eating on Grenada, Mississippi, followed by 40,000 of the enemy. How
is he, Gen. J., to get from Tennessee to Grenada with reinforcements,
preceded by one army of the enemy, and followed by another?

Mr. Wigfall recommends the Secretary (as if _he_ could do it!) to
concentrate all the armies of the West, and beat the enemy out of the
Mississippi Valley. Gen. Johnston says Lieut.-Gen. Holmes _has_ been
ordered to reinforce Pemberton. Why, this is the very thing Mr. Randolph
did, and lost his _clerkship_ for it! The President must have changed
his mind.

Gen. Randolph sent in his resignation as brigadier-general to-day. The
younger brigadiers, Davis (the President's nephew) and Pryor, have been
recently assigned to brigades, and this may have operated on Randolph as
an emetic.

There are two war steamers at Charleston from abroad; one a Frenchman,
the other an Englishman. Gen. Beauregard entertained the officers of the
first the other day.

Gen. Banks has sailed down the coast on an expedition, the nature of
which, no doubt, will be developed soon.

DECEMBER 11TH.--Gen. Lee dispatched this morning early that the enemy
were constructing three pontoon bridges, and that firing had commenced
on both sides. At nine o'clock A.M. the firing increased, and Gen. Lee
dispatched for ammunition, looking to the contingency of a prolonged
battle.

At three P.M., Gen. Lee says, the enemy had been repulsed in two of
their attempts to throw bridges over the river; but the third attempt
_would probably succeed_, as it was under cover of batteries which
commanded the river, and where his sharpshooters could not reach the
workmen. But, he says, _his batteries command the plain_ where the enemy
must debouch. We may speedily hear of a most sanguinary conflict.

Burnside must have greatly superior numbers, or else he is a great fool
to precipitate his men into a plain, where every Southern soldier is
prepared to die, in the event of failure to conquer! There is no
trepidation here; on the contrary, a settled calm on the faces of the
people, which might be mistaken for indifference. They are confident of
the success of Lee, and really seem apprehensive that Burnside will not
come over and fight him in a decisive battle. We shall soon see, now, of
what stuff Burnside and his army are made. I feel some anxiety; because
the destruction of our little army on the Rappahannock might be the fall
of Richmond.

It is rumored that the President