ports had also been sunk close to her, one of which had on her pilot-house "Eliza G." The battery on the point of the ridge was manned by the former crew of the Ponchartrain. The lower battery, composed of five twelve-pound fieldpieces, was about three hundred yards further down-stream, where the ridge was further from the river; and the whole place was in command of Capt. Fry, the former captain of the Ponchartrain, and who was once a lieutenant in the U. S. navy. At about half-past eight, when the Mound City approached within less than a mile, the first or lower battery opened fire upon her; this was the first indication of the exact location of the batteries, as they had been concealed by the heavy timber in the intervening bottom land, which was only cleared along the river's edge, and at one or two other places, so as to give the guns of the batteries a clear range. The Mound City immediately moved up and delivered several broadsides, and leaving the St. Louis and Conestoga engaged, passed on up to engage the upper battery, which had now opened fire. The fight had lasted about thirty minutes after the firing had become general on both sides, and the lower battery of field-pieces was nearly silenced, when a forty-two-pound shot from the upper battery struck the Mound City on the port side, near the second gun from the bow, passing through the casemate, killing five or six men, and knocking a large hole in the steam-drum. Instantly the hot steam burst out in dense volumes, filling the engine-room, gun-room, and pilot-house, and scalding over one hundred and twenty-five persons. The shrieks of the poor fellows confined between decks in the scalding vapor were said to be heart-rending beyond description. Many were instantly suffocated, but all who were able groped their way to the ports and jumped into the river, and a minute after the explosion, fifty or sixty of them were struggling in the water. The Conestoga immediately came up and sent out two boats to pick them up. One of the Mound City's boats was also launched by Master's Mate Simmes Browne, one of the few officers who was not seriously hurt. During this time both gunboats and the small boats were drifting down the river. As the Mound City drifted near the shore, near the lower battery, a sortie was made from the battery, which some supposed to be an attempt on the part of the enemy to board the Mound City, but which afterward proved to be for the purpose of firing on the scalded men in the river, which the prisoners say they did at the command of Capt. Fry. The field-pieces of the lower battery were also turned upon the boats that were picking up the wounded, and a twelve-pound shot knocked away the bows of one of the Conestoga's boats. Many were hit by the firing, and sunk before the boats could reach them, and only twenty-seven out of the Mound City's crew of one hundred and eighty, answered to their names at the calling of the roll, and were all that escaped unhurt. Another singular accident now occurred: The Mound City's starboard broadside-guns had been loaded just before the shot struck the steam-drum, and had not been fired since, but nearly half an hour afterwards one of the wounded gunners had become entangled in the lanyard which is attached to the lock of the gun, and in his writhing with the pain fired the gun. The ball took effect on the New National, which had landed her troops and come up to the rescue of the Mound City. The ball struck her behind the wheel, and, ranging forward, cut off the steam-pipe, immediately disabling her and slightly scalding the second engineer. Col. Fitch, who had now gained the summit of the ridge a short distance below the lower battery, fearing that one of the other gunboats might meet with an accident similar to the Mound City's, signalled the gunboats to cease firing, and that he would storm the batteries. The gunboats accordingly ceased firing, and after making considerable of a detour, the Forty-sixth attacked the batteries in the rear, delivering their fire as they came up, charging over the guns and killing the gunners at their posts. The rebels fought stubbornly, asking no quarter, and receiving none from the men of the Forty-sixth, who were enraged at the dastardly firing upon the helpless men in the river; only two of those who were in the battery were taken prisoners, the rest were killed. The Indiana troops then came over the brow of the ridge and down into the wooded bottom-land next the river in pursuit of those who had been firing on the Mound City's crew, the rebels retreating rapidly up the bank of the river, the Forty-sixth firing on them as they fled, killing the greater portion of them. In the flight, Capt. Fry, their commander, was wounded by a ball in the back, was captured, and is now a prisoner on board the Conestoga. The rebel loss in killed is not known, but must have included the greater portion of their force, as we have only thirty prisoners, and only a few are known to have escaped. Opinions differ also as to the number of the rebels, some setting it as high as five hundred, and saying that Col. Fitch's estimate of one hundred and fifty referred only to the gunboat's crew, who manned the upper battery. Col. Fitch, in his report, states that the casual ties in his regiment are unimportant, being only five or