Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1862-07-09
LEFTER FROM RICHMOND.

RICHMOND, July 3, 1862.
Special Correspondence Of the Memphis AppeaLl
A sad and dreary day, with driving clouds
and pouring rain from the east. gloom above and
around US, the long, terrible battle still raging
near enough for US to hear the dull. heavy
thunders of the artillery mingling with the ftful
soughs OF the storm, It is, indeed, with a sor-
rowful heart that your correspondent continues
his fragmentary notes of the great struggle for
the capital for along every street the ambu
lances are to be seen slowly moving with the
wounded, and in many a home lies some loved
one killed in the fight Of yesterday. Richmond is
desolate, and a voice of lGmentation ike that
heard in Ramsh goes up for her children. 1
have just seen the placid face of a dear young
friend set in the rigid lines of death, a gallant
lieutenant not yet twenty, who fell pierced with
three balls by the side of his battery, so young,
so fair, SO brave, so gentle, that the heart of the
most insensible of his enemies must have re-
Tented at the sight Of such a sacrifice. Alas,
there. are hundreds of such cases, and to day
every city and hamlet of the South unites its
MORNINGS with the MORNINGS Of Richmond
But things Ike this, you know, mast be
In every famous victory.
Truth to say, though this city has suffered
severely ever since this cursed war was begun
by the brutal tyrant at Washington, and counts
its losses upon many fields, Bulls Run, Manas-
sas, Balls Bluff, Kernstown, Roanoke Island
Donelson, Williamsburg, the Seven Pines, it
has never SO fully experienced the dire calami-
ties Of war as in the battle of last evening. The
Purcell Battery, commanded by young Willie
PegTam, of whom l spoke in a former letter,
has been literally annihilated. On Thursday
morning last it numbered 40 members-three
hours ago, 1 saw all that was lett of it, hardly a
dozen men, weary and broken down with seven
days service in unintermitted fighting. The
officers, with the exception Of the captain, have
all been killed, the privates to the number of
us or 100 have been either killed or wounded,
the horses lie piled up around the guns on the
field, and the little remnant of the brave corps
has been granted leave of absence to gather
strength and fill up its ranks. The Letcher
artillery has suffered heavily, losing one of its
lieutena2ts, Charles Ellis Munford, son of the
Secretary of the Commonwealth, many Of its
men and nearly all its horses. Captain John
Stewart Walker, of the light infantry was killed
while CALAMITY leading his command, and Col.
Thos. P. August, the law partner of General
Randolph, Secretary of War, has been severely
wounded.
But I turn from these local casualties, which
can have slight interest for your readers, and
which I only mention to show how f%earfully the
defense OF the capital has told upon its own citi-
gems, to speak of the progress Of the struggle
which possesses q grave interest for every MAJ
and woman in the Confederacy. 1t was not
until five o'clock yesterday afternoon, that ouI
p%ersuing regiments came up with the main body
of the enemy, near New Market, on their re-
treat to THAR g%unboats on James river. Asusual,
they made their stand in a wood, beyond an
open space eight hundred yards wide, which
their batteries could command. The attacking
force, which consisted of portions of Magruder's,
Longstreet's and A. T. Hills divisions, reso-
lutely advanced across the cleared ground, under
a whitening fire, and entering the thicket were
driven back with considerable slaughter.
Quickly forming, they made second onset, and
were a second time repulsed. Withindomitable
pluck, a third attack was made, but was with so
obstinate a resistance, that a third time the gal
liant fellows were compelled to retire across the
the open field now greatly encountered with the
fallen bodies of their cemrsds, and slippery with
blood.
1t was, indeed, an awful conflict, and for a
time it seemed that a serious check had been
by our hitherto victorious troops.
receiving rein~forcements, they rushed for
ward to a fourth attack and drove the enemy
from their position, taking twelve pieces of ar
tillery. This happened about dusk. A change
Of the wind late in the afternoon brought the
sound Of the cannonade very distinctly to our
ears, while nearly at the same time a rapid fire
opened by the Yankee gunboats, which
shelled the shores for On hour or two, and caused
some doubt as to the exact direction in which the
fight was going on. 1 have been able to gather
no farther particulars of the troops engaged on
our side than that the heaviest fighting was done
by the brigades Of Toombs, Cobb and Wright,
Of Georgia, Kershaw, OF South Carolina, and
Pickett.
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston is slowly recover
ng from his wound, and has gone to the Anne
ia Springs for the benft of the pure country air.
John NJ. Daniel, of the EramiasR who, act
ng aid to Gen. d. II. Hill, was wounded Oh
evening last SO severely that it was
bought his arm would have to be amputated, is
improved. DIXIE.