The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-05-12

Gen. Dodge, with cavalry, artillery, and
infantry. The fight lasted several hours.
The artillery firing ceased about three
in the afternoon. Occasional skirmish-
ing with small arms wound up the en-
gagement At dark, Forrest fell back
to CORTLAND and threw out pickets on
all the roads leading into town. In the
meantime, force Of mounted infantry,
two thousand stsong, under a Colonel
Straight, had gone round CORTLAND, as
if designing to get in the rear of For
rests force Next morning early, For
rest started in pursuit Of this party, leav-
ing o portion of Roddy's command in
CORTLAND. Straight and his men, in
stead of attempting to get in his rear, /
were really on an expedition to Central /
| Georgia, and were already one hundred
miles away in that direction. The force
overlook him at Dayton's Gap, in the
Sand Mountains of Alabama, on Thurs
day. Here an engagement occurred,
and the enemy were driven forward, with
a loss of 40 killed and wounded. and
few prisoners About six mles further
on the enemy was again overtaken by
Starnes' and Bffles' regiments, and an
OtDeF DEuSu Vi nun
occurred. Enemy again driven forward,
and two pieces of artillery, taken from
Col. Roddy at Town Creek, were recap
tured in the fight Eighteen Yankees
were struck down by one discharge OF
artillery, four pieces playing upon them.
Fifteen rn;lss cnnth of this point onr men
again came upon the enemy in ambush.
Another fight ensued. Our boys drove
them from ambush by vigorous charge.
Indeed, it was one succession OF bold
desperate charges upon the ambuscaded
Yankees for three hundred miles, until
they were finally captured Next day
the Yankees were again overhauled at
huntsville, from which they were driven
forward as before, with the loss of three
killed and twelve wounded
Prisoners and negroes were captured
at various points all along the route.
General Forrest still pursued close upon
their heels, the Yankees burning bridges
behind them as they fed The bridge
near Gadsden was destroyed, but the
enemy were driven from town before
they had time to destroy anything in it.
The citizens could scarcely realize the
invaders were Yankees, and on seeing
Llom LOT LtlG uTSb llulc lnNdTidDl1 GOOh
them for Confederates.
"Nine miles beyond Gadsden our men
again came up with the enemy in am
bush. A fight ensued, in which the Yam
kee Colonel Hathaway, Captain, and
several other officers were killed. The
iron works. few miles further into the
interior of Georgia, were set fire to by
the Yankees, but only partially de-
stroyed.
THE Yankees were finally overtaker
two miles from Cedar Bluff, and twenty
miles from Rome Their advance guard
200 strong, had gone ON toward Rome
and were checked two miles from the
city by armed citizens. Forrest dashed
upon the main body, his force reduced
by fatigning pursuit to 40 men. The
enemy fired one or two rounds from foul
little mountain howitzers and slight riff
skrmishing constituted all the lighting
at Cedar Bluffs Forrest coolly sum
moned the enemy to surrender. Colone
The prisoners, amounting to LOO, were
moved on a mile before they were re
quired to stack arms, actually guarded
by a force only one-fourth their own. In
reality it was Forrest who was prisoner
but the Yankees never knew it. They
supposed be had a large force in the
rear. They were perhaps deceived by
the story of one of our own men captur
ed at CATIONS Gap, who told Colonel
Straight that Forrest had 5000 men,
= What brigades,' demanded the Yam.
KEGS: His own, Armstrong; and Rod.
dys, promptly replied the prisoner.
Then by Jupiter We are lostW exclaim-
ed the non-plused Yankee, turning to his
men. So they were, for they surrender
ed IN half an hour after The dialogue
of their reception in Rome beggers de-
scription. The entire population turned
out en- masse to greet the hero, who en-
tered amid the waving of handerchiefs,
shouts of the people and booming of
cannon.
1t was the most brilliant feat of the
war. Both men and leaders have now
the lasting gratitude of their countrymen
Bedford Forrest stands at the head of
cavalry chieftains of the South The OBJ
ject of this invasion of the Yankees so
far from their main force, aside from
their intense anxiety to avoid the re-
doubtabIe Forrest was to reach the Geor-
gia State Road, burn bridges, tear up
rails and play the old Harry generally.
The force under command of Colonel
Straight consisted of the Sd Ohio, 18th
Illinois, 5lst Indiana, I'D Indiana and
three companies of renegade Alabam-
ians. The latter will be sent to Rich
mond and the others parolled."
Thus ends the rebel account of this to
be famous expedition Colonel Straight
and ten men were indeed captured but
rebel troubles in Alabama and Georgia
are not yet over, for the same paper has
the following:
ALARMING NEws
The express messengers and others
from Rome, Ca, last evening, report
another raid into North Alabama and
Georgia by Yankees, three thousand FIVE
hundred strong. The 50th Georgia regi-
ment, returning to Bridgeport, was stop
ped and ordered back to Rome, mounted
on captured horses, and led to meet the
invaders. 1t was believed the Yankees
were at Talladega, Ala, so miles south
of Rome. Captain Forrest, brother of
General, was MORALLY wounded in the
fight near Rome"