six slightly wounded. But for the one shot which burst the Mound City's steam-drum, there would not have been a man hurt on the fleet, as not a single shot that struck the gunboats did any damage whatever except that. No one was hurt on either of the gunboats, and none of the transports were struck except the New National, by the accidental shot from the Mound City. Col. Fitch was so exasperated at the murderous fire that had been poured upon the scalded men who were struggling in the water, that when he came on board the Conestoga, where Col. Fry was a prisoner, he reproached him bitterly for his inhuman conduct in giving the order, and asked him to compare his own conduct with our course towards them only ten days before, at Memphis, when all of the small boats belonging to the nearest of our gunboats were sent out to help save the drowning crew of their gunboat General Lovell. He told him that being a prisoner was now his protection, but if justice were done him, he would be hanging to the nearest tree before night. Fry at first denied that he had given the order, but on being confronted with some of his men, who persisted in saying that he had given the order, he became silent. I am indebted for many particulars of the battle to Simmes E. Browne, Master's Mate of the Mound City, who came up on the Conestoga with the body of his brother. Mr. Browne was one of the few who were not too badly scalded to launch one of the Mound City's boats, to save those who were drowning. He soon had the boat full of disabled men, who paddled and drifted her as well as they could towards the Conestoga, the balls pattering in the water all about them as they went, and occasionally striking some poor fellow, who would instantly sink to rise no more. A large shell burst within twenty feet of them, but fortunately did not hurt the boat nor any one in it. One of the sailors of the Mound City, whose name is Jones, is mentioned as having shown extraordinary endurance. He was partially scalded by the steam on the Mound City, and leaped out of one of the ports into the river. While he was swimming around, endeavoring to get to some one of the boats, he received three gunshot wounds - one in the leg, one in the shoulder, and one in the back; but he still kept afloat, and being unable to get near any of the small boats, and having drifted below the gunboats St. Louis and Conestoga, he swam to the Lexington, nearly half a mile, was taken on board, and is getting well. Almost all who were badly scalded have since died. Thirty-five of them died on the way up on the Conestoga and the Musselman, and were buried near Island Sixty-seven. Eight men were dead when the boats arrived at Memphis, and the entire number of the Mound City's dead is not far from one hundred and twenty-five. I give you below a list of the officers of the Mound City, and note against each name whether unhurt, wounded, or dead. I was unable to get a list of the crew: Capt. A. H. Kilty, badly scalded, but will re Pilot, Joseph Nixon, of Memphis, scalded to death. Carpenter, Manning, slightly scalded. James Kennedy, one of the regular pilots of the Mound City, was not on board, having left to bring the captured steamer Clara Dolsen up to Memphis. The damage to the Mound City is but slight, and can be repaired in half a day. A new crew will be sent down immediately to man her, and she will continue with the expedition, which will proceed further up White River. It was thought that the sunken boats could soon be sufficiently removed to admit the passage of the fleet, and it is not probable that they will meet with any further opposition, as it was conceded that there were no other works further up the stream, and that the river was virtually in our possession. But before many days I hope to send you even more important news; rumors portentous of disaster to the rebels reach us from Vicksburgh; and perhaps even in my next letter I may be able to say that the flag hallowed by the blood of those who first raised it in the Revolution of '76, and of those who sustained it in '61-2, floats over the last rebel battery that frowned over the Mississippi yellow flood. W. L. F. Doc. 76. COLONEL ELLIOTT'S EXPEDITION. NEW-YORK "TRIBUNE" ACCOUNT. GENERAL POPE'S HEADQUARTERS, SIX MILES SOUTH OF CORINTH, June 21, 1862. On the evening of the twenty-seventh ultimo Col. Elliott received orders to get his brigade, consisting of the Second Iowa and Second Michigan cavalry, immediately in readiness and proceed, provided with three days' cooked rations for the men and one day's for the animals, with as much secrecy as possible, from his camp in the vicinity of Farmington, across the Memphis and Charleston Railroad east of Iuka, to the head-waters of the Tombigbee, thence to bear north of west so as to strike the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at some point near Booneville, and destroy the track in the most effective possible manner, so as to prevent the passage of trains at least for days. He was directed after accomplishing the object of the expedition, to return over another road, but in the same direction he came, and in case he should find his return to Gen. Pope's army rendered impracticable by the enemy, to make his way through Alabama toward Huntsville, and then report to Gen. Mitchel. To better understand the expedition, it should be borne in mind that it was undertaken three days before the intention of Beauregard to abandon Corinth became manifest, and that it was part of the programme of Gen. Halleck to destroy the rebel means of retreat into the interior of Mississippi before or simultaneously with the final as sault upon their position, which was to take place the very morning Col. Elliott carried out his instructions at Booneville, and the last rebels left Corinth. In the mean time the Second Iowa, Lieut.