f Buell had
completely mystified General Bragg, and the latter was not only reduced
to the defensive, but to a state of mind pitiable in the extreme. He
acted like a man whose nerves by some accident or disorder, had been
crazed; he was the victim of every rumor; he was alternately exhilarated
and dejected. If the enemy dallied, or the distance between them
_happened_ to be increased, he became bold and confident; when a
collision was imminent, he could contemplate nothing but defeat and
disaster. Of that kind of fear which induces provision against dangers
which are far in the future, he knew nothing, and he was equally as
ignorant of the courage which kindles highest when the hour of final
issue has arrived. General Bragg, had, as a subordinate, no superior in
bravery--he had, as a commander, no bravery at all. While I shall make
no sort of comment upon General Bragg's character or his conduct, which
I do not thoroughly believe to be correct, and just and warranted by the
record and by the circumstances of that time and of this--I yet deem it
my duty to candidly warn my readers to receive with due allowance every
line written about Bragg by a Kentuckian.

The wrongs he did Kentucky and Kentuckians, the malignity with which he
bore down on his Kentucky troops, his hatred and bitter active
antagonism to all prominent Kentucky officers, have made an abhorrence
of him part of a Kentuckian's creed. There is no reason why any
expression of natural feeling toward him should be now suppressed--he is
not dead, nor a prisoner, nor an exile.

General Bragg came to the western army with a most enviable reputation.
He had already displayed those qualities as an organizer, a
disciplinarian, and a military administrator, in which he was unrivaled.
His dashing conduct at Shiloh, and the courage and ability (there
exhibited in perfection), in which (as a corps commander), no man
excelled him, had made him a great and universal favorite. The admirable
method which (when second in command at Corinth, and really at the head
of affairs), he introduced into all departments; the marvelous skill in
discipline, with which he made of the "mob" at Corinth a splendidly
ordered, formidable army, and his masterly evacuation of the place
(totally deceiving Halleck in doing so), caused him to be regarded,
almost universally, as the fit successor of Albert Sydney Johnson, and
the coming man of the West.

The plan of retiring altogether from Missis