CHAP.XII.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.
Extensive preparations have and are being made at Nashville, under the medical director, for the accommodation of the sick, who will be sent to that place at the rate of 250 per day, and more if practicable, till they are conveyed hence.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. S. JOHNSTON, General, C. S. Army.
This letter has been delayed in consequence of the cutting the direct railroad communication.
Since this was written General Polk has gained a victory over the Federal troops opposite Columbus. They were routed with great loss, and I now consider his situation better than before the conflict.
The movements of the enemy now clearly indicate the correctness of the views expressed in the first part of this dispatch. I therefore find still greater reason for bringing forward the troops ordered from Columbus. Their movement has been delayed by the battle, but I hope they will be in time to anticipate the enemy. I have received information that a gunboat of the enemy has been enabled by a rise in the Cumberland to pass over the obstructions placed n the river.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. S. JOHNSTON, General, C. S. Army.
MEMPHIS, November 8, 1861.
HonorableJ. P. BENJAMIN:
My guns will not be ready in three weeks. I might in the mean time be of assistance to General Polk if he can furnish me with guns. Have 1,700 men ready for the field.
WM. H. CARROLL, Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.
KNOXVILLE, TENN., November 8, 1861.
His Excellency President DAVIS:
DEAR SIR: Many friends here have urged me to address your excellency this note. Heretofore I have declined to do so, on account of the extreme delicacy I feel in suggesting anything to the Government in regard to which it is to be presumed they are fully informed. What I have to say is in regard to General zollicoffer's perilous position at Cumberland Gap, and the danger of invasion by the Lincoln forces of East Tennessee by way of Jamestown, Fentress County, Tennessee.
It is thought here, by all who are acquainted with things in East Tennessee, that re-enforcements, if practicable, ought to be sent forthwith. It is, I fear, a grand mistake to suppose the Union party in East Tennessee has lost its hostility to the Confederacy. At the election day before yesterday, with perfect unanimity, that party refused to cast a vote for men who had been its late leaders, because they were running for seats in the Confederate Congress; and if a force shall be thrown into East Tennessee or on the line, which now seems probable, and which General Zollicoffer is unable to defeat, the flames of rebellion will flash throughout East Tennessee, the railroad will be destroyed, the bridges burned, and other calamities not necessary to mention will
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