The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-08-29

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| Movements Or Generals Wis and Fieyd--
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August 21ss, 1851.
Ones more. with faces turned 70 the sottsne
q the sun, We march " the rescue Of the Ke-
nawha Valley. Our svaeus alton Of Ohsrlssson
| on the 2AtA OF July, just one week After the
victory Of Scary Orssx, WAS movement quite
| unexpected and somewhat misunderstood BY
| the tnhabttants Of tho valley. Left exposed,
u ne mercy q , a. invading ios. they could
| stty FOR the retrograde movement, or the mill.
tary propriety Of keeping u strictly secret un.
| I'll every preparation for its immediate exscu.
| acauon Of Ihs citizens Ut Charleston con BE-
| better imagined than described, when. WITH
| ths booming OF The enemy's cannon already In
hearing, and their hsavy columns almost in
| march through the streets with our back 70 the
| enemy and our faces hOmeward 70 the East
The Old men tainted us, and the ladies, who
had six weeks before hailed our advent win
| waving handksTcAiels and ahowers OF bou-
qusts, now scarcely concealed their morrill,
cation and Disgust at our flor thsm) in.timed
departure.
But let me assure you the regret Of the
| citizens and native troops was not more pro-
| found than that OF the Legion itself and Of its
/ commander at being Obliged TO turn our back
upon = foe whomjUe had once defeated already,
| AID against whom, though largely our sups-
rior in numbers, we entertained no doubt Of
/ victory in the final conflict. But we yielded
| 10 the pressure Vt stern military necessity,
| aud 70 prevent our being cut of at aauley
Bridge Dy Large detac hment OF NcOlellan's
army, rapidly advancing from Weston, by
Bulltown, Birch Mountain, button aud Sum.
| mersvilie, to aauley. The disas trous defeat of
The Northwestern army and the death OF
General Garnet left the enemy free to move
| upon our rear, and we could not reject the
alternative of retreat. General Wise had in
| formation ID to the well-matured plan Of
locking him mp in the narrow valley from
| Gauley 70 Charleston and cutting of his
| communication with the East, which was
| accessible 70 no one but himself and those
/ Immediately around him, and he acted upon
/ it with promptness and success.
l After our departure from Charles ton, the
l fact that we were to have been 60 TT raped
between two large armies, each outnuInber.
| ing our own, soon became patent among our
and editorials OF the Cincinnati papers, as
/ well as by the private letters which we found
| in the mail Captured, between sutton and
Summersviile, by Colonel Crognau, OF the
Il
| Zeste uses the following official" lang uage !:
eve have ohacial adyices this morning that
/ Gen. Cox has taken possession OF GAuley
| Bridge, Wise having reIreated in haste. leav-
| ing behind him one thousand muskets, and
| olner traps. We had supposed that the force
marched 70 Bulltown from Beverly was in
tended to cut OF the retreat Of Wise but If
SO, this piece Of strategy has proved fail
ure."
How thoroughly their army itself was i'm
bued with this IDEA OF trapping, and captur-
ing, or annihilating Wise aud his rebels, will
i appear from the following extract from the
letter Of common soldier:
"Sutton, the county seat Of Braxton coun.
ty, ia pleasantly situated on Elk river. There
| is q wire suspension bridge spanning the river
| at this place. Col. Tyler here received mes.
sage that Wise and his force were headed of
| lions for an attack from Wise," &C., SO.
From the same mail, captured between
Summersville and Sutton by q cavalry force,
| which, by mountain paths, was thrown In
| rear Of the former place, send you letter
l written to the Portage county (Ohto) Demo.
crat, Its information is no longer important.
You would be amused at the singular devices
on their envelopes, gotten up by Yankee sta
TONERS, by way OF specializing on the low
taste OF the vulgar populace now making war
upon US. One OF these envelopes. particularly
| vulgar had, extending its full breadth, sue
cession of gallows reaching to the capital,
II eaCO
with the name of some distinguished Southern
patriot inscribed above, as "Davis," ''Sts-
phens,' "Huuter," &c. Many OF the letters
| were in German.
taken and the reports of those who have been
in their camp, that fully one-h half, and per-
haps larger proportion, are Germans-hire.
lines, who are sacrificed by their Yankee mas
| ters to get rid Of them, and by ourselves, to
| prevent the dissertation OF our fresides by such
| a set of rude and plundering vulgarians.-
| There are at this moment groaning In my
hearing two wounded prisoners taken yester-
| day evening by the Henrico Light Dragons,
both Germans. One, u captain, do not think
| can survive, from the character OF the wound
| through his lungs. They moaned pitecusly
all night, and Gen. Wise himself rose once 1 to
| attention from DIR. Graham, OF Lexing ton,
! Virginia.
This fact, that their army is composed to a
| large extent OF foreigners, accounts for the
furshe fact of great disparity Of killed and
/ wounded in our favor whenever our skirmish-
| ers meet.
Since we turned westward from White Sui
phur-whither we had gone to recruit after
scarcely day has elapsed that our cavalry,
under Dol. J. Lucius Davis, has not killed,
wounded or captured some Of the enemy, with.
out the loss Of man, until yesterday even:
ing. In the Sutton expedition before alluded
| TO, 1t. Col. Oroghan killed two and captured
three, with their whole mail. On the 10th
i ult., OOl. DAVIS, ana OOl. dotn, OF the FLOYD
| Brigade, attacked from ambush some 800 In
advance, killed eight and threw the whole OF
] them into the widest confusion and rout.-
On yesterday, In three separate skirmishes,
i our cavalry took six prisoners and killed i've.
The first skirmish occurred on the turn
pike, some three or four miles below here, and
resulted In our killing two and taking two
tAbrisoners-both Germans. After this little
affair, Col. Croghan ventured too far In pur-
suit, and, near the Hawks Nest, fell into an
ambush, and had four of Capt. Buchanan
| Company (F'lOyd Brigade) severely wounded
one supposed MORALLY. The enemy's shoot
ing was extremely bad. We picked up rified.
cannon ball enough from the Held Of Scary to
fire thirty rounds; when occasion presents,
we will return them with our compliments'
A word in regard to tho accounts Of North.
ern correspondents, reproduced in Southern
papers, as to the losses in military stores and
| "traps" incurred on our retreat. They were
considerable, owing to two unfortunate acct
dents, to which merely refer, without taking
time to explain. The steamboat ulia MafIitt,
i owing to the too great sagerness of Col. Pat
| toms command to engage the enemy, and their
conseque nt delay, was detained until her
passage up the river was exposed to the enc.
my's cannon, and she had to be abandoned and
destroyed to prevent her falling ito the hands
of the enemy. With her were consumed the
| baggage of several companies, and some COM
l missaTy supplies for our army.
A similar unt0ward occurrence, for whic b
| no blame could attach to those In command,
occasioned smaller loss, owing to . mutiny
on board the Kanawha Valley, which has
since very properly been the subject Of a
court-martial investigation. As to the straps
said 10 have been captured, assure you there
Is no other foundation than the imagination of q
/ Yankee newspaper correspondent. So, also,
| In reference 70 the "thousand muskets" al