Daily Democrat and news. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1859-1864, 1863-01-01

I
! Ark, Dec. IA, 1862.
II 'Hust week ago to-day that We
foug@ upon the ground which we have
ey since occupied. We fought bat
at that time which is sal. by high
bfii;ers, TO be the hardest aud bloodie,t
of the war, considering tie time Of
its duration, and the number Of t.oops
engaged.
During the week We have been con-
tlLually ous'-f,st, gathering up and
removing oul wounded to Fayetteville !;
next bulyingpur own and the coemy's
dead, and laaly to assist him to remove
his wounded b Kane Hill. The diff,, eut
occupations bes des keeping US all the
time at woE, have also made us well ac-
qusinted With the ground occupied by
the rebels dring the fight and bell eve
there is not man among us who does
not applaud he excellence Of the ee.uc-
ralslip whicl cl.elected the position. The
bill, Of whicI wrote in my last, contsans,
| saould saykn area Of from 81. huud red
to seven h,ldred acres. On the side
next to us itises qsi.e al ruptly to the
height Of nefly . hundred feet, but il
slopes gradully to t,e rear until it loses
itself in thetslley q the other side
thus securing safe end easy retreat il
the event OF there being no opposing
force in ,hx neightprhood, which. un-
fortunately, there was not, onr entire li,,L.
squad belugengaged n font. /, is CON-
p.e,ely coyeed BY who'd, IN which the
great numb.rs Of gt.pe vines running
frou tree . tree {nders travel al.
most inlposi lc. S,l there are many
roads running towardi al p,iu,s Of the
Compass, ,thxs It is easy 10 del .oy column
III any direction ut q mon ieats no ice,
while y battery p ant,d IN any place
could easily commands b xlf d,,zeh diti
ercnt roads xt the sa,be time. Besides
all this its surface is go b r,k& n by mum.
erous little ravines thai ii the assaillny
party had, by any good fortune, succeed
e. in dri. ing the rebels from o.e posi-.
ton, they had only to fal back G,ty OF
fifty icct to find xnothcri; .ss as good. and
possibly better.
The rcLcls have al ! considerable
b'Jy Of men here nexrl sIl the week y,
tetdlng to the wants OF their wounded.
a das til y have pun ted their labors,
they have often come il contact with ou,
nc'i Who have been sci,t ont on = simila-
mission, and On su h occasions they have
.ot been at al. bAckw ard to talk ofnie
b.tt'e and its results. nor Of the cc
which they had on tn ground. n
They don't p'etene to deuy that they
had their whole AMY here, nor tlln they
came here prepared to fight, ma ching,
as they say, twenty miles the rievious
night to do il, nor tuat they were whip
ped. Bu then they don't ,hiG they
would have been il Blunt had,t come
up. Well, don't know tha, ,lcy would.
Twenty th.nsan1 men really ought to bc
able To and ag ainst the ass.ult of two
thousand If circumstance. were only
sufficiently ia sorablc, but tbey saw as
soor as t.eir "cn knew Of {.lnnts pres
ence on the field, six thou3and of them
thought they wouldn't. s,Av there any |
longer, and didn't.
Well it is tue that Yer Gen. Blunt
had come up and plt Ted l,wen,y-four
pieces Of artillery in cir uoper places,
ready to cooperate VIII oua,w.uty, We
had them so encircled with AwaIl ofcan-
non, whose deadly Y sssenga were set
with such unearng accu,acj and such
terrible Frequency I-all fist converying
to u comaon ce Il and therte disyerg-
ing in every direc' Sn. pouring .i.ogst1--
CT, such cross lire as not even the
b,svsst could sts. The gres. numbers
of men which th, had IN the to"ds was
IN element Of yakness rs,he, than Of
'treng1. 1t ssl almost impossible for
Us 70 ? ash 1t which woul.i net do ex-
scuti9 Bone HAay or the other.
u y came that we killed and
Hog large anumbcr ofthe enemy.
en told that the Off: al report
= 4 thousand and fi,,e hundred, aud
.r,m what ! lave .e.t, l don't
h'nk Il much exaggerated.
4 l1iras that our own killed and wound.
ed is es ,mx,ed ut one tn,u.and. The
woundedon our side have nj | be- n mo. ed
y Fsyeuevlllc, which il an excellent
place for nospiis. purposes. There sr..
great many large aud hand some houses
there whi.ll | bear have bes ~ l,bcss;Iy
a'swn upon for the OCCASION. md as tie
'ocssiou b one Of the most Dc sirsbIe inn
SR1nAhla IA climate plre md Naaee