the part of Colonel Chickering to keep the road open. Lieutenant Woods of the One Hundred and Tenth New-York regiment was killed, and a major and several commissioned officers were captured by these guerrillas. Colonel Chickering has heard since that they hung two of our officers, but he had not at last accounts received any thing authentic in relation to the matter. keeing" the sincere Union men. They were told confidentially that our forces were going to stop at Vermilion Bayou and construct the bridge over that stream, and the Union men, of course, had a strong force there, as we afterward learned from a trusty negro. Colonel Chickering is wholly responsible for their great victory at this point, and it is high time such irritating conduct toward our deluded Southern brethren was stopped. It was agreed between the rebel officers that we General Banks was very solicitous for the safeshould be flanked at St. Martinsville, but the ra- ty of this immense train, and a disaster to it pidity of the Colonel's movements thwarted them, would have sadly injured our cause. Now, as for when Franklin was decided upon as the spot the success, the following figures will show plainly. where this immense "Yankee" potent corn-hop- Six thousand negroes came into our hands, five ping nigger train was to be engulfed in the hundred plantation wagons, three thousand mules mighty jaws of the rebel army; but lo, presto, and horses, besides a fabulous number of cattle. change! they passed through and beyond Frank- While the Forty-first Massachusetts were stationlin. Considerable powder and lead was wasted ed at Berrie's Landing, five thousand bales of for the so-called Confederacy, and the chagrin of cotton were sent from that point, besides immense the baulked rebels was so bitter, that, for sixteen quantities of sugar and molasses, and it is estimiles, from Franklin to Centreville, they fought | mated that upward of ten thousand negroes have us in their brave guerrilla style. been sent from Berrie's Landing to Brashear City and Algiers. It is superfluous business for me to attempt to praise the skill and energy of Colonel Chickering for the determination he evinced and the great success which has crowned his efforts. Let the record be his garland of laurel. All of these negroes are exceedingly eager to fight for their freedom, and I have often seen the tears rolling silently down their sable cheeks when the examining surgeon, after inspecting them, pronounced them physically worthless for active service in the field. Nothing is more false and ridiculously absurd than the statements of Northern Copperheads that the negro will not fight, will not labor without the cruel lash-is of too indolent a nature naturally to support himself. The rebels fired from the windows of the house at which Colonel Chickering took dinner on the same day. At Franklin their programme was all laid out, but owing to some slight disarrangement of the machinery, the performances at the confederate theatre did not satisfy the eager audience. They had been told that the retreat of "the d-d Yankees" was to be cut off, as well as all their heads; but suddenly their boasted tragedy became, if possible, worse than a farce. Colonel Chickering arrested a believer in the Jeff Davis doctrine, and a faithful supporter of the "divine" or "peculiar" institution, by the name of Alfred Lastrappe, a wealthy planter, owning a sugar and cotton plantation at Breaux Bridge, on the banks of the Teche. Mr. Lastrappe is only suspected, with some pretty strong evidence to sustain the suspicion, of having murdered four of his best negroes who were preparing to join our army as soon as it passed the plantation. The four new-made graves were found, but the innocent says they died very suddenly, and no doubt they did. He is now under close arrest, and an examination is shortly to be made into the case. No honest man who has travelled in the revolted States can assert this. Many men come to Louisiana with these impressions upon their minds. The negroes will fight, and desperately too, as the bitter conflict at Port Hudson attests. They do labor, where remunerated faithfully. The negroes of Louisiana are the only friends we have in that State, and one single instance has yet to be named wherein they have proved faithless. CICERONE. -Boston Traveller. The principal evidence is from negroes who tell their simple stories of the great affection of the master for the "Yankees;" so great was it, that Mr. Lastrappe had only to hear that one of his negroes had dared to speak to a "Yankee," and AFFAIR NEAR MIDDLETON, TENNESSEE. on goes the lash, and prostrate was the impudent Ethiopian in the embraces of the stocks. The women and children were very bitter all along the line of march, and Colonel Chickering arrested several insolent male rebels, who professed neutrality when arrested. Nim's battery fired several shots into a sugarhouse, where upward of one hundred and fifty rebels were concealed. A number of them fled to the woods. We cannot state the casualties of this little artillery episode. The contrabands who were in the train were terribly alarmed at the guerrillas, and the scene beggars description. It required the greatest exertion and vigilance on VOL. VI.