October 10, 1862, The New York Herald
Our Louisville Correspondence.
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Oct. 6, 1862.
The news from the front today, while it is of an extremely interesting nature, yet has a smack of disappointment in it. At all points the rebels fly as our forces advance, without giving us a chance to fight them; and so rapidly is Buell pushing his columns forward that the retirement of the rebels partakes very much of the nature of a complete rout. The news is of the same character both from the left, right and centre. Buell’s movements seem to prevent the rebels effecting a concentration of their forces, and they are rapidly becoming demoralized from their frequent and hasty retreats. Our right occupied Bardstown yesterday (Sunday), and so rapidly were they moving that last evening three divisions of Crittenden’s corps were in Lebanon, twenty-seven miles distant. This is the fastest army travelling on record, and is conclusive evidence that when the occasion demands it, Buell can make as rapid strides as any commander we have.
General Hardee had commanded the rebel forces at Bardstown and in that vicinity, and his force is estimated by citizens of Bardstown at not less than thirty thousand men, some accounts putting the number as high as thirty-five thousand. Hardee himself was ill at the time of the evacuation of that place, and this will probably be an excuse for his not fighting. Everything in the vicinity of Bardstown that could move on wheels, or could drag the wheels, was pressed into the rebel service and taken away in their flight. The country was thoroughly stripped of all kinds of produce, and the goods in the stores adapted to military purposes was all taken away. Their flight from that place was very precipitate, yet they took good care off their sick with them. They took the Lebanon road, and were closely pursued by our forces. A detachment of about thirty rebel prisoners, stragglers from their army, captured in the vicinity of Bardstown, have arrived here.
Rousseau’s division has passed Taylorsville and is pushing on with all expedition, via Perryville for Danville.
From the left the intelligence is still more cheering. The State capital is once more in federal possession. It was expected that the rebels would make a stand at Hardinsville, where, for some days they had been massing troops, and it was deemed expedient to reconnoitre this position carefully before moving on it. Such a reconnoissance was made on Sunday, disclosing the presence of from fifteen to twenty thousand men there; but on Sunday evening Gen. Sill, commanding our advance in that direction, ordered a forward movement, and this morning was in Hardinsville, finding only a deserted camp there. The rebels had all fled in confusion. Gen. Sill made no halt, but crowded his little column on with all haste. He arrived at Frankfort this evening, but only in time to see the last of the rebels flying from the opposite side of the town in the direction of Lexington. Previous to leaving they had destroyed the fine railroad bridge across the Kentucky river at this point, and had also set fire to the turnpike bridge. But the citizens had turned out in force and extinguished the flames on this structure in time to save all but one span. The river, however, is so low that the destruction of the bridges will not retard our movements in the least. In fact, report says, that General Sill has already passed through Frankfort, and is still driving the broken columns of the enemy before him. I get no information of the damage done at the Capital by the rebels during their occupancy of it. There has not yet been time to examine the archives of the State, which have, doubtless, been interfered with.
On Saturday – the day previous to the evacuation – the rebel Provisional Governor of Kentucky, one Richard Hawes – more commonly known as Dick Hawes – was inaugurated at the Capitol with imposing ceremonies. General Bragg had issued an order providing for the great event, as follows: –
HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF KENTUCKY,
LEXINGTON, Oct. 2, 1862.
Installation of the Provisional Governor at Frankfort on Saturday, October 4, at twelve o’clock. M. Major General Smith is charged with the management of the military and escort guard and salute. The Governor will be escorted from his quarters by a squadron of cavalry, and accompanied by the commandeer of the Confederate States forces, Major General Buckner, Brigadier General Preston and their respective staffs. The commanding general will present the Governor to the people, and transfer, in behalf of the Confederate States, the civil orders of the State and public records and property. By order,
BRAXTON BRAGG, General Commanding.
A copy of the Frankfort Yeoman, which has been pressed into the rebel service, has reached here, which announces that Frankfort was honored on Friday with quite a number of distinguished military characters, viz: – General Braxton Bragg, Major General E. Kirby Smith, and Brigadier Generals Stevenson, Claiborne, Heath, Churchill, Preston, Smith, Barton and William Preston, several of the latter commanding divisions. Major General S. B. Buckner was to be present at the […..]. General Bragg’s headquarters are at the house lately occupied by the Military Board. The others were at the Capitol Hotel.
This reminds me of a little circumstance related to me by Captain Sanford, ordnance officer of the Western flotilla, and now commanding the gunboat Chilicothe, off this city. The substance of his statement was that the E. Kirby Smith operating in this State is an impostor; that the veritable E. Kirby is dead, and that this is a brother, whose real name is William, but who was thought to become more famous in stolen plumes. A circumstance bearing on this point will be discovered in the telegraphic announcements of the late battle at Corinth, Mississippi, where, it will be observed, one Colonel “E. Kirby Smith,” with other rebel officers, was wounded. How many E. Kirby Smiths are there occupying prominent positions in the rebel army? This multiplication of one man is quite a dodge with the rebels. They believe firmly that some names are a tower of strength, and hence these names are tacked on to whoever can be found to put himself at the head of an army. A man of straw with a famous name is infinitely better than a great general with no name. You remember how Beauregard was multiplied in the early history of the war, when he was at the zenith of his fame. Beauregard was here and Beauregard was there, and Beauregard was everywhere all at the same time. Who says there’s nothing in a name?
Colonel Bruce, commanding at Bowling Green, has had another skirmish with the rebels in that vicinity. The affair occurred about five miles south of Bowling Green, on Sunday, and was probably with a portion of the force he had routed a day or two previously form Glasgow. The rebels were on this occasion put to fight, having lost a dozen in killed, twenty or thirty prisoners and about sixty horses.
The government, at an expense of $250,000, are about constructing an hospital near the House of Refuge, capable of accommodating two thousand men.