The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-07-31

CHEAT MoUSrAlN, VA,
July "a, 1861.


take seventy men and two days rations'
and scour valley some eight miles from
camp, where it was supposed there was a
nest of rebels. | made known the order to
the Crescent City Guards, FIRST, in order
that they should have the preferences; and
twenty of them volunteered for the trip.
Many more would have done so, but the,
regular scouts, and many private compan-
les have been engaged for the last three
weeks and have been unsuccessful in
finding any game, consequently they were
discouraged. twenty-five men volunteered
out of Captain Brooks company, and
twenty-five out of Captain Williamson's
company, making a force of sixty-seven
At shutdown we took up our line of march,
and after marching eight miles we encamp-
ed, and put every man on guard, four to-
gether, at equal distances apart along the
road. Nothing transpired during the
night and in the morning we all assem-
bled at breakfast, and prepared for an ex-
animation of valley leading to the South.
| By this time the rain was coming down
pretty freely, and every appearance showed
! that it would be a a stormy day. But
| my little command was anxious to make the
! trip, consequently / ordered four men to
| stay at camp and guard our baggage, the
balance of US taking up our march along
a country road leading up the valley. We
had not travelled far before | discovered a
suspicious looking path, leading up the
mountain. | sent five men to examine it.,
with instructions TO overtake the main com
| pany - soon az possible. This left me ff-
/ ty-eight men. We had not proceeded far
before we came to a baricade, made-across
the road, by falling timber across it. We
finally made our way through it, and got
into the road again. / then sent four men
ahead as scouts, with instructions to them
to proceed in perfect silence. We had not
| proceeded far before our scouts met a body
of forty-6ve men ali armed, on whom they
Immediately fred. The main body of our
men was absent one hundred yards behind.
The order for the double quick was given,
and promptly obeyed. The consequence
was that we were upon the rebels in a very
few seconds. The coWardlY scoundrels
took to their heels as usual and we after
them. AT every turn in the road our boys
gave them q round of bullets. We had not
proceeded far before several of the enemy
took to the bush and few of our men were
ordered after them while the others kept the
main body on the wing. Several shots
were fired in the bush and one prisoner
taken. This fellow was taken by Charley
Mierhoff and James McMulIen, both of the
Crescent City Guards. We learned from
our prisoner, that their head quarters were
ahead some four miles We however kept
up the chase firing at them every few hun
dred yards " ranrn nailed another one
of the runners rnt Elm under guard,
and soon after s4e TeTre Haute boys
wounded anothei wy badly. The chase
still went on and finally we found them at
their headquarters in the greatest confusion.
At this time our men were scattered for
more than a mile, many of them given en-
; tirely out, and others guarding our prison
ers, consequently our force was very small
not more than ten or fifteen men immediate
lv on the ground. We were not more than
: fifty yards from them and among them were
several women and children. | stopped our
men from firing and ordered them to sur.
. render. For moment it was believed thai
they would surrender, but instead, they
! mastered up courage and fred upon us fol-
: the first time and then ran again. Our
, boys returned the fire with a will, and took
after them again. We soon captured foul
other prisoners while the balance threw
away their guns and knapsacks and took t.
: bush. Here / ordered a halt and proceeded
to examine the premises We found large
amount of maple sugar and mutton but oul
boys were so tired that they could not carry
8 it, We chased them for more than fvt
! miles, fred a large number of shots at them
took seven prisoners, brought to camp eigh
guns and destroyed many others for the
reason that we could not carry them, be-
: sides many other articles such as knapsacks
, | knives, &c. | now wear q secesh hat
n which had the honor to capture
1t is believed, that we killed and wound
> ed a very considerable number in the bush
/ but we had not the time to spare to looH
= after them. The wounded man we had tt
e carry four miles to the main road, which
assure you, was a serious job over mountain
paths.
f We arrived at our camp on the road Al
: one o'clock P. NJ. drenched with rain
muddy, tired and hungry. From here Isen
for a wagon and surgeon to take the wound
ed man, and our baggage and soon after
! took up our line of march with our six pris-
f oners for head quarters. The news soon
reached camp that we had had fight, but
particulars were not given. The excitement
among the boys in the regiment was inn
] mense. The Coloneps and the Generals
staff mounted their horses and met US some
three miles from headquarters and gave us
. hearty welcome. When we arrived within
a half mile of our destination the band met
as and escorted us to head quarters where
: we received cheer after cheer from the en-
tire regiment.
This is the first little round that the Four
= teenth Regiment has had and l am proud
! that twenty of the Evansville boys were in
it. and | am particularly proud to name
James McMullen, James McQuill, Charley
: Connsted, Charles Myerhoff, Jos. Thompson
VIM. Nixon, Geo. Knnkle, as being amo 70
the bravest of the brave. Indeed all the
h Evansville boys that were along behaved
! themselves equal to any emergency, as also
did the boys from other companies. Not q
, single man received a scratch except it was
from briar, during the entire engagement,
and prouder set of fellows you never saw
Our wounded prisoner died in less than a
dav The halanCo xuara canf fo ho