The following articles is transcribed from the New York Times, dated June 24, 1863:

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MEMPHIS, Sunday, June 21.

 

          The steamer Luminary, from Chickasaw Bayou, with official reports from Gen. GRANT to the 18th, arrived to-day. Everything was progressing finely. The enemy kept up a steady fire of heavy artillery, but accomplished nothing. Scarcely a man had been injured on our side. Col. MOWER, in command at Milliken's Bend, made an expedition to Richmond, La., and drove the rebels from that section, burned the town, and brought the women and children to Milliken's Bend. He states positively that the rebels carried the black flag, with skull and crossbones, in their recent attack on Milliken's Bend. JOHNSTON's forces were moving toward Yazoo City. He will find GRANT ready to receive him. The cavalry expedition south of here, mentioned yesterday, resulted in the loss of Major HENRY and 100 men. The main expedition under Col. MISNER was a success. The rebels continue to harass the railroad and telegraph between here and Corinth, but do not accomplish much, as our troops are watchful. Dispatch to the Chicago Times. CAMP NEAR VICKSBURGH, Sunday, June 14, via CAIRO, Saturday, June 20.} The saps in front of several rebel forts are complete. When all are finished the outside range of forts can be taken simultaneously, with little loss. A few days, it is said, will finish them. The rebels have constructed an inside line of forts, it is believed. They commenced throwing nine-inch shell at Gen. LOGAN's division yesterday from a battery hitherto undiscovered. Our siege guns are slowly battering down many of their fortifications, despite their efforts to prevent it or repair them. Accounts from deserters all agree that provisions are exceedingly source in the city, and that the soldiers are now on quarter rations. Their stock of fresh meat and breadstuffs was exhausted yesterday, they say. Many officers think a surrender inevitable in a few days. Reinforcements from the North are here in considerable numbers, and arriving daily. This army is now invincible. It can also take the field offensively at any moment an enemy approaches. Gen. JOHNSTON's rendezvous is at Canton. He is indefatigable in his efforts to raise and organize a sufficient force to attack us here. His cavalry pickets are occasionally near Haines' Bluff. His effective force is believed to be about 40,000 at present. Reinforcements have certainly been sent from BRAGG's army, and probably from Mobile and Savannah. Seven thousand cavalry from Gen. BRAGG's army are known to have arrived lately. Dispatch to the Chicago Tribune. REAR VICKSBURGH, Monday, June 15, via CAIRO, Saturday, June 20 -- 9 P.M.} A Vicksburgh paper of the 13th has come within our lines to-day. Its main articles are quite despondent in their tone; nothing in them reveals a hint as to the quantity of provisions or ammunition on hind within the garrison, but it is plainly stated that there is much suffering from lack of proper medicines and other sanitary stores. All citizens live now in caves in the ground. All the armed forces are continually in the trenches. Many, both of soldiers and citizens, are dying off with diarrhoea, and large numbers are killed by our missiles. It is stated that as long as there is any hope from without the garrison will not surrender. JOHNSTON is positively at Big Black River, and energetically engaged fortifying, which does not look like acting very soon on the offensive. He has no confidence in an advance. About 20 deserters come into our lines nightly now, sometimes in squads, in spite of special guards to prevent desertion. We have all the troops we need. Not a rebel can get out of their lines without being caught. BRECKINRIDGE is at Jackson with LORING. KIRBY SMITH is reported at or near Richmond, La. A force has started to meet him from Gen. PARKS' corps.

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Correspondence of the Mobile Register.

JACKSON, Friday, May 29, 1863.

