The road here was narrow, and the ground on both sides covered with a dense growth of small saplings, with a fence on each side. The advance immediately formed in line, so far as the nature of the ground would admit. They found the rebels dismounted, and drawn up in line in large force in a most advantageous position. The advance stood their ground manfully, and delivered their fire with great coolness and precision. After delivering their fire, the enemy charged upon them in great force, and the ground being such as to render it impossible for them to re-form, they were compelled to fall back about two hundred yards, to an opening where I was able to deploy to the right and left of the road. Supposing that this force was the large cavalry force that occupied Oakland on Sunday night, I felt impelled to move with much caution, and beat up the woods as I proceeded. This occupied some little time, we in the mean-time having got our howitzers in position and shelled the woods in all directions where an

miles beyond Charleston, and marched to Mitch- did, under the command of Lieut.-Col. Torrence, ell's Cross-Roads, twelve miles from the mouth of Iowa Thirtieth infantry. The roads were very the Coldwater, where we found that Gen. Hovey heavy, and the march was tedious. As we aphad sent forward to that point about one thou- | proached Oakland, information was, that there sand two hundred infantry, with four field-pieces. was no enemy there, and had been none since I had scarcely arrived at Mitchell's Cross-Roads, Sunday night, but about one mile before reachwhen word came into camp that two companies ing town, the advance-guard from the First Indiaof infantry, sent out by Col. Spicely on the Pano- na came in sight of two or three rebel pickets. la road as a picket, were fighting, and in danger Each party fired, and the pickets fled, hotly purof being cut off. Without an instant's waiting, I sued. threw my force forward-Captain Walker, of the First Indiana, with his little howitzers in front, and Major Birge, of the Ninth Illinois cavalry, immediately following. As soon as we came in sight of the enemy, Capt. Walker and Major Birge brought their guns into position, and a few well-directed shots sent the enemy flying. The enemy was posted on the north side of the Yockna, a deep stream about one hundred and twenty-five feet wide, crossed by a ferry. I immediately threw a portion of Capt. Walker's command across the stream, who pursued them lively for a few miles, until further pursuit was useless. This force was part of Stark's cavalry. Being now entirely out of rations, I sent in to the mouth of the Coldwater, where the supply train was, for two days' rations, to be sent out during the night, intending to march early next morning, and endeavor to reach Coffeeville. My men had their horses saddled up, and in readiness at daylight, but no rations came. Owing to the breaking-down of wagons, they did not come up so that the rations could be distrib-enemy seemed probable. Advancing with our lines uted before two o'clock P.M. This day, (Tuesday, Dec. 2,) it rained incessantly all day. Owing to the want of rations, not being able to march on Coffeeville, and knowing that the enemy were in considerable force at Panola, on the Tallahatchie, fourteen miles from my camp, where they had fortified to defend the crossing, and also at Belmont, seven miles further up the river, I concluded that I would go up there and reconnoitre, and, if possible, drive these forces away, so as to leave no force in my rear when I should move toward Coffeeville the following day. I left camp about two P.M., and rode rapidly to Panola. About one and a half miles before reaching the town, we came upon their camp, (apparently a very large one,) but we found nobody to receive us, they having fled the night before. I sent Major Birge with the Ninth Illinois cavalry forward, who took possession of the town, and captured a few prisoners. We also ascertained from negroes who had been at work on the fortifications at Belmont, that they abandoned their works there, and fled in great precipitation when they heard of our approach. After occupying Panola we returned, same night, to our camp near Mitchell's CrossRoads. I did not disturb the railroad at Panola, or burn any bridges, having rendered it useless to the rebels, and knowing we should want to use it very shortly. The next morning early I took up my line of march for Coffeeville vid Oakland. I ordered Col. Spicely, who was in command of the advanced infantry and artillery force, to throw forward for my support as far as Oakland six hundred infantry, and two field-pieces, which he

extended, we entered the town just in time to get sight of the enemy. Col. Stephens, commanding the Second brigade, having deployed on the left, was first to enter the town, and as soon as he came in sight of the enemy, charged upon them, and drove them with great rapidity through the town and down the road to Coffeeville. We captured a number of prisoners, horses, and arms, and five thousand rounds of Minié ball-cartridges; and we found, at different houses in town, about a dozen so badly wounded that they could not be taken away-among them Captain Griffin of the First Texas Legion, whose arm was shattered by a pistol-ball. Some of their wounded were fatally so. I have to report no loss of men during the engagement, but about ten were wounded, only one of whom seriously so. The First Indiana lost eight or ten horses, which were killed during the engagement, and my body-guard had six horses killed, and Lieut. Myers, commanding the bodyguard, had his horse shot under him, and a bullet shot through his coat. I regret to have to report that, during the confusion that ensued when the enemy charged on the head of our column, and before the First Indiana could get their guns in position, one of them, which had been too far advanced to the front, was captured and borne off by the enemy. This is the only event of the expedition that I have cause to regret; and yet, knowing as I did, from personal observation, the determined character of the first onset of the enemy, I do not regard the event as surprising, or one for which the company to which the gun belonged as censurable. The conduct of Captain

