The attack was made just after sunrise, but instead of surprising the Yankees, they were found strongly posted on the top of a steep hill, and in perfect line of battle. Our line was formed under the fire of the enemy, but it was done with great precision and perfect accuracy. After our boys had commenced the forward movement there was no delay or hesitancy. The abolitionists were driven from their position, then through their camps, then their battery of fine Parrott guns captured, and finally hemmed in on the riverbank, where they surrendered. The fight lasted for one hour and twenty minutes; but in that brief period the firing was rapid and the contest severe. Many gallant spirits fell on our side, but we heaped the field with thrice the number of Yankee slain. Cobb's battery sustained an important part in the fight, and lost severely. Lieut. Gracey was, as he is on all similar occasions, conspicuous for his gallantry and good conduct. It was the ninth engagement in which he has participated, and out of all he has escaped unharmed, save at Shiloh. David Watts, a private of this battery, who was killed, was an intelligent and promising young man, the son of the well-known merchant of Paducah. The town of Hartsville and some four hundred of the enemy were captured by Colonel Bennett's command. To John Blazer, of company C, Ninth Kentucky regiment, belongs the honor of capturing the battery flag of the enemy. It is a beautiful piece of silk bunting, with the letter B upon it. The Ninth regiment also had the flag of the One Hundred and Fourth Illinois regiment. The Second regiment brought off the colors of the One Hundred and Sixth Ohio, which, before reaching town, were, by order of Major James W. Hewitt, reversed, the Union down- -a signal of distress. rich bottom in a bend in the river, where an abundance of corn, fodder, and oats was found. The wagons were sent to the various cribs, pens, and stacks near by to load, while Col. Mathews led the whole command or escort to Dobbins's Ferry, a mile off, and satisfied himself that there would be no attack from the enemy at that point. Returning to the wagons, he placed the artillery, Fifty-first Ohio, and Thirty-fifth Indiana in line of battle, as guards, while the Eighth and Twenty-first Kentucky loaded the forage. Before our object was half attained, a sharp crack from several rifles arrested our attention, and in a moment the enemy's cavalry was descried in a dense cedar thicket in our rear. About thirty dismounted skirmishers attacked a squad of men (belonging to the Twenty-first Kentucky) who were loading a wagon with fodder. This squad repulsed the skirmishers and checked the entire force until relieved by the Thirty-fifth Indiana and Fifty-first Ohio, who charged on the enemy, making him scamper through the bushes, like a dog with a piece of tin tied to his tail. By this time the wagons were loaded and started off, with the cannon, Fifty-first Ohio, and Thirty-fifth Indiana in advance the Twenty-first Kentucky placed at intervals along the train, and the Eighth Kentucky in the rear. We had not proceeded far before rapid firing was heard again in the rear. In a short time the Twenty-first Kentucky was formed in line and advanced to the line of skirmishers at a right angle with the wagon-train. Here there was some detention for fear of doing injury to our own side by cross-firing. Standing where they could see the enemy, our boys' attention could hardly be held long enough to change direction, and the word "Forward!" was again given; they dashed ahead, firing a volley and raising a yell that terrified the rebels, and caused them to retreat precipitately into a ravine that hid them entirely from our view. But the most remarkable fact connected with the expedition was the endurance of the infantry Then the cannon was brought forward, planted troops. They marched, on a bitter night, over on a site in a corn-field, and directed to shell the fifty miles, fought a splendid battle, captured woods in front of us. A company of skirmishers twice their numbers, crossed the Cumberland River twice, and yet there was no complaints heard and straggling witnessed. The losses of the cavalry regiments engaged were trifling. -Rebel Banner, December 11. Doc. 66. FIGHT NEAR LA VERGNE, TENN. IN CAMP NEAR NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, I PROPOSE to give full particulars of the fight at La Vergne, as witnessed by a participant in the exciting scene. The Thirty-fifth Indiana, Fifty-first Ohio, Eighth and Twenty-first Kentucky infantry, with two guns of Swallow's Seventh Indiana battery, went out beyond our picket-lines to escort fifty wagons