Tenn. September 22, 1862

[Missing Text] [T]enn. Sept 22nd 1862

[Missing Text]is distance from the centre of information, [illegible] [Head] Quarters of the army of West Tennessee, added to the difficulty of direct communication with the separate and separated Divisions of said Army, it is not to be supposed that your correspondent can, as a general thing, give your news from the South in “advance of the mail,” as Newspaper men say, and still less likely in advance of the telegraph.  However I may inform you of matters pertaining to the war and this Army, which though OLD as far as news are concerned, may interest your numerous readers, and moreover, my pen is not a Government monopoly, therefore not to be controlled, as certain institutions not of, by Cliques, or parties having their own aggrandizement in view.

The first matter of importance that I think of is one in which all western people have an interest, and worded positively, in original language – it is this – “All quiet on the Mississippi!”  And why should this not be the condition of things?  We are holding our individual breathe to hear the result of the fighting in the East.  We are prepared for any tidings, good, bad, or indifferent.  We are as ready to believe that Gen. McClellan has bagged the body of the enemy, and that they are now on their way to hospitable confinement in the North as we are to believe the enemy are in the possession of Washington and have burnt the Capitol, which has so long literally bled this Union in more ways than one.  I do not wish you to understand from this last observation that I am opposed to improvement of human progression.  I am, however, opposed to any further programs of the rebels in the direction of Mason and Dixon’s line.  It is to be hoped that Gen. McClellan has caught the spirit of our soldiers, and [illegible & missing text] in regard to the “conduct of the war?”  [Missing text] will be prosecuted with all that [missing text] that a powerful people and [missing text] capable of.  Our army of the [missing text] table.  Let us hope that [missing text] to lead it and direct [missing text].

Gen. W. [missing text] has [missing text, the rest of the article is missing.]

– Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, Saturday, October 17, 1862, p. 1.  There is a small hole in the top of this article, and the bottom was torn from the lower left to the upper right.