Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-04-06

est
Yesterday, as one of General HOward's
headquarters wagons came into camp for
the night, a little bright-eyed mulatto girl
slipped off from the end of the tongue un-
derneath the wagon, where she had been
clinging for many long hour, while the
vehicle had made its devious journey over
rocks, into deep ruts, through mud holes and
deep creeks.
How long have you been there ?" she
was asked.
Turning her dusty, pteous face towards
her kind interlocutor, she replied:
Dunno since morning, spec"
"Where did you come from?'
Dunno couldn't fine nanny nor sissy
dis morning, so joined the Vaughn"
The poor little waif was provided for by
General Hazen, and perhaps it will be in
finitely better for her future welfare that
she lost her nanny and sissy" in the
march through South Carolina
NEW EvOLUTIONs.
MARCH 6.-Although the left wing have
pontoons on the river at Snedsboro', only
the Fourteenth corps and Kilpatrick's cav
airy will cross at that point the right wing
which, in the last movement, was the adj
vanced column, were by reason of that fact
enabled to lay their pontoons and move
over the two corps before noon this morn
ing To save time the Twentieth corps
have marched down, and are expected to
be in camp on the left bank by midnight.
With the safe transfer Of the army upon
the east bank of the Pedee there will prob
ably be a change in the formation Of our
heads of column. The army was not prop
erly together until the different corps ar
rived at the SalkahatChie From that mo-
ment the form of our front was always con-
cave. This tactical formation was no doubt
deemed necessary because the enemy could
or did not operate upon either flank
Obliged to cross several large rivers, which,
according to all military rule and prece-
dent, in the presence of an active enemy,
were considered almost impossible, and
which were adopted and with great wis
dom, by the enemy as their strongest lines
of defence, the passage was irrcsistibly
forced by the two points of the concavc,
which We're constantly thrust forward, first
upon one side and then upon the other, or
both at the same time, as General Sherman
deemed best when threatening Augusta and
Charleston
These evolutions, planned with such com
prehensive wisdom, answered their purpose
with the most perfect success, for in no in
stance did the central column meet with
serious opposition and while the right
wing was day by day fighting the enemy,
and suffered more in killed and wounded
than either the left centre and extreme left,
yet it was reasonable to suppose that we
should have met with resistance upon our
left flank, for we were sure that a portion
of Hoods army were in that direction
These remarks apply only to the infantry
Of the army, and it should be clearly under
stood that General Kilpatrick's operations
upon our extreme left and front unques-
tionably covered that wing of the army,
and in addition deceived the enemy in their
fears that we were moving upon Augusta,
In looking back upon the general fca-
lures of this campaign, it can be seen with
what geometrical precision this mastery
conception OF a cOncave front has been per
feCted and its best puff is our presence
here, without loss of men or material, with
the fruits of victories in our hands realizing
the most sanguine hopes
This resume of the facts is made at the
present moment because we are entering
upon new field where the theatre of war
changes for the preSentits position, moving
from front to flank All information goes
to show that the rebels have been falling
back and concentrating at Charlotte, i'll the
belief that we were advancing upon that
place Our movements within the last few
days may open their eyes to the truth, and
while the repeated lessons they have re-
ceivcd may make them hesitate in attack
ing an exposed flank, yet the possibility
that reinforcements from the veteran troops
in Virginia may be sent to impede our
march to the sea, and the caution which is
one of the marked characteristics of Gen.
Sherman, one of them, or some other rea-
son, has induced to change his front, and
the army has commenced to assume a con-
vex shape i'll place of the opposite figure,
Moving forward thus, his column in echelOn
upon the centre, he can at any moment put
more than one-half his force in line of bat
tie if attacked in flank, and if threatened
upon his left could swing the whole army
by the right flank towards his communica-
ton, and move upon his new base with his
front impregnably protected.
DESTRUCTION OF CAPTURED POWDER.
IL mas DOIfeTeu our OiundllCe OilCeIS
sometimes to be able to destroy the powder
and fixed ammunition which we captured.
The rebels are criminally careless in the
way they leave it about, stored in all sorts
of places and in all kinds of buildings.
Either in their extreme haste they packed
it into any place that was handy, or they
were determined to blow up the town.
Thirty-six hundred barrels of this powder
were Just outside of the town, stored in a
sort of an arsenal but another large lot
was packed into a building near the depot,
which the rebels set on fire before we ar
rived Trains of powder were laid from the
depot to this store, and it seems wonderful
that it was not ignited and hundreds OF
lives of non-combatants lost
AS at Columbia, our efforts to destroy
this dangerous material without damage to
the people resulted in mournful accident,
which cost us the lives of two men at least.
A part of the powder was placed in deep
wet ravine rear the river, where all of il
was to be deposited, and then covered
over with sand Although it was carefully
guarded, some wicked reckless fellow man
aged to get train in communication with
the bulk of the powder The instant the
| fire reached this sleeping monster it rose