 

          The principal fighting at Vicksburgh has lulled, and the enemy has fallen back and commenced fortifying among the hills, in parallel lines with those of PEMBERTON. His assaults on the Vicksburgh works have been terribly disastrous. More of the enemy have been slaughtered before the Vicksburgh trenches, than in any other battle of the war. I telegraphed you that Vicksburgh was closely besieged. At the time I did so, the enemy had command (and vet have) of the Mississippi River in his front, above and below the city; of the Yazoo River to Snyder's Bluff, where his right wing rested; of the Big Black River to Die Southern Railroad bridge, where his left wing rested; his northern base of operations at Snyder's Bluff, his southern base of operations at Grand Gulf. The Big Black and Yazoo Rivers flow from Northern Mississippi in a southwesterly direction; the Yazoo discharges into the Mississippi a few miles above Vicksburgh, and the Big Black at Grand Gulf, some thirty miles below. The enemy had massed his army -- 100,000 men -- on a line from the bridge to the bluff, a distance of some twenty miles, being from river to river, while his gunboats and pickets held the rivets. If this was not closely besieging a fortified city then I must "knock under" to the self-complacent, garrulous conclusions of the sleepy editor of the Selma Dispatch, own up that another Daniel has come to judgment, and humbly implore the President to vouchsafe the security of Vicksburgh by making him a Brigadier and sending him to the field. I have furthermore stated that reasonable fears were entertained for the safety of Vicksburgh, and although the face of affairs has in a great measure changed, I see no good reason for an abandonment of those fears. True, the enemy have assaulted the works, and have encountered an extraordinary amount of slaughter; so great as to deter them for a while, at least, from a similar experiment; but they are still in front of our intrenchments, with an army believed to number 70,000 effective men. They have fallen back and commenced a series of fortifications parallel with those in front, and communication with Vicksburgh yet remains cut off, and can only be had by such means as it would be impolitic for me to mention. A want of water of necessity compels the enemy to fall back on the Big Black, which he has done, and he can only supply himself by hauling. Here his lines assume a convex form, having wheeled his left round on the Mississippi River, and unless well protected by sentinels, his flanks are of necessity exposed. The same want of water prevails from here to the Big Black. In dry weather the creeks dry up; there are few springs, and I have never yet seen a well; all are cisterns, which do not furnish but a bare supply for the families who sunk them. Now, until the way shall be cleared by driving the enemy, it is impossible either to throw supplies or reinforcements into Vicksburgh. The enemy evidently prefers to adopt the slow method of besieging and starving out the garrison. Sickness will exist in his camps, but we must remember that the garrison of Vicksburgh will suffer also, I hope that in making these statements, I will not be considered an alarmist. I am however, sanguine of ultimate success, and hope for the best, but the truth might as well be told first as last. Unless Vicksburgh is relieved, it must ultimately fall. The movements of Gen. JOHNSTON and others it is ???mproper in me to mention, but from them I draw the most cheering inferences. The garrison of Vicksburgh is better supplied than I at first supposed, for the planters, on the appearance of the enemy, drove most all of their ???gs, sheep and cattle into the city, and also sent in 400 wagon loads of coin, which is an invaluable help at this time. The movements of GRANT show his consciousness in the strength of numbers, and his quick movements misled those high in authority, while it is believed he has received orders to take Vicksburgh, if he has to sacrifice his entire army. Gov. PETTUS and Gen. JOHNSTON have issued a joint appeal to the people of Mississippi to volunteer, as ninety-day troops, as cavalry or infantry. There is no time for procrastination; they have but one choice -- fight or give up to the enemy. No half-way measures will do -- it is "neck or nothing." "I don't think the Federals will ever come here" is a foolish remark or opinion from anybody west of the Bigbee River. The following telegrams, which we cull at random from the rebel journals, show how the courage of the ??? is kept up, and throw doubt upon the reliability of some recent dispatches from the same quarter??? ABERDEEN, Miss., Thursday, June 4, 1863. Maj.