The following is transcribed from the New York Times, dated October 17, 1862:

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Correspondence of the Chicago Times. BOLIVAR, TENN.,

Tuesday Oct. 7, 1862.

 

          Before describing the Battle of the Hatchie, let me give your readers a statement of the rebel forces which first attacked Corinth, and then were attacked on the Hatchie. It is a statement which comes through sources and circumstances which render it entirely reliable. I may amuse myself, some time hereafter, in sending you the full personnel of the rebel army. Two army corps, under the command of VAN DORN and PRICE, composed this force. Each corps was composed of two divisions. One division in each corps was composed of four brigades each, and the other of three brigades each, making in all fourteen brigades. Each brigade was composed of four regiments, in all fifty-six regiments of infantry. Three thousand cavalry also formed a part of the army. Their artillery did not bear its usual proportion to the rest of the army, it being, difficult of transportation over the country they had to traverse, and, in their proposed attack upon Corinth, they chose to rely upon the impetuosity of infantry charges. The force of the rebels cannot be figured below 30,000, and the lowest claim I have heard made by any of the rebel prisoners was 22,000. Late on Friday afternoon, Oct. 3, Gen. HURLBYT received orders to telegraph for Gen. GRANT to march his division towards Corinth, to aid Gen. ROSECRANS in his defence of that place, or to aid in cutting off the retreat of the enemy, should he be beaten back from the attack he was then making on that point. By 3 o'clock, on Saturday morning, the division was on the march. The division was under the command of Brig.-Gen. HURLDERT, and the active members of his Staff on this occasion were Maj. C.C. Campbell, Chief of Artillery Capt. Wm. Jackson, Chief Commissary of Subsistence; D.J.G. Keenan, Medical Director; Lieut. M.R. Cook, Aid-de-Camp. Brig.-Gen. J.G. Lauman commanded the First Brigade, which was composed of the following regiments and batteries: Third Iowa, Capt. Trumbull, acting Colonel; Twenty-eighth Illinois, Col. A.R. Johnson; Fifty-third Illinois, Capt. John W. McClanahan, Acting Colonel; Thirty-second Illinois, Col. John Logan; Forty-first Illinois, Col. J.P. Pugh; Company F. First Missouri Battery. Lieut. Brotzman commanding, four guns; Fifteenth Ohio Battery, Lieut. Burrows commanding. The Second Brigade was under the command of Brig.-Gen. J.C. Veatch, Capt. Frank W. Fex, A.A.G., Capt. Walker, Lieut. White and Lieut. Hewitt formed his staff. The brigade was composed of the following regiments and batteries; Fourteenth Illinois, Col. Cyrus Wall; Fifteenth Illinois, Lieut. Col. G.C. Rogers commandlng; Forty-sixth Illinois, Col. John A. Davis; Twenty-fifth Indiana, Col. W.H. Morgan; Fifty-third Indiana, Lieut. Col. Wm. Jones commanding; Bolton's Chicago Battery, and Burnao's Seventh Ohio Battery, each of four guns. The Twelfth Michigan. Lieut.-Col. Graves commanding, and the- Sixty-eighth Ohio, Col. Scott, were added to this brigade, from that of Gen. Ross' for this special expedition. The cavalry force consisted of two battalions of the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, Maj. Haze commanding, Maj. Shearer second in command. Saturday was an excessively hot day, but, notwithstanding this, the little army had marched by the road twenty-six miles, through the dust and heat, and they encamped five miles from the Hatchie River, on what is called the State fine road. During the last half of this march the cavalry was incessantly engaged with that of the rebels, and did gallant service in clearing the way. The presence of the enemy in force being ascertained, our troops bivouacked in line of battle. By the order of marching in advance on alternate days, it fell to the lot of the Second Brigade to lead on the then eventful morrow, the First Brigade being held as the reserve. The country in the vicinity of the river is very broken, -- short, steep hills, and the valleys filled with a thick underbrush of timber. Our army was faced directly east on the line which divides the State of Mississippi, and approaching the Hatchie River, which, at the point of crossing, runs nearly from the south to the north. The enemy had not only strongly posted himself on the opposite side of the river on Saturday evening, but had thrown a considerable infantry force across the river and a battery of artillery of four guns, and planted it immediately in front of the bridge. Early in the morning our army began to move, shelling the heights with the artillery, the Fourteenth Illinois and Twenty-eighth Indiana acting as skirmishers, and, together, driving the enemy's cavalry and skirmishers from every position. Soon after the march commenced, Maj.-Gen. ORD arrived on the field and took the chief command, though he made no change in the disposition of the troops or the plan of the engagement. The first important contest was opened about 9 o'clock, for the possession of the hill whose slopes and the bottom beyond stretched three-quarters of a mile to the bridge across the river. The enemy had planted a battery of four 12-pound howitzers immediately in front of the bridge, to protect the advance of their infantry, which had already been massed in the timber on both sides of the wood. During the fire of this artillery upon the hill, our line of battle was advancing up the opposite side, preceded by the artillery. Bolton's Battery was quickly planted in position on the hill, which was no sooner perceived by the enemy than they started a column of infantry on their left, facing our right, to flank it, which movement was checked by throwing out BURNAP's Battery to the right of BOLTON's Battery some distance, which opened upon the advancing column of rebel infantry a most destructive fire of grape and canister, which, with the aid of some sharp practice of our infantry, sent the whole mass helter-skelter back through the timber, across an open field, and into the woods beyond, so far that they were never seen afterwards. Immediately after, both batteries were brought to bear upon that of the rebels in front of the bridge, and, after a sharp contest, were enabled to silence it. The first line of battle had been formed by the Second Brigade, the First being held as a reserve, Gen. VEATCH led on his fine in gallant style. His right was speedily engaged by fresh troops, which