The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1862-04-17

Letter from Capt. spaTord.


SrRlsPCRG, March S0h. lSc2.
I will now give you the fall ptrtic-
ulars Of the battle that was fought last Sundas. as
far as came under my notice. Saturday e, eaiug
as the boys were cookng their suppe, the long roll
beat and the regiment was marched At double
quick 10 the scene of oelCn. Arriving a, the
field Col Voris, Il suppose you have heard that
Col. Bunscubindcr was under atres) WAS ordered "
deploy the skirmishers oil to the left While de.
ploviug we presented fine mark for the encmys
artillery OF which they took advantage; bH all
their shells fell short. One struck vithia twa rods
Of us. |, was aimed at the colors. Our batteries
were now planted aud opened on the ercmy which
slenced theirs. Nothing farther Of Importance oe.
CURED this day. Co.'S IL aud were detailed as
pickets. In the morning we were relieved by Co. y
and |. After arriving at camp from off picket
we commenced getting Breakfast with will, as we
had not eaten anything since noon the day before.
The boys had Just completed their breakfast MS the
order was given to "fal in" |, had been the inn
preston that it was only Ashbys Cavalry that had
fired On u.s. and think such WAS the Generals opn-
ion as all our forces, excepting Khnbalrs brigade,
(Which consists of the 9Th Ohio, 94th peunsy,ya.
MIA and 18th Indiana was sen; back 10 their re-
spectiye camps, Saturday evening after the sSir-
mish, distance OF six or seven miles, ~ that Sun
day morning the three Regiments have mentioned
were all tht forces we had on the id Of battle to
oppose Juckson's force Of $4,000 infantry 1900
cavalry and % pieces of artillery. hooutO o'olock
\, NJ. our Colonel was ordered TO dcpoy the ICGi-
ment of to the right as skirmishers, while dcploy
ing in Sight Of far superior force the enemy 5
sharp shooters tried 10 hit our Colonel Three
balls passed close TO his head and one just touched
his ear. Gc cral Kimbau ordered us to supper,
0aun's battery which had arrived, and On which he
thought the enemy were about to charge knowing
it they did so they could overwhelm US with su-
pcrior numbers as all our force had not yet arry-
ei) and sweep our small band, life chai before the
wind. IL, told Colonel Yoris that he must protect
that battery at all haznr Is aui MT allow 1t 10 fall
into the hauls Of the enemy while there was maa
left in the regiment. We took our position behind
hill on whicl the battery was planted, and occu-
pied it Tor nearly two hours. During this time the
Stl Oa.o assisted by the three companies of our
regiment that wert OF! rs pckets drove in the enc
mv's skrmishers ON gu left. It was glorious
sight Their force seemed twice rs large as ours,
but the seccsh could not stand the furious charge
of our troops and the way they ran through the
woods was laughabc Tylcr's brigade was order
cd TO attack the enemys LEFT and we were to charge
to the left of our troops taat had already engaged
them The S4th Pennsylvania charged wijh us
There were but few killed or wounded in this charge
At the time the danger did not very great, but
now to review it, il seems almost miracle that the
whole force not swept away, marching as we
did for a mile towards battery and ! can only at
tribute the small loss sustained to the ine&peri
enoe of their gunners. About mile from where
we started we obqucd OF to the right, and entered
a wood where the regiment which had got miXcdup
in the charge, was reformed. We went up a ra-
vine AMI here came to front in order to advance
Here one of my boys gave out lie had been very
sick aud the "iouble quick :" had used him up 50
that he could hardly stand. took his gun and ac
coutrcmcnts, so that when we came to the brow of
the nl as it was a bushwhacking fight, every man
for himself, loaded up and went to work after as
cerLaining that my men doing their duty.
believe was the only officer that took gun and
used it. But saw there need OF officers in
such fight, as all the man We're fighting like ii
gers. I stood for while to see how the men in my
company would conduct themselves. Some Of
them had got scattered off, some in other companies
and some in other regiments. IN fact all the req.
mcnts and companies mixed up so | could see
but few of my m,n. There were sumo noticed in
particular. They were Henry Wygant, John and
q .orgc Parsons, Daniel Fraser, Henry ellsworth,
Michael Dibcrt, James Driscoll, Amos and David
Btow n, Joseph j. Crcp&, George Edgar, Henry E.
Mlnltl!, William Iur5urt, llerry Carter, j. b.
Mnston james Hayes and Frank Blinn. There
were many others that have no doubt fought wei
but those have mentioned stood out and returned
the fire of the enemy, paving no more attention to
the balls from the enemy's rifles than il they had
been hail-stones. This dil not last long, three
four rcgm ,nts coming to our assistance adcsperate
charge was made ON the enemy and they were driv
cn from their position. With some sixty others,
running across an opening and ASCENDING
hill, when vollcy was poured into us from fresh
brigade that had jus arrived but troops in shooting
down hill are apt to overshoot and not shot took
effect W. all dropped do an, and while in this po-
Sition three four vollcys poured into us, but
did no damage. Two regiments charged on them
and drove them from the field, They reiterated,
and the battle was ended, the day was won. We
encampcd ON the field. In my company none were
killed. George Parsons WIS wounded in tlit leg,
Amos Brown in the hand, John Cornyea the face.
There was II ball passed through my oycrcoat.
When we engaged the enemy word was passed
along the line that were firing on our own troops,
Hearing this Capt. Ford stepped cut in front Of his
company and had just succeeded in stopping th,ir
fire when a voilcy from the enemy Killed him aud
one of his NJ N, and wounded two or thrcc others
jackson told the people in Strasburg. that he had
no idea he was TO meet border state traops, he
thought he was to fight eastern men.
JOnN B. STAFFORD.