-Gen. GHOLSON arrived here yesterday evening direct from Jackson, bringing good tidings from the theatre of war. He represents JOHNSTON's army in good health and fine spirits. Gen. JOHNSTON commenced crossing Big Black at Moore's Bluff last Friday night. Gen. BRECKINRIDGE was at Jackson, and would follow soon -- probably yesterday. The strength of JOHNSTON's command is not known to the public, of course, but it is surmised to be within the neighborhood of 50,000. The Natchez Courier of June 2 says: Mrs. Gen. COWEN, just from Vicksburgh to Port Gibson, brings news that the Yankees attempted a second time to make their escape via Yazoo River, and Gen. JOHNSTON headed them off and drove them back twice. She says that there are between 25,000 and 30,000 lying in front of our works at Vicksburgh. Three flags of truce had been sent in by the enemy to bury their dead, but each time refused. She also says that communication, by wagon road, was clear between Vicksburgh and Jackson, and we have the bridge all correct on Big Black. The operator at Fayette says: "I hear of very rapid and heavy firing at Vicksburgh, and can hear it myself while writing." We heard yesterday evening, previous to this dispatch, that the enemy tried to make their escape vid Snyder's Bluff, but Gen. JOHNSTON met them and drove them back. SUMMIT, Saturday, June 13. Passengers from Pontchetoula heard heavy firing at Port Hudson. The Essex la reported captured and several gunboats disabled. JACKSON, Wednesday, June 10. The Bowman House, the only hotel left by the Yankees, was destroyed by fire this morning. Maj. SMILIE, commandant of this post, escaped by jumping from a third-story window and was caught in a blanket. The loss is estimated at $250,000 -- partially insured. From the Mobile Register, June 12. The Richmond Examiner is fierce upon the Jackson telegrams of the "Associated Press," and pronounces them an "unintelligible compound of gas, braggadocio, blunders, absurdity and impossibility." It thinks the heavy loss attributed by the Press agent to GRANT is "pure fable," but that his casualties may reach 12,000. The Examiner takes some comfort from the Yankee accounts of affairs in the South- west, and is inclined to credit one report of the Associated "blatherskite telegram," which turns out in fact to be a fable -- to wit: the appearance of KIRBY SMITH at Port Hudson. It is not our business to defend the Associated Press, but our Richmond cotemporary should remember to put to the credit of these "blatherskite telegrams," that telegraph reporters at Jackson are seekers after knowledge under great difficulties. Vicksburgh is cut off from regular communication with Jackson, and Gen. JOHNSTON's reticence curtails, in a wonderful way, reportorial knowledge of his plans and movements. We rather think the reporters are doing the best under the circumstances. Elsewhere the Register says: "The relief of Vicksburgh has been a question of forces. If Gen, JOHNSTON has been supplied with the proper number of troops, the siege of Vicksburgh cannot only be raised, but GRANT's army may be ruined. To accom???plish this, the same gigantic efforts should be made by our Government that the Yankees are making to secure the contra y result. They, we are told, 'are moving Heaven und earth' to reinforce GRANT. We ought to move the whole power of the Confederacy to defeat them. The Mississippi Valley and the Mexican Gulf coast hang on the issue. Can 'the War Department' be insensible to its magnitude? We should think not." In still another place it refers to the preposterous story that Gen. JACKSON, at the head of his cavalry corps, had cut his way through the enemy's lines, and dashed into Vicksburgh, and says: "If this cavalry 'cut its way through the enemy's lines, and dashed into Vicksburgh,' it must have been for the purpose of cutting its way and dashing out again. It certainly could not stay there with comfort to the garrison or in justice to its commissary su???pies. if Gen. PEMBERTON has plenty of provisions for his men, it must be quite certain that he has not an abundance of forage for a large cavalry force."

