The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1861-11-29
Tho Enemy's Piketon Canard.

between our troops and those Of the enc.
my last Friday week, beyond Piketon.
Kentucky. We will premise that the
enemy's General-a notorious debahthee,
braggart coward, and liar by the maine of
Nelson, an ex-leutenant (the "fat lieu
tenant'') of the United States navy--is {.
man whose fort lies in magnificent inven.
tions of the sort embodied in the dis
patches on our first page giving the pre-
tended details of his. performances at
Piketon. A few weeks aga he had SINH
lar story of an cncountet ween some Of
his force and our men near West Liberty,
in Morgan county, where it was repre-
sented that he killed hundred and fifty
rebels, took Fifty prisoners, and put his
foe to ignominious fight. The facts of
that affair were simply those: An indom-
table and enterprising man by the name
of Jack May took company Of seventy
four sharp-shooters with him and waylaid
the enemy in favorable, place on the
road near West Liberty. On came the
enemy in full force into the trap. May
and his men let fly at, them from their
concealment, and moved them down like
sheep. The enemy fellinto dismay and
confusion. Jack and his sharp-shooters
let fly at them second round, and then
dispersed to make their way through the
woods to rendezvous agreed upon. Jack
May did not lose man, either killed or
wounded. Fifty graves can be seen, and
have been counted, of the enemy's killed.
The number of their wounded Of course
cannot be known. So much for "Sow
Nelson's" first victory, which was tele-
graphed and published all through Ken
lucky to suppress the ardor and discour-
age the spirit OF her secession population.
This affair occurred last Tuesday fort.
night-Oct. Both.
Now for the grand affair at Piketon,
which came off last Friday week, Novem-
Der Sth. When we say that 1t was anoth-
er encounter Of Nelson's Dutch. picked
up in Cincinnati, with Jack May. we al
ready tell the whole story. The fight oc-
Cured few miles beyond Piketon, on
the Louisa river, just west Of the mouth
of Ivy creek, which empties into the
Louisa from the North side. The road
along the river. beyond the mouth of the
Ivy, is over steep bluff, rising thirty feet
II ., f.or. <ba ,votor Alopo
the side of the road, for four or fvo hun
dred yards west of the mouth Of the Ivy,
which was spanned by u high bridge, the
mountain rises to great height, by very
precipitous ascent, thickly covered with
Ivy, laurel, and other evergreens. Into
this covert, along this steep ascent, Jack
May placed his sharp-shooters, now in
creased to three hundred men, short
time before the advance column of the
enemy came up. He then set fire to the
bridge. The enemy's advance soon came
up. suspecting nothing, and seeing the
bridge on fire, supposed that our force
had retreated to the other side. When
the four or five hundred yards of the road
below him was filled with men, crack,
crack, crack, went the rifles of Jack May
and his sharp-shooters along the whole
distance. They continued to load and
FIRE for several rounds; and then. at sig
nal, they vanished around the mountain.
and up Ivy Creek to temporary crossing,
which they had taken care to provide,
and which they destroyed after they had
crossed over.
Jack May did not lose man until,
during the retreat, the enemy, getting
sight of his men in the distance, fired up
on them, killing only two and wounding
fifteen. Every wounded man was brought
away, and not gun was left behind. As
to the loss of the enemy, our men said
they left the road piled up with dead
bodies. Standing in file, not only one
man would be killed by each shot from
the mountain side, but as many as four or
five be either killed or wounded. Five or
six hundred would, they think, be low
estimate, therefore, of the loss of the
enemy in killed and wounded in this
affair. -,e7.r
Jack May then rsjoined Colonel Will
lian,s, who, with his force of only four
teen hundred mon, to prevent flank
movement of the enemy estimated at
probably 5000, had fallen back to the
junction of the Pound Gap and what is
called the Grape Vine Creek Road. Colo
mel Williams is now in the vicinity Of, if
not Immediately at, the Pound Cap
General Marshall is at the Gap of the
Louisa river opening from Piketon into
Tazewell county. Gentlemen of intelli-
gence just from that country entertain no
fear of the perfect feasibility of our hold.
ing the mountain; and General Marshall
only wishes such small reinforcements of
men and arms as will enable him to push
through and proceed against Nelson.
Paris. Kentucky, is more distant from
Piketon than Wytheville, Virginia, and
the circuitous route taken by the news of
Nelson's victory, is sufficient to disprove
the story. These magnificent falsehoods
have become systematic business in
Kentucky. intended to suppress the So
cessionist feeling. When the news of our
victory at Springfield reached that State
their Journals put "rebels" for"Federals,"
and ''Federals" for "rebsls," in the ac-
counts Of the battle, and spread the coun-