the enemy had thrown across the bridge and deployed to their left, but with little effect in stopping the onward march of our troops. The left wing of our column, with Capt. FOX in its lead, were feeling their way through a point of timber and over a drop gally, and endeavoring to draw the fire of the rebel [???] to the right of their battery. This they did not [???] in doing, until they reached an open space, when the fire of the rebels told plainly where they were, and that in numbers not to be despised. The infantry engagement which followed was sharp, short and decisive. In twenty minutes from the time the rebels opened their fire, 400 of them threw down their arms and surrendered, while hundreds of others escaped, some by throwing themselves into the river and reaching the opposite bank; a few made good their retreat across the bridge; others broke for the right and left, some throwing away their arms in their flight. The rebel battery was then drawn to our rear. During this march down the hill, Col. DAVIS, of the Forty-sixth Illinois, was severely wounded while gallantly leading his regiment, and the command devolved upon Lieut. Col. J.J. JONES. During this time the rebels opened another battery on an eminence a quarter of a mile in rear of the bridge, and commanding it, and were throwing a galling fire from it, as well as from their infantry, which lined every available point on that side of the river. At this time Gen. HURLBERT was just bringing up the reserve brigade, or all of it but two companies which proves the desperate character of the engagement. All of the artillery was also being hastened forward. "Pretty warm work," says Gen. ORD to Gen. HURLBUT. "Not very," was the cool reply. "That battery," pointing to the one across the bridge, "must be silenced," said the commander. "It shall be in twenty minutes," was the reply. Some doubt being raised as to the proper point of placing a section of BOLTON's Battery, "Show me the place," said Senior Lieut. J.N. MOORE, "and I will plant it there, if it is in --." Such was the spirited determination of the whole army. Gen. ORD had just ordered the Fifty-third Indiana to cross the bridge, and they were doing so under a most terrific fire from the battery and from the infantry of the enemy, when Gen. ORD received a shot in the leg, just above the ankle-joint, the ball fortunately passing between the bones of the leg, but necessarily disabling him from further immediate duty. This was not far from 10 o'clock. Gen. ORD had been very active and devoted in conducting the battle. As well as everything had prospered so far, yet the troops were entirely unacquainted with their new commander. However brave and skillful he might be, they did not know him. HURLBERT they did know and believed in him, that was sure. He had planned this engagement, and undoubtedly the troops thought they could execute it better, and with more confidence, under the man they knew and trusted, than any other. It was natural. The Fifty-third Indiana was struggling against a storm of lead and iron, which swept the entire length and breadth of the bridge. The Twenty-fifth Indiana the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Illinois sprang in to share the danger, and all pushed through the storm the Indiana troops crowding to the right along the narrow space between the road and the river, which made a short bend just above the bridge; the Illinois troops deploying to the left. Col. MORGAN, of the Twenty-fifth Indiana, I believe, was the first to cross the bridge. The Twelfth Michigan, the Sixty-eighth Ohio, and the Forty-sixth Illinois immediately followed, and all the artillery was close in their rear and opened fire as soon as it was fairly across, while Gen. LAUMAN's brigade was hurrying up the steps to join in the desperate affray that [???] of the day. The most of these troops, [???], drive the rebel infantry from every [???] to maintain, and Col. Hall and [???] prompted to maintain, and up the [???] their regiments here received [???]. Gen. [???] from a passing [???] of his seaboard pletely paralyzed [???] coming the loss of [???] danger it was in [???] columns, was [???], some distance [???], when the hill in [???] occupied by the First Missouri [???] batteries. BOSTON's battery was [???] eminence to the left, and the Fifteenth [???] further to the left. Another rebel battery [???] upon the Fifteenth Ohio, BURNAP's was [???] assistance, and in these positions our artillery [???] o'clock could find to reply to their discharges, [???] discover the retreating forms of our enemy. The weary troops competition the ground of the victory. The cavalry followed up the retreating rebels, who, in small squads, made their way Cram's Mills, six miles up the river, where they effected a crossing, and kept up their retreat south ward all night. In the morning our troops gathered up the fruits of their victory -- four rifled howitzers, five caissons, one thousand stand of arms, five hundred small arms, a a few horses and mules. Between four and five hundred prisoners were sent to Bolivar, where they are yet retained. After scouring the country in every direction for two days, the army returned to Bolivar. It is needless for me to add one word of praise, either of particular officers or of the men. They all did their duty. The infantry and artillery were worked together in admirable harmony, and confidently relied upon each other to perform their particular duties in the battle. And, in my judgment, the best criterion of officers' abilities is the opinion of the men who fight under them; and that Gen. HURLBERT, and Major CAMPBELL and Capt. JACKSON, of his staff; Gen. VEACH, and Capt. FOX, of his staff; and Gen. LAUMAN, and the commanding officers of the various regiments, have the unbounded confidence of the soldiers in their ability and discretion, there is no doubt. This division is willing to trust itself wherever Gen. HURLBERT tells it to go. The enemy, scattered and broken as he has been in his attack upon Corinth, and in being attacked at Hatchie River, had undoubtedly made the best of his way to Holly springs, where the rebel prisoners report PILLOW in command of about six thousand men, most of whom are the lately exchanged prisoners. Gen. Ross started with his division South last night, and we already learn that he occupies Grand Junction, and that a rebel force is threatening an attack, but probably not very seriously.

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