The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-09-06
SEPTEMBER 6, 1852.


reports from all parts of the field, and
never OBTAINING the messenger long for
his reply, from each eminence sweeping
the position with his glass-he was eyi-
IDENTIFY ascertaining the position of the
enemy, and determined to fight if he
stood or if he ran 1--.
. The division commanders were seeing
that their men were provided with ra-
tions, made difficult matter by the
forced cross marchings of the week which
prevented quartermasters from knowing
where to conduct trains. For once red
tape was summarily cut, and rations is
sued to every unsupplied regiment from
whatever stores were at hand. / heard
Sigel exclaim that crackers were worth
as much as muskets.
Porter's corps had arrived on the
ground at clock from Manassas, ma
king FIVE corps ready for action. The
number of men comprised in these |
should estimate at $4,000. Hooker's di-
vision had but 2, AL men in the ranks,
SO terribly has it shrunk by battle and
disease.
In the order ofbattle for the day Heint-
zelman commanded the right, Porter the
center and Mcdowell the left; and Sigel,
whose corps had bore the brunt the day
Z before, the reserve. AT ten Heintzel
man advanced sl1irmishers into the wood
on the right of the battlefield of the day
before, and found it only held by few
troublesome bushwhackers. Driving
them back, large numbers of wounded
got off and passed to the rear.
Irode in with these skirmishers as far
as | deemed prudent At any rate got
upon ground where the corpses attested
the fighting of the day before First l
came upon bodies in blue; these were our
fallen Then there were those in blue
mingled with others in gray and nom
descript That ground had been fought
over A little further there they were
all blue and nondescript
2 And there the bodies were thickest.
Upon ground that l Judge to be not over
half an are, / counted 79 bodies, dead
and wounded. Advancing further still
saw Union soldier seized, not ten
rods from me, and carried off by bush
whackers. retired lin good order) sat
isfied that the enemy loss exceeded our
own At 2 clock, by the movements of
troops from right to left, inferred that
the position of the enemy had been found
in that direction BY this time our line
was different from that of the day before
Our right was further advanced, our left
Withdrawn, so that we fronted almost to
the South AT Bull Run, a year ago, we
faced exactly South s
At o'clock General Stevens attacked
at the right, and soon after General But
terGeld at the left The enemy's shells
seemed equally distributed along the
whole line, and at each point of attack
he met us with musketry.
was at General Sigers headquarters.
That General was certain the enemy in
tended to turn one or the other of our
fanks, and said we must ascertain which,
or the result was at the best doubtful;
for his scouts had just reported that Lee,
with the entire remainder of the rebel
army, had come up and assumed COM
mand The scouts were correct On
Saturday we fought the whole rebel army.
7t Posting myself in the center within
view of both portions of the field where
infantry were engaged, could not de-
termine which had the best of it. Evil
IDENTIFY but few troops were engaged, and
/ surmised that we were fighting merely
to learn where lay the enemy's main
force. At length our force at the right
was driven back, and l thought General
Pope had been out-generaled when he
moved men at an earlier part of the day
from right to left
a- A quarter Of an hour later, l wish he
had moved still greater proportion tc
the left. / have heard the musketry OF
the best contested battles fought in Vir
| ginia, and / say unhesitatingly that the
| fire which broke out at the left and uT
to the center, was by far the heaviest Of
anv. Talk of volleys, rolls and crashes
1t was all these continually accumulat
ing, piling upon each other in mighty
swelling vOlume-the wrestle of rushing
| toruadoes, such as chaos may have
known. From my position it seemed
that artillery played from each of th'
cardinal points upon the devoted
center where i knew men were strug
Cling, but / could not see them strug
Cling. The smoke of gunpowder pre-
vented that, but knew they were there
and trembled for the result A few min
utes later, Schurz, who was in reserve
was ordered to the left Before he coul
| get fairly into position, Mcdowell an
Porter were irretrievably broken. Thei
soldiers fought like brave men; if me
ments be reckoned by their intensity
they fought long, as they surely did figh
well. l doubt not they piled the groun'
with rebel slain, as Halleck sings of Nos
lem slain by Bozzari's band. L believ
there cannot be man who heard or pal
ticipated in that awful tragedy, bu
counts the hour between J and 5
clock the severest fighting he eve
knew. It was all at one point Alon
the right half Of the line the combatant
seemed to desist in amazement at th
struggle there By half after 5 oclocl
it was apparent that we were beaten
: outfanked by concentration upon tn
left Wagoners and stragglers about th
hospitals scented the retreat, and 500
! trains of the former and streams of th
, latter could be seen making for the Blu
Run bridges and fords. McDowells an
: Porter's corps retired in comparative o
der. / use this term not as a mild, bl
false paraphrase for driven back, but b
cause it covers the actual fact in ii
case aa ~1 4h
do MT 4b;pE thaf fbara mos n br;oo