on a foraging expedition. They ventured as far as Stone's River, four miles from La Vergne, and in sight of the enemy's videttes. We halted in a were called for to prevent the enemy from turning our right, and company E was thrown forward, and advanced within two hundred yards of the enemy, amidst a rapid shower of grape-shot and shell from two of their guns. This movement, if not disastrous, turned the enemy's left, relieved the Eighth Kentucky, and saved the train from capture. The enemy disappeared, and the brigade returned to camp without the loss of a wagon. All concur in according to Col. Mathews the most gallant conduct throughout the engagement. He received a slight wound in the left cheek, and was considerably bruised by a fall from his horse, which is wild and at times very unruly. A pestiferous but not dangerous disease affects the noble Colonel of the Eighth (Col. Barnes) in such a way as to render him unfit for duty, and, in his absence, Lieut.-Col. May assumed command of the Eighth Kentucky, which deserves the highest encomiums of praise for resisting the enemy at great odds-maintaining their position under a murderous fire of musketry, and returning volley ed the Twenty-Fifth regiment Illinois volunteers, for volley, working destruction in the enemy's Lieut.-Col. McClelland, and the Eighth Kansas lines. Col. S. W. Price being called to Nashville on business, the command of the Twenty-first Kentucky devolved on Lieut.-Col. J. C. Evans, who stood firmly at his post in the trying hour, and our favorite, Adjutant Scott Dudley, unconscious of self, stood up boldly, cheering the boys by example to stand firm and be quiet, while the sky seemed full of blue streaks from bursting bombs. Favorable mention should be made of the following soldiers, who resisted the enemy in the first onset, namely: Sergeant J. Frank Morton, privates R. B. Chism, J. P. Hagan, B. S. Jones, W. W. Oliver, and John Morton, of company_F; Corporal Henry Stahel, privates Jno. Kiger, Cassius Kiger, (slightly wounded,) Geo. Montjoy, Ed. Welsh, and Wm. Murphy, (wounded in the thigh badly,) of company A, Twenty-first Kentucky. Below I furnish a complete list of the casualties of each regiment: battalion, Capt. Block, to proceed on a reconnoisance to the front, in the division of Franklin, at two o'clock P.M. to-day. The command left promptly at the hour, and I rode with it as far as the outside pickets, which had a short time before been fired into by a small body of the enemy. Here I received an order from headquarters to send out another regiment, and a section of artillery, and in compliance I immediately ordered the Eighty-first Indiana volunteers, Major Woodbury, and two pieces of Capt. Carpenter's Eighth Wisconsin battery, to join the reconnoissance, and then went forward to join the force in advance. Lieut.-Colonel McClelland had already deployed four companies of the Twenty-Fifth and Eighth as skirmishers in advance, on each side of the road, and these had engaged in a brisk running fight with the enemy, who were also thrown out as skirmishers. The rebels retreated, abandoning their guns, and even some of their clothing in their hasty flight. Thirty-Fifth Indiana - killed —Adjt. Bernard R. Mullen, private Cormick Conohan. Wounded I directed the battery to move up the road be -Lieut.-Col. John E. Bolfe, badly, privates An-hind the infantry. Captain Pease, of Gen. Davis's drew Hays, badly, William O'Donnell, Thomas staff had meantime joined the command with a Burke, slightly, Chas. F. Reese, Mike Harrigan, small force of cavalry, and was doing valuable slightly. service in skirmishing to the right and front. Fifty-First Ohio-Privates M. Burr, M. Norris, E. Cutchall, W. H. Hardee, company C; M. Pomroy, M. Satur, S. McCoy, W. Smith, company D; L. Courtwright, F. Blosser, company F; J. J. La masters, company G; F. Young, teamster. Eighth Kentucky-taken prisoners, five-since paroled. Calvin Siler missing. Killed-Wm. Ross, John Stansberry, Pleasant Smith. Wounded-Nelson Petra, Jones Allford, (since died,) Silas Landrum, John McCurd, W. H. Rose, Charles Braser, Butler Fraley, Ples. and Gran. Philpot, Lieut. McDaniel, Fletcher Bowman. This fight has had a tendency to cement the regiments, and give them greater confidence in each other, and if it has no other effect, I hope it may enable us to count on each other in the great battle that is anticipated somewhere in this locality before many days. The discipline and health of the troops here is good. Our immediate commanders, Generals Crittenden and Van Cleve, are favorites with their men; while the confidence in Gen. Rosecrans is unbounded, and his recent orders are