-Col. Hatch, commanding, under the immediate supervision of Colonel Elliott, had entered the town, where they found one locomotive and a train of twenty-six cars, containing large quantities of ordnance, ordnance stores, quartermasters' property, commissary stores, and private baggage of officers, estimated in value at from one half to three quarters of a million of dollars-all of which, with the exception of the locomotives that In accordance with the above order, the brigade started out precisely at midnight of the twentyseventh. Col. Elliott, being perfectly ignorant of the roads and country he had to traverse, had procured two guides from among the native residents about Farmington to where he was to strike the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and after-were merely disabled, was effectively destroyed. ward secured the necessary guidance by picking up every citizen he met and forcing them to show him the way, their persons being sufficient guarantee that they would act in good faith. The presence of the Union cavalry had now become known to the rebels, who were in strong force both north and south of the town. Without knowing any thing of the evacuation of Corinth, Col. Elliott had, indeed, wedged his command in between the main body and rear of Beauregard's army. The pickets he had thrown out reported strong bodies of the enemy advancing from both directions upon the town. Fearing that his retreat might be cut off, and having done all and more than he had been ordered to do, Colonel Elliott determined to make a retrograde movement at once. The brigade crossed the Mobile and Ohio Railroad with daylight on the morning of the twentyeighth, some two miles east of Iuka, and twenty miles from Farmington, and pushed ten miles further to the south, when they rested. Late in the afternoon the march was resumed, and continued until daybreak the next day, for a distance of nearly forty miles, to the head-waters of the Tombigbee, over little travelled roads and through an extremely rough, broken, thickly-wooded coun- Both the Second Iowa and Second Michigan, try, watered by numerous streams. Here an- while moving to and fro about town, had taken other halt was made until the cool hours of the several hundred prisoners, belonging to a regiment evening. The inhabitants, not for a moment sus- that had been stationed at Booneville to guard pecting that the "Yankees" could have found the town and road, completely surprised and runtheir way so far south of Corinth, flocked togeth-ning about wildly upon the sudden entrance of er, bringing water, milk, and eatables for the our cavalry. Nearly every house was also full supposed Southern cavalry. The one day's ra- of rebel sick, numbering, in the aggregate, nearly tions for the animals being consumed, forcible two thousand. A speedy retreat having now beforaging was resorted to during the day, which come necessary, these prisoners had to be abanspeedily opened the eyes of the astonished and doned; not, however, until after their arms and affrighted natives. equipments were rendered useless. At four o'clock P.M. the column was again in motion, and marching all night to the north-west arrived in the vicinity of Booneville at three P.M. Reconnoitring parties were sent out to ascertain the condition of things about the town, and upon nearing it discovered that an apparently interminable train, loaded, as was afterward learned, with nearly three thousand confederates, was just about departing south. Retreating upon the main body, they allowed the train to pass out of sight before they commenced operations. Col. Sheridan of the Second Michigan was then ordered to leave one half of his regiment in reserve, and with the balance to proceed south of the town and destroy the track. While marching in that direction the battalion came up with numerous detachments of the enemy, evidently stragglers. They were immediately charged upon and scattered to the four winds. They threw away their arms and rode off at a wonderful rate, outrunning the jaded horses of the pursuers. Reaching the track at a point three fourths of a mile south of the town, Col. Sheridan put his men to work without delay, knocking off and destroying the rails with their axes, the only implements of destruction they had brought along. In less than twenty minutes a quarter of a mile of the track was thus destroyed, when an order was received from Col. Elliott directing Col. Sheridan to join him at Booneville. The pickets being all drawn in, with the exception of a squad of ten belonging to the Second Iowa, who ventured too far north and were surrounded, and either killed or captured, the brigade started upon the return march. Before setting out, Col. Elliott had become satisfied, by information obtained from prisoners, that