Litchfield enquirer., 1862-03-06

promptly avaied themselves of the opportunity afforded them, and made most formidable sor- tie from their intrenchments. Although taken at disadvantage the Twenty-ffth met the ad- vancing forces bravely, and although suffering severely, with the aid of other regiments which them back to their hiding places. The lesson seemed to have been most salutary. No further sorties were made in that direction.
 THURSDAY NIGHT.
 The night of Thursday will long be remember ed by the troops of the command surrounding Donelson. The weather which for the two pre- vious days, had been so mild and genial, toward the close of the afternoon became chilly and low ering. About o'clock heavy rain setin. Dur ing the warmth of the day before, when momen- tarily expecting to meet the enemy, whole regi- ments had cast aside their overcoats and blan- kets, and without tents, and in great majority of cases occupying positions rendering fire a sure mark for the enemy's batteries, and with nothing to eat but cold rations, their condition was deplorable indeed.
 To add to their discomfort. when thoroughly saturated with rain. @ pelting snow set in, con t:nuing all night. As can be imagined, with an enemy in front, continually annoying and an. noyed, but little sleep was indulged in. The on- ly demonstration of importance, on the part of the rebels during the night, was formidable at tempt on the right wing to obtain Taylors bat tery. The Twentieth Illinois lying in the woods below it, however, after brisk skirmish in the midnight darkness, sent the intruders back to their Notifications again.
 FRIDAY.
 Nothing of special note transpred along the lines to-day. The sharpshooters, notwithstand ing the cold, esconsced themselves :n their old positions on the hillsides, and were as great terror as ever to the gunners of the batteries above them. Cavender, Taylor, Woods, (of Nc Allister's battery,) Dresser and Swartz would oc- casonally exchange valentine, as they were playfully called. but there was no such bloody afairs as had characterized the operations of the previous day.
 Riding along our lines and witnessing the for midable field works of the enemy, (between five and six miles in extent) which reared themselves everywhere to the front of us, feared that the task of reducing them would be at the best a matter of considerable time. But cold and hung ry and with garments stiff with frost, the sold iers were still hopeful and firm. did not find a single discouraged man, or one, if he were so, that would admit it. The universal sentiment was, as bluff Col. OglesbY expressed it, z" We came here to take that fort and are ,oiN take it" and it is this self.same spirit of dogged determi- nation, and steady, long enduring courage pecu- liar to the Anglo-Saxon of the North, that at last outwore the more impetuous bravery of the opposing force.
 ARRIVAL OF RE1NFoRcEMENrs-THE.,G .,GUNBoAT
 ATTACK.
 The long expected gunboat fleet, together with the endorsements had however, come to hand, and it was expected that the latter could be brought up, so as to join with the other for ces in a general assault in the rear, while the gunboats attacked in front The distance from the river to the left of our right wing, was, how ever, so great, that but few regiments arrived even before dark.
 The bombardment of the gunboat fleet began about 2{ o'clock, and continued two hours. Four of the iron clad and two of the wooden boats participated in the fight, which was of a' fearful nature. It is described by the officers engaged in it as altogether exceeding in ferceness the bombardmeEt of Fort Henry. At all events the effect upon the gunboats was much more severe, and subsequent investigations have led me to believe that the injury inflicted on the rebels was no: so great either as at the Notifications.
 In the way of test of the resisting powers of the iron clad boats. the affair was great tri- umph. Although under perfect shower of iron pellets, from the mammoth l28-pound to the ri- fled 32 pound shot, and each boat hit from twen- ty to fifty times, the mortality was comparatively slight. It is probable too, that the boats might undergo score of as severe ordeals without be- ing incapaciated as they were. The balls which demolished pilot houses and cut rudder chains can only be regarded as chance shots which, in a dozen or more contests, would never happen to fall in the particular place which in this in- stance proved SO disastrous.
 SATURDAY.
 Saturday, which was destined to witness the grand denouement of the tragedies which had scene about Donelson, was cold, damp and cheer less. Our troops, however, had but little time to cogitate upon the weather, or any other snb- ject, ere they were called upon to attend to more serious matters. The enemy during the night, had transferred several of their batteries to DOT tions of their works, within few hundred feet of which our extreme right wing was resting.- Upon the first coming of the dawn, these batter ies suddenly opened on the Ninth, Eighteenth. Twenty-ninth, Thirteenth and Thirty-Grst regi- ments, comprising Oglesby's Brigade, and who had the advance. Simultaneously with the open ing of the batteries a force of about l2O00 in fantry and regiment of cavalry, was hurled against the brigade with vigor which, made against less steady and we'll disciplined troops must surely have resulted in their entire demoli- tion.
 Sudden and unexpected as was this sally on the part of the enemy. it did not find the gallant Illnoisans unprepared to meet them. The at tack was made in columns of regiments, which poured in upon the little band, from no less than three different directions. Every regiment of the brigade found itself opposed to three, and in many cases, to no less than four different regi- ments Undismayed however, by the greatly su- perior force of enemy, and unsupported by ade- quate artillery, the brigade not only held their own, but upon two occasions, actually drove the rebels fairly into their intrenchments, but only to be pressed back again into their former posi- tion, until at last having expended every round of their ammunition, they were obliged to retire and give way to the advancing regiments of Col. w. H. Waacc's Brigade of the Eleventh, Twentieth, Seventeenth, Forty fifth, Forty-eighth Illinois, and Forty ninth Indiana Regiments.
 Here again was the battle continued with re- doubled vigor, now one side and now another giving away. Our troops fought with the cool ness of veterans and the desperation of devils would not diminish the galantry of our troops by saying that the enemy did not fight bravey and we'll. They did both. An exact statement of the varying fortunes of the field for the three or four hours following the first attack, it is i'm. possible at present to definitely present. Suffice it to say our troops fought, and not only fought and fought courageousy but fought coolly and scientifically. In the thickest of the fight, where officers had to remove the dead bodies of their men out of the way of the backward wheels. reg |inents coolly performed maneuvres which Scott in his tactics pronounces impossible to be made on the battlefield.
 The battle for the most part was fought in a forest, with a thick undergrowth beneath, and