Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-10-11
FROM PErERsBuJRG.
Account of the battle ON Friday

|
New YORK, Oct. lO.-The Worlds 10th
corps correspondence gives the following
account of the affair on Friday last:
The point at which the enemy first made
his appearance was near the intersection of
the DarbytOwn and White Tavern roads,
and was held by two brigades of cavalry,
| one OF which, under command OF Col. West,
was deplOyed across the Darbytown road
while the other, under Col. Spear, was de-
ployed parallel to it and across the White
Tavern road, covering the approach from
this direction. The enemy, when first seen,
was coming across the country from the
Charles City road, and moving towards the
right flank of Col West. The Col. changed
front hastily, SO as to form line parallel
with the road and facing the enemy. He
had hardly effected this and sheltered his
men behind low hedge skirting the road,
when the enemy in overwhelming numbers
dashed on him, and OH the command of Col.
Spear in almost simultaneous charges. The
men fired steadily, but could not stay the
rushing masses opposed to them.
1t was evident they must retreat, so the
command was given and they moved off
down the Darbytown road. Suddenly they
were checked in this direction, the enemy
having out6anked Spear, and had posses
sion of this avenue of retreat. AS there
was one more chance across the country,
they went around without organization.
The batteries of the 4th Division and lst u.
s., which fought bravely, moved off in the
same direction, taking blind wood road.
They had not gone far, however, when the
forward piece was mired. This stopped the
remainder, and on this spot they were cap
tured-eight guns in all-whcn the enemy,
who had followed closely, reached them
soon after. .-
The enemy having driven the cavalry
before them, now ceased the pursuit and
turned toward the unprotected flank of the
10th corps, which was held by the einvincble
old first, or Terry's division. The enemy,
flushed with his easily gained victory,
moved toward this little band with all the
confidence of victory. The brunt of his
attack was directed towards Abbott's sec
ond brigade. He might better have chosen
almost any other point, for half of these
troops being armed with repeating rifles,
made hasty records on the rebel ranks.
Moving towards them steadily, he exhibited
a determination to force the position
at any cost, but the unerring volcanic
tirearm of Abbott's brigade more than
equalized the game. Onward they pushed,
more dense grew the fire, still they ad-
vanced, until within about one hundred
PAGES of our crouching death dealers.
Then signs of weakness began to manifest
itself in their ranks, and they found that to
advance in the face of that fire was simply
marching to death. In short, there was
nothing for them but to slink away as best
they could, and stink away they did.
Not satisfied with the punishment he
inflicted, Terry at once prepared to follow
up his advantage. AS our lines approach
ed the enemy, it became evident that he
was Richmond bound, and the hopes of
overtaking him were fruitless. Still our
advance was pressed on until darkness in
terposed Then, just as Ponds brigade had
reached within half mile of the Darby
town road, the order was issued to return
within our dcfenses. In this advance we
picked up quite a number of prisoners,
stragglers, and men who waited behind to
desert. These, with our captures before
our works, swelled our list of captures to
some 200. Gen. Lee commanded in person,
and had evidently determined to make a
heavy impression.
Our loss in men has been very small, but
the enemy has suffered horribly. Their
prisoners report Gen. Gregg among their
killed. They brought two divisions into
action, one under Gen. Field, anda provis-
ional division under Hook.