was made on the 6th of June. The evacuation of Forts Pillow and Randolph had taken place two days before. In the river near Memphis was a small fleet of Confederate boats. It consisted of the General Van Dorn, (flag-ship,) General Price, General Bragg, Jeff. Thompson, General Lovell, General Beauregard, Sumter, and Little Rebel, all under the command of Com. Montgomery. Each of these boats carried an armament of two guns, with the exception of the Jeff. Thompson, which had four.

The Federal gunboats consisted of the following: the gunboat Benton, (flag-ship of Com. Davis,) mounting fourteen guns; gunboat St. Louis, thirteen guns; gunboat Mound City, thirteen guns; gunboat Louisville, thirteen guns; gunboat Cairo, thirteen guns; gunboat Carondelet, thirteen guns; three mortar-boats, and twenty rams and transports. This overwhelming force advanced, with several of their rams in front, their iron-clad gunboats in the centre, two and three abreast, and their mortarboats and transports bringing up their rear.

The unequal fight lasted but a few hours. The Jeff. Thompson, Beauregard, Sumter, and Bragg were respectively disabled, run ashore, or set on fire, their crews meanwhile escaping to the woods. The Jeff. Thompson was blown up, the Beauregard sunk near the shore, her upper-works remaining above the surface. The Sumter and Bragg were the only boats that could be brought off, and these were subsequently anchored in front of the city, with the odious flag of the invaders flying at their mast-heads. The Confederate loss did not exceed fifty in killed and wounded, and one hundred prisoners. On the boats captured and destroyed, there was but a small quantity of stores and munitions, and everything in the city of value to the government had been removed. Beyond the mere fact of obtaining possession of the position, the victory of the enemy was a barren one.

BOMBARDMENT OF VICKSBURG.

But the enemy was now to attempt a much more important step towards opening the navigation of the Mississippi River—a result persistently demanded by the Northwestern States as the price of their contributions to the war, and their support of the Administration at Washington.

The Confederates had been prompt to perceive the great importance of Vicksburg; and on the fall of New Orleans, Gen. Lovell had ordered a detail of his force to garrison the place and construct works for its defence. It was the most important point in the Valley of the Mississippi. Thousands of men, supplies, and matériel were continually crossing the river-much of our provisions for the armies in the East and West being derived from Texas, parts of Louisiana, and Arkansas. Could the Federals obtain possession of Vicksburg, all the agricultural products of the Northern and Western States would pass down unmolested to the Gulf; the enemy would gain free access to the whole river front, supply themselves abundantly with cotton, sugar, molasses, and other products, disjoin the east and west Mississippi States, and, having the Confederacy fairly on its flanks, could operate with impunity upon numberless points, divide our forces, and open a new prospect of subjugation.

When in the summer of 1862, Gen. Earl Van Dorn was assigned to the defence of Vicksburg, he found the city besieged by a powerful fleet of war vessels, and an army. Many of the citizens retired to the interiour, while the Confederate troops marched in, and pitched their tents in the valleys and on the hills adjacent in convenient position to support batteries and strike assailants. Breckinridge's division occupied the city. Additional guns were brought up from Mobile, from Richmond, from Columbus and elsewhere, and put in battery, preparatory for a grand trial of artillery with the enemy's fleet.

The attacking force of the enemy was at first confined to Porter's mortar fleet, and Farragut's gunboats, with their attendant array in transports, which had ascended the river from New Orleans. The evacuation of Fort Pillow, and the fall of Memphis, opened the new danger of a combination between the upper and lower fleets of the enemy. The junction was effected early in July, and thus a force of more than forty gunboats, mortar-boats, rams and transports lay in menace before the city. On the 12th of July it opened fire.

While the enemy had been completing his preparations for the bombardment of Vicksburg, the Confederates had been engaged in a wellmasked enterprise, and Com. Lynch having improvised a ship-yard near

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Yazoo City, had been hard at work, night and day, fitting out a ram, called the Arkansas. At the mouth of the Yazoo River, a raft had been built, to afford some sort of protection to the fleet of river passenger and freight boats, that had escaped from New Orleans, and were now concealed in this river, and to put bounds to the enemy's curiosity. One of these vessels was razeed by Com. Lynch, and the construction of the ungainly Arkansas begun. Four large guns were placed aboard; and on the 15th of July, Gen. Van Dorn issued an order to prepare her for immediate and active service, it being intended to use her as part of his force for the relief of Vicksburg.

In the early morning of this day, this rough ungainly vessel, which it was anticipated might compete with the deeds of the famous Virginia in Hampton Roads, passed through the raft of the Yazoo, and commenced the fearful gauntlet of the enemy's vessels drawn up in parallel lines to receive her when passing the channel of the Mississippi River. Frigates, rams, gunboats-all were ready to annihilate that iron-clad mass of timber slowly floating towards them. Presently an iron-clad left her position, and boldly steaming up between the lines of dark hulls, opened fire at a considerable distance. The Arkansas was silent, and nothing was seen but a rush of steam as the monster slowly entered the channel. Once her bow gun was fired, smashing the boiler and machinery of one of the enemy's vessels. A few moments more, and a terrific fire from both of the enemy's squadrons was poured upon the strange vessel, which appeared now as a mass of sparks floating between parallel lines of curling smoke. On the bluff were a thousand breathless spectators of the fearful scene. The Arkansas moved on. Fighting at long range, the Federal fleet slowly followed, and the nearer she approached the bluff, the quicker the Arkansas fought. At last finding her safe under the Confederate batteries, the enemy gave up the chase, and amid cheers from the excited spectators on the bluff and a salvo of artillery, the Arkansas slowly turned the point and was moored before Vicksburg!

