The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1862-02-27

II =
Nsshiuv, battles the skill Of rebel artil.
tierists % much as these gun boats, the
Essex came into Cairo considerably
disabled, her boiler had been shot into,
BY the 12l ponder here in the fort,
thereby empting her boiler and scaling
some so Of our men. This boat suffered
the greatest damage from the Rebel
! tguns.i We Eft Cairo for this place at l
o'clock ION ths zsh.i Our passage up the
Ohio was t,nmnportant, norcvents worth
recording TRANSPORTING, save trial Of
enr new muskets, and the usual amount
Of cheering, AL was quiet.
:, The river is very high and on the
rise, its muddy waters and great amount
Of driftwood indicate heavy fall Of
rain. or melting SHOWS far up towards
it's head waters. The Tennesee river
empties into the Ohio river little above
Paducah. We halted an hour or two
at Paducah; here is stationed large
force Of Fedol ais the number do not
know.
On arriving at Fort Henry we found
heavy force already there; two Iowa
regiments were there, viz the 7:h
and 18th; the force already on the
ground was II ,OCO men and the arri-
walls Of the last two days, | suppose will
not fall short Of Il, 900 more, and in this
is included heavy force of artillery, so
We have. quite anaencampmeat.
i / will give you few Of the paiticu
lars concerning the fight. The ground
on this side Of the river is not as high
as on the other, there i perhaps 400
acres surrounded by breast work to
protect musketrv, and perhaps there
is IN the nai.hboihood OF $50 acres Of
Timber cnt down to impede the prog
ress nf ',rdops, that there sharpshoot'
ers might have c,anc,, to pick off
the advancing foe. On the river bank
on slight cn,incnce is the Fort, enclos-
Eing perhaps 4 acres, the wall is carthen
work Of perhaps is or - feet in thick
ness at the base. s1opins gradually from
the ont sile. the inside of the wall rests
against q fence, consisting Of stout
poles driven into the ground, and inter
woven with Hickory ,ri'les. tllis prevents
the dirt from falling in: the Whole is
surrounded BY vile and deep di'ch.
The Fort mounts Il guns. one an i'm
h,ence Comnbi,l, bearing on the car
riage the name "(le,,. A S. Johnston.
n Nashyillc" "a 1aA FOUNDER. and close
on either side Is tw, b pean3ars the
others differ in size. I'ae-e was ) Riiiei
Guns, one Of thcm has hasiel. The gnas
and gunrers were protected by piles
Of sand bags. The For, IS sai,lto be one
Of considerable strength; md then on
the oppos',e bank OF she liver was an
other fo;ilica ION, commanding this
one. Nevertheless I'll tssis proved too
weak, onr eunboats proved too hard
Tor them; II was they that took the Fort,
and they that did the fighting. The
Infantry on account ofthe excessively
muddy roads did not arrive in time to
cosopera;e e, and consequently the main
body Of The rebels escaped, some $4,000.
We secured one Big. Gen. aud the
gunners some 20: among these is .
Oip. zJM,es, son of'Gon.4 jones Of Du.
buque lows. "A good many Of he reb-
els were killed, how manvis uncertain
pas they wesc bor;e,l as fast as possible.
+ It is quite an in .eresting sight to
pass over the grounds aud Fort. Near
the large gun is two spots Of clotted
brains still adhe ing TO the sand bags.
Here some Of the gunnets were blown
to atoms by the explosion Of shell
another is wounded in The leg. Sever
al of the wounded are still in our care.
Logs are knocked from the s'low log
cabins 'tand many a tall tree in the vi
cinity hasbccn skinned and limbs torn
from them, al this shows plainly that
war has been hero. s3 sstt
Z The amount of ammunition taken is
grea, Both 81 the Iorts were well
supplied with provisions and ammuni-
tion. The clothing is principally home
nade; and the guns are OF all descrip-
ton, from \ 40 Inch Columbiad to q
single .hlrrelsd shot gun, Several shot
guns have becp found IN the path over
which the rebels passed. r
| sContrahapd. are coming ia. several
came in to day, they say :heir masters
don't like the. movements Of the Bean
eating Yankee"s as they call Us.
| l saw "Seccsh'' letter and song.--
It il quito : singular relic; they talk
Il