The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-06-20


hands more than three days. Some of
them were furnished with muskets for
the first time after the fight had actually
commenced Under these circumstances,
any person who remembers how poorly
some of our volunteer regiments stood
fire at the commencement of the war
will be prepared to hear that the darkies
evinced unmistakable signs of panic and
decentralization, and did more running
than fighting day before yesterday. But
they didn't run foot On the contrary,
they conducted themselves throughout
the engagement with remarkable cool
ness and courage. Some will say that
they fought because they feared that, if
taken prisoners, they would be summa-
rily dealt with. But do not think they
had any such fear before them. They
obeyed orders more strictly than men
who think it question of victory or
death to them Individually are apt to do.
THE PICKETs ARE CAPTURED AND ESCAPE.
The rebel brigade left Richmond on
the 9th, and arrived at the picket post
OF the Bend early on the morning of the
7th. There were six negroes on picket.
They captured these without much diff
Guilty, tied them up hands and feet, and
left them at cotton-gin near by, telling
them to stay there until they (the rebels)
returned. While the darkies were stand
ing, statue-like, against a fence, one of
them discovered that the cord by which
| his hands were fastened was poorly tied,
and without much difficulty he loosencd
his hempen letters His next work was
! to set his comrades free. and in less than
an hour after their capture the pickets
were taking circuitous route to camp,
where they arrived ahead of the rebel
column, and i'll time to give valuable in
formation as to the number of rebels en-
gagged in the attack. They brought their
arms and cartridge-boxes with them,
having found them where the rebels had
left them in the cotton-gin.
THE REBELS ADVANCE UPON OUR WORKS.
Between our picket post and rife-pits
there was a large open field, in which
grazing The advance-guard of the reb-
els drove the cattle before them. think
ing in this way to crawl up to the rife
pits and surprise their occupants. But
the darkies were wide awake Indeed,
/ am convinced that they were more
wary than their officers in this respect;
for while the latter insisted, for time,
that it was our own pickets who were
coming in, the former were fully per-
suaded, from the moment the cattle
turned toward them, that the Confeder-
ates were advancing. AS one of them
said to me, yesterday, "We black uns
knowed dey was comm Dey couldn't
fool us. An we wanted to shoot, but de
officers said dey was our pickets" How
ever, even if the officers had known what
the darkies say they knew, they would
not have opened fire until the Confeder-
ates got close to them. 1t was their
policy to let the Texans come within
good and easy range, and then give
them such volley as would make them
withdraw more hastily than they ap-
preached.
CHARGE UPON OUR R1FLE-PITs.
The rebels advanced confidently, with
the intention of charging over the rife
pits. When theyswere within a hundred
yards of the works, our men discharged
volley at them, but without much effect
The white soldiers did considerable exc
cution with their fire, but the negroes
did what all troops have to be repeatedly
cautioned against-they aimed too high.
The rebels received the fire, and again
advanced. The contrabands loaded
their guns so quickly that, before the
enemy had made twenty yards further
progress, a second volley was poured
into them, with murderous accuracy.
More than fifty rebels were killed and
wounded, and the survivors fell back in
| disorder.
THE REBELS MAKE FLANK MOVEMENT.
The rebels finding it impossible to
charge the rife-pits, fell back and re-
formed. General McCulloch then moved
his brigade to the left, for the purpose of
fianking our works. The Texans
marched rapidly round, and soon had
deadly fire directed into the rife-pits. The
was fight going against US, and our men
would probably have been compelled to
| leave their works but for the timely ar
! rival OF the gunboats Tyler and Chou
teau, which came up and threw a few
shells into the rebel ranks, killing and
wounding a great many, and making the
whole command fall back As the rebels
retreated, some OF our negro soldiers
left their shelter, and good deal of
hand to hand fighting ensued
THE RESULT.
The result was, that between the 800
negroes, 40 white men, and the assist
auce rendered by the gunboats, the rebels
were thoroughly defeated. One hundred
and ffty-two dead rebels were counted
on the battlefield. Not less than five
hundred were wounded, most of whom
they succeeded in carrying away. We
took nearly a hundred prisoners. Our
loss will reach about two hundred killed
and wounded. The 23d Iowa lost eighty
out of one hundred and forty-twenty-
three of them killed on The field. The
loss of the negro regiments was proper
tionately much smaller. A Captain
commanding the 1lth Louisiana (color-
ed), was slightly wounded. He is very
brave and efficient officer.
Among the incidents of the fight
worthy of note, was the capture Of a
rebel soldier by a darkey who was his
SLAYER three months ago The Texan
was caught in tight place by one Of
Col Leib's men, who cried out to him,
Hold on, dar, and put down YOUR gun,