Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1862-04-25
Letters From the Camp.

the hcoellion has just been fought, and
l hasten to forward you my observa
tions, and do so as soon as the circum-
stances surrounding US will admi. Of any
making an intelligent statement of af
fairs. In the first place allow me to
say, that the attack upon US was com
plete surprise. No one in all this vast
army seemed to have an idea that the
rebels would come here and attack u.s.
We all felt perfectly safe, and only
looked forward to tho time when we
should march to Corinth and attack
them; and even when their advance par
ties annoyed our pickets, Friday and
Saturday previons to the battle, we
looked upon it as trifiHg matter
Saturday evening secesh prisoners told
US that Beauregard would drive US into
the Tennessee river by Sunday night,
and we laughed at the idea, as idle bonn
bast, yet it came near being dreadful re-
ality. The 53d Ohio was, and is now,
enca mped in the advance, and was un-
supported, consequently, when General
Hardee attacked us with ten regiments,
which Gen. Sherman estimates at 1000
men, we had to fall back or be taken
prisoners. Our General has blamed US
for giving way, and made us long
speech in which he said that sufficient
support was at hand. Let me give you
an example of that support:
The49th Ill was encamped one fourth
Of mile in the rear Of US, and the en-
emy cane upon them before they could
! get into line of battle. And so with
the rest of our support. The simple
truth is, that it was an unexpected at
tack of the rebels, in full force, for whic h
our Generals we're not prepared, and
truth compels me to add that many be-
came so panic stricken that they could
not be brought into action again that
day, and had it not been for the gun
boats Taylor and Lexington, and Buell. s
re endorsements, the Union army would
have been in tight place, for retreat
was impossible.
Before this reaches you your readers
will be informed Of all the particulars
of the battle. l can only give you such
items as came under my own observa-
ton. The rebels occupied our camp
during Sunday night, and they did up
some of the cleanest rifing of trunks
and knapsacks that ever saw. Our
officers and all of the soldiers left their
dress uniforms, papers, letters, and val
uables in their tents, and our gecesh
friends appropriated them, stripping
their secesh garments off and arraying
themselves in the fine robes of the
Union. Monday afternoon when l ar
s-I IcIo, scamp | found enough secesh
lin our quarters to establish me
in .ready made clothing business,
but Tvs dead secesh were lying around
so thick, and the stencil SO great, that
! can't come in sight of secesh uni
form without smelling dead secesh.-
Fifty-fve were buried Tuesday who
were found on our camp ground, and
yesterday our boys buried sixteen who
have died in our Regimeutal Hospital
since the fight. The worst of their
wounded, only, were left ia hospitals
here, the others they removed, and it is
supposed that they also removed many
of their dead. 1t is my impression that
our loss was the heaviest Sunday, but
that on. Monday they were slaughtered
out Of all comparison. A battle field
may be interesting to some, but not par
ticularly so to me. For distance of
three miles, Monday evening and du-
ring Tuesday, dead men, and horses, al
most covered the ground. Guns of all
sorts, wagons, provisions, and all man
ner of camp equipage were equally
plenty.
Tuesday Gen. Sherman and portion
of his division followed the retreating
rebels about six miles. Our skirmishers
were attacked by the rebel cavalry, and
were, in turn, charged upon by our
cavalry, when the rebels retreated after
killing and wounding near fifty of our
men. Our brigade charged upon the
rebels, with some of the tallest yelling
ever heard, but our cavalry was be-
tween the enemy and US, and we could
not fire. Our immense body Of cavalry
is nuisance. They got up much of
the panic that ensued Sunday, and you
can't believe a cavalryman on OATH
Here were several thousand of them du-
ring all this fight, who did not fight at
all, only gallopcd from one point to an
other, creating panics. Tuesday We de-
stroyed a rebel encampment, destroying
portion of ammunition and other prop
erty. We then returned to camp.
Since then new forces are continually
arriving, and Gen. Halleck is here to
take chief command, and we live in
hopes that the next battle will be more
decisive, and that the rebels will receive
blow that will bring them to their