The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-09-10
The UniOntOWn Fight and Colonel
FaFFOW.

FarrOW.
The distinguished gentleman who sur
rendered the Union soldiers at Union
town few days ago seems determined
to keep himself before the public, by the
aid of such men as he can get to do
his blowing. His Adjutant tried it
on, but overdid it, and left his friend
in a worse predicament than he
found him. A real friend then put in
plea, from honest motives, for the Colo
mel, and we were satisfied to let the mat
ter rest there, so far as we we're concerned.
But it appears the Colonels friends
are not satisfied with having the last
word on the subject, and SO one Robert
E. Smith, late Captain of Co. A. 18th
Regiment Indiana Volunteers, comes to
the rescue, and writes himself down an
Farrow has been unfortunate in the Sc
lection of his friends if he selected Adju-
tant Grooms and Captain Smith We
give Col Farrow credit for brains enough
to believe he selected neither of these
men as his champions, but are inclined
to think they simply rushed into print in
order to let the world know they had
held commissioners in the federal army,
rightly Judging that otherwise they would
never be heard Of The ertinguished
Crptain sets out with false premise, by
saying ''the Evansville Journal seems to
want to do injustice to the field officers
of the 18th Indiana
Now all the Journal did was to record
the story told by some 40 to go of the
men composing the 18th regiment. If
their story was false they are alone res
ponsible.
The valiant Captain goes on to give
what he is pleased to term " a statement
of facts"
The purport of these "facts," is that
after they had been fighting some time,
and after the gallant Howard fell mortal
ly wounded, and the men had fallen back
into the town, they met Col Farrow, who
said " dam twice and then surrendered.
He then concludes as follows:
Now, the Evansville Journal says that
the Colonel was not on the ground until
he made his appearance under flag of
truce, lChich is a gross, malicious and stG'a-
derous lie had been placed in COM
mand OF the camp. Colonel Farrow was
In command of the post, and his duties
were of such character that he could
not be at the camp. He, and every one
else, knew that it would be useless to re-
sist longer In my humble judgment it
could not have been better in the hands
of any. These are facts, as will swear
RoB'r. E. SMITH,
Capt Co. A 18th Reg't Ind Vols.
Now theEvansville Journal never said
anything of the sort The journal only
said this From other sources we learn
that Col Farrow was not seen during
the fight, nor until he made his appear
ance under the flag Of truce" This we
were told by not less than forty or fifty
men, and the story was silently assent
Cd to by all present.
We only repeated what we had heard,
and gave no statement of our own in re-
gard to the matter, and Captain Smiths
elegant and gentlemanly epithets returns
to his own throat.
We have known Col Farrow for ten
years, and always entertained favora-
bic opinion of him; and when he passed
through here on his way to Kentucky,
we gave him most fattering notice,
and was no little astonished and NORTH
ed when we heard the story told by the
soldiers while standing hungry and tired
on the levee. waiting for their officers to
make acquisitions for rations and quar-
tiers for them.
We never believed Col. Farrow was a
coward--we do not believe so now. We
did believe, and shall, until we are shown
differently, that he was careless in re-
gard to the position he occupied, and suf
fered his men to be overpowered aud cap
.tared, when, by proper preparation he
might have so fortified his position as to
have defeated the rebels, or withdrawn
his men safely.