_Correspondence of the Cincinnati Times._
WINCHESTER, June 18.—At the present writing, I think it is safe, in
consideration of the time which must elapse before the publication
of my letter, to state that, though I have industriously sought for
information, I have yet to find the first officer of any military
importance who has any hesitancy in stating that he considers their
condition of the most critical character. What renders it the more
so at present is the fact that the whereabouts of Jackson is not
known. He may be moving on Front Royal to attack Shields, or he may be
circumventing the Strasburg Mountain to get in the rear of Fremont.
Every precaution is being used that human or military ingenuity can
invent, in the way of scouts and videttes, but the troops are limited
in number and worn out by their late duties, while the country is
extensive and well suited for the purposes of war, to a people who
know the windings of every mountain road, and whose spies are like the
cattle of Ossian’s hero “on a thousand hills.”
Further than this, Secessia fights its battles in the valleys, in the
midst of its friends. The farmer who refuses a particle of food to the
Union traveler, although the latter is willing to pay for it, is ever
ready to turn out all he has to the Confederate army—first, because
he really sympathizes with the Confederate soldiers, and, secondly,
because he fears to withhold what he is confident they will take
whether he is willing or not.