Lucy Virginia French diary

              accordance with the previous agreement between Gens. Bragg and Rosecrans The wounded prisoners; of whom there are a great number, are comfortably housed and being well cared for 
THE NUMBERS ENGAGED.
 Rosecrans grand army of invasion numbered according to the lowest estimated75,000 men Gen. Braggs force we have never yet heard computed at over forty thousand, and not more than one half those were engaged in battle. The disparity in numbers, however was more than at once for by the difference in pluck and determination of the two combatants, as well as by the impulses that actuated the men.
 Still a walk through the hospitals discovers to the most careless looker on the saddest and most sickening spectiacal--spectical which we hope will never again mar the quiet and happiness of so many hearthstones in the Confedercy.
THE WOUNDED AND THE HOSPITALS.
 The spirit of heroic indurance manifested by our troops during the perilous and fearful days and nights of the battle was worthy of themselves and their holy cause. But what shall we say of the patience, the fortitude, the bravery, even the gaety displayed by the wounded. We saw hundreds of them on the field and in the hospital and from not one of them did we hear a single word of complant or repining. Many of the wounds were ghastly, many requiring amputation and the severest surgical treatment, but all of them bear up with the determined spirit of heroes. 
 It will be gratifying to the friends of these brave boys to know that the hospital arrangements are admerable and ample. Dr. D. W. Yandell was particularly conspicuous in providing for the reception of the wounded, and all of the surgeons are kind, attentive and skillful. The ladies formost always in every good work, are assidous in their attentions. Indeed from the good order, careful nursing and fine medical skill displayed, we have every reason to believe that the mortality will be small.
MISCELLANEOUS
 The body of Maj. Gen. Sill, one of the division commanders of the Federal forces, was brought to town yesterday afternoon and laid out in the Courthouse. Gen. Sill was shot through the left eye with a Minnie ball.
 Col. Allen of the 3d. Alabama cavalry, was seriously wounded in the hand. Col. Marks, of the 17th Tennessee, was also wounded. Captain Jo. Desha, of the 9th Kentucky, was severely wounded in the head by the fragment of a shell. He came to town, had his wound dressed, and immediately repaired to the field. Adjutant Henry M. Curd, of the same regiment, was shot through and through by a six pound cannon ball. Lieut. Curd was a nephew of Col. Thos. H. Hunt and cousin of Gen. John. H. Morgan
 It was reported yesterday that Brig. Gen. W. E. Woodruff was among the Yankee slain.
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BATTLE OF MURFREESBORO
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ANDERSON
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 The enemy commenced the advance from Nashville on Friday, by several different routes of march, driving in our cavalry under Generals Wheeler and Wharton, who slowly fell back, gallantly contesting every foot of the way.
 On Sunday our line of battle was formed about two miles from Murfreesboro, and stretching transversely across Stones river, from the Lebanon pike, on the right, to the Franklin road, on the left. On Tuesday the enemy had deployed into line of battle upon the ridge whereon stands the residence of Mr. Cowan, at a distance of something more than fifteen hundred yards from our first line, and considerably overlapping our left flank. During Monday, they opened with artillery at long range, and on Tuesday heavy skirmishing ran up and down the line from the left to the centre, swelling almost into a battle at one period when the enemy attempted two charges upon Robinsons Battery.
 On the night of Tuesday it had become evident that the attack in force would be upon our left, and Claibornes Division was detached from the right for the purpose of strengthening that point, and extending our line, which gave to the left wing four Divisions--Cheathams Withers, McCowans and Claibornes.
THE BATTLE
 The sun rose clear, after several days of funeral gloom, rifting the mists which hung like silvery curtains oer the field, dancing and glistening along the serried line of steel, which glittered in the morning light like the sparklings of countless diamonds, bathing the gay banners which floated in the front with a flood of refulgence, and rifting in golden showers through the emerald fringe of cedars which enclosed the field. Far as the eye could reach stood the two vast armies silent and motionless, and it almost seemed, instead of foes drawn up for battle, to be some brilliant holiday parade, but at length a volley of musketry from the extreme left told too plainly that the work of death had in reality begun, and in an instant afterwards the strife had leaped from point to point, until the whole line from left to centre was one unbroken blaze of fire.
 About eight oclock A.M. the divisions of McCown, Claiborne and Cheatham were ordered to charge. The enemy was strongly landed in a dense thicket where the outcropping of the limestone rock formed a natural fortification. Swiftly but with a perfect line our troops emerged from the skirt of timber in which they had been sheltered and moved across the open plain which intervened. The battle now became terrific; crash upon crash of musketry stunned the ear; the ground trembled with the thunders of artillery; the cedars rocked and quivered in the fiery blast, and the air was rent with the explosion of shells. The enemy seemed determined to stake the fortunes of the day upon holding the position which they occupied, and offered a most gallant resistance, but nothing human could withstand the impetuosity of that charge. A spirit of fury seemed to possess our men from the commanders down to the common soldiers, and on they swept, shot and shell, canister, grape and bullets tearing through their ranks until the way could be traced by the dead and dying. Still on they went overturning infantry and artillery alike, driving the enemy like the hurrycane scatters the leaves upon the course, capturing hundreds of prisoners, and literally blackening the ground with dead. Such a charge was never before witnessed. For two miles through fields and forests, over ditches, fences and ravines, they swept. Brigade after brigade, battery after battery were thrown forward to sty their onward march, but another [volley of] musketry, another gleaming of the bayonet, and like their predecessors they were crushed into one common ruin.
 Meantime the brave old With[MS. blotted] was not ilde--His line of battle ran diagonally almost to the verge of madness by the distruction of his men, he threw his division forward upon the ridge occupied by the enemy. Here was perhaps the bloodiest struggle of the day. The enemy was stronger at this point than any where else upon the field, and long and fiercly contended the position. Directly in front was a wide area of cleared land, and across this it was necessary to advance, under the sweeping fire of six batteries, but with dauntless hearts, and step as proud as though upon parade, his men sprang forward at the word, and marched on into the face of death. Once they wavered, as the enemy pourd a perfect hail of iron through their ranks but at this moment Bragg dashed by, the battle lines burning in his eyes, and the fate of nations in his hand--again they rushed upon the foe; shot down the gunners at their pieces, and drove the supporting divisions back to the rear.


all indicating the fearfulness and desperation of the contest.
THE LOSSES
 Our loss in killed, wounded and missing will sum up 5,000. That of the enemy is triple, if not five fold our own. We captured forty pieces of artillery, and up to last night hap[have] paroled forty-seven hundred prisoners. Of small arms, ordnance, camp equipage, etc., we captured vast quantities. The prisoners are being rapidly sent South to Vicksburg for equipage, that being in