Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1864-09-01
Correspondent Of the Charles City Iutelligencer
Letter from q Winfield
yIcKsBuRG, Miss, Aug. II, !


vIcKspuRG, Miss, Aug II, 1864.
DEAR HrLpRErH Gen. Dana has as
sumed command of this District rice
Gen. H. w. Slocum relieved and or
dered to report to Gen. Sherman.
| am informed that Gen. Dana is a
Maine man, that he is stern and rig
id commander. Already the Jews
are having ague fits, and their visions
are no longer of fleeing" the Gen.
tiles on old clothes and jewelry made
of sham gold, but their nightly sleep
il filed with dreams Of confiscation
and general shutting up OF their
high places. Cotton spectators, have
all their little arrangements frustrated,
and now can truly say that
1.-THE best laid schemes O mice and men
Gang aft agile !
But a good many take comfort in the
thought that, "a new broom always
sweeps Clean" and think after the
first spasm is over, the fever will sub
side. They can go back to the time
when Slocum first came here and
there was a rafting amongst the dry
bones of swindlers, but the wind soon
died out and left the sea of specula-
ton as free from breakers as before.
On the llth the guerillas paid fly
ing visit to Bovina, eight miles from
this city. They shot one white man
and hung two blacks. After this lit
piece of deviltry, they sent their COM
pliments to Gen. Slocum and pulled
out. A company of cavalry went in
pursuit, but the guerillas were non est.
There is any number Of recruiting
officers here, from New York, Mas
sachusetts, Illinois and Ohio. There
is as high as six hundred and seventy
five dollars bounty offered by the Mas.
sachusetts man, who is yet ahead of
all competitors. They resort to the
most dishonest means to obtain re-
cruits, even taking the blacks from
the workers Of leased plantations,
leaving them without help.
Right here wish to correct the
statement regarding the death of Gen.
Mcpherson, that mighty mind, and
noble man. 1t has been very gener-
ally circulated, that the rebels strip
ped him Of every thing he had on, and
that Col. Strong and Capt. Buell. with
a few orderlies made a charge for bis
body. This / pronounce most outra-
geous canard, and with all due defer
ence to the courage of my friend
Strong, / must say that neither he nor
Capt. Buell. was nigh the General
when he was shot 1t appears that
there was defect in the formation Of
the line of battle, and Gen. McPher-
son, as usual with him, rode out alone
to see what was the trouble. AS he
passed through the gap between the
18th and 18th corps, and rode up
towards the crest Of hill, he received
a shot from rebel sharpshooter. which
severed the aorta, and letting the
blood into his lungs he was suffocated
at once. A very young man, a hero,
named Reynolds, belonging to the
18th Iowa, saw the General fall, and
Immediately rushed to his side, when
he received a shot through the arm,
but he did not leave, and when the
rebels came up, he told them that it
was Gen. Mcpherson they had killed,
which they did not credit, but our
troops advancing, they fell back with.
out further molesting young Rey-
nolds.
Our own men came up when few
miserable devils, belonging to the
Pioneer Corps, robbed the General in
spite of all the young hero's remon-
STRANGE. They took his watch, very
fine ono, and some eight hundred dol
lars in money. A valuable diamond
ring presented to the General by Col
Coolbaugh, was not noticed as. it was
concealed by gauntlet glove. Young
Reynolds. has received the gold Med
al of Honor" and letter of thanks,
and understand will be promoted to
a Lieutenancy.
This is the true account Of the death
of Mcpherson, as / have the authori-
ty in letter from his Headquarters
At the time of his death the General
was engaged to Miss Emily Hoffman,
of Raltimore WINFIELD