heartily approved; and there is an abiding hope that all things are tending to a speedy termination of the J. T. G. war. Doc. 67. FREDERICKSBURGH, VA., Thursday Night, Dec. 11. I LOCALIZE this letter Fredericksburgh, but it is FIGHT NEAR BRENTVILLE, TENNESSEE. assuredly "living" Fredericksburgh “no more." COLONEL MARTIN'S REPORT. HEADQUARTERS THIRTY-SECOND BRIGADE, CAMP NEAR Lieutenant T. W. Morrison, Acting Assistant I HAVE the honor to report that in obedience to order from headquarters Ninth division, I order A city soulless, rent by wrack of war, and shooting up in flames athwart night's sky, is the pretty little antique spot by the Rappahannock, erewhile the peculiar scene of dignified ease and retirement. The advance of the right grand division of the *See page 79 Docs., ante. army of the Potomac rests here to-night, after a series of operations which are certainly among the most extraordinary of the war. To those who retired to rest, uninformed of what night was destined to bring forth, the spectacle this morning must have seemed strange enough to be the improvisation of the magician's art. One hundred and fifty pieces of cannon covered the circular sweep of the heights of Fredericksburgh; one hundred and fifty thousand men in battle array had sprang from the earth, and lay, ready for the advance, behind those heights. But to the initiated, who spent the night in vigils and knew what work crowded its busy hours, it was all intelligible enough. All night artillery came, and came with its ceaseless, heavy rumble, and as each battery arrived from the rear it was posted in the place selected for it by the Chief of Artillery. All night the perpetual tramp of men moving to the front filled the air. Pontoon trains unwound their long, snake-like forms, and were drawn, each boat by its team, down to the river's brink. It had been determined, in council of war, held on Wednesday, that, instead of extending our lines of operations along the river from Falmouth to Port Conway, the entire army should be crossed at or near Fredericksburgh. Five pontoon-bridges were to be thrown across the river-the first at the Lacey House, which lies directly opposite the end of the main street of Fredericksburgh, half a mile below Falmouth; the second and third within a few hundred yards from the first. The remaining two were to be thrown over a mile and a half or two miles further down the stream, and on these the grand division of Gen. Franklin-the left-would cross, while Sumner's and Hooker's grand divisions-right and centre-would use the three upper ones. It was about three o'clock this morning when the boats were unshipped from the teams at the river's brink. Swiftly and silently the Engineer Corps proceeded to their work. A dense fog filled the valleys and water margin, through which the bridge-builders appeared as spectral forms. The recital of the Times special correspondent with the left will inform you of the details of the construction of the two lower-Franklin's-bridges. Work there was performed with perfect successthe engineers being allowed to complete the first without any interruption whatever, while the construction of the other was but slightly interrupted by the fire of the rebel sharp-shooters. We were not so fortunate with the upper bridges. The artificers had but got fairly to work, when at five o'clock the firing of two guns from one of the enemy's batteries announced that we were discovered. They were signal-guns. Rapid volleys of musketry, discharged at our bridge-builders, immediately followed. This was promptly responded to on our side, by the opening of several batteries. The fog, however, still hung densely over the river. It was still quite dark, and the practice of the artillerists was necessarily very much at random. The Engineer Corps suffered severely from the fire of the sharp-shooters concealed in the town. The little band was being murderously thinned, and presently the work on the bridges slackened, and then ceased. Meanwhile the firing from our batteries, posted about a mile from the river, was kept up vigorously. The effect was singular enough, and it was difficult to believe that the whole affair was not a phantasmagoria. It was still quite dark, the horizon around being lit up only by the flash of projectiles, which reappeared in explosive flame on the other side of the river. Daylight came, but with it came not clearness of vision for on-lookers. The mist and smoke not only did not lighten, but grew more opaque and heavy, hugging the ground closely. Our gunners, however, still continued to launch their missiles at a venture. The rebel batteries hardly returned our