-Doc. 40 Doc. 198. LOUISVILLE "JOURNAL" ACCOUNT. MURFREESBORO, May 25, 1863. I GAVE you by telegraph a short account of the night attack made by our cavalry on the enemy's camp near Middleton, on the morning of the twenty-first. Through the kindness of Colonel Stanley and General Minty, the latter commanding the First brigade, which sustained the brunt of the fight, I am enabled to glean from official reports, the following details: On the night of the twenty-first, at eight o'clock, General Stanley started out on the Salem pike, in the direction of Middleton, a small village about three miles west of Fos The charge of the advance-guard was a brilliant affair, and reflects great credit on Lieutenant O'Connell, who led the van, and only retired when the enemy in superior force moved forward to oppose him. In this action we lost the daring and gallant Lieutenant Wood. terville, on the old stage route leading from Mur-pared to charge. The confederates, more confifreesboro to Shelbyville. The forces composing dent in the mettle of their horses than in their the expedition were the First and Second brigades own ability to sustain a charge, wheeled about of General Turchin's cavalry division, the former and took to the woods and glades. The Third consisting of the Fourth Michigan, Third Indiana, Indiana, in the mean time, had charged in the Seventh Pennsylvania, and Fourth regular regi- direction of Fosterville. The few rebels they ments, under the command of Colonel R. H. G. found only tarried to exchange shots, and retreatMinty; and the latter composed of the Third and ed. The Second brigade, moved forward when Fourth Ohio cavalry and the Thirty-ninth Indi- the action begun, found the enemy gone, and ana mounted infantry, and commanded by Colo- was now occupying his camp. General Stanley nel Long. Leaving the pike to avoid the enemy's burned the tents, wagons, clothing, guns, ordpickets, posted on the road, the column picked nance stores, and every thing left on the grounds, its way cautiously through an unfrequented re- and, with over two hundred serviceable horses gion, broken by gullies and ravines, obstructed and seventy-three prisoners, took up a line of by bluffs, and traversed by serpentine water- march for Murfreesboro. The rebels, collecting courses. The natural barriers intervening, im- in considerable force, followed us for several peded the progress of the column; but the night, miles, firing on our rear-guard and severely its darkness deepened by the forest that overhung, wounding quite a number of our men. Colonel rendered the path almost impassable. After a Long, with the Second brigade, brought up the march of over twenty miles over this rugged rear, and sustained a loss of eight wounded by country, the horses jaded and the men fatigued, shots from the enemy following. Reporting to the force was halted within three miles of Mid- General Stanley that our rear was being contindleton, and the preparations made for surround-ually annoyed, the Fourth Michigan was placed ing, surprising, and capturing the enemy. Gen- in ambush. The column passed, and the enemy eral Stanley, with his escort and two companies unsuspectingly followed close behind, firing at us. (D and I) from the Fourth regulars, ordered for- When within easy musket-range the Fourth Miward to act as advance-guard, under the com-chigan rose and poured in a volley that played mand of Lieutenant O'Connell, took the road lead- sad havoc in the rebel ranks, and they withdrew ing from the old Salem pike in the direction of to trouble us no more. the rebel camp. General Turchin was ordered to follow, in supporting distance, with the First brigade. Reaching a point where the road forked with another leading to the right, General Tur chin sent the balance of the Fourth regulars and the Seventh Pennsylvania to the left, and the, Fourth Michigan, followed by the Third Indiana, took the road to the right, leading to Middleton. General Stanley, in the mean time, with the advance-guard, had held steadily toward the point designated by the guides as the camping ground of the enemy. The camp was situated about a mile from Middleton, in a dense cedar glade, and the forces were so disposed that it was necessary to pass through the grounds occu- | pied by the First Alabama to reach the camp of the Eighth confederate. Having alarmed the sentries, and anxious to surprise the enemy asleep, General