ent gives them nothing beyond medicines and
soldier's rations. Sick men require much more, or they perish; and these
people are dying by scores. I think it a matter in which their friends
on the other side should take prompt and ample action.'"

OCTOBER 2D.--Our 5000 prisoners taken at the battle of Chickamauga have
arrived in this city, and it is ascertained that more are on the way
hither. Gen. Bragg said he had 5000 besides the wounded, and as none of
the wounded have arrived, more must have been taken since his dispatch.
Every effort is being made on our part to capture the army of
Rosecrans--and everything possible is done by the enemy to extricate
him, and to reinforce him to such an extent that he may resume offensive
operations. Without this be done, the campaign must close disastrously
in the West, and then the peace party of the North will have a new
inspiration of vitality.

It is now said that Gen. Lee, despairing of being attacked in his chosen
position, has resolved to attack Meade, or at least to advance
somewhere. It is possible (if Meade has really sent two corps of his
army to the West) that he will cross the Potomac again--at least on a
foraging expedition. If he meets with only conscripts and militia he may
penetrate as far as Harrisburg, and then let Europe perpend! The Union
will be as difficult of reconstruction, as would have been the
celebrated Campo Formio vase shivered by Napoleon. It is much easier to
destroy than to construct. The emancipation and confiscation measures
rendered reconstruction impracticable--unless, indeed, at a future day,
the Abolitionists of the United States should be annihilated and
Abolitionism abolished.

To-day I got an excellent pair of winter shoes from a quartermaster here
for $13--the retail price for as good an article, in the stores, is $75;
fine boots have risen to $200!

The enemy's batteries on Morris Island are firing away again at Sumter's
ruins, and at Moultrie--but they have not yet opened on the city.

The newspapers continue to give accounts of the Chickamauga battle.

OCTOBER 3D.--Nothing from the armies; but from Charleston it is
ascertained that the enemy's batteries on Morris Island have some of the
guns pointing _seaward_. This indicates a provision against attack from
that quarter, and suggests a purpose to withdraw the monitors, perhaps
to use them against Wilmington. I suppose the opposite guns in the
batteries will soon open on Charleston