 

THE SITUATION AT VICKSBURGH.; HOW IT LOOKS AT JACKSON. TELEGRAMS. THE DIFFICULTIES OF OBTAINING NEWS.

 

          The principal fighting at Vicksburgh has lulled, and the enemy has fallen back and commenced fortifying among the hills, in parallel lines with those of PEMBERTON. His assaults on the Vicksburgh works have been terribly disastrous. More of the enemy have been slaughtered before the Vicksburgh trenches, than in any other battle of the war.

 

Correspondence of the Mobile Register.

JACKSON, Friday, May 29, 1863.

 

          The principal fighting at Vicksburgh has lulled, and the enemy has fallen back and commenced fortifying among the hills, in parallel lines with those of PEMBERTON. His assaults on the Vicksburgh works have been terribly disastrous. More of the enemy have been slaughtered before the Vicksburgh trenches, than in any other battle of the war.

          I telegraphed you that Vicksburgh was closely besieged. At the time I did so, the enemy had command (and vet have) of the Mississippi River in his front, above and below the city; of the Yazoo River to Snyder's Bluff, where his right wing rested; of the Big Black River to Die Southern Railroad bridge, where his left wing rested; his northern base of operations at Snyder's Bluff, his southern base of operations at Grand Gulf. The Big Black and Yazoo Rivers flow from Northern Mississippi in a southwesterly direction; the Yazoo discharges into the Mississippi a few miles above Vicksburgh, and the Big Black at Grand Gulf, some thirty miles below. The enemy had massed his army -- 100,000 men -- on a line from the bridge to the bluff, a distance of some twenty miles, being from river to river, while his gunboats and pickets held the rivets. If this was not closely besieging a fortified city then I must "knock under" to the self-complacent, garrulous conclusions of the sleepy editor of the Selma Dispatch, own up that another Daniel has come to judgment, and humbly implore the President to vouchsafe the security of Vicksburgh by making him a Brigadier and sending him to the field.

          I have furthermore stated that reasonable fears were entertained for the safety of Vicksburgh, and although the face of affairs has in a great measure changed, I see no good reason for an abandonment of those fears. True, the enemy have assaulted the works, and have encountered an extraordinary amount of slaughter; so great as to deter them for a while, at least, from a similar experiment; but they are still in front of our intrenchments, with an army believed to number 70,000 effective men. They have fallen back and commenced a series of fortifications parallel with those in front, and communication with Vicksburgh yet remains cut off, and can only be had by such means as it would be impolitic for me to mention. A want of water of necessity compels the enemy to fall back on the Big Black, which he has done, and he can only supply himself by hauling. Here his lines assume a convex form, having wheeled his left round on the Mississippi River, and unless well protected by sentinels, his flanks are of necessity exposed. The same want of water prevails from here to the Big Black. In dry weather the creeks dry up; there are few springs, and I have never yet seen a well; all are cisterns, which do not furnish but a bare supply for the families who sunk them. Now, until the way shall be cleared by driving the enemy, it is impossible either to throw supplies or reinforcements into Vicksburgh.

          The enemy evidently prefers to adopt the slow method of besieging and starving out the garrison. Sickness will exist in his camps, but we must remember that the garrison of Vicksburgh will suffer also, I hope that in making these statements, I will not be considered an alarmist. I am however, sanguine of ultimate success, and hope for the best, but the truth might as well be told first as last. Unless Vicksburgh is relieved, it must ultimately fall.</p> <p>The movements of Gen. JOHNSTON and others it is ???mproper in me to mention, but from them I draw the most cheering inferences. The garrison of Vicksburgh is better supplied than I at first supposed, for the planters, on the appearance of the enemy, drove most all of their ???gs, sheep and cattle into the city, and also sent in 400 wagon loads of coin, which is an invaluable help at this time.

          The movements of GRANT show his consciousness in the strength of numbers, and his quick movements misled those high in authority, while it is believed he has received orders to take Vicksburgh, if he has to sacrifice his entire army.

          Gov. PETTUS and Gen. JOHNSTON have issued a joint appeal to the people of Mississippi to volunteer, as ninety-day troops, as cavalry or infantry. There is no time for procrastination; they have but one choice -- fight or give up to the enemy. No half-way measures will do -- it is "neck or nothing." "I don't think the Federals will ever come here" is a foolish remark or opinion from anybody west of the Bigbee River.

          The following telegrams, which we cull at random from the rebel journals, show how the courage of the ??? is kept up, and throw doubt upon the reliability of some recent dispatches from the same quarter???

 

ABERDEEN, Miss., Thursday, June 4, 1863.

