kees on Sunday evening. From one of them we men of his cavalry battalion, who on Sunday obtained some particulars of the affair. As the started to Hanover Junction, returned to this city train neared the hotel at Ashland, a couple of by the Mechanicsville turnpike. From one of the shots were fired at the engine, which was at once men we learned the adventures of the company stopped. The Yankees were the Twelfth Illinois during their brief absence from the city. On regiment, five hundred strong, and commanded their way to the Junction, when three miles on by a Colonel Davis, who said he was originally this side of Ashland, they met on the mountain from King George County, Virginia, and claimed road a considerable body of Yankee cavalry. Ma kin with President Davis. By order of the Col-jor Wrenn at once drew up his men in line of onel the engine was uncoupled and burned. All battle, but the enemy showing no disposition to the sick and wounded and passengers were then make an attack, he advanced upon him. A skir paroled. mish at long-range ensued, in which forty or fifty No interference was made with private proper-shots were fired on each side. One Yankee was ty. Just as the train was first hailed by the seen to fall from the saddle. No one was struck Yankee cavalry, several persons who were in the on our side. Major Wrenn, finding the enemy's back car, among them a bearer of despatches force superior to his own, fell back slowly toward from General Lee, jumped off and succeeded in Richmond. During the night, General Pryor rode escaping, and are supposed to have made their out from the city alone, and joined Major Wrenn. way to our forces at the South-Anna, or to Hano- The men remained in the saddle all night, falling ver Junction. The Yankee Colonel was disposed back slowly, and watching the enemy. At five to be very chatty. He said he knew the country o'clock this morning the retreating party came around about Ashland like a book, that he had in sight of the Brooke bridge, on the Brooke turnfox-hunted over it many a time. The privates pike, three miles from the city, when, to their sur were not so complacent; they seemed rather un- prise, they found it occupied by a detachment of easy, fearing surprise. One of them was heard several hundred Yankees. Seeing his retreat in to ask another how he liked the country. The that direction cut off, and the Yankees pressing fellow said he didn't like it altogether: he feared on his rear, Major Wrenn wheeled his column to it was unhealthy to people from so far north. the left, and made across the country for the The Yankee horses were first-rate, and all in good Meadow Bridges, which, on nearing, he discovered order. The sick and wounded on the train were to be also in the possession of the enemy. Withimmediately taken into the houses of the resi-out loss of time he bore still further east, and by dents of Ashland and the vicinity, and attended by the ladies. The only property destroyed by the raid-makers was the engine of the ambulance train, an old engine lying at Ashland, and some two hundred yards of the railroad track.

At eight o'clock A.M., a courier reported at headquarters that the Yankee cavalry, to the number of five thousand, were at Warwick's farm, five miles from that city. About the same time another courier brought information that the enemy had appeared at Hungary Station, a station ten miles up the Fredericksburgh Railroad. These announcements, of course, produced some excitement, though persons who had had any experience of couriers' stories received the accounts with many grains of allowance. All, however, believed that the Yankees, a part or a whole of the same who had been at Ashland on the day before, were in the vicinity of the city, with the design, not of attacking the capital, but of inflicting still further damage upon our railway communication with the army of Northern Virginia.

dint of urging his jaded horses to their utmost, was enabled to reach and cross in safety the Mechanicsville bridge, from which point access to the city was unobstructed. General Pryor and Major Wrenn at once repaired to the camp of the battalion at the old fair grounds, and set about collecting fresh horses with which to resume the field.