fire, and this chariness of their ammunition they preserved all day-not a dozen rounds being fired during the whole forenoon. Toward eight o'clock a large party of general officers, among them General Burnside, the corps commanders, and many others of high rank, had congregated in front of and on the balcony of Gen. Sumner's headquarters, Phillips's House, situated about a mile directly back of the Lacey House. The performance could be heard but not seenthe stage was obstinately hidden from view, and all were impatient that the curtain should rise. Aids and couriers came and went with messages to and from the batteries and bridges. At half-past nine o'clock official notification was received that the two bridges on the extreme left were completed, and Gen. Franklin sent to General Burnside to know if he should cross his force at once. The reply was, that he should wait until the upper bridges also were completed. Meantime, with the latter but little progress was made. During the next couple of hours half a dozen attempts were made to complete the bridges, but each time the party was repulsed with severe loss. On the occasion of one essay, Capt. Brainard, of the Fiftieth New-York volunteer engineers, went out on the bridge with eleven men. Five immediately fell by the balls of the rebel sharp-shooters. Capt. Perkins led another party, and was shot through the neck, and the Sixty-sixth and Fifty-seventh New-York regiments, which were supporting the Fiftieth and Fifteenth New-York volunteer engineers— Gen. Woodbury's brigade-suffered severely. It was hopeless task, and we made little or no progress. The rebel sharp-shooters, posted in the cellars of the houses of the front street, not fifty yards from the river, behind stone walls and in rifle-pits, were able to pick off with damnable accuracy any party of engineers venturing on the half-completed bridges. The case was perfectly clear. Nothing can be done till they are dislodged from their lurkingplaces. There is but one way of doing this effectually-shell the town. At ten o'clock Gen. Burnside gives the order: "Concentrate the fire of all your guns on the city, and batter it down!" You may believe, they were not loth to obey. The artillery of the right, eight batteries, was commanded by Col. Hays; Col. Tompkins, right centre, eleven batteries; Colonel Tyler, left centre, seven batteries; Capt. De Russy, left, nine batteries. In a few moments these thirty-five batteries, forming a total of one hundred and seventy-nine guns, ranging from ten-pounder Parrotts to four and a half inch siege-guns, posted along the convex side of the arc of the circle, formed by the bend of the river and land opposite Fredericksburgh, opened on the doomed city. The effect was, of course, terrific, and, regarded merely as a phenomenon, was among the most awfully grand conceivable. Perhaps what will give you the liveliest idea of its effect is a succession, absolutely without intermission, of the very loudest thunder-peals. It lasted thus for upward of an hour, fifty rounds being fired from each gun, and I know not how many hundred tons of iron were thrown into the town. The congregated generals were transfixed. Mingled satisfaction and awe was upon every face. But what was tantalizing, was, that though a great deal could be heard, nothing could be seen, the city being still enveloped in fog and mist. Only a denser pillar of smoke defining itself on the background of the fog, indicated where the town had been fired by our shells. Another and another column showed itself, and we presently saw that at least a dozen houses must be on fire. Toward noon the curtain rolled up, and we saw that it was indeed so. Fredericksburgh was in conflagration. Tremendous though this firing had been, and terrific though its effect obviously was on the town, it had not accomplished the object intended. It was found by our gunners almost impossible to obtain a sufficient depression of their pieces to shell the front part of the city, and the rebel sharp-shooters were still comparatively safe behind the thick stone walls of the houses. During the thick of the bombardment a fresh attempt had been made to complete the bridge. It failed, and evidently nothing could be done till a party could be thrown over to clean out the rebels and cover the bridge-head. For this mission General Burnside called for volunteers, and Col. Hall, of Fort Sumter fame, immediately responded that he had a brigade that would do the business. Accordingly, the Seventh Michigan and Nineteenth Massachusetts, two small regi. ments, numbering in all about four hundred men, were selected for the purpose. serving each other. In