Of the temper of both officers and men under my command I cannot speak in too high terms of praise. From the time of my landing at Delta to this time, my command has marched over two hundred miles. The weather for two days out of six has been most inclement, raining incessantly, without tents of any kind and not a too plentiful supply of rations. I have never heard a word of complaint or dissatisfaction. The health of the command has continued excellent. To my personal staff, who accompanied me on the expedition, Captain W. H. Morgan, A. A. General, Capt. John Whytuck and Captain G. W. Ring, I am under many obligations for efficient services. Respectfully yours, C. C. WASHBURN, Brigadier-General,

To Captain JOHN G. PHILLIPS,

A.A. General.

Doc. 62.

GENERAL BRAYMAN'S ORDER.

HEADQUARTERS POST OF BOLIVAR,
BOLIVAR, TENN., Dec. 4, 1862.

SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 64.

Walker throughout was worthy of all praise. Twenty-fourth Indiana, three hundred and sevenWhen at Oakland I was fifteen miles from Coffee- ty, Lieut.-Col. Barton; Twenty-eighth and Thirville. From prisoners captured, and from citizens, tieth Iowa, six hundred, Lieut.-Col. Torrence; I learned that the rebel army had fled from Abbe- Iowa battery, Captain Griffith; all under the comville, and were falling back rapidly via Water mand of Colonel Spicely of Indiana, an able and Valley and Coffeeville. I also learned that the efficient officer. cavalry force, which we encountered at Oakland, were Texas troops, about one thousand five hundred strong, and were part of a force which left Coffeeville that morning in pursuit of me; that it was divided into three different parties, each of about that number, and left on as many different routes. Concluding that they would all fall back on Coffeeville, and being satisfied that more or less force from Price's army was at Coffeeville, I deemed it highly important not to proceed further, as my whole force of infantry and cavalry did not exceed two thousand five hundred men. I bivouacked for the night on the public square at Oakland. Though near the enemy in large force, with the precaution I had taken I felt perfectly secure. I knew that the enemy was retreating on the road, not ten miles in an air-line from me, but I felt confident that he was in too great a hurry to move aside to fight me, particularly as they had received such exaggerated reports of my strength. I determined to remain here, and sent back for a portion of the remaining infantry to be sent up to my support, that I might proceed on to their line of retreat, and harass them as they passed, but about twelve o'clock at night I received a despatch from Gen. Hovey informing me that he had received despatches from Gen. Steele, stating that the object of the exhibition had been fully accomplished, and ordering us to return to Helena. I allowed my men to rest quietly at Oakland until morning, when I quietly and deliberately, but reluctantly, retired. The day I retired from Oakland it rained hard all day, and with the previous rains was calculated to excite just apprehensions that we could not get back to the Mississippi across the low alluvial bottom which we had passed over in going out. No person that has not passed over this road can have a just estimate of it in a wet time. For fifty miles from the Mississippi, or ten miles beyond the Tallahatchie, the land is an alluvial formation, filled with ponds, sloughs, and bayous, subject to annual overflow, and the roads are impassable as soon as the fall rains begin. In conclusion, I beg to say that the result of the expedition has, on the whole, been eminently suc- While there, the party was assailed with abucessful. Had I possessed in advance the know- sive epithets, and compelled, while in the perledge I now have, I could have done some things formance of duty, to listen to disloyal declarations that I left undone; but my main object, which and threats on the part of the wife and daughters was to stampede the rebel army, could not have of Mr. Neely. They state in writing, that Mrs. been more effectually accomplished. At no time Neely acknowledged the fact of harboring Southexcept at Oakland, had I over one thousand nine ern soldiers, and declared that she would give the hundred and twenty-five men, and then I had last thing she had to help them-that the Federal six hundred infantry and two field-pieces, which army was a set of murderers and rogues"-that came up just at night. The impression prevailed the oath was of no effect for a secessionist to take wherever we went that we were the advance of a—that she would go where she pleased, and would force of thirty thousand who were to cut off Price. The infantry, sent forward to my support, to Mitchell's Cross-Roads, consisted of the Eleventh Indiana, four hundred, Lieut.-Col. McCauley;

The General Commanding is advised that Rufus P. Neely, Clerk of the Hardeman County Court, late a colonel in the rebel army, and engaged in acts of war against the United States, still persists in treasonable language and acts-giving aid and comfort to armed enemies, and disturbing the peace of this post - he having taken an oath of allegiance to the pretended government of the confederate States, in violation of his oath of office-still adhering to such allegiance, and refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States.

