The Dillon tribune. [volume] (Dillon, Mont.) 1881-1941, 1886-06-26
CHE l;iiiiun Z ubn,e.
BATTLE OF 1t IL RUN.
EXTRACTS FROM GEN. LCGAN'S DE-
SCRipTloN OF THE CONTEST.

scRIpTIoN OF THE CONTEST.
Who Was to Blame for the Defeat and
R"ut OF the Federal Forcc>--A, Gonir,l-
crate Colonei'- SpeechThe Results
of IL Great ElunGer.
''Isu during the victorious luil. some
thing Is happening on ",,'' sl'le that is or
very serious moment. Let Nv see what 1t
il. The batteries of Griffin and Ricketts,,
at the Dngan house, having nothing to
fire at. as we have seen are resting. pleased
with the consciousness ri their brilliant
and victorious service against the rebel
batteries aud infantry columns, when they
are ordered 10y McDowell-vvho. with his
staff, is upon elevated ground to the rear
.,f our right--to advance .OO0 yards further
to the front. upon n hill near the Henry
house Ricketts, Insiders this is peril
Gus job, but proceeds to execute the order
as to his own battery. \ small ravine is
in his front. With Ricketts, CALAMITY lead
ing. the battery dashes across the ravine
at full gallop. breaking one wheel as it
goes. which is at once replaced. A fence
HES across the way. The cannoneers de-
.nolisi it. The battery ascends the hill
lear the Henry house. which is full of the
enemys sharpshooters. Soon as Ricketts,
gets his guns in battery. his men and
horses begin to fal! under the fire of these
sharpshooters He turns his guns upon
the Henry house and literally riddles it,
Amid the means OF the wounded the death
screams OF Il woman is ::earl. The enemy
mad permitted her to remain in her doomed
house!
4 ,f.fNt.
Griffin, AS he comes up with ais guns,
goes into battery on the lett of Ricketts,,
:snd ut once opens bri>kly on the enemy.
one Of Gr.,..ii,' guns has II ball lodged in
the bore, wnic:i can not III. got in or out
His other five guns. with the six guns OF
Ricketts,. make eleven pieces. which are
How side by side, ali of then, driving away
IL, the ene,ny's tStuuewall jacSsons)
strong batteries not more than BOD yards
away. They has, been ut it half an hour,
perhaps. when Griffin moves two of his
pieces to the right of Ricketts,. and COM
inellces firing Wit, them. He. has hardly
been there five minutes when il rebel
regiment, coming out of the" woods ut
Gritfins right front. gets over Il rail fence,
its colonel steps OH, between his regiment
(now standing up 70 the knees in rank
..rass) and the battery. and commences Il
speech to his men. Griffin orders one Of
his officers to load with canister and let
drive ut them. The guns are loaded and
ready to fire, when up gallops Barry, en-
claiming: Captain. don't fire there: those
are your battery supports.
AT this supreme moment Reynolds
s,orgeols-loOking marines are sitting down
in close column on the ground to the left
Vt the Union batteries. The snowy Elev-
enth New York Fire Zouaves are little
to the rear Of the right of these guns.
The gallant Fourteenth New York Chas-
selrs, in their Undiscovered red uniforms,
who had followed Griffith's battery at
some distance, have, only little while
since, pushed finely up from the ravine at
the rear of our batteries into the woods to
the right of Griffin and Ricketts, at
slouble-quick. To the left of the batteries
close to the battalion of marines, Heint-
zelman bestrides his horse, near some of
his own division. To Maj. Barry's start
ling declaration, Capt. Griffin excitedly
shouts: "They are Confederates! Sure as
the world, they are Confederates.' But
Barry thinks he knows better. and hastily
responds: I know they are your battery
support. Griffin spurs towards his pieces,
countermands his previous order, and fir
isIA 10 ICSulACN III GuC VIII ulCCCllOll.
"Averell, assistant adjutant general to
Gen. Andrew Porter, has just ridden to
Heintzelman's side, and now catches sight
of the rebel regiment What troops are
those:' he asks of Gen. Heintzelman,
pointing in their direction. While Heint-
zelman is replying, and just as Averell
drops his rens and levels his f1eld-gl at
them. down come their pieces-rifles and
muskets-and probably, rs Averell after
ward said, there never was such de-
structive fire fer few minutes It
seemed as if every man and horse of that
battery just lay down and died right off,
RESULTS or A TERRIBLE BLtNDER.
lit Is II dreadful mistake that has been
made. And there seems to have been no
excuse for it either. The deliberateness of
the rebel colonel had given Barry abund-
ant time to have discovered his error, For
Griffin subsequently declared, under oath,
that after the officer who had been talk
ing to the regiment had got through, he
faced them to the left. marched them
;,hout nifty yards to the woods. then faced
them to the right again. marched them
about forty yards toward us. then opened
tire upon ,,>-and that was the last of MS!
1T is ii terrible hlUnder. For up to- this
moment the battle is undenia bly, ours.
And while the rebel colonel has been hs..
'anguing his brave men there has been
M, MY vi time to have passed the word
',lous the lines of orr batteries. and
,,o,,r.l canister into the rebel regiment
from Inc whole line of eleven gu,ls at
,.,int blank range. which n,i,>t have in
eyitably have en-. il to pieces. The fate OF
the ,lay huna balanced right there and
thcn-with all the cha,.c.'s in favor
of Mcdowell. But those c!,lnce, are
now reversed. Such are :he tlckl.
changes in the fortunes of battle. in>,c,>l
of our batteries cutting 20 pieces til. .rnt2