Stanley ordered the Anderson Guard forward. No time was lost. In a twinkling Lieutenant O'Connell was at their head, and the two companies, with drawn sabres, were dashing for ward with a yell, that was alone sufficient to strike terror into a drowsy man, and sabring the frightened Alabamians. The alarms given by the sentries had aroused the Eighth confederate, who, rallying in sufficient numbers, beat back the advance-guard, who retired with a large number of prisoners. The Fourth Michigan, on the alert, attracted by the tumult, dashed forward at a furious gallop, charged through the town and a mile beyond into the camp of the enemy. The rebels by this time had formed in line of battle on the opposite side of an open field and in the edge of the forest skirting it. Discovering them, the Michiganders fired a few volleys at them, which emptied several saddles, and pre Doc. 199. EXPEDITION TO GUM SWAMP, N. C. GENERAL FOSTER'S REPORT. HEADQUARTERS TENTH ARMY CORPS,! NEWBERN, N. C., June 2, 1868. } Major-General Halleck, General-in-Chief United States Army, Washington, D. C.: GENERAL: Referring to my brief report of May twenty-second, I have the honor to report that, learning from Colonel J. Richter Jones, commanding outposts, that he deemed it possible to capture the enemy's outpost regiments at Gum Swamps, eight miles from Kinston, I ordered Colonel Lee's brigade, consisting of the Fifth, Twentyfifth, and Forty-sixth Massachusetts regiments, three pieces of Boggs's battery, and a battalion of cavalry, to report to him. Colonel Jones ordered the Fifth, Twenty-fifth, and Forty-sixth, with the artillery and cavalry, under the command of Colonel Pierson, Fifth Massachusetts, to advance up the railroad and Dover road, to attack the enemy's work in front, while the Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania volunteers, and the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts volunteers, under the immediate command of Colonel Jones, took a path through the swamp, to reach the rear of the enemy's position. The main column, under Colonel Pierson, met At five minutes before ten o'clock I ordered that the bugle sound the charge, and within fifteen minutes Lawler's and Landrum's brigades, of the Fourteenth and Tenth divisions of this corps, had stormed a strong lunette work in their front, making enlodgment, and planting our colors upon it. the enemy's pickets at daylight of the twenty- our front, and had to be overcome under the ensecond, and driving them in, commenced an at-emy's fire. Our line was some six or eight miles tack on the front. Colonel Jones with his com- long, and was therefore necessarily weakened by mand, owing to the character of the road they attenuation. had taken, and the men having to go by single file, did not arrive at the desired place until nine A. M. On arriving in the rear of the. enemy's position, Colonel Jones deployed such batteries of his command as could be used to advantage, opened fire and advanced. The enemy fired a few desultory volleys, then broke and fled in great Twelve men went into it, eleven were killed, confusion, taking to the swamps, and escaping and the twelfth, aided by our sharp-shooters on by paths known only to themselves. On hearing the top of the parapet, captured and brought out the firing of Colonel Jones's command, Colonel twelve rebels. A feat more daring and successPierson advanced his command and entered the ful is hardly recorded. Its achiever was Sergeant work in front. After securing the prisoners (one Joseph E. Griffith, company I, Twenty-second hundred and sixty-five) and spoils, demolishing | Iowa V. I., who deserves equal admiration and the enemy's works, and resting his men, Colonel praise. Jones made a demonstration and show of advance Within thirty minutes after ten o'clock, Benon Kinston. At dusk the same evening his pick-ton's and Burbridge's brigades, fired with noble ets were driven in, and he found himself attacked emulation, rushed forward; made a lodgment by the enemy in force, and with artillery. He, on a similar work in their front, and in like manin obedience to orders, at once returned, followed ner planted our flag upon it. This cost a sanby the enemy, and reached our outpost line with-guinary struggle. The enemy was driven away out loss. Colonel Lee's brigade were put on cars in waiting, and returned to their camps. from a loaded gun before he had time to fire it; while Lieutenant White, of the Chicago Mercantile battery, brought up one of his pieces by hand The enemy, mortified at the success of Colonel close to the enemy's works, and double-shotting Jones, and being strongly reënforced from Golds-it, poured a deadly discharge into the enemy's boro, reattacked our outpost line on the after- ranks. This feat was a worthy parallel to Sernoon of the twenty-third. I sent out a support-geant Griffith. ing force to Colonel Jones, and the enemy were repulsed at every point, but with a great loss to us and the service, in the death of Colonel Jones, who was shot through the heart as he was lead-| ing on two companies of his regiment to dislodge the enemy from a position he had taken up. By the death of Colonel Jones, a most brave, zealous, and able officer has been lost to the service and this department. I have the honor to inclose a list of casualties, and a list of prisoners and articles captured. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. G. FOSTER, Major-General Commanding. Doc. 200. THE CHARGE AT VICKSBURGH, MISS. GENERAL MCCLERNAND'S LETTER. DEAR GOVERNOR: I snatch a moment, amid pressing and responsible duties, to address you a few lines on the subject of our recent operations. The rattle of musketry and the roar of cannon ring at short intervals in my ears, and carnage is all around. All the corps of the army of the Tennessee were ordered by its commander to inake a simultaneous assault upon the enemy's works at ten A.M. of the twenty-second instant. The advance was ordered to be made in quicktime, with bayonets fixed, and without firing a gun, until the outer works were carried. A very rough, rugged and broken space was in All this was on my right. On my left Osterhaus's division formed the advance, supported by one brigade of General Hovey's-the other brigade having been left behind, under General Grant's order at Big Black. The movement of these forces was obliquely toward the point of attack, in front of Lawler, which they neared in the course of a struggle which brought most, if not all of them into action. The fury of our assault was such as to alarm the enemy and to cause him to mass his troops from both right and left, in my front. The movements by which this was effected, were plainly seen by officers and men of my command, and greatly increased the obstacles to the advance of my corps, whose strength had been much curtailed by different detachments which had been ordered to be left behind. Passing to matters of a more personal character, I am loth to inform you of rumors which would fix upon me the responsibility of the failure of the assault on the twenty-third. These rumors are as contradictory as they are senseless and mendacious. They must be spawn of petty prejudiced partisans. It would be unjust to impute them to any men of rank and character. One rumor charges me with not attacking promptly, yet it is notorious, I was the first to attack, and the first to make a lodgment in the enemy's works; moreover, I continued unremittingly the conflict until after night, and for a longer time than any other corps. My success was also as great as that of any other corps. I planted my flag upon two of the enemy's works, where they waved for some eight hours taking a number of prisoners, and forcing the enemy, through his fears, to mass his forces to stop my progress. Another rumor charges me with the responsibility of the loss sustained by the other army corps. And wherefore, do you imagine? Simply, because I urged that other parts of the line should continue the attack as well as mine, or that I should be reënforced-one or the other. In asking the former, I but asked what General Grant had expressly and peremptorily ordered. The fault, therefore, if any, was not with me. In asking, alternatively, the latter, I only asked what, in massing our forces on a single and shaking point, would have materially conduced to the success of the attack. every attempt to dislodge me, and in the mean time repeatedly asked for a diversion of the enemy on my right, or to be reenforced. Reenforcements finally came up, but too late; night cut short the engagement. With timely reenforcements, I doubt not, what a number of my officers affirmed, that we could have gone through the enemy's works. Indeed, I have learned since that the enemy was about to yield. With what justice it has been imputed to us that we have brought up the rear, you will de cide. Others, doubtless, have done their duty as well-it may be, better than we. It is foreign to my purpose to complain of any one, to make invidious comparisons; but let justice be done. If need be, let there be an investigation by com parts and policy, and in regard to all its officials, JOHN A. McCLERNAND Perhaps our endeavors would have been crown-petent authority of the whole campaign, in all its ed with success if the latter plan of attack had been originally adopted. In short, it was but fair for all to cooperate under an order from a common superior, alike binding on all, for the attainment of a common object. And if loss was sustained by others, it was also sustained by me, probably in still greater proportion; but not as a consequence of any thing that I said or did, but as