 

          Maj.-Gen. GHOLSON arrived here yesterday evening direct from Jackson, bringing good tidings from the theatre of war. He represents JOHNSTON's army in good health and fine spirits.

          Gen. JOHNSTON commenced crossing Big Black at Moore's Bluff last Friday night. Gen. BRECKINRIDGE was at Jackson, and would follow soon -- probably yesterday. The strength of JOHNSTON's command is not known to the public, of course, but it is surmised to be within the neighborhood of 50,000.

          The Natchez Courier of June 2 says: Mrs. Gen. COWEN, just from Vicksburgh to Port Gibson, brings news that the Yankees attempted a second time to make their escape via Yazoo River, and Gen. JOHNSTON headed them off and drove them back twice.</p> <p>She says that there are between 25,000 and 30,000 lying in front of our works at Vicksburgh.

          Three flags of truce had been sent in by the enemy to bury their dead, but each time refused.

          She also says that communication, by wagon road, was clear between Vicksburgh and Jackson, and we have the bridge all correct on Big Black.

          The operator at Fayette says: "I hear of very rapid and heavy firing at Vicksburgh, and can hear it myself while writing."

          We heard yesterday evening, previous to this dispatch, that the enemy tried to make their escape vid Snyder's Bluff, but Gen. JOHNSTON met them and drove them back.

 

SUMMIT, Saturday, June 13.

 

          Passengers from Pontchetoula heard heavy firing at Port Hudson. The Essex la reported captured and several gunboats disabled.

 

JACKSON, Wednesday, June 10.

 

          The Bowman House, the only hotel left by the Yankees, was destroyed by fire this morning.

          Maj. SMILIE, commandant of this post, escaped by jumping from a third-story window and was caught in a blanket.

          The loss is estimated at $250,000 -- partially insured.

 

From the Mobile Register, June 12.

 

          The Richmond Examiner is fierce upon the Jackson telegrams of the "Associated Press," and pronounces them an "unintelligible compound of gas, braggadocio, blunders, absurdity and impossibility." It thinks the heavy loss attributed by the Press agent to GRANT is "pure fable," but that his casualties may reach 12,000. The Examiner takes some comfort from the Yankee accounts of affairs in the South- west, and is inclined to credit one report of the Associated "blatherskite telegram," which turns out in fact to be a fable -- to wit: the appearance of KIRBY SMITH at Port Hudson.

          It is not our business to defend the Associated Press, but our Richmond cotemporary should remember to put to the credit of these "blatherskite telegrams," that telegraph reporters at Jackson are seekers after knowledge under great difficulties. Vicksburgh is cut off from regular communication with Jackson, and Gen. JOHNSTON's reticence curtails, in a wonderful way, reportorial knowledge of his plans and movements. We rather think the reporters are doing the best under the circumstances.

          Elsewhere the Register says:

          "The relief of Vicksburgh has been a question of forces. If Gen, JOHNSTON has been supplied with the proper number of troops, the siege of Vicksburgh cannot only be raised, but GRANT's army may be ruined. To accom???plish this, the same gigantic efforts should be made by our Government that the Yankees are making to secure the contra y result. They, we are told, 'are moving Heaven und earth' to reinforce GRANT. We ought to move the whole power of the Confederacy to defeat them. The Mississippi Valley and the Mexican Gulf coast hang on the issue. Can 'the War Department' be insensible to its magnitude? We should think not."

          In still another place it refers to the preposterous story that Gen. JACKSON, at the head of his cavalry corps, had cut his way through the enemy's lines, and dashed into Vicksburgh, and says:

          "If this cavalry 'cut its way through the enemy's lines, and dashed into Vicksburgh,' it must have been for the purpose of cutting its way and dashing out again. It certainly could not stay there with comfort to the garrison or in justice to its commissary su???pies. if Gen. PEMBERTON has plenty of provisions for his men, it must be quite certain that he has not an abundance of forage for a large cavalry force."

 

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