With the failure to destroy or take the Arkansas, the siege of Vicksburg practically ended. The attack on the batteries soon ceased, and the cnemy, baffled and enraged by an unexpected, determined and persistent defence, vented his wrath in impotent and barbarian effort to destroy the city. On the 27th of July, both fleets disappeared, foiled in their struggle to reduce the place. The casualties on our side, during the entire siege, were twenty-two killed and wounded. Not a gun was dismounted, and but two were temporarily disabled.

ENGAGEMENT AT BATON ROUGE.

Satisfied of the enemy's disappearance from Vicksburg, Gen. Van

Dorn resolved to strike a blow before he had time to organize and mature a new scheme of assault. The Federals held Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, forty miles below the mouth of Red River, with a land force of about three thousand five hundred men, in conjunction with four or five gunboats, and some transports. It was a matter of great necessity to us that the navigation of Red River should be opened as high as Vicksburg Supplies, much needed, existed there, difficult to be obtained from any other quarter, and strong military reasons demanded that we should hold the Mississippi at two points, to facilitate communications and co-operation between Van Dorn's district and the trans-Mississippi department. The capture of Baton Rouge, and the forces of the enemy at that point, would open the Mississippi, secure the navigation of Red River, then in a state of blockade, and might make practicable the recapture of New Orleans.

To secure these objects, orders were given to Gen. Breckinridge to move upon Baton Rouge with a force of five thousand men, picked from the troops at Vicksburg, and there was added to his command the effective force of Gen. Ruggles, then at Camp Moore, making a total force of six thousand men. To ensure the success of the plan, the Arkansas was ordered to co-operate with the land force by a simultaneous attack from the river. All damages sustained by the Arkansas from the fleets of the enemy had been repaired, and when she left the wharf at Vicksburg for Baton Rouge, she was deemed to be as formidable, in attack or defence, as when she defied a fleet of forty vessels of war, many of them iron-clads.

By epidemic disease the land force under Gen. Breckinridge was reduced to less than three thousand effective men, within the period of ten days after he reached Camp Moore. Advised, however, by telegram every hour of the progress of the Arkansas towards Baton Rouge, and counting on her co-operation, Breckinridge, on the morning of the 5th August, determined to attack the enemy with his whole effective force, then reduced o about two thousand five hundred men. The attack was gallantly made; and the enemy, driven from all his positions, was forced to seek protection under the cover of his gunboats.

Breckinridge had listened in vain for the guns of the Arkansas. She never reached the scene of contest. After arriving within a short distance of Baton Rouge, in ample time for joint action at the appointed hour of attack, she had suddenly become unmanageable, from a failure in her machinery, which all the efforts of her engineers could not repair. Lieut. Stevens, her commander, moored her to the shore; and on the cautious approach of the enemy, he landed her crew, cut her from her moorings, fired her with his own hands, and turned her adrift down the river. With every gun shotted, the Confederate flag floating from her prow, and not a man on board, the Arkansas bore down upon the enemy. It was a strange spectacle, this vessel, abandoned by commander and crew, and dedicated

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to sacrifice, yet fighting a battle like a thing of life. Her guns were discharged as the flames reached them, and when her last shot was fired, the explosion of her magazine ended the brief career of the Arkansas.

Unable, without the co-operation of this vessel, to penetrate the cover of the enemy's gunboats, Gen. Breckinridge withdrew his troops at ten o'clock in the morning. He had fought a brilliant action, but was unable to pursue his victory further. Our casualties amounted to four hundred and sixty-seven. The force of the enemy brought into action was not less than forty-five hundred men. We had eleven pieces of field artillery. They brought to bear on us not less than eighteen pieces, exclusive of the guns of the fleet. In one respect the contrast between the opposing forces was very strking. The Federal troops were well clothed, and their encampments showed the presence of every comfort and even luxury. Our men had little transportation, indifferent food, and no shelter. Half of them had no coats, and hundreds of them were without either shoes or socks; yet no troops ever behaved with greater gallantry, and even reckless audacity.

Advised of the result of Gen. Breckinridge's expedition, Gen. Van Dorn immediately ordered the occupation of Port Hudson, a point selected for its eligibility of defence, and for its capacity for offensive annoyance of the enemy, established batteries, manned them with experienced gunners, and guarded them by an adequate supporting force, holding Baton Rouge, in the meanwhile, in menace. The effect of these operations was the evacuation of Baton Rouge by the enemy, and his disappearance from the Mississippi between the capital of Louisiana and Vicksburg. The results sought by the movement against Baton Rouge were thus, to a great extent, obtained. The Confederates held two points of the Mississippimore than two hundred miles of distance intervening-unmolested by the enemy, and closed to him. The navigation of the Mississippi River, from the mouth of Red River to Vicksburg, was opened to our commerce, giving us also the important advantage of water connection, by the latter river, with the most important portion of the trans-Mississippi region, from which indispensable supplies were drawn.

THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN.

But while the Confederate situation on the Mississippi River was thus satisfactory, Gen. Bragg, who now commanded the whole Confederate army of the West, in place of Gen. Beauregard, was preparing for an im- . portant campaign, the object of which was to relieve Western Tennessee and Alabama from the presence of the enemy by an advance against Kentucky, with possibly the ultimate object of capturing and holding Louis