On the night of November twenty-eighth, he was arrested and brought within the lines, and on that and the two succeeding nights, a party of mounted men, including two commissioned officers, was detailed to guard his premises, and capture guerrillas, who were prowling in the neighborhood, and were said to be entertained at his house.

not take the oath that "the Devil had telegraphed to Jeff Davis not to send him any more Yankees, for hell was already full of them, and he could not accommodate any more until he could

dig another pit to put them in," etc., etc.
A
daughter is reported as declaring that if she had
her way,
"all the Yankees should be put in prison,
and fed on bread and water thirty days, if they
lived so long" that "if old Abe Lincoln had
been dead, and such a man as Jeff Davis in his
place, this trouble would not have been" that
"Lincoln and all such men ought to be dead
that "old George Washington was a nasty, mean
old scamp!"

The General Commanding regards with great charity, the harmless ebullitions of malevolence and spite, which, so far from being dangerous, only indicate sympathy with a wicked and failing cause. The patriotic officers and soldiers of the American army have been severely tried in this particular, and deserve great credit for the forbearance with which they have listened, without resenting. This may, however, be due to the fact that their forbearance has been taxed most severely, by those whose gentle sex claimed their homage, and whose social position, education, and supposed refinement of manners would appear to afford a guarantee against intentional and persistent rudeness.

It is not the desire or duty of officers in command, to take account of indecent and treasonable language, unless uttered under such circumstances as to do harm, or to affect the efficiency of the service. In the case under consideration, the officers and soldiers of the United States were on duty-obeying orders, and entitled to protection; not only from molestation, but from insult. The General Commanding will not impose upon his men disagreeable duties, and require of them, in addition, to submit to needless humiliation from public enemies, even though persons called ladies, are the offenders.

The avowal of treasonable acts and intentions, the coarse and disrespectful terms in which the President of the United States, and the army of which he is Commander-in-Chief, are spoken of, as before recited, are so often heard, and have been so long tolerated under the very shadow of our flag, as to excite no surprise-scarcely rebuke.

us. The General Commanding feels no delicate reserve in expressing his abhorrence of such language, whenever and by whomsoever spoken. Let the man who dares to utter it, die the death of a traitor, and the roof-tree beneath which woman shall revile the memory of Washington, tumble in swift ruin to the ground.

In consideration of the matters here stated, it is ordered as follows:

First. The Provost-Marshal will release Rufus P. Neely, late colonel in the rebel army, from close custody, and remand him to his plantation outside the picket-lines of this post.

Second. The Provost-Marshal will also revoke any permits heretofore given to said Neely, his wife, and his daughter, Miss Kate Neely, to pass within the picket-lines of this post, and will absolutely exclude them therefrom, until further orders.

Third. Said Rufus P. Neely is debarred from holding the office, or performing any of the duties of Clerk of Hardeman County.

The foregoing order, and the occasion of it, seem to invite reference to other matters of a like nature, worthy of consideration at the present time.

Like all other monstrous violations of divine and human law, the treasonable military usurpation, which has brought such suffering and woe upon the good people of Tennessee, is coming to an end. Their benign civil government, which has been wrested from them, and their constitution and laws, which have been perverted, to their hurt, are about to be restored. The Constitution and laws of the United States, so fruitful of blessings, begin again to be felt, in their influence upon a people glad to claim their protection.

The rebel armies which have desolated their homes, and plundered them of their substance, have been expelled, never to return. The robber and murderers who yet infest the neighborhood in guerrilla bands, are alone left to torment the people. Even they are relinquishing their cowardly work, and following the flight of the armies they have disgraced.

Hundreds of young men, who have been de luded from their homes, are coming back, clothed in their right mind. Many a wife and mother, to-day rejoice over the return of loved ones, long absent, encountering suffering, dangers, and death in a wicked cause. Many mourn the uncertain fate of those yet absent, and listen anxiously to the whispering of each breeze which passes over the tide of battle. Yet other thousands rest in unknown graves, and the eyes that weep for them will wait for their coming in vain. The traitors who seduced them, are their murderers.

