Nebraska advertiser., 1863-03-05

a street to prevent a sudden attack, these
with an embankment about four feet,high
thrown up around the big gun, com
pleted the fortifcatiOns of the place.
The post is commanded BY Col. Hard.
ing, Of the SD Illinois. which by the way
is one Of the new regiments. Some call
him aOld crazy Hard ding, bat crazy as
he is. or may be, he and those is his
command have Won themselves laWels,
Of which older regiments cappot boast ours
for instance. ithas always0beenif the tail
end Of the army, lat 1 viii speak Of it
some other time 1~r
On The morning Of the Sd, Instant,
Col. Harding heard TINT the notorious
rebel Forresg wa going to attack the
post hat day With Eve thousand men, ev-
erything was Immediately put in resdi-
Ress, 10 F%aceiys aheP. The first thar
was seer Of the rebels, wa about three
o o'clock in the eEenihgA They sent in a
flag of truce and demanded a aErenders
the bearer s0id that thea place was sur
rounded (Which was the truth and that
it was useless to resist. Col. II, in a
bland tone told them that he would fight
them awhile before be would surrender.
The flag of truce Leland the engage
mneht INN sdiatelg began: tE8efebels had
eight pieces Of artillery (which they JIM
mediately brought TO bear upon the
town. they 6rkD opened Oh our artL.
Elery which answered them as soon as
they beganito speak, Theyrkept this up
for some rime when they concluded they
would make a cavalry charge on our ipf
Efantry which was laying concealed in a
~ravlre, behind our batsfy II was then,
that our boys could see how much su-
perior. ia number the rebels we're to
them. The hills around appeared like
one living mass. On they came, eat q
steady gallop. Col. H. told the boys to
take good aim, and make every bullet
count; Three times they charged our
batteries, and as n~ranytimes were repuls-
ed By5our Infantry with heavy loss, dur
ing this time our big gun was making
sad 'havock with The rebel ranks. They
found that ou batteries wa not SO EASILY
taken as they expected, so after they had
made several charges, With as many re-
pulses, they eonFlpded they had better
fall back and try some other plan. At
ter our big gun had saenced their bat
tery, the firing ceased for a Short time, II
was then whispered through the ranks Of
our infantry that the t'big gum had run
out of ammunition, which caused consider
able ~murrnuring in our ranks, with ex.
pressions that all was lost. Our heroic
Col still cheered his men on telling them
Ito take good ain, and keep cool and all
wou.d eOme out right. yet. Painful 81
Hence reigned for some time, and 10 make
Fit worse, a squad of about TWO hundred
rebel cavalry ogid be see1nak@g1heir
way along the river bank, toward the
hill cnrwhlch our big gun was mounted.
There was one time that tberebel -caval-
Try was ii plain range Of our small pieces
of aftTIeFy; hut the hospital in which
There was a good many of eur sick men.
was just beyond where the rebels were
passing, so our boys would not fire for
Ifear of hitting che hospital The rebel
cavalry passed on out Of sight, but asoqp
made their appearance again, coming up
the hill at a full charge, on our big gun,
on they came, our beysAhought that ali
was up with them: The rebels rode up
TO within fifty feet of the gun, and de-
manded5 the squad ihatwas working the
gun to surrender, Just as the officer of
the rebels demanded surrender he seen
that tie sergeant Commanding the gun
vas about to touch The gun off, when he
lgelled out, @Ybai Cd Id son Ofb-h,
don't you touchthat gun of, again. The
Sergeant replied that he would not, al
the time applyingthe match; the discharge
was terrible. there was a. doubIe load of
grape and canister in The gun. ItmQwed
down Ia roadsamong the rebels, thirteen
were killed at that M shot. nine grape
shot struck the officer that demanded the
surrender His body was badly riddled.
When the shot was fred one loud shout
arose from our lines. The boys had sup
posed that the big gun had run out Of
amunition. Before the rebels could re-
cover from the shock, our infantry rush
ed upon therh at a bayonet charge, and
took fifty prisoners. II was then about
dark. the rebels had failed at every point
They then fell back intothe cover Of the
hills and woods and sent in another flag
d truce 10 Col. Harding, and again de-
handed a surrender. A parley ensued