The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-10-15

NEW YoRx, Oct. lo.--The Worlds 10th
corps correspondent has the following &C.
count Of tho affair of Friday LAST
The point 1t which the enemy first made
his appearance was near the intersection al
tho Darbytown and Wilesville Roads, and
wa led BY two brigades of cavalry. one 81
which, under command of Col. Vert. was
deployed across the Darbytown road. vhiId
the other, under Col. Spear, was dd (oyee
parallel to IL, and across the Wiieeville
Road covering the approach from this d.
rection. H -
The enemy, when first seen, was coming
across the country from Charles CITY Road'
and moving towards the right flank Of Col.
West. The Colonel changed front hastily 90
- to form . line parallel with the road and
awaiting the enemy. He had hardly ef-
fected this and sheltered his men beside q
low hedge stretching across the road, when
the enemy In overwhelming numbers de-
ecende0 on him and ON the command Of
Col. spear in almost simultaneous charges.
The men fired steadily, but could not STAY
the rushing masses opposed to them.
IL was evident they must retreat, 60 the
command was given and they moved off
down the Darbytown road. Suddenly
they were checked in that direction. The
enemy having outflanked Spears, had pos
session Of this avenue of retreat, and as
there was more chance across the country,
they went almost without organization.
The balance Of the 4th division and LIST
United States, which fought bravely,
moved in the same direction, but taking q
blind road. The had not gone far, how
ever, when the forward part was mired.-
This stopped the remainder, and on this
spot they were captured, eight guns in all.
Soon after, the enemy hearing the cavalry
before them, ceased the pursuit and turned
toward the unprotected flank Of the 10th
corpe, which was held by the invincible
old first veteran division. The enemy,
moved towards this little band with all
the confidence Of victory.
The brunt Of the attack was directed >so-
wards Abbot's ID brigade. He might bet
ter have chosen almost any other point,
for half Of these troops being armed
with revolving rides made hasty
inroads on the. rebel ranks. Moving to-
wards them he steadily exhibited deter
mination to force the position at every
cost, but the unerring vollies from them
more than equalized the game. As on
ward they pushed, more dense grew the
fire, still they advanced until within abou,
100 PAGES Of our cruel crushing DEATH
Then signs Of weakness began TO manifest
itself in their ranks, they found that to ad-
vance in the face Of that 6re was simply
marching to death, and that there wax
SA4OAA4
- best they could. and, slink away they
did, not 20 fond of the punishmen
inflicted. They at once proposed to follow
up ADVANTAGE. and as our lines ap-
preached the enemy it became evident tha
he was Richmond bound. Although hopes
of oyertaking him were faint still our ad
vance was pressed on until darkpess ia
terferred, then just ~ Ponds brigade hac
reached within half mile Of the Darby
town road, the order was issued to return
within our detences in advance.
We picked up quite . number of prison
ers, stragglers and men who waited behint
to desert. These, with our captures befor,
our works swelled our lat OF captures t,
1 some 200. ri
General Leo commanded in person, ant
has evidently determined to make a~haav,
impression. Our loss in men has beef
very small, but the enemy has suffered
horribly. These prisoners report Genera
Gregg among their killed. They brougk
two divisions into action under Genera
! Hooko. w