The position of Rosecrans's army.
The correspondent of the Cincinnati Times gives the following relative to the position of Rosecrans's army at Chattanooga: ‘ After our retiring within the rebel works the enemy seemed to reluctantly follow.--They held back as if to give us full opportunity for a successful recrossing of the Tennessee river. But Gen. Rosecrans did not see proper to take advantage of these favorable designs of the enemy. On returning to Chattanooga, instead of placing the Tennessee between his forces and those of the rebels, he immediately called around him his Generals, and in a few words explained to them his future intended plans. This place is to be held at all hazards; we here make the big fight, be the strength of the enemy what it may! Beyond this point the Army of the Cumberland will not retire while there is a foe to menace it. Gen. St. Clair Morton, chief of engineers, immediately set about to put the place in a defensible condition for the warm welcome of the enemy. The nationals at present occupy the works previously constructed by the rebels to prevent the approach of the Yankees. The former strength of these works the enemy know full well. But they have now been made more complete, enlarged, and improved upon by those for whose approach they were first intended to resist; and should the enemy desire to learn more of the Yankee improvements on the plans of others, they have only to come forward and gain a more thorough knowledge by actual observation.--They will find that their foes have not been idle, and will most readily discover that the despised mudsills of the North have executed more in the space of forty-eight hours than has been accomplished by themselves in the past two years of the rebel occupation of this now impregnable stronghold. The enemy have been constantly moving around us since our retirement to this place. Large bodies of cavalry, infantry, and artillery are reported to be moving along the heights and through the valleys and plains beyond our present limits. They have been trying the range of their guns upon our position, but have not as yet succeeded in the accomplishment of any advantage to themselves or injury to the nationals. Their shot and shell have all fallen harmless to the earth. They are distinctly to be seen in very strong force, in successive lines of battle, on the hillsides and in the bottoms. The dense woods in our immediate front are also swarming with them, but they, thus far, have shown but little disposition to advance and again try their strength and fortune with the little army of despised menials with which they are at present confronted. ’ The following is the general order in the case of Generals McCook and Crittenden and their corps:War Department, Adjutant-General's office,
Washington, Sept. 28.
- 1st. The President of the United States directs that the twentieth and twenty-first army corps be consolidated and called the fourth army corps, and that Major General Gordon Granger be the commander of this consolidated corps.
- 2d. It is also directed that a Court of Inquiry be convened, the detail to be hereafter made, to inquire and report upon the conduct of Major-Generals McCook and Crittenden in the battles of the 19th and 20th. These officers are relieved from duty in the Department of the Cumberland, and will repair to Indianapolis, Indiana, reporting their arrival by letter to the Adjutant-General of the army.
