Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1862-01-22
Interesting Facts From the
Rebels at Columbus, KY.
Statement Of a Union Doserter.
The Rebel Forces at Columbus
&C., SEC.

[From the Chicago Journal OF the 2Othl
The subioined facts we have obtained from
Mr.. Charles Cox of Watertown, Jefferson
County, N. T., who was pressed in the First
Tennessee Regiment, Colonel Preston
Smith, at Memphis, in May last, and deserted
from Columbus on the day of the battle Of
Belmont, and, after having proceeded some
miles northward, was recaptured by the
rebel pickets and carried back heavily ironed
to Columbus court martialed, and sentenced
to be shot on Friday last. he, together with
three others, escaped from the .guard.house
two days before the day appointed for his
execution, and passed the rebel pickets Whlle
the latter were standing at the IRE warming
themselves by crawling on their hands ana
knees, until they passed the guards and
reached the bushes. They reached the
Federal lines at Fort Jefferson and delivered
themselves mp to Colonel Marsh, OF the
Twentieth Illinois Regiment, who sent them
to Cairo, where they took the oath OF allegi-
ance and were liberated. Mr.. Cox is man
ofintelligence, printer, and his represents
tions are considered entirely reliable.
He says there are forty thousand rebel
troops of all kinds at Columbus, but most OF
them are six months men, whose time is now
nearly out, and many of them will not re-
enlist. All the men at Memphis, Columbus,
and throughout the adjacent country, have
been pressed into the service, many OF them
being strong Union men, aud not few
Northern men, who have no heart for the
service into which they have been forced.
The Tennessee troops are well armed with
an improved musket and we'll clothed, The
Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky troops are
very poorly armed with shot guns and the
like, and very shsbbily clothed, there being
hardly two men clothed alike. The forti-
fcatiops at Columbus, on the river side, are
very formidable, mounting seventy guns,
IL. 1a~rr nf uuh nh 10 a
next 64-pounders, and 80 running down
| TO the smallest sized cannon. There
| is a rifle. pit three quarters of a mile
! in length running back OF these
fortifcations, but no works in the rear of
Columbus. There are also number Of float
ing batteries in the river al Columbus, the
character of which our informsnts knew
nothing Of There is a bend of the river at
that point aud the city Of Columbus is about
three-uuatters of mile below the fortifca
tions, ard on the southern point of the bend,
the fort being on the river bank, which is q
bluff about two hundred and fifty feet high,
The last shell that the Federal gun boats
fired, during the recent Ieoonnoiterlng ex-
pedition down the river, was aimed as an
experiment at the intrenchments on the bluff,
merely to see whether the thing could be
done; the she'll went over the forti6eatons
and fell in an open space of ground behind
them, thus indicating that our mortar. boats
can shell out the rebels at Columbus in short
order when the time comes.
There are many men at work in the labora-
tory at Memphis, and in the penitentiary al
Nashville, which has been turned into 6
laboratory. Caps, swords, cartridges, sabers
sbeaths, sc, are manufactured there IN grea
quantities.
Columbus of the advance of our twenty-five
hundred men upon Belmont last fall, wa
brought by messenger from the Missour
side. who, on being asked how many mel
, there were, declared that Fremont was owe
3 there with one hundred thousand men" ant
: this seemed to be the general impression
among the frightened rebels at Belmont
from the gallant manner in which our troop
made the attack The declaration of th
q messenger set Columbus in an indescrioabl
II state of CONSERVATION, and twelve regiment
e were immediately dispatched across tn
3 river, and the approach of this overpowerin
force--over IL 900 against less than 8, ,000-l
Is what compelled our troops to abandon th
ground they had SO nobly won. The rebt
loss in that affair was over 900 killed an
wounded, 1t is q remarkable fact in thi
Belmont affair, that those of the rebels VIII
were shot were hit in the head or breast, an
the Federals in the legs-the latter bein
accounted for by the fact that the rebel off
lr GERS ordered their men to fire low"
re- The three companions of Mr.. Cox, VIII
,e escaped with him, are Jesse Gilbert,
ID Brooklyn, N. " youth about eightee
at years of age, who was with Rice'S circus
Sc New Orleans, and was there pressed into II
We Louisiana Eighth Regiment; James Morrel
a of New York City, and Joseph Gardner, eli
IN of New York City. Gardner was sailor c
IS. the pirate Sun,ter, and sent into New Orleal
on a prize vessel, and was there pressed in
the rebel army.