Between one and two o'clook P.M., John L Phillips and James Crone, the telegraph operator and engineer, who had started out in the morn ing to repair the wires on the Central Railroad, returned to this city on foot. They give the following account of their expedition: They left the city at seven o'clock A. M., with an engine and tender, having with them two negro firemen. They proceeded as far as Peake's, eighteen miles from Richmond, without seeing any signs of the enemy. At this place they were met by a section master of the road, who informed them that the Yankees were at Hanover Court-House, where they had staid all night. Upon the receipt of this infor mation they immediately reversed the engine and started to return. On nearing the bridge over the Chickahominy the engineer discovered the Yankees employed in burning that structure. Leaving the free negroes to shift for themselves, Crone and Phillips leaped from the engine and plunged into the dense under-growth of Chickahominy swamp. The Yankees pursued them a short distance, and gave up the chase. They then made the negroes put a full head of steam on the engine, and run it into the stream over the broken span of the bridge. Having done all the damage they conveniently could to the bridge and chty railroad, they robbed one of negroes of his hat

At seven o'clock A.M. a telegraphist had been sent, with an engine and tender, up the Central road to repair the wires. Upon the receipt of the above news, much uneasiness was felt for the safety of the above party. About eleven o'clock, a youth who had ridden in from Atice's, brought information that the engine had been captured by the Yankees at the railroad bridge over the Chickahominy, five miles north of this city, a locality made memorable by the fact that near here, on the twenty-sixth of June, 1862, General A. P. Hill begun the great battle of Richmond. Between el and twelve o'clock yesterday morning, Mathan F. Wrenn,

Now, therefore, to avoid all misapprehensions concerning the liability of persons concerned to perform the service required by such enactment, and to give it full effect, I do hereby order and proclaim that no plea of alienage will be received or allowed to exempt from the obligations imposed by the aforesaid act of Congress, any person of foreign birth who shall have declared, on oath, his intention to become a citizen of the United States under the laws thereof, and who shall be found within the United States at any time during the continuance of the present insurrection and rebellion, at or after the expiration of the sixty-five days from the date of this proclamation, nor shall any such plea of alienage be allowed in favor of any such person who has so as aforesaid declared his intention to become a citizen of the Whereas, The Congress of the United States at United States, and shall have exercised at any its last session enacted a law entitled, "An act | time the right of suffrage or any other political

franchise within the United States, under the laws thereof, or under the laws of any of the several States.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my seal and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord 1863, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President, WM. H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

Doc. 190.

THE BATTLE AT RAYMOND, MISS.

CINCINNATI "COMMERCIAL" ACCOUNT.

RAYMOND, MISS., May 18, 1863. THE battle fought yesterday within three miles of the town of Raymond, Mississippi, ought to be called the battle of Farnden's Creek, from the stream near which it commenced, and whose banks last evening bore witness to the dreadful struggle, by the number of dead and wounded that lay strewn along them.

As a battle, the engagement of yesterday is, of course, not entitled to rank with such bloody contests as Shiloh and Donelson, but many who participated in it, and some who witnessed it, agree in pronouncing it, what an officer called it this morning, one of the heaviest small battles of the war.' I was attempting to narrate the leading events of the day this morning, but had made only a very little progress when the special messenger, on whom I relied for the transmission of my letter to Milliken's Bend, compelled me to close, as he was about to start for the river, and could not wait on me even half an hour.

Skirmishing commenced early in the morning. Our cavalry advance exchanged shots with the enemy soon after daylight. The rebels had their cavalry thrown out several miles from their main body, as is their invariable custom in the SouthWest, and one which we might imitate with great advantage to ourselves.

forward, followed by the other regiments of the Second brigade. As they approached the woods the rebels sought to check their advance by a heavy fire from the timber, but our men stood their ground nobly, contending against the almost concealed foe at great disadvantage, never yielding an inch, but pressing steadily forward. General Logan, on ascertaining the condition of affairs in his front, sent word to the First and Third brigades of his division to close up their ranks and push forward as rapidly as possible. Meantime the Second brigade was holding its own against a vastly superior force. It was soon reenforced by the brigades under Generals John E. Smith and John D. Stevenson.

