Gold Hill Daily News

THE ADVANCE ON CHARLESTON.

We are not advised as to the probable rebel force at Charleston, with which Sherman will have to contend. We only know that Beauregard is in command of that department. As there has at no time been any probability of an attack upon Charleston with land forces, it is not likely that any very large army has been massed at that point. It has been used principally as a depot for prisoners; and a force sufficient to guard them at that isolated point, and to work the guns of the fortifications, would not necessarily be very large. The active operations of the war in Virginia and Georgia have demanded the great body of the Confederate army, and the strong probabilities are that Beauregard has been left with but a very inconsiderable force under his command. Hood cannot retrace his footsteps and follow Sherman even if he dared. The divisions left under Thomas are too heavy for him. Lee is in no condition to send reinforcements to Charleston ; for the moment he makes a movement Grant will sweep down on him like a hawk on a June-bug. Beauregard has got to fight Sherman with his present forces, whatever they may be; and to do this with the navy battering at him from the Bay, will not be so pleasant. It is rumored, moreover, that there is no love between Jeff and Beauregard, and that nothing would suit Jeff better than to see Peter squelched.

The following from the Chattanooga Gazette, some months old, tells something about that matter:

Jeff Davis' contempt for Beauregard has long been a matter of notoriety. That he yet hates him there is little reason to doubt; and that he intends to crush him is evidenced by the fact that he has given him command of the armies in Georgia, Jeff knows that Beauregard will be whipped, and he intends that the odium of disaster shall fall on one of the pets of the masses.

It may so happen that Peter, seeing how the cat will inevitably jump, may come to the conclusion that Jeff has a bigger stake to lose than himself,--and that by biting off the nose of the Confederacy he will spoil Jeff.'s face worse than his own. If so, he may, in the language of North Carolina, "make the best possible terms for himself."

Sherman has now been some six days on his march, which must bring him close upon Charleston, and we may expect, any hour, to hear the result of the new campaign. We believe that Sherman knew the position of affairs on his proposed route, and with whom and with what he had to contend. and that he made no idle braggadocia boast when he wrote the confident words, " have no anxiety about me, I am all right!"