ng
foray of a small party to destroy property, tear up the
road, &c., _a la_ Morgan. When an additional telegram
announced the Federal force there to be from 17,000 to
20,000, we were inclined to doubt--though coming from a
perfectly honorable and upright gentleman, who would not be
apt to seize upon a wild report to send here to his friends.
The coming to that point with a large force, where they
would be flanked on either side by our army, we regarded as
a most stupid and unmilitary act. We now understand it all.
They were to move upon Chattanooga and Knoxville as soon as
the bridges were burnt, and press on into Virginia as far as
possible, and take all our forces in that State in the rear.
It was all the deepest laid scheme, and on the grandest
scale, that ever emanated from the brains of any number of
Yankees combined. It was one that was also entirely
practicable on almost any day for the last year. There were
but two miscalculations in the whole programme; they did not
expect men to start out afoot to pursue them, and they did
not expect these pursuers on foot to find Major Cooper's old
"Yonah" standing there all ready fired up. Their
calculations on every other point were dead certainties, and
would have succeeded perfectly.

This would have eclipsed anything Captain Morgan ever
attempted. To think of a parcel of Federal soldiers,
officers and privates, coming down into the heart of the
Confederate States--for they were here in Atlanta and at
Marietta--(some of them got on the train at Marietta that
morning, and others were at Big Shanty;) of playing such a
serious game on the State Road, which is under the control
of our prompt, energetic and sagacious Governor, known as
such all over America; to seize the passenger train on his
road, right at Camp McDonald, where he has a number of
Georgia regiments encamped, and run off with it; to burn the
bridges on the same road, and to go safely through to the
Federal lines--all this would have been a feather in the cap
of the man or men who executed it.

Let this be a warning to the railroad men and everybody else
in the Confederate States. Let an engine never be left alone
a moment. Let additional guards be placed at our bridges.
This is a matter we specially urged in