Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-11-10
Graphic Rebel Account Of Ear
Iy'sstampede--The Loss In AR
tiiIery Admitted 10 have been
Ftfty-seven Pieces.

Iy's sstampede--The Loss In AR
tiiIery Admitted 10 have beer
Finy-seven Pieces.
Correspondence Of the Richmond Enquirer.
New MARKET Oct. 81.
Little thought, ten days ago, when
was writing about our cavalry from this iden
tlcal place, to which j am now just return
ed, that one Of the greatest, if not the great
est stampede Of this war. and stampede
Of infantry, too, had yet to take place. Ii
is the most singular affair that enc can DOS
sibly imagine whole day of glory aud 9
few minutes Of shame-a splendid begin
ming and monstrous end. We swept pick
cts, hillsides and breastworks, and formed
our lines within the breastworks and cam ps
with seven pieces Of artillery taken before
they could fire three rounds, and running
foe before us. This clean sweep was made
by Kershaw's division and that is the way
we began otr work. The enemy tries to
rally on the left, but it is in vain we push
on, and now we hear the firing of other d.
/ visions on the right which come in for thei,
share of it, and galantly, too.
! Over hills, stone fences, across broad.
cleared fields and thick woods the fighting
/ goes on as regular as steady, as if it had
/ just begun, and still it is just now 3 O'Clock
! we have driven the enemy four miles, cap.
tured all the camps, with everything in
them, spotted the ground with their dead
and wounded, sent to the rear some 1900
prisoners, captured ls pieces Of artillery,
but the fighting still goes on, although we
have stopped driving the enemy, who is BY
this time pushed back further than Middle
town on line extending from the LETT Of it.
| All this is very WE'LL but pending this
time another work goes on that is far, very
far, from being quite as good The number
OF our men plundering in the camps in
creases every hour. The provost guard car
ries off batch Of them to the front, but a
! larger number ooxes out from the ground,
which they soon cover like one Of the seven
plaques of Egypt--the locusts should say.
| All these men are so confident that the enc
my is whipped that they only want to secure
their share of the booty. But, alas! war
| is game that two can play. The Yankees
bring up new line at about one hour and
quarter before sundown. They push it to
the front and our left division (Gordon's) J
gives way. They give way, yes but that
is nothing, God bless them. The best of
men must give way sometimes; but Why
don't they rally? | say why don't they
rally, for this is our only trouble and mis-
fortune on that i'll fated 18th of October
But rally they won't See them 20 back
unconcerned. just as quietly as if nothing
was the matter They do not reply any.
thing to officers; they just slip back with
their muakets poised in their hands as if
they were deploying backward as skirmi,h-
ers. In the meanwhile the Yankees lose
no time; it is now their turn to go onward.
kershaw's division now was struck it gives
way, too, in its turn, after having tried hard
to stand its ground. Nothing better, moth
ing more noble, as long as it did fight; but
now it has given way like Gordon's and, ike
Gordon's. it won't rally. Our artillery, in
! general, did we'll. They tried to re-estab-
lish the fight, and twice made stand-st
such points, too, where they might have had
! the vantage ground over the Yankees but
there was no rally--no rally of brigade,
no rally OF regiment, no rally of company;
the whole army confused into a nameless,
shapeless mass of men, going back, back,
all the time. The food increases in depth
as We reach the turnpike. The artillery,
the ambulances, wagons, all rattle down, at
first at decent rate, at cool walk, kind
of gentlemanly stampede; but few shells
that come bursting right over our heads
give us an additional speed. We are run
ming turn of the road, protection from
the shells, and we walk again. lnever saw
or dreamed of a more self possessed crowd
of skedaddlers they were no more scared.
sir, and no more ashamed, than if there had
not been particle of danger or disgrace in
their predicament. Finally, an cid rotten
bridge gives way, there is dead lock, and
artillery, wagons and ambulances are there
for the Yankees. They need not strike a
lick to have them-al they have to do is to
come down the road where they are stuck.
and theirs they are. In that way we lest
thirty-nine OF our own pieces, besides
eighteen that we captured, aud God knows
how many wagons and ambulances. All
those trains might have been saved by a
force of two hundred skirmishers, but it
could not be got. They were tried; they
were played out; they had enough Of it
our men ..s
1t is impossible, at present, to give you a
fair estimate of our losses in men. Speak
ing in general, the loss is as small as il can
be for fight from sunrise to sunset, al
though know one regiment of our division
to have lost twenty officers. We took large
number of prisoners and secured them,
whilst we must have lest very few, as we
did stampede so timely and finally; so we
did, dear sir, and to say that we were whip
ped by our own folly alone, is neither new
nor censoling, but it is true.