Shortly after the opening of the fight, Captain De Golyer's battery, Eighth Michigan, was ordered to the front, and took a commanding position for the purpose of dislodging the enemy from the woods, the infantry having proven itself inadequate to the task. The James rifled guns of De Golyer's battery opened and commenced pouring a heavy fire of shell into the rebel columns. The enemy now, for the first time, opened artillery upon us. His aim was good, succeeding in making our infantry change position. But his purpose was to silence the Eighth Michigan battery, and he failed in that. Finding it impossible to silence the guns with artillery, the rebels attempted a charge upon the battery. A regiment of men essayed the hazardous undertaking. While they were removing a fence, preparatory to mak ing the decisive dash, the battery opened on them. Our men fired two shells into their midst, both of which burst among them, killing and wounding a large number, and causing the entire column to fall back in disorder. At their inglo rious withdrawal, our infantry sent up a few rousing cheers, which had the effect of accelerating the speed of the fugitives, and inspiring our whole command with a new zeal and determination to press forward to a victory of which they felt cer tain, even when the fortunes of the day seemed to turn against them.

The rebels, defeated in their attempt to capture our battery, found themselves compelled to fall back to a position immediately in the rear of At about nine o'clock, Captain Foster, in com- Farnden's Creek. There was but a few inches mand of our advance cavalry, came back from the depth of water in the creek, and its very abrupt, front to meet General McPherson, to whom he deep banks rendered it more favorable to them communicated the condition of affairs, giving it as than the best rifle-pits they could have dug his opinion that there was a body of rebel in- General McPherson had no sooner ascertained fantry ahead, which it would be dangerous for their new position than he ordered an advance cavalry to attempt to penetrate. After pretty, upon it. General Dennis's brigade had the lead, heavy firing by the cavalry, in which the Second and his brave men went forward with a will. Illinois lost two killed and several wounded, the General Smith's brigade supported them. A Twentieth Ohio, Colonel Force commanding, was large open field lay between them and the ene ordered to advance in line of battle across a my, and to march across it, exposed to the fire couple of fields toward some heavy timber, where of an ambushed foe, was their dreadful task asit was supposed the rebels had their infantry signed. Not a man flinched, not a soldier evine force. Shortly afterward the Seventy-eighth and ed a spirit of fear or reluctance. Forward they Sixty-eighth Ohio and Thirtieth Illinois were went, unmindful of the galling fire in their front. ordered forward in a similar manner. These When within good range, they opened on the regiments constituted the Second brigade of Gene- rebels, and a more terrible conflict than that oral Logan's division, which followed, for more than five minutes, has The Twentieth Ohio kept steadily on its way I seldom occurred between two opposing forces of

equal size. The Twentieth Ohio, Twentieth Il- Crocker's division came up in the afternoon, but linois, and Twenty-third Indiana lost heavily, not in time to participate in the fight. It is fair but the rebels were forced from their ground. to say the forces were very nearly equal-the During the desperate struggle above alluded to, rebels having the great advantage of position and the rebels attempted to turn our left flank, and topographical knowledge, however. very nearly succeeded in doing so. The Twen- The official list of killed and wounded on our tieth Ohio and Twenty-third Indiana had advanc-side has not yet been made up. Officers disagree ed too far from their support, and were in great in their estimate of casualties. Our loss in killed danger of being cut off. A regiment of rebels and wounded will not exceed two hundred and suddenly emerged from a thick undergrowth, and fifty, I think. The burial party report having marched daringly forward toward the left of the buried forty of our men on the field; to these Twentieth. Colonel Force saw the danger he was may be added ten who died on the evening of in, and gave the order to fall back upon the main the engagement. There were one hundred and body. In the execution of this order, the regi- sixty wounded Union soldiers carried to hospiment suffered greatly, as its mortality list will tals. A number were slightly wounded, and show. Among the commissioned officers wound- either did not enter the hospitals at all, or were ed at this time, was the acting Major, Captain cared for in their own regiments. The rebel loss Kaga, from Sidney, Ohio. Two balls struck him was much heavier than ours. We buried sixty-one near the shoulder, breaking the collar-bone, and confederates on the field, and twelve died at our inflicting such injuries as, it is feared, will prove hospitals before the morning of the thirteenth. fatal. The Twenty-third Indiana, when ordered We picked up nearly a hundred of their wounded to fall back to the main column, found itself on on the field, and found nearly fifty in the hospian elevation between two ravines. Their com- tals at Raymond. All their slightly wounded mander, Colonel Davis, extricated them from this were carried off; of those left behind by them, position in an admirable manner. Any but vete- more than one half will die. On their side, Colorans would have scattered in confusion, on find- nel McGiffick, from Nashville, of the Tenth Tening themselves so totally at the mercy of an nessee, was killed; also several captains and enemy three times their numerical strength, but lieutenants. We lost but one field-officer killed, the Twenty-third were undismayed, and retreated Lieutenant-Colonel Richards, of the Twentieth without showing their backs to the enemy. The Illinois. Colonel McCook (brother of Major-Gencasualty list of the Indiana boys in this battle is eral McCook) was wounded in the foot. We lost very great. a number of line-officers. I sent a partial list of our casualties by a special messenger yesterday. If he is not captured on the road, it will reach the North in good season.

