Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1864-08-19
4RHY CORRESPONDENT.
The Repa!se at Petersburg, g,--Ihe Negroes Be-
feHded. --GE Elrers Responsible FOR the Failure.

HnApor1 1RrEns Cox. Il . 2tSr PESS A., sv&GeY,
Aaz1 FaroNAc. August 9Th, 5S6A.
NR. EDTToR. The anxious friends at home,
who 50 wistfuIly look for good news from our ar
my, anI who eagerly grasp the papers and sean
their riages to learn Of the veal or woe Of the
men no stand in front to oppose and conquer the
foe lave been, as we soldiers believe, most seri-
ously imposed upon By the statements given by
some of the papers, Of the battles in front OF
Petersburg, July Soth, 1854
We have also anxiously siezed those papers, and
eagerly read what was related, BY those who knew
but little from hearing. and nothing By obserya-
tion or experience, II mean newspaper reporters
Our boys had a hearty laugh over the graphic de-
seription given Of the great victory before Peters
burg. on the above date, but were completely dis
rasfed with the erroneous account which soon fol-
lowed. of great loss, and the defeat of our army
Now we would inform the anxious public that all
the reports We have seen in the papers relating to
that affair were far from being correct, knowing
what we speak to be so-for we were there during
the action, and engaged in it.
L We did not gain great victory.
.. We did not suffer a great defeat.
s. The eowardiee Of the negroe troops was not
the cause Of our repuise.
1. What we had gained We did not gain a
great victory as We did rot hold the position We
took, and the taking Of which cost us eonsideFa-
bic in time and men, butwe did gain victory IN
that we gave the enemy to understand tina; there
is a power in the northern army which they never
dreamed Of. and thatif we can neither 60 over OK
round their forts, We viii 60 mader them. The
fire opened upon the rebel works was the most
Fearful. rapid and destructive they ever experien-
eed. aud silenced their works ii less than one hour
80 that the men abandoned their guns and We
could see the infantry driving them back to their
/ pieces at the point Of the bayonct We saw the
most effective of their guns in our front blown
out Of their works By our well directed IRE, and
the fort almost demolished. We saw our shells
drop into their works rapidly and could see them
carving away their dead and wounded all day Sum
day and Monday We saw their best and most
powerful fort blown into the air and every soul in
/ that fort destroyed and although tiey drove our
men out Of il, they have not been able 20 place a
single gun IN position these since and are yet en-
up Of the fort We have seen four white flags
floating over those ruins requesting us not to ire
on them until they searched for their dead, and
not one shot has been fired from any OF their guns
in our front, since last Saturday and We soldiers
feel confident thar If things had been managed a
htrle better by officers in immediate command, our
army would be tonight in Petersburg
Again. the negroes are not to- blame for not
holding the works taken. We know something
about those negroes. They were kept digging in
the trenches until the aetiQn commenced the
greater portion Of them had never been in action
\ before; some Of them had 10 march one half mile
from the river on a double quick and then charge
without hating. The Col. that led them, COM
manded them after they got in the fort, to uneap
/ their guns 1t is reported that another. Colonel
run about two niles back followed by the salonia
Ya,sees who went forward or back Just as tlntf
leaders happsaed to lead the way The colored
troops are loud in diseaiming Tie conduct Of their
officers and we feel that aeg the olieers) are the
persons 10 blame, all reports to tho contEarg not