The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-01-16

his cavalry and annihilates everything in
his way. Insane rage seizes JacksOn's
men, and they throw away their muskets,
and with only bowie knives attack their
victims. The carnage is terrible, and, al
though the Federals stood their ground in
the beginning, they yield now and retreat.
They throw away arms, knapsacks, great
coats, in short, everything that might i'm
pede their flight. Subordination and dis
cipline no longer exist; the soldier hears
no longer the command of his officer, but,
frightened, abandons the post entrusted to
him. Already two Generals of the four
brigades of the enemy are basely left by
their soldiers; already the belief gains
ground that the whole of McClellan's army
is lost, when in a most critical moment,
Heintzelman appears on the field with his
division and renews the battle.
With great circumspection and bravery
he resists all attacks of our troops, and
gives orders for gathering the beaten and
torn brigades But it is in vain to collect
soldiers deprived of GOODNESS and reason
ing; they continue their flight in spite of
all efforts of their officers General Heint-
zelman, too, sees himself compelled to
leave his position. Ikea bull always pre-
pared for gOring, he commences his retreat
towards the Chickahominy. All the
wounded and all the stores of provisions
fell into the hands Of our men, and Jack
son had right to say, it is enough for to-
day. No other of the Generals had accom-
plished his task SO quickly and with such
good fortune as he had, and the result Of
his victory was correspondingly great.
The Unionists lost on that day two Brga-
der Generals, one hundred and fifteen
staff and line officers, three thousand SOL
diers and tWenty-One cannon, with hun
dreds of ambulances and baggage wagons
and their contents. The booty was enor-
nous, but the strategical success was
much greater, for Jackson had cut off Nc
Clellans line of retreat. When, therefore,
the news of Jacksons victory reached
headquarters, humiliation or capture of
the whole of McClellan's army seemed GER
tain and inevitable. The .jubilation in the
army bordered on insanity.
TRIUMPHANT HOPE OF THE CoNFEDERATEs.
When the next morning came to my
regiment, found the poor fellows in a fe-
verish excitement, and every one prepar-
ing to take part in the capture of McClel-
Ian and his army. Whenmy officers COM
menced to talk of it, shrugged my shoul-
ders. had seen the same already in
1S4S, when the Italians had prepared quar-
tiers for Radetzky and his army, the cap
ture of which no one doubted. The Po-
desta of Milan even came out to meet the
old captured warrior, at the same time
when this General was surrounding all
difficulties and was retiring safely into the
Notifications of Mantua and Verona.
No sooner had l arrived at the camping
ground of my regiment than we received
orders to advance with the whole line. l
cast sad look over our division, for
merly so splendid. How decimated our
regiments were Many of them which,
like my own, left home eleven hundred
strong, had now only three or four hun
dred men and others, as for instance the
Seventh Georgia and Twenty-first North
Carolina regiments, had only about one
hundred and eighty men left Great num-
bers of officers were unfit for further du-
ty, and many brave fellow, who few
days ago had spoken hopefully of the tu-
ture, was now dead. Courage left me to
make further inquiry after those l had
known, and to receive the uniform answer,
che is dead he fell there or there, or by
this or that manner"
Just when our divisions started, Presi-
dent Jefferson Davis made his appearance,
accompanied by Colonel Joseph Davis, by
Generals Johnston and Smith, and by the
Secretary of War, Mr.. Randolph, and 9TH
ers. Now, when the danger was over,
when Richmond was freed from the iron
collar put on by the hostile army, when
they commenced to breathe more freely
within its walls, now was the time for those
carpet knights to assume a theatrical atti-
tude at the close of the bloody spectacle
Yet no hurrah, as formerly, greeted the
hero of Buena Vista. With cold eyes,
stiff like his horse, he rode along the front
OF the regiments, only now and then ad-
dressing word to an acquaintance.
ANOTHER BATTLE AND DEFEAT OF CONFEDE-
RATES.
After our divisions had emerged luckily
from the labyrinth of dismounted guns,
broken wagons, dead and wounded SOL
diers, and had gained freer range for it's
movements, we were astOnished to find in
the positions left by the enemy only a few
arms and some baggage. All the material
was carried away, and the great number
of dead soldiers showed how the battle
had ragged here. The Notifications were of
larger dimensions and Of greater solidity
than we had thought them to be.
We received orders to follow the enemy
Immediately. No sooner had we advance
cd beyond the White House than we saw
column of smoke issuing from the woods
one mile and a half to the right of the
railroad. Going forward cautiously we
discovered high pyramid of fire. Nc
Clellan had ordered all the stores to be
burned which it was Impossible for his men
to transport. Millions worth of stores
were devoured by the greedy element.
Our hungry soldiers rushed. like wolves on
the burning heap, trying to save for them
selves what was so much wanted, and of
which we retained the name only in our
memory. The enemy's will had frustrat-
ed our endeavors of this kind. We could
not get food from the burning pile, but the
fields around were strewed with great
coats, which proved highly acceptable to
E,,orv@h;n~ cbo1roI