The fight on the left was growing desperate. The Twentieth Illinois had fired forty rounds of cartridges, and still the enemy held them at bay. Colonel Richards, of the Twentieth, had been mortally wounded while urging his willing heroes forward. At this critical period General Stevenson's brigade came to the rescue. The Eighth Illinois, Lieutenant-Colonel Sturgis commanding, came up, with fixed bayonets, and with a wild yell, which the rebels wisely interpreted as a premonition of death to the foe, drove them from the creek in wild disorder. This was one of the most brilliant feats of the day. It made the assurance of our victory doubly sure.

We took between two and three hundred prisoners during the day.

During the engagement yesterday, General McPherson rode along our lines in the thickest of the fight, encouraging his men, and directing their movements. He behaved with remarkable coolness all day. He had several narrow escapes from cannon-shots.

General Logan was, as usual, full of zeal, and intoxicated with enthusiasm. His horse was shot twice. If you ever hear that Logan has been defeated, make up your mind that he and most of his men have been sacrificed. He has stricken the word "retreat" from his military lexicon.

The rebels were by this time thoroughly defeated, though they still kept up an outward show of willingness to continue the battle. Nothing occurred after the charge by the Eighth Illinois The Seventh Texas met the Eighth Illinois on that deserves especial mention. The rebels re- the field, and was repulsed by them. The same treated gradually toward Raymond. General regiments faced each other at Donelson. The Logan advanced cautiously, until receiving no Seventh Missouri (Union) and Tenth Tennessee, reply to his fire, he became convinced that the (confederate,) both Irish regiments, had a closeenemy was "on the wing." We were in the range contest, in which they exchanged complitown of Raymond about an hour after the departments with genuine Hibernian accent. The Misure of the routed rebels.

The most reliable estimate we can make places the rebel strength at six thousand men. Citizens tell us they had but three thousand, but there were prisoners captured from ten different regiments-Tennessee, Alabama, Texas and Mississippi. They were under command of General Gregg, of Texas. We fought them with General Logan's division, of McPherson's army corps, between five and six thousand strong. General

souri boys were victorious.

We arrived here last evening. Raymond is a small town-an exact copy of all Southern burgs of its size. It is the county-seat of Hinds County, and contains a population (in peace times) of about one thousand five hundred. It is distant eighteen miles from Jackson, and eight from the Jackson and Vicksburgh Railroad, with which it is connected by a branch road. Of course we did not expect to find Unionists in a Mississippi vil

lage, and were, therefore, not disappointed at the coolness of our reception in Raymond.

We obtained Jackson papers of the eleventh (the day previous) in the town, and were a little amused and a good deal instructed, to learn by them that the Yankees had been whipped at Grand Gulf and Port Gibson, and were falling back to seek protection from their gunboats.

We were told by the citizens that the confederates had fallen back only a couple of miles, and would give us a big battle when we advanced upon them; that Gregg had been strongly reenforced, and would prevent us from reaching the railroad at all hazards.

Doc. 191.

and left flank, and moved in the direction of Jack

son.

