A correspondent writing from Corinth, Mississippi, sends the following in relation to the Commander in Chief of the Western armies:

There is yet no sign of an immediate intention of General Halleck to leave Corinth. But with him what is apparently improbable today may be certain tomorrow. Events may forecast their shadows but the move ments of General Halleck do not. His plans lie always buried in that safest of repositories—his own head—until the hour for their execution has arrived. Not even the members of his staff, holding the most confidential positions, share their burden until then. Independence of conception seems one of the main characteristics of his mind.

The Union has lost one of its ablest defenders, and Pennsylvania a noble, upright citizen, ever zealous for the public good. General Charles Ferguson Smith died at Savannah, Tennessee, on Friday last, from an illness contracted at the time of his occupation of that town. The deceased officer was a son of Dr. Samuel B. Smith, of Philadelphia. From the date of his graduation at West Point, in 1825, his advancement, not only in rank, but in the esteem and confidence of his fellow officers, was merited and rapid. Commencing his military career as a second lieutenant of artillery, his distinguished merit on the fields of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, Cherubusco, and Contreras, raised him in quick succession to the rank of Major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel. At the time of his death he was colonel of the Third Infantry—one of the best regiments in the service. Such worth as his could not lie dormant in the present struggle.—In August last he was made a brigadier general. At the taking of Fort Donelson his valor was conspicuous, alike to friend and foe, and won for him the rank of major general.

Since the death of this noted rebel leader, some interest is attached to his previous history. From our best sources of information we learn that General Felix K. Zollicoffer (irreverently styled “Snollegoster,” by the Union soldiers,) was of a Swiss family who emigrated to Tennessee some fifty or sixty years ago. Felix was born in Maury County, near Nashville, in 1812; was educated a printer; edited, when twenty-two years of age, the Columbia Observer ; in 1833 was made State Printer, and in 1842 became editor of the Nashville Banner, then the leading Whig paper in the State.

Col. Hiestand, of the Lancaster (Pa.) Examiner, who was present at the recent battle at Bull Run, thus speaks of the late Col. Cameron:

“When we met him the tide of victory with us, and he spoke with confidence the result of the battle would be a glorious victory for our gallant army. We separated with the farewell hope that we meet again; he to the head of his regiment to lead them into the fight; we to dreamy wanderings among the living, the wounded, the dying, and the dead.—He to die at the head of his regiment calling upon his ‘brave Scots’ to follow— we to return humiliated at the disgraceful stampede of over thirty thousand men.