New Orleans daily crescent., 1860-09-01
The Zouaves of ts,e Revolution.

Mr.. J. IS Pratt communicates to the New York
Evening Post the following extract Of letter
writtenby young soldier in the Connecticut revo-
lutionary army to his parents, which shows that
there were Zouaves i'll The war Of independence:
DEAR PAREsTs-Our company arrived here last
night very late, hungry and tired. Training is a
good deal harder than old Squire Fell tells Of. II
he'd march fourteen miles day for three days and
carried his prog, besides fathers old French war
fnsee | calculate he'd not been so encouraging to
US boys. don't find fault, mind; ! only wish to
let you know that we are not on a May party
st Milford tavern we were Joined by two conl-
panies of soldiers from New Haven and a company
Of "oueer fellows as Jake calls them, from the
Southern colonies. They are ritiemen, and are
commanded by Col. Cresap. They don't use any
in row, like the Indians do. But their antics in
military exercise are oil the curiousest kind. They
load and fire their rifles lying lat on their bellies.
After that, they tangle themselves all up in knot,
and look Just like porcHpine with their guns
sticking out all over them. But the wondeFmost
part Of their actions is their hitting mark. Any
one OF them can hit n small potatoe at forty rods
distance You never saw anything like it. When
we get to camp will write more about these rifle
men who would amlse the girls il they could but
see them cut their antics.
The company described in this letter is also
alluded to in Moore's Diary of the Revolution, as
follows:
August 7, 1T75 On Friday evening last arrived
at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on their way TO the
American camp, Captain Cresap's company Of RI
femen, consisting of one hundred and thirty active
brave young fellows, many of whom have been i'll
the late expedition under Lord Dunmore against
the Indians. They bear in their bodies visible
marks of their prowess, and show scars and wounds
which would do honor to Homer's Had. They
show you, to use the poets words,
'tWlere the CORD battle bletl at every vein y
One of the warriors in particular shows the cica-
trices of four bullet holes through his body.
boya hnap hpa1 in fbn tn, bnp III.
| ships and dangers from their infancy. They ap-
pear as if they were entirely unaequainted with
| and had never felt the passion of fear. With their
rifles in their hands, they assume kind of omnip-
| otence over their enemies One cannot much won
| der at this when we mention fact which can be
fully attested by several of the reputable persons
| who were eye-witnesses of it.
Two brothers in the company took piece OF
| board five inches broad seven inches long, with a
bit of white paper about the size of dollar nailed
in the CENTER and while one of them supported this
board perpendicularly between his knees the other
at distance of upwards of sixty yards and with
out any kind of rest, shot eight bullets through il
/ successfully, and spared brothers thigh. Ano
ther of the company held barrel staye perpen-
dicularly in his hands with one edge close to his
side while one of his comrades at the same dis
1 tance and in the manner above mentioned, shot
several bullets through it, without any apprehen-
sion of danger on either side The spectators, APP
pearing to be amazed at these feats were told that
/ there were upwards Of fifty persons in the same
company who could do the same thng-that there
was not one who could not plug 10 bullets ont Of
90 as they termed it, within an inch of the head OF
a tenpenny nail. In short to evince the confidence
they possessed in their dexterity with these kinds
of arms, some of them proposed to stand with
apples on their heads, while others, at the same
distance, undertook to shoot them off, bntthe peo
pie who saw the other experiments dechned 10 be
witnesses OF this.
At night great fire was kndled around polk
planted in the Courthouse square, where the com
pany, with the Captain at their head, all naked t.
to the waist, and painted like savages, except th
Captain, who was in an Indian shirt, indulged
vast coneourse OF people with perfect exhibition
of war-dance, and all the man9uvers of Indian
holding council, going to war; circumventng thei
enemies by detiles, amhuscades attacking, scan;
and so forth 1t is said by those who are judges
that no representation could possibly come neare
the original. The Captains eXpertness and aglit.
in particular in those experiments, astonshei
every beholder. This morning they will set ont ol
their march for Cambridge.
TIE TuRKoMArN's Power or sMELLING.-An ex
. traordinary power of smelling in Tnrkomnnn wa
indicated to me: g ! smell caravan OF Usbecks,
said Khan Saat, drawing up his nostrlis and IN
t few hours caravan from Organism arrived full 0
: them 1t is remarkable how the Tnrkomaun
!? know, by the footsteps in the desert, the perse
who has been there, nay, the very tribe, if Turko
y mauns or Calmucks see people talking from di
Z tance frequently heard then. SOY, " Let US drli
7 our ears They then lie down on the ground an
e hear from distance what even two persons viii
per together, and relate the exact conversation.
: lDr Woof S Mission.
g THE HuNGARtANs.-Kossuth and Kiapka, and
5 large body of Hungarian refugees, the latter mi
tarily organized, are, it is reported, at Bucharis
/. prepared to invade the country and getap rev
!. luton.