the mean time new and vigorous artillery firing was commenced on our part, and just as soon as this was fairly developed, the Seventh Michigan rose from their crouching places, rushed for the pontoon-boats, and pushing them into the water, rapidly filled them with twenty-five or thirty each. The first boat pushes off. Now, if ever, is the rebels' opportunity. Crack! crack! crack! from fifty lurking-places go rebel rifles at the gallant fellows, who, stooping low in the boat, seek to avoid the fire. The murderous work was well done. Lustily, however, pull the oarsmen, and presently, having passed the middle of the stream, the boat and its gallant freight come under cover of the opposite bluffs. Another and another boat follows. Now is their opportunity. Nothing could be more amusing in its way than the result. Instantly they see a new turn of affairs. The rebels pop up by the hundred, like so many rats, from every cellar, rifle-pit, and stone wall, and scamper off up the streets of the town. With all their fleetness, however, many of them were much too slow. With incredible rapidity the Michigan and Massachusetts boys sweep up the hill, making a rush for the lurking-places occupied by the rebels, and gaining them, each man capturing his two or three prisoners. The pontoon-boats, on their return trip, took over more than a hundred of these fellows. You can imagine with what intense interest the crossing of the first boat-load of our men was watched by the numerous spectators on the shore, and with what enthusiastic shouts their landing on the opposite side was greeted. It was an authentic piece of human heroism, which moves men, as nothing else can. The problem was solved. This flash of bravery had done what scores of batteries and tons of metal had failed to accomplish. The country will not forget that little band. Their loss in the perilous enterprise was, so far as I could ascertain, as follows: Killed A. Wickson, company A; Corporal Jos. L. Rice, company C. Wounded-J. N. Basna, company G, mortally; Riley Faulkner, severely; Lieutenant Secore, company C; C. H. Hewson, company C, hand; Sergeant Thomas Galdwell, company F, severely wounded in shoulder; Jos. Crene, company F, arm. The party once across, and the rebels cleaned The plan was, that they should take the pon-out, it took the engineers but a brief period to toon-boats of the first bridge, of which there were ten lying on the bank of the river, waiting to be added to the half-finished bridge, cross over in them, and landing, drive out the rebels. complete the bridge. They laid hold with a will, plunging waist-deep into the water, and working as men work who are under inspiration. In less than half an hour the bridge was completed, and the head of the coluinn of the right grand division, consisting of General Howard's command, was moving upon it over the Rappahannock. A feeble attempt from the rebel batteries was made to shell the troops in crossing, but it failed com Nothing could be more admirable or more gallant than the execution of this daring feat. Rushing down the steep banks of the river, the party found temporary shelter behind the pontoon-boats lying scattered on the bank, and behind the piles of planking destined for the cover-pletely. ing of the bridge, behind rocks, etc. In this situation they acted some fifteen or twenty mines as sharp-shooters, they and the rebels ob Your correspondent found an opportunity to cross the river along with the party who first went over, in a boat, having been curious to take a closer view of the city which we have for near that among the ruses he employed was sending a month been observing over the river, not three down, day before yesterday, to Port Conway, hundred yards wide, without the power of visita- three hundred wagons, and bringing them back tion. As the rebels were in very considerable by a different road, for the sole purpose of makforce on the heights back of the city, one could ing the rebels believe that we were about to not extend his perambulations beyond the street cross the river at that point. To the same end, fronting on the river. Every one of the houses workmen were busily employed in laying causewhich I here entered, a dozen or more, is torn to ways for supposed pontoon-bridges there, while pieces by shot and shell, and the fire still hotly the gunboats were held as bugaboos at the same rages in a dozen parts of the city. A few citizens place. Completely deceived by these feints, the -a score or two, perhaps male and female, main rebel force, including Jackson's command, presently made their appearance, emerging out seems to have been, two or three days ago, transof the