New York Daily Tribune

been allowed him, he would have made an end of them. Then it would have been safe to leave Missouri behind him, and holding Forsyth, on the White River, navigable by steamboats to the Mississippi, and connected with it also by rail, he could have moved into Arkansas, have aroused and protected the loyal feeling of the people of that State, and of the Indians west of them, and have made there the base of his operations. Memphis was his next object; at a fixed point a gun-boat expedition from Cairo was to have met, and Memphis would, without doubt, have fallen into his hands. But even if he had miscarried in this—though there is no reason for supposing that possible—the fact that Missouri was cleared of rebels: that Arkansas, which had no organized force of any consequence, and which has never been hearty in the disunion cause, was held by the victorious army of Fremont: that Memphis was even threatened: that Union gunboats held the Mississippi, from Memphis northward: and that Union troops might make their way into Tennessee, and get in the rear of the rebel army upon the Potomac, would have compelled a change of rebel tactics from offensive to defensive operations. Beauregard, from threatening McClellan in Eastern Virginia, would have turned to defend his rear. Bold as the plan of such a campaign seems, its very boldness would have been an important element of its success, and even much more than now it could rely upon the co-operation of the loyal men of that region, many of whom, it must now be acknowledged, are either disheartened or subdued. But let us hope the same results are to be soon brought about in another way, and the battle of Somerset is but the beginning of a movement which will have the happy consequences which we were led to expect from the military capacity displayed by Fremont some months ago.