Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-11-03
Eho Sta impede Of EarIy's Infantry
Graphically Described

Oe8GEADe1-
A correspondent of the Richmond En-
gsas7r, after describing Earlys success on
the 18th ult-, thus describes the rebel stam-
pede that followed:
gall this is very well, but spending this
time another work goes on that is far, vGTy
far, from being quite as good. The num-
Der of our men plundering in the camps is
increased every hour; the Provost Marshal
carries off batch Of them to the front, but
g larger number Oozes out from the ground,
which they soon cover like one ofthe seven
plaques Eof Egypt-the locusts I should
say. All these men are so confident that
the enemy is whipped that they only want
to secure their share of the booty But
alas war is a game that two can play.
The Yankees are not quite blind there
are many hills and SUBMITS from which
they can spy the broad expanse of those
clear grounds. @
They now know exactly what is oSf
strength they have seen every man we
have in the field, and they see their former
camps swarming with our freebooters. so
i they know our strength and they know
also their own, which we do not know
They can bring some fresh troops and We
cannot on the contrary, our men now be-
gin to feel the brunt of the burden; for
Lhey have been up all night and been
| fighting all day. The Yankees bring up a
/ new line at about one hour and a
quarter before sundown; they push it to
| the front and our left division (Gordon'sl
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 1 say, why don they
rally, for this is our only trouble and mis-
fortune on that Inflated 10Th of 0cto-
Der. But rally they won't; see them go
back uncOncerned, just as quietly as if
nothing was the matter. They do not re-
ply anything to ofticers-they lust slip
| back with their muskets poised in their
hands as if they deploying backwards as
/ skirmishers. In the meanwhile the Yam
kees lose no time; was struck; it gives
way, on, in its turn, alter having tried it is
now their turn to 90 onward. Kershaw's
| division now hard to stand its ground.
Nothing better, nothing more noble, as
long as it did fight; but now it has given
way like GordOn's, and, like Gordon's, it
wont rally. Our artillery, in general did
well. They tried to re-establish the fight
and twice made a stsnd-at such points,
too, where we might have had the vantage
ground over the Yankees. but there was
no rally-no rally of brigade, no rally of
a regiment no rally of company; the
whole army, confused in q nameless, snape-
less 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, a cool walk, a kind of
gentlemanly stampede; but few shells
that came bursting right over our heads
give us an additional speed. We are run
ming; turn of the rosd, q protection from
the shells, and we walk again. I never
saw or dreamed Of smOre self-possed crowd
of skedaddlers they were no more scared,
sir, and no more ashamed than if there had
not been a particle of danger or digrsce in
their predicament. Finally, an old rotten
bridge gives way, there arises dead lock,
and artillery, wagons and ambulsnces, are
there for the. Yankees. They need not
strike lick to have them-sll they have
to do is to come down the road where they
are stuck, and theirs they are. In that way
we lost thirty-nine of our own pieces be-
sides eighteen pieces that we captured, and
God knows how many wagons and ambu-
lances. All those trains might have been
saved by force of two hundred skirmish-
ers, but it could not be got. They were
tired; they aOere played out they had had
enough of tour menI
AT this moment, when quietly writing
about it, this battle seems to me 4 mystery
or dream. 1t seems to me that the silent
and fugscious rsbble upon which the sun
set when We were stsmpeding toward
Fishers Hill, cannot be spoken of in the
same breath with the daring and yelling
regiments upon which the rising sun
smiled when we charged the enemy's
works, took their pieces and turned them
Immediately against the enemy. Talk of
our cavalry stampeding, here is a set off
for them. This, 1t is hoped, will close the
exhibition, and we viii pass to some new
exercise, for this running business is grow
ing stale now; it won't pay, it has no.
yen the merit Of novelty. No, no; we
will stop that; it is a good horse that new
er stumbles, ut good horse never stun
bles at every step.