The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-10-08
CHEwALLA, Oct. {
To Moor General Grant:
Attempt to catch Jen. Thompson.

M ACBOib i0o ONNA lOl-
warded to the headquarters of the army:
HEADQUARTERS DEPT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, Sept "a
To MAJ. Gen. Butler, Commandiag the
Department Of the Gulf;
Pursuant to your orders, of the 18th
inst, | embarked on the afternoon of
that day, on board the steamer Ceres, at
I.akeport, with three companies of the
18th regiment, Maine Volunteers, com
manded respectively by Capts. Thornton,
Harrington, and Winter, and one COM
pany, Capt, Pickering, of the 25th Mas
sachusetts regiment l had previously
sent one hundred men-of the 18th Con-
necticut on board the gunboat New Lon
don, whose commander, Capt Read, had
kindly offered to cooperate with me. Ny
object was to surprise the village ofPont-
chetoula, the headquarters of the rebel
Gen. jeff. Thompson, forty-eight miles
North of the city, on the line of the Jack
son railroad
To that end the New London was to
to land her men at Manchac bridge,
whence at daybreak next morning they
were to drive the enemy that might be
found there, northward to Pontchetoula,
while the remainder Of the force having
found their way fifteen miles up the
Tang ipaboa, in the night, were to land
and march six miles westward, and cap
ture Pontchetoula in season to secure
those of the enemy who had been driven
up from Pass Manehac. 80
The attempted surprise failed, for not
only was the New London unable-to get
over the bar at Manchac Pass in the
darkness, but the CERES was too large
for the easy navigation of the narrow
and windy Tangipabao, and failed on
each succeeding night to reach her des-
tination on that river in season to admit
OF our gaining Pontehetoula before day
light. l resolved therefore to 90 with
that steamer to Manchac bridge, and did
so on the morning of the 18th. From
that point Capt Winter was sent with
his company southwark to make the de-
struction of the railroad on the Manehac
Island complete, which duty he thor
oughly performed. Capt Pickering s
company was left to guard the steamer,
and the companies of Capts. Harrington
and Thornton began forced march of
ten miles upon Pontchetoula.
A locomotive one mile below the VIII
lage gave notice of our approach, which
could not be concealed, and ran north
ward, giving the alarm to the village,
and thence to Camp Moore for reinforce
ments.
In charging light battery Captain
Thornton fell severely wounded. His
company, then under Lient Hight, rein
forced Capt Farrington's platoon on the
enemys right, while Lieut.. Cohan, with
second platoon of that company, took
position under partial cover of the left
of the enemy's line From these posi-
tons our men poured in such deliber-
ate and destructive fire that the enemy
were driven from the field The artil-
lery galloped away, followed by the in
fantry, to road through the forest, in a
North-westerly direction. We then set
fire to train Of upwards of twenty cars,
ladened with cotton, sugar, molasses,
&c, and took the papers from the Post
office and telegraph office, destroying
the apparatus in the latter, and captur-
ingJeff Thompson's bride, sword, spurs,
&C., from his quarters in the hotel The
sword was presensed to him by the so
called " Memphis Patrols"