a consequence of the order alluded to, and the effort to carry it into successful effect. INDIANAPOLIS “JOURNAL" ACCOUNT. CAMP IN REAR OF VICKSBURGH On Friday, the twenty-second, while accompa nying General Smith's aid, I again had an oppor tunity of witnessing some of the operations. Brilliantly streamed the sunlight on that May morning over the fort-crowned hills around Vicksburgh. Traces of serious thought were upon the countenances of the men, for they well knew that to many that gladdening sunlight was their last. The order was to open with all our guns, and at ten o'clock to charge. From the hills where the siege-guns were planted, manned by the First regulars, the wreathing smoke of our batteries in active operation, could be seen around the whole line, while to the ear, came the sudden roar of the gunboats on the river. The rebel hospital and court-house were in sight, but for miles along their rifle-pits and forts, not a man was visible. About four hundred yards in front of their works, was a ridge, on the top of which the rebels had burnt a house. Three pieces of the First Indiana battery were in the rear of the chimney, and two of Blunt's cannon were in the road, to the left of which Generals Carr and Smith made their headquarters. Coming as it did, from competent authority, it is not my province, nor is this the proper occasion to impugn that order. Without intending injustice to any one, I may be permitted to say that my corps led the advance from Milliken's Bend to Bruin's Landing, and to the field at Port Gibson. At the latter place it was the first to attack the enemy and break his force. This battle was determinate of all our following successes. Pursuing the enemy next day, it captured the town of Port Gibson, and drove the enemy from the north bank of Bayou Pierre; thence marching toward Edward's Station, on the Vicksburgh and Jackson Railroad, it encountered and drove back the enemy from one of the crossings of Fourteen Mile Creek, on the same day that General Sherman drove him back from the crossing at Turkey Creek, and McPherson beat him near Raymond. Soon after it led the advance to Bolton on the railroad, and again against the enemy at Champion Hill, first attacking him and achieving a signal victory, with the assistance of McPherson's corps. That my corps bore the brunt here is attested by the conspicuous part borne by General Hovey, and the greater loss sustained by his division. Rapidly pursuing the routed enemy, we captured many prisoners, together with Edwards's Station, and all of the enemy's stores there, during the evening and night of the same day. By eight o'clock the next morning we over-ed the hissing hail of lead. took the enemy in considerable force on the Big Lawler's brigade, on the left, advanced nearly Black River, and immediately engaged him, drove to the works, and while Osterhaus's division was him from his skilfully constructed works at the point of the bayonet, taking many prisoners and eighteen pieces of cannon. Thence we marched upon Vicksburgh, and have done what has already been recounted. The odds were now largely against me, yet for some eight hours I held my ground, baffling Between ten and eleven o'clock, the rattle of musketry and a shower of bullets announced that Benton's brigade was advancing. General Carr, followed by his staff, rode up to the ravine from the railroad, stopping just below the crest of the hill, and sat like a statue while around him pass falling back, Landrum's brigade rushed down the hill through the ravine and commenced as cending the hill on which that fort was situated, amid the concentrated fire of a half-dozen forts. The Twenty-second Iowa had planted their flag on the outer edge. Some of the Pioneer corps with picks, were trying to dig into the works. A few reached the inside and were fighting hand to hand. While this was transpiring on the left of the railroad, equally heroic actions were being performed on the right. Burbridge's brigade had been ordered to the support of Benton. Colonel Washburn, of the Eighteenth, shouted to his men: "The Hoosiers are coming." Colonel Lucas answered, as with gun on his shoulder he led up his men: "Here's your mule." Some of the Eighteenth had jumped into the ditch and could not get out. Smith ordered Burbridge to send two regiments from his right to the left, to which the answer was: "I cannot move; they are rolling down cotton-bales and trying to flank us." Major Montgomery and Captain De Grasse, of the Eighth Missouri cavalry, went over the hill by the burnt chimney shouting like Indians. Captain De Grasse had a ball in his foot, and the staff-officer who attempted to follow their example received two bullets in his horse. Colonel Wright, too sick to fight, had crawled up to see it. The Sixteenth Indiana moved by the flank up to where the