The National tribune., 1898-04-28

served a body of men. whom believed TO
be Confederates, standing at an angle 10
this brigade, and firing obliquely at tho
newly arrived troops. 1 said, Dear me,
this is very sad and must be stopped
so | turned round, but could find none Of
my young men, who were absent on differ
ent messages: so | determined to ride my
self and settle the matter.
Having cantered up to the Colonel Of
the regiment which was firing, asked him
in angry tones what he meant by shooting
his own friends, and desired him to cease
doing so at once. He answered with sur
prise:
81 don't think there can be any mistake
about it; am sure they are the enemy"
Enemyp | said; why, / have only
lust lett them myself. Cease firing, sir;
what is your name, sir?'
My name is Col. --, of the
Ind; and pray, sir, who are your
Then for the first time | saw, 20 nv
establishment, that he was a Yankee, and
that was in rear OF a regiment of Yankees.
Well, | saw that there was no hope but To-
brazen it out; my dark blouse and the in
creasing obscurity befriended me, so 1
approached quite close TO him and shook
my fist in his face, saying:
iii soon show you who am, sir; cease
firing, sir at once
II then turned my horse and cantered
slowly down the line, shouting in an
authoritative manner TO the Yankees To
enced a disagreeable sensation, like screw
ing up my back, and calculating how
many bullets would be between my shouI-
deTs every moment. | was afraid to in
crease my pace until / got to a small
copse, when put the spurs in and gall
loped back to my men. 1 Immediately
went up to the nearest Colonel, and said
to him:
"Colonel, have reconnoitered those
fellows pretty clcsely-and | find there is
no mistake who they are; you may get up
and go at them And l assure you, sir.
that the slaughter OF that Indiana regi-
ment was the greatest have ever seen in
the war"
1t is evident to me that certain degree OF
jealous feeling exists between the TenneS-
Seean and Virginian armies. This one
claims to have had harder fighting than
the Firginian army, and to have been
opposed to the best troops and best Gen.
erals OF the North.
The SOutherners generally appear to esti-
mate highest the Northwestern Federal
troops, which compose in a great degree
the armies Of Grant and Rosecrans; they
come from the States of Ohio, Iowa, Indi-
ana, etc. The Irish Federals are also
respected for their fighting qualities;
whilst the genuine Yankees and Germans
(Dutch) are not much esteemed.
i have been agreeably disappointed in
the climate of Tennessee, which appears
quite temperate to what had expected.
June 4.-Col. Richmond rode with me to
the OutpOStS, in order to be present at the
reconnaissance, which was being conducted
under the command of Gen. Cheatham.
We reached the field of operations and
found that Martins cavalry (diSmounted)
had advanced upon the enemy about three
miles, and, after some brisk diminishing
had driven IN his outpOsts. The enemy
showed about two thousand infantry,
strongly posted, his guns commanding the
frrrf al-a-r rta ,.1fa
was concealed in the woods, about mile
in rear of the dismOunted cavalry.
This being the position OF affairs, Col.
Richmond and | rode along the road so far
as it was safe to do so. We then dis
mounted, and sneaked on in the wood
alongside the road until we got to within
800 yards OF the Yankees, whom we then
accommodated leisurely with our glasses.
We could only count about seventy in
fantry soldiers, with one field-piece in the
wood at an angle of the road, and we saw
several staff officers galloping about with
orders.
Whilst we were thus engaged, some
heavy firing and loud cheering suddenly
commenced in the woods on our left: so,
fearing to be Outfianked, we remounted
and rode back to an open space, about six
hundred yards to the rear, where We found
Gen. Martin giving orders for the with
drawa1 OF the cavalry horses in the front.
and the retreat OF the skirmishers.
1t was very curious to see 500 horses
suddenly emerge from the wood lust I'm
front OF us, where they had been hidden
one man to every four horses, riding one
and leading the other three, which were
tied together by the heads.
In this order / saw them cross cotton
field at smart trot, and take up moro
secure position; two or three men cantered
about in the rear, thanking up the led
horses. They were shortly afterwards fol-
lowed by the men OF the regiment retreat
ing in skirmishing order under Col Webb,
and they lined fence parallel to us. The
same thing went on on our right.
As the firing on our left still continued,
my friends were in great hopes that the
Yankees might be inveigled on to follow
the retreating skirmisherS until they fell
in with the two infantry brigadeS, which
were lying in ambush for them and it was
arranged, in that case, that some mounted
should then get in their rear,
and so capture a good number; but this
simple and ingenious device was frustrated
by the sulkiness of the enemy, who now
refused to advance any further.
The way in which the horses were man.
aged was very pretty, and seemed to
answer admirably for this sort of skirmish-
ing. They were never far from the men,
who could mount and be off to another
part OF the field with rapidly, or retire to
take up another position, or act as cav
airy, as the case might require.
Both the superior officers and the men
behaved with the most complete cOolneSS.
A tremendous row went on in the woods
during this bushwhacking, and the trees
got knocked about in all directions by
SHE'LL but imagine that the actual slaugh-
ter in these SkirmShes is very small,
unless they get fairly at one another in
the open cultivated spaces between the
woods. | did not see or hear of anybody
being killed to-day, although there were a
lew wounded and some horses killed.
Col. Richmond and Col. Webb were
much disappointed that the inactivity of
The enemy prevented my seeing the Skin
mish assume larger proportions, and Gen.
Cheatham said To me: Eve should be very
happy to see you, Colonel, when we are in
Dur regular way of doing business"
After waiting in vain until p. m, and
seeing no signs of anything more taking
place, Col. Richmond and | cantered back
10 Shelbyville. We were accompanied by
4 detachment of Gen. Folks body-guard,
which was composed of young men OF
good position in New Orleans. Most of
hem spoke in the French language, and
nearly all had slaves in the field with
hem, although they ranked only as pri-
rate soldiers, and had to perform the
)nerouS duties of OrderlieS (Or courieTS,
Is they are called.
On our way back we heard heavy firing
IN our left, from the direction in which
Zen. Withers conducting his share of
he reconnaissance with two other infantry
)rigadeS.
After dark, Gen. Polk got a message
Ebea than To hat