Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1861-11-01
IncIdents o. the BAR. Rlua FIrht.
Correspondence of N, Y. Tlmes.)


POOLEsvILH, Monday, Oct. 20, 1851.
From deserler who was brought into
headquarters yesterday, learned that in the
first portion OF the hght the rebels had four
thousand men, and that after the first hours
fight their line began to waver, and it was
believed that they had lost the day, but just
at the nick of time, a reinforcement OF three
thousand men came up, and turned the day.
The cavalry was eutIely ununitormedi and
but very few OF the regiments were thorough
ly equipIsl. The dCserter, who is New
Jersey man, from Bloomfield, named Ward,
was impressed in Brandon, Miss, and en-
braced bis picket duty hour 10 desert from
his company. His statements are confirmed
by Lieut.. Berry, of the Chesterfield Cavalry,
formerly of the Censas Bureau, at Wash
iugtOn, who says their force was in the
neighborhood of seven thousand men. The
man on the white horse, who was seen to fall,
was Col. Hunting, of the Chesterfield Cav
airy, and though be was able TO walk from
the field, he died in the course of Monday
night
The vast majority Of the incidents that oc-
CURED during the retreat from the Virginia
shore, were most mournful in their character,
/ but there were some that were ludicrous in
the extreme. One told of an Irishman in
/ Company D, of the Massachusetts fifteenth
is very Iunny. When the retreat was ordered
he threw off kis coat and panis and plunged
into the icy current OF the Potomac. he
swan boldly across the river, and had just
gained the Maryland shore, when he remem-
Oered that he had left $I3,2 in the pocket of
his coat. "Be Jabers, Billy" said he, "thim
thirteen dollars is in me coat, and the bloody
/ ribels will git 'em, and besides, can't con-
sint TO part with the amount so I'll jst go
Tor them" and in he plunged again. He got
safely over, found his coat secured the money
and recrossed the river. l saw him in camp
this afternoon, and congratulated him on his
| pluck, endurance and success, to which be
replied, "Oh, yis Sir, twas all I'd saved from
my three months service, and I'm very fond
Of me pipe"
A most exciting scene transpired at the
sinking Of the launch, in which were some
sixty wounded meu and twenty or thirty
members of the California First. The launch
had been safely taken half way across the
| river, when, to their utter CONSERVATION, it
was discovered that it was leaking, and the
water gradually, but surely, gaining upon
them. The wounded were lying on the bot
tom of the launch-some shot in the head,
others mangled by the tramp of cavalry, and
others suffering intolerably from their various
dislocations, wounds and injuries, and all
soaking in water, which at the very start was
fully tour inches deep. As the water grew
deeper, and rose above the PROSTATE forms oil
the wounded, their comrades lifted them into
sitting postures, that they might not be
strsngled by the fast rising stream. But it is
said that the groans and cries. the screams
and meanings of the poor fellows who were
thus tortured, were most distressing and in
describable. Despite all that could be done,
the fate of the launch, and all that were in it
with the exception of few expert swimmers,
was sealed; suddenly, and like a fash Of
lightning, the rotten craft sank, carrying with
it at least fifty dying, mangled, groaning suf.
ferers, and some twenty OF thirty Others, who
had trusted their lives to its treacherous hold
The Imagination revolts at the dreadful vision
which rises before it as are seen the vain at
Jempts of the drowning to keep their aching
heads above the level Of the water; as the
long lines of bleeding, crying men become a
confused mass of CORY bodies, struggling, the
stronger with the weaker, for some place
where for a little while yet they might be
secure from the dreadful but impending fate;
as the well, forgetting their brothers in their
anxiety for self preservation, rushed frantic
ally from end to end of the launch, fearing to
attempt the swimming of the river, while they
added pain and misery by their thOughtless
trampings, TO their less fortunate companions,
who lay beneath their feet and, finally, as the
launch, unable longer to maintain its place
above the surface sank-while the farewell
cry, the feeble gio4n, the terror-6lled prayer
and the grateful expression of release from
pain, miRgling rose in one wild outcry, which
terrified the hundreds who were swimming
for their lives, and filed with sorrow and
dismay the hearts of the survivors who stood
upon the friendly and not distant shore.