cellars, whither they had taken refuge dur- ferred twenty or twenty-five miles down the river. ing the bombardment. Three women-white-It must be remembered, however, that without whom we found in a cellar, told us that they, the utmost celerity on our part, they can readily with a majority of the inhabitants, had moved retrieve this blunder by a forced march or two. out of Fredericksburgh a fortnight or so pre- Signal-guns, at five o'clock this morning, gave viously, but that, growing reassured by our long them the cue to what was going on, and doubtdelay, they, with a good many others, had come less they have not been idle during the intervenback the evening before. The former inhabit- ing hours. To-morrow will disclose what unseen ants, they report as now living in various parts moves have been made on the chess-board. of the environs, some in negro huts, and others in tents made with bed-clothes, etc. During the afternoon of the bombardment we observed a couple of white handkerchiefs waved out of the windows in a house in the city. This was taken by some for a flag of truce, and the Chief of Artillery was on the point of causing the shelling to cease. General Burnside, however, decided that it was probably merely only the wonted rebel ruse, and ordered operations to be continued. We found out that the demonstrations were made by two of the women referred to, with the desire that we should send over a boat and convey them away from Fredericksburgh. Among other prominent objects during the bombardment was a large British flag, flying over the house of the English Consul. This personage, however, was not found in his house when we entered the city, and the flag was taken possession of and brought away. A number of rebel dead were found in various parts of the city, some exhibiting frightful mutilations from shells, and I took as a trophy, a rifle, still loaded, out of the grasp of a hand belonging to a headless trunk. The infantry in the city appear to have been Mississippians, South-Carolinans, and Floridians. Those of them that we took prisoners were wretchedly clad, and mostly without blankets or overcoats, but they generally looked stout and healthy, and certainly in far better condition than they could have been were there any truth in the report of some deserters the other day, to the effect that for three weeks they had nothing to eat but the persimmons they were able to pick up. Although we are not yet fully informed of the present positions of the enemy, there seems to be good ground to claim that General Burnside has succeeded in outgeneralling and outwitting them. His decoys to make them believe that we were about to cross our main force at Port Conway, seem to have succeeded admirably. I suppose there is no harm now in my mentioning Doc. 69. W. S. RAID IN CRAWFORD COUNTY, MO. REPORT OF CAPTAIN REEVES. OSAGE, CRAWFORD COUNTY, Mo., December 9, 1862. Colonel J. M. Glover: A BAND of six guerrillas, headed by Charles Barnes, made a raid upon our part of the county, on the night of the twenty-fifth ultimo. Before night they passed down Huzza Creek unobserved, except by one person, whom they arrested. They commenced their business at the house of John S. Brickey, by taking two guns, a pistol, a negro man and negro girl. Barnes took a pair of handcuffs from his saddle-bags and fastened upon the negro man, but before they had gone far they took an alarm at cattle that ran near them, and the negro man made his escape. They went back up the Huzza Creek, which runs from a southern direction. They called at the house of Israel P. Brickey, and took a gun and pistol, and also compelled Brickey, to furnish them with supper. Next they broke into the house of Cornelius Brickey, calling for him and his son James, whom Barnes had previously threatened, neither of them being at home. They next went one mile to the house of Peter Brickey. There they arrested his son Jarret, who made his escape just as they left the house, and slipped in the dark. They took one negro, one horse, saddle, bridle, pants, hats, and blankets. Next they went to the house of James Sanders, Jr., the First Sergeant of my company. They rushed into the house before he was warned sufficiently to get out of bed, and called upon him to surrender, but he resisted by springing out of bed, snatching his revolver from under his pillow, and firing at the breast of Barnes, who, about the same time, fired upon Sanders, and at the same time ordered his comrades to "fire." Four balls struck Sanders and he fell to the floor. A fatal shot was now about to be made from a rifle, when Sanders's sister threw up the muzzle. They gathered his pis |