Eighteenth was lying close by the fort. These two regiments who have seen service in States widely separated, now mingled their ranks and planted their flags side by side on the crest of a rebel fort in Mississippi. The rebels scarcely daring to show a head under the constant stream of bullets, lit the fuses of shells and threw them by hand among our men, who showed them a Yankee trick by coolly picking them up and throwing them back, where they exploded among the traitors. The exaggerated pictures of illustrated papers usually provoke our merriment, but this scene far surpassed any description words could give of it. Not a man in the two divisions believed they could enter the fort, but here they stood thickly crowded before the fort they could not storm; on the edge of the ditch they could not cross; under an enfilading fire that diminished their numbers, coolly throwing back the lighted shells that fell among them. Slowly the hours dragged by. Messengers came from each brigade, asking reënforcements. Word was sent to the Eighth Indiana to advance to the left of the fort. Colonel Shunk answered: "Half of my men are killed and wounded, but I will go with the rest." McPherson's attack had been repulsed, and the rebels had concentrated in our front. All hearts felt glad when, coming up the road, appeared the head of column of Quinby's old division, now commanded, I believe, by Crocker. General Carr took Colonel Boorman, commanding the brigade, and showed him the position he wished him to occupy. The brigade was formed, and moved over the hill, and now fiercely rose the storm of musket-balls, canister and shell. The living passed on, trembling, over the dead and wounded of their own ranks, over the broken ground, through bushes and abattises, where no line could be kept. All had noticed the gallant bearing of Colonel Boorman as he formed and led his brigade over the hill. In a few minutes I saw two men bringing back his corse, his clothes torn and dirty, blood running from his mouth and ears; he died as a hero should. Without presuming to criticise those who ordered the movement, I think an error was committed in the way and manner in which the last brigade advanced. If they intended the rebels should only feel its force, it might have moved around the ravine as the other troops did, concealed as long as possible. If it was intended to show reënforcements coming, they could not expect a single brigade to overawe the rebels, who, for a whole day, had kept back two divisions, even though that brigade advanced so boldly under the murderous fire. At last night came and orders were given to withdraw. The men came back with clothes torn and dusty, and faces blackened with powder. They had lived years in those few hours. General Burbridge, the man to whom honor is dearer than life, came back with his brigade, his eyes glaring, and the perspiration standing thick upon his haggard face. General McClernand, of a nervous, sensitive temperament, seemed much depressed at the slaughter of his men. Carr, the hero of Pea Ridge, who had freely exposed him| self all day, seemed the most cool and businesslike man on the field. In the morning a soldier had cried out, "Look at the men falling;" he broke fiercely out: "Who talks of dead men here? Think of the enemy, and of killing them. It is no time to speak of dead men now." General Smith is the oldest among the generals in years, and one of the most fiery and impetuous in disposition. In the bewildering chaos of battle men tell the incidents which strike them most forcibly. Mistakes cannot be avoided in such rapidity of action. The men came back singly or in groups. Some regiments formed a line on the top of the ridge. General McClernand, in a low tone, called his division commanders around him, and while the big drops of rain commenced falling, soldiers were calling on comrades' names and carrying by the wounded, these men sat on the hillside and held a consultation near the body of Colonel Boorman. A dreary ending of a fearful day. I do not believe greater bravery was ever displayed than by the men of these two divisions, who, without hope, had boldly assaulted the works, and for eight hours maintained the unequal contest. The Eighth Indiana had lost nearly one hundred men killed and wounded. Among the killed were three captains. Lieutenant-Colonel Jenks, of the Eighteenth, was mortally wounded. Colonel Lucas, of the Sixteenth, was hit twice, but not seriously. I have spoken only of the bravery of Indiana regiments, but from no disparagement to the soldiers of other States. In the divisions of Smith and Carr, not a regiment faltered or fell back. History alone will reward the actions of those who gave their lives here today, and in other years men will read with thrilling interest of that "wild charge they made." J. R. S. C. |