From Chattanooga.
[from our Own Correspondent.] Army of Tennessee, Missionary Ridge, Nov. 17th.
The whole army was aroused at daybreak this morning by a heavy cannonade on our extreme right.
The enemy had posted a force on the opposite side of the river some two or three miles above Chattanooga, for the purpose doubtless of preventing a surprise in that quarter and to keep us from crossing the river, if we had a mind to attempt such a thing.
This force had pitched their tents and erected cabins, as it they intended to spend the winter in that locality.
But it appears there was some objection to this arrangement on the part of Gen. Bragg, who ordered Major Hollonquist, chief of artillery, to shell the enemy's camp at daybreak this morning.
Accordingly ten guns were sent up last night and put in position within easy range, and as soon as there was light enough this morning to enable the artillerists to sight their pieces they opened upon the sleeping foe with a tremendous broadside.
It would have amused you to have witnessed the effect of our shot.
The whole encampment was thrown into the utmost confusion.
The men poured out of their tents and cabins like bees out of a bee-gum, to which a fire had been applied.
They did not wait to put on their shoes or even their clothing, but ran wildly hither and thither, and finally disappeared through the woods bareheaded, barefooted and barelegged, each man carrying in his rear a white flag fluttering frantically in the morning breeze.
In the meantime the horses were stampeded by our fire and rushed down the river and over the hills, as if ten thousand Indians were after them.
No resistance was offered by the enemy beyond one or two shots fired by one of their batteries.
Having called up both armies from their blankets, and knocked the enemy's camp to pieces, our artillerists returned to their former position, leaving the Federals to regain their position and their breeches as best they could.
Our latest official intelligence from East Tennessee is up to Friday last, the 13th inst. On that day our forces crossed the Tennessee at London, and moved forward immediately in the direction of Knoxville, to which point it is supposed Burnside had retired.
We have telegraphic communication with London, but the country along the route abounds in tories, and the enemy may get possession of our dispatches, and hence but few messages of importance are put upon the wires; and this may account for the failure to receive further intelligence.
Burnside will find it difficult, if not impossible, to maintain himself in Knoxville, even behind barricades and earthworks, on account of supplies; for our cavalry will cut off his foraging parties and all trains that may attempt to cross the mountains to his relief.
He is already suffering severely from our guerillas.
He must either fight and whip us, therefore, or retreat into Kentucky.
It is now believed that Sherman will reach Bridgeport by the end of the present week, with 20,000 men, having been joined by another division before he crossed the Tennessee.
He did not cross the river at Florence, as was stated in a recent letter, but at Eastport, near Iuka.
His advance guard had reached Tuscumbia, but the opposition it encountered from our cavalry was such as to compel him to abandon the idea of repairing the railroad as he moved, and to return to Eastport.
From the latter point he marched up the north bank of the river to Rogersville, but being unable to cross Elk river, on account of the prevailing freshet, he turned the head of his column up that stream to Fayetteville, and from thence he would proceed to take the cars on the Winchester branch railroad to Decherd, and thence to Bridgeport.--Sherman commands the Army of the Tennessee, Grant's old army, and so called after the Tennessee river, up which it moved last year to Shiloh — He does not rank Thomas, the commander of the Army of the Cumberland, as some writers have stated, nor Burnside, who commands the Army of the Ohio, nor Hooker, who brought out two (not three) corps d'armee from the Army of the Potomac.
Hooker's reinforcements will not exceed twelve thousand men, which, added to Sherman's column of 20,000, makes the total reinforcements sent to Thomas 32,000 fighting men. Estimating Thomas's army at 50,000, Gen. Grant, the Commander in Chief of all these forces, will have an army for the invasion of Georgia of 82,000 men, exclusive of cavalry.
Burnside will not be permitted to join this formidable force, at least for the present.
The enemy has not yet rebuilt the railway bridge over the Tennessee at Bridgeport, nor the bridge over Running Water Creek, between Spellbound and Brown's ferry.
This latter bridge is 120 feet high, and is represented to be a more difficult work than the former.
As soon as these repairs shall have been made, and Sherman shall have come up, the Federal army will be concentrated, and Grant will show his hand.
Whether he will attack us here, or seek to dislodge us from Lookout Mountain, or will repeat the movement of Rosecrans upon our left flank, or go into winter quarters, will probably be known in the next ten or fifteen days. His army is now well supplied from Bridgeport by Lookout Valley and the river; for you must know that we left two steamers at Chattanooga, which the enemy is now using in the transportation of supplies from Bridgeport.--The cavalry, who brought up the rear when we retired from Chattanooga, were ordered to destroy these boats and our pontoon bridges, but they did neither. Sallust.
