The weekly pioneer and Democrat., 1863-05-22
THE CAMPAIGN In VIRGINIA.
What General Stoneman Did,
COL. KILPATRICK,S REPORT.
SCENES ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

YORKTOWN, Va, May 8.
Major General H. w. Halleck General-in-C Chief
United States Army
GENERAL: I have the honor to report
that, by direction of Major General Stone
man, I left Louisa Court House on the
morning of the Sd inst, with one regiment
(the Harris Light Cavalry of my brigade !;
reached Hungary, on the Fredericksburg
Railroad, at daylight on the morning Of
the 4th; destroyed the depot, telegraph,
road and railroad for several miles; passed
over to the Brook turnpike; drove in the
rebel pickets, and followed them down the
pike and across the brook; charged bat
terry an forced it to retire to within two
miles of the city of Richmond; captured
Lieut.. Brown, Abide Camp to General
Winder, and eleven men, within the fortifi-
cations; passed down to the left to the
Meadow Bridge, on the Chickahominy,
which l burned ran train of cars into
the river; retired to HanOvertown, on the
Peninsula; crossed and destroyed the Ferry
just in time to check the advance of pur-
suing cavalry force; burned tt ain of thirty
wagons, loaded with bacon; captured thir-
teen prisoners, and encamped for the
night five miles from the river. I re-
sumed my march at one A. M. on the 9Th
surprised force of three hundred
cavalry at Aylett's; captured two Off
GERS and thir; y-three men; burned fifty
six wagons, and the depot, containing
upwards of twenty thousand bushels
OF corn and wheat, quantities of cloth
ing and commissary stores, and safely
crossed the Mattapony and destroyed the
ferry again, just in time to escape the ad-
vance of the rebel cavalry in pursuit.
Late in the evening I destroyed third
wagon train and depot, few miles above
and west of Tappahannock, on the Kappa
hammock, and from that point made
forced march of twenty miles, being close
Iy followed by superior force of cavalry,
supposed to be portion of Stuart's, from
the fact that we captured prisoners from
the 1st, 5th and 10th Virginia cavalry.
At sundOwn 1 discovered force of caval-
ry drawn up in line of battle above King
and Queen Courthouse. The strength
was unknown, but at once advanced to
the attack, only, however, to discover that
they were friends-a portion of the 18th
y,
ted from the command Of Lieut.. Col. Da-
Wis, of the same regiment. At 10 A. NJ,
on the 7th, found safety and rest under
our brave old flag, within our lines at
Gloucester Point.
WHAT GEN. SLOVENIAN DID.
A correspondent who accompanied Gen.
SToNEMAN on his remarkable raid pear
Richmond, gives a full account of the de-
struction of railway bridges, &C., which
resulted, the letter concluding with the
following general statement:
To sum up-General Stoneman moved
about within the enemy's lines at will for
nine days, with force not exceeding five
thousand men; disabled every line of COM
munication between the army of the Rap
pahannOck and the rebel capital-and the
canal through which more than one-half
of their supplies are received-so that, in
the opinion of competent judges, neither
line, provided the rebels have every facil-
ity for the work, can be repaired in less
than four weeks; destroyed millions of
dollars worth of commissary stores, and
other supplies; obstructed travel upon the
main pixies, by destroying all bridges over
large streams gave the citizens of ten
counties, viz: Culpepper, Spottsylvania,
Orange, Hanover, Henrico, Louisa,
Goochland, Fluoanna, King William and
New Kent, an opportunity to see for them
selves that lot anly are the Yankee sold
iers confident and in good spirits, bit are
really human beings and not inhuman saw
ages, as represented by the Richmond
chivalry; captured hundreds of horses,
and above all met the one great objection
made to the Emancipation Proclamation,
so far as the counties visited are concerned,
by letting the cOlored population know
that they are free, and weakening the pro-
ducing class in rebeldom by the removal
OF hundreds Of able-bodied men and SOW
ing the seeds of decentralization among
the rest, so that the laboring class, in fact
as we'll as theory, becomes dangerous
element. All this has been accomplished
by the raid of Gen. Stoneman, with the
loss, probably, of less than one hundred
men, all told-only two Of whom were
killed. As an offset to this loss, our troops
killed number of rebels, and captured
between one and two hundred prisoners.
The fear of famine was everywhere ex-
pressed; the government seizes upon every
thing that can go to sustain the army,
leaving those who are not in the army to
shift as best they can. Many have pro-
visions concealed to avoid the searching
eyes of the government agents. Through
the agency of negroes, large quantities of
provisions thus hid away were brought to
light for the benefit of Union soldiers.
The farmers fold is regularly culled of all
marketable sheep, swine and beeves, and
what is left behind is not fit for the butch
er's stall. The larder of the largest plan
ters contains little else than bacon and corn
meal. The wheat crop, now coming for
ward, is immense-in fact little else has
been put in the ground. The rich valleys
of the James and Rapidan Rivers are vast
wheat-felds-more, in fact, than can be
gathered, unless the army is turned to this
work. The negroes are not numerous
enough for the task, even were they not
in fair way of being so thorougly demor-
allied as to refuse to work unless paid in