All was quiet for the first five or six miles, until we reached a hill overlooking a broad open field, through the centre of which, and over the crest of the hill beyond which, the road to Jackson passes. On the left of this hill the enemy had posted his artillery, and along the crest his line of battle. From the foot of the acclivity, and not a mile removed, we could see the long line of rebel infantry awaiting in silence our onset. Slowly and cautiously we moved up the hill until we came within range, when all at once, upon the heights to the right, we discovered a puff of white smoke and heard the report of booming cannon, followed by the shrill scream of an exploding shell. The first Missouri battery was moved to the left of a cotton-gin in the open field, midway between the enemy's line of battle JACKSON, MISS., May 14, 1863. and the foot of the hill, and played upon the THE Union army have undisturbed possession rebel battery with telling effect. The duel was of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, and the kept up with great spirit on both sides for nearly headquarters of the department of Mississippi and an hour, when all at once it ceased by the withEastern Louisiana. The Federal flag floats grace-drawal of the enemy's guns. Meantime General fully from the dome of the State House, Yankee Crocker had thrown out two brigades to the right soldiers are patrolling the streets, prisoners are and left of his battery-Colonel Saubon's and gathering at the guard-house, the sick in the hos- Colonel Holmes's-supported by Colonel Boompitals are being paroled, negroes are grinning hor-er's brigade at proper distance. He had pushed ribly from the sidewalks, citizens look silently and sullenly at us from behind screens and closed window-blinds, and all the details of military government are in full operation.

CAPTURE OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI.

forward a strong line of skirmishers, and posted them in a ravine just in front, which protected them from rebel fire. After a little delay they were again advanced out of cover, and for several

both lines of skirmishers, in which, owing to the topographical nature of the ground, the enemy had the advantage.

My last was written at Raymond, on the even-minutes a desultory fire was kept up between ing after the battle. We encamped there Tuesday night, and early Wednesday morning started for Clinton, a small town on the Vicksburgh and Jackson Railroad. It was considered indispensably necessary for the success of our movement upon Vicksburgh that we should have possession of the railroad and the city of Jackson. We reached Clinton at nightfall and went into

camp.

At last General Crocker, who was on the ground and personally inspected the position, saw that, unless the enemy could be driven from his occupation of the crest of the hill, he would be forced to retire. He therefore ordered a charge along the line. With colors flying, and with a step as During the night the Seventh Missouri regi- measured and unbroken as if on dress-parade, the ment, under Captain Tresilian, of General Lo- movement was executed. Slowly they advanced, gan's staff, moved out on the railroad east and crossed the narrow ravine, and, with fixed bay west of Clinton and destroyed it, tearing up the onet, rose the crest of the hill in easy range of rails and burning every bridge and the timbers the rebel line. Here they received a tremendous across every cattle-guard for four miles each side volley, which caused painful gaps in their ranks of the village. The telegraph office and the post-They held their fire until they were within a office were seized and rifled of their precious con- distance of thirty paces, when they delivered the tents. From this source most valuable informa-returning volley with fearful effect, and, without tion of the enemy's future movements was ob- waiting to reload their muskets, with a terrific tained. In the express packages left by the train yell they rushed upon the staggered foe. of cars which steamed out of town just as our advance came in sight, several orders from General Johnston were found, and a package of confederate scrip.

At Clinton a hundred prisoners were found, occupants of rebel hospitals. These were paroled and taken in charge by the citizens.

At daylight Thursday morning the army was on the road to Jackson, moving in line of battle. General Crocker's division, formerly Quinby's, had the advance. He threw out a strong advanceguard and a heavy line of skirmishers on his right

Over the fences, through the brushwood, into the inclosure, they worked their way, and slaugh tered right and left without mercy. The enemy, astonished at their impetuosity, wavered and fell back, rallied again, and finally broke in wild confusion. The brave Union soldiers gained the crest of the hill, and the rebels fled in utter terror. Our boys reloaded their muskets and sent the terrible missiles after the fleeing rebels, adding haste to their terrified flight. They cast muskets and blankets to the ground, unslang their knapsacks and ran like greyhounds, nor