But it is not so it shall not be so, when the venerated name of WASHINGTON is profaned. Among all nations, civilized and savage in all languages-by high and low- by the good, the noble, the brave, and gentle-even by the drunkard, the ruffian, and the traitor, the memory of Washington is held in reverence. To the men and women of America, his name is expressive of all that is brave and magnanimous in war, and good and wise in statesmanship, and is spoken with something of that reverential awe which is felt when pronouncing that of the Saviour of man- The people of West-Tennessee are, or may be, kind. A case is here presented-the first within free again. They are already, practically, repu memory, in which this universal sentiment of the diating the spurious "Southern Confederacy," Christian world has been set at defiance. It af and denying the authority of those ordinances fords another striking evidence of the destructive and acts, which the late Governor Harris and a and demoralizing influence of that political heresy perjured Legislature imposed upon them. They which seeks the overthrow of that benignant gov-recognize Tennessee to be, what she has never ernment, and the dishonor of the sacred flag for a moment ceased to be, one of the United which the valor and wisdom of Washington gave States. They stand by the Constitution and code

grip. Not to put too fine a point upon it, they came very near capturing our whole command, and making a muss of the expedition.

My narrative left us at Water Valley, with the following order of march for the morrow: Col. Mizener with the Third brigade in the advance; Col. Lee with the First brigade in the centre, and Col. Hatch with the Second brigade in the rear. This order was changed in the morning by Col. Mizener taking a road running parallel with the Coffeeville road, which brought him to the rear of Col. Lee's column when he reached it. The column was thus led by Colonel Lee.

At seven o'clock Friday morning, the column started in the order indicated above. At a proper distance from the river, a large advance-guard was sent forward, and a company of mounted men deployed to the right and left of the road as skirmishers.

At this point the skirmishing became heavy, and the enemy holding their ground, Colonel Lee brought forward a ten-pounder James rifled gun, and unlimbered the piece.

of Tennessee, as she was in her better days. They are already preparing, by efforts to secure a representation in Congress, and to resume the functions of civil government, to sit down in fraternal communion with the patriotic people of sister States, at the feast of constitutional liberty, which the hand of Washington spread for all. The people of Bolivar and Hardeman County have entered zealously into this work, and are uniting in measures to perfect it. It is but fair and legitimate to hope that social hindrances, with those of a more marked character, will disappear. It is but just to believe, that when a man of honor takes the oath of allegiance, he does so with a full and loyal purpose, and without reservation. Not only his own conduct, but his influence and authority must be on the side of loyalty. He is, by God's wise arrangement, and the law of the land, the head, the king, the patriarch of his own household, and responsible, on his oath, for all who find shelter under his roof. It is not well that while the husband and father stands on the side of the Union, and enjoys in his business the blessings of recognized citizenship, the wife and daughter shall nurse the viper of sedition at home. It is not well, that while he publicly invokes peace and the prevalence of law, they continue to court the horrors of war and disorder. Can he suffer them to entertain traitorous emissaries at his board—were heard rapid, heavy, and continuous volleys to prepare supplies, (paid for by him,) and send them to the rebel army-to collect packages of letters filled with unlawful information, and, with passes obtained upon his good character, or granted in courtesy to their sex, carry them concealed upon their persons outside the lines to emissaries sent to receive them? Can he permit this and not be compromised? It will not do to say, he is clear, and the wife and daughter responsible. They are responsible to him-he to all the world -all being finally accountable to the law. Man stands at the threshold-woman sits by the hearthstone! God has so willed. Let them not seek to change places.

By command of Brig.-General M. BRAYMAN.
JOHN PEETZ,

A. A. A. General.

Hardly had our gun opened before a full rebel battery replied, and dropped solid shot, grape, and canister, in rapid succession, before, behind, and all about us. At least a hundred shots were fired before there was any cessation.

While this cannonading was going on, in front

of musketry. It proved that our dismounted skirmishers, moving slowly over a low piece of ground, driving those of the enemy, were suddenly confronted by long double lines of infantry, which rose from the ground where they had been concealed, and poured volley after volley of musketry into our ranks. Our skirmishers, of course, fell back precipitately, save those whose dead and wounded bodies lay before this fearful fire. Meantime the enemy's battery was sending its fiery messengers into our midst, two shells bursting within ten feet of our gun. The rebels had our range exactly, and served their battery admirably.

THE RETROGRADE MOVEMENT.

At once Colonels Dickey and Lee discovered that the position was untenable, and that a force far different in character and strength from any they had anticipated was attacking us, and that a retrograde movement must be executed and speedily. Flanking parties and skirmishers were at once called in and sent back, and slowly the gun with its support of dismounted rifles moved backward. Two squadrons of the Fourth Illinois cavalry, under Capt. Townsend, were left in front to delay the advance of the army.

Hardly had our gun crossed the valley and reached the position from which we had first fired, when our advance and protecting squadrons followed us, driven before the enemy's infantry, who were charging forward with cheers and yells.

On our right advanced two regiments of rebel infantry with their colors; on our centre another, while two more regiments were marching in column toward our left flank, endeavoring to attack

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