The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1863-01-30
Army Correspondence.


u nlghs-our vast army is quietly resting
not a sound breaks the stiffness Of the mig
save the scream Of the nightowl. or til,
. steady gallop OF some mounted orderly, car
! rying orders for the morrow; within The
last few minutes l have learned that
, steamer will leave here in the morning fol
} Memphis. Tennessee. and that viii have
an opportunity to send You few items. al
: least get them within the bounds of civiliza.
ton Since writing from the Mississippi
, our army corps has gained great victory
our entire fleet moved up White River on
) Friday, January 9. ran up some twelve
miles 10 what is called The Cut Off-a curl.
Gus freak of nature has formed channel
which runs across the country some three
miles into tie Arkansas River. which emp
ties into the Mississippi, fftytwo miles below
the mouth Of White River. Our fleet qui-
ely moved up the Arkansas about fifty
miles, and hauled to for the night within
three miles of the rebel forific atoms, which
is called Post Arkansas. There was said
to be a town here. but for the life of me
cannot find it. Early Saturday morning. the
18th. the work of debarking commenced
1t was intended that Sherman's division
should get i'll the rear OF the enemy aud en- :
tirely cut them off but ii was night before
they were ready to move. and not knowing
the country got lost 10 the swamps, and had
to wait for daylight. At daylight on Sun
day morning they were again on the move.
and at twelve o'clock NJ, our forces were
extended around their entire works. At
precisely one O'Clock P. NJ, our formidable
gun boats, locking like some powerful mon
sters of the mighty deep. pulled slowly up
the barrow stream, three in number. within
five hundred yards of the enemy's works.
short description Of their Notifications is
necessary for the reader to understand the
immense strength of the rebel works: The
fort is square. ESQ yards in diameter. earth
works surrounding. 10 feet high, ID feet
across the top. rifle-pits outside 10 feet
deep and 20 feet across, defended by three
IO-inch guns in front, or fronting the river
two in case-mates, covered with heavy
timber and railroad iron. working on pivots
besides II other guns of smaller dimensions,
capable OF being moved to any part of the
fort ; the whole defended by some 5000
men. Our boats opened a terrific FIRE upon
them, to which they replied with equal ter
ror; Fosters battery of 20 pound Parrot
guns also opened upon them at close range
lmag inc the most terrific thunder storm
with no cessasion for more than an hour,
and you have some faint idea of this artil- /
lery duel. In the meantime three or four
wooden gun-boats came in position and did
terrible execution. The enemy's heavy
guns were directed entirely at the gun
boats, and it appeared to me as | stood |
ho bar
the boats, that nothing but a miracle could
blown up with the loss Of their brave crews ;
but one by one their heavy guns were dis.
mounted by our naval and land batteries,
and at the expiration Of an hour and ten
minutes every gun was disabled in some
manner. During this time a heavy infan-
try fire was going on. l had forgot to
mention that extensive rifle pits extended
from the Notifications for near a mile, con-
Meeting with an impossible swamp. defend
ed by infantry. l am not gifted with elo
quent language sufficient to dwell long or
describe things as they should be, but to me
l think it was one of the most sublime yet
acful scenes that mortal man ever witness
ed. At the end of three hours and ten
minutes a white flag appeared. and probably
many of y our readers never heard the shouts
of thirty thousand victorious men, if not.
cannot descibe it to you. it must be hard to
be believed. Many of the greasy d-ls-I
almost pitied them-trembled as though they
expected to be murdered outright. Every.
thing was captured, not a man got away
the prisoners umbered about six thousand.
Colonies. Generals, &c. &C., the whole
by Major General Churchill.
who is a prisoner also. But the funny part
is to come-two regiments from Little Rock.
Arkansas, came marching in just after ight,
not knoa ing any thing about the matter, and
we're gobbled up without firing gum
Monday morning a reg iment from Clarendon
On White River also marched up, and were
taken in out Of the aca, in the same way.
But to make the matter still better, two or
hree OF our little gun boats went up the
river some twenty miles towards Little Rock,
and met two steamboats, loaded with troops
two full regimenrs-and captured them
without fighting, SO complete was our vic
ory These five regiments came as REIN
orcements. not knowing anything about the
esuls of the battle. The number of pris-
,ners now foot up near nine thousand. with
II their munitions of war. with a large num-
,er of horses and mules Our loss was
small, not being more than
our hundred in killed. wounded and miss
,g; that of the enemy about 10 proportion
, respec. to killed and wounded. The
allsnt G9th did not lose q man, although
pder fire during the entire fight. The,
oys owe much to their gallant and brave
tile Colonel. who knows well how to take
are Of his men. A boat was captured some
7eeks ago in the Mississippi, having very
eayy mail on board for this army corps :
,auy of our bows found their letters here,
Nv ing been captured by these same rebels.
The seth is now avenged somewhat for
heir Kentucky calamity. as many of the
roops that we now have prisoners were
nth Kirby Smith at Richmond. Such are
be fortunes Of war.
The work of demolishing the Notifications
, 10 progress. and as soon as that is accom-
lished We viii leave this part Of the coun-
nv, but where we will go to you will learn
DON. IS there is important work yet to do.
L IL