Beauregard's army was retreating along the left of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and hence he took the right, and succeeded in safely reaching our lines, meanwhile extended south of Corinth on Saturday morning. On the way up he picked up three rebel officers and fifty-seven privates, and brought them into camp. His command had marched nearly two hun dred miles in three days and a half. His men had hardly any sleep, in spite of their fearful fatigue, and nothing to eat for the last twentyfour hours of the expedition. The animals had to subsist during the last three days on what forage could be hunted up along the route. Yet, notwithstanding this exhaustive taxation of men and animals, the cavalry brigade sought no rest, but immediately joined in the pursuit, and engaged as energetically in it as though riders and horses had not just made the severest and longest march in the shortest time, but were just entering the field fresh from camp. They kept always in the advance, scouting in all directions, woods for the enemy for miles one half of Hooker's are where I want them. I have this moment reënforced Hooker's right with a brigade and a couple of guns, and hope in a few minutes to finish the work intended for today. Our men are behaving splendidly. The enemy are fighting well also. This is not a battle, merely an affair of Heintzelman's corps, supported by Keyes, and thus far all goes well, and we hold every foot we have gained. If we succeed in what we have undertaken, it will be a very important advantage gained. Loss not large thus far. The fighting up to this time has been done by Gen. Hooker's division, which has behaved as usual, that is, most handsomely. On our right, Porter has silenced the enemy's batteries in his front. G. B. MCCLELLAN, around. On the fourth of June, the brigade, supported by Powell's battery, made a forced reconnoissance, and encountered a strong body of rebel cavalry, infantry, and artillery, a short distance this side of Blackland, with whom they had a successful skirmish, the Second Iowa losing three killed and nine wounded, and the Second Michigan two killed and seven wounded. Again, on the sixth, it made another reconnoissance in the direction of Baldwin, skirmishing for six miles, and driving the enemy that distance to Twenty-Mile Creek, in the bottom of which lay a large body of rebel infantry. On the ninth the brigade, temporarily in command of Colonel Sheridan, was directed to proceed the shortest possible road from near Blackland to Baldwin. It did so, and arrived at the latter point on the following morning at four o'clock, finding the enemy gone. Lieut.-Col. Hatch was then ordered with a battalion each of the Second Michigan and The affair is over, and we have gained our Second Iowa, to proceed toward Guntown and point fully, and with but little loss, notwithstandfeel the position of the enemy. He came uponing the strong opposition. Our men have done his rear, one and a half miles from Guntown, and his bold advance forced the rebels out, with infantry, cavalry, and artillery; when, having fulfilled his mission, he returned to Baldwin. This was the last attempt made by any portion of our forces to follow up the retreating enemy. It was not only in the last days of the siege of Corinth, and during the pursuit, that the brigade made a reputation for boldness and power of endurance. From the very day they landed at Hamburgh, portions of it engaged almost daily in venturesome, successful outpost enterprises. The gallant charge of the brigade upon a rebel battery near Farmington, on the ninth ultimo, alone won for it the confidence and admiration of the whole army. Major-General Commanding. REDOUBT NO. 8, Wednesday, June 25-5 P.M. Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War: all that could be desired. The affair was partially decided by two guns that Capt. Dusenbury brought gallantly into action under very difficult circumstances. camps in front of this, and all is now quiet. The enemy was driven from his REPORT OF COLONEL COWDIN. HEADQUARTERS FIRST REGIMENT MASS. VOLS., Wm. Schouler, Adj.-Gen. of Massachusetts: GENERAL: In accordance with orders from the Brigade-General commanding the First brigade, I left my camp at Fair Oaks yesterday morning, and proceeded with my command to the front Its efficiency is principally due to the efforts into the fallen timber, where I deployed the regiof Col. Elliott, than whom a better cavalry officer ment as skirmishers, throwing out advanced pickcan hardly be found in the service. It is but ets in front of my line, and supported by the regratifying that he has already obtained his well-mainder of the brigade, advanced for the purpose deserved reward by his promotion to a BrigadierGeneralship. He is now on duty on Gen. Pope's staff, and Col. Sheridan is permanently assigned to the command of the brigade. Doc. 77. BATTLE OF OAK GROVE, VA. DESPATCHES FROM GENERAL MCCLELLAN.* REDOUBT NO. 3, Wednesday, June 25-1.30 P.M. Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War: We have advanced our pickets on the left considerably, to-day, under sharp resistance. Our men have behaved very handsomely. Some firing still continues. GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, Major-General Commanding. REDOUBT No. 8, Wednesday, June 25-3.15 P.M. Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War: The enemy are making desperate resistance to the advance of our picket-lines. Kearney, and * Further reports of this engagement will be given in the Sup plement. of driving in the enemy's pickets and advancing our lines of main pickets through a swamp into an open field, a distance of about three quarters of a mile. After advancing about one third of the distance, our advanced pickets became engaged and drove the enemy's pickets back on to their reserve, where they made a determined stand. I now sent for support, as had been previously agreed, and was promptly joined by the Second NewHampshire regiment, than which a more reliable one cannot be found in the service. Our right at this time rested in the direction of the Rich mond and Williamsburgh turnpike, and our left towards Gen. Kearney's division. Moving forward my regiment, we became engaged with the enemy's reserve picket in considerable force, and drove them back, step by step. At this time we met with a severe loss, by the wounding of Second Lieut. Joseph H. Dalton, immediately followed by that of Captains Wild, Carruth and Chamberlin, and Second Lieutenants Thomas and Parkinson, who were carried to the rear, besides quite a number of non-commissioned officers, leaving two companies under the command of corporals. McClellan thought it desirable to advance our lines at this point-to the other side of the woods After a brisk encounter of about an hour I or- -at the risk of a general engagement. (You will dered my whole line to move forward, which they also observe that it is the point in our lines neardid with a shout, the enemy giving way before est Richmond on its direct lines of communicaus, bearing with them most of their killed and tion.) Gen. Heintzelman was accordingly ordered wounded. We drove them through the open to push Hooker's division into the disputed terfields and swamp, wading in many places nearly ritory, and hold a line near the enemy's espla to our waists in mud and water, and establishing nade. Porter's batteries, meantime, had opened our line of pickets as previously indicated by the a furious bombardment upon the enemy at GarCommanding General, but not without quite a net's farm and Old Tavern, fixing their attention serious loss. rather closely to those points. Generals Sickles's and Grover's brigades deployed right and left, and moved into the forest in line of battle, Grover being commander on the actual field of battle, with orders to report to Gen. Hooker, who posted himself on the edge of the timber to watch the whole line. The Nineteenth Massachusetts, Col. Hinks, (of Sumner's corps,) was thrown out in line to protect the right flank, and Kearney's division was advanced to protect the left, General Robinson's brigade joining Grover's. Hooker's Third brigade, commanded by Col. Carr, Second New-York volunteers, (not Second New-York State Militia,) was ordered to remain behind the intrenchments in support. The officers and men under my command deServe the highest praise for their attention to and prompt obedience to orders. I have the honor to remain, ROBERT COWDIN, Colonel Commanding First Reg't Mass. Vols. A NATIONAL ACCOUNT. CAMP ON FAIR OAKS BATTLE-FIELD, VA., Thursday, June 26, 1862. To enable you to comprehend the action, I will report its history circumstantially. It was fought on Fair Oaks Farm, nearly a mile in front of the battle-field of Fair Oaks. The latter derives its title from the railway station. But Fair Oaks Homestead is a mile south of the station, and south of the Williamsburgh stage-road. The fight, in military parlance, was an affair." I am almost tempted to denominate it the Battle of Casualties. Wherefore? Six hundred and forty brave men were killed and wounded- and we gained a barren victory. Its true result was a reconnoissance of some value, which might have been better made, (it seems to me,) by a single courageous man. The operation was intended to be highly important, but under the present circumstances its real value is obscured in a sea of uncertain speculation. - Knowledge of the situation is necessary to an understanding of the affair. You will bear in mind that Gen. Porter's batteries, on the east bank of the river, command several important rebel batteries on this side including those on James Garnet's farm and at Old Tavern. By referring to your maps, you will discover that the Williamsburgh stage-road, and the Richmond and York River Railroad, run almost parallel at Fair Oaks station. The deviations will not affect the general description. By running a line due south from Fair Oaks station, you will intersect the Williamsburgh road at Hooker's camp. Given the enemy's line of intrenchments, a mile, or perhaps more, in advance, and you have the figure of an irregular parallelogram of which the east end is occupied by Hooker's command, the west by the enemy. In front of Hooker there is a wide field and entanglement, which is our territory; a belt of timber and thicket, perhaps five hundred yards wide, which has been bloodily debated now some twenty-five days; still further beyond, another broad field, intersected by the stage-road and railroad, and commanded by rebel rifle-pits, and a redoubt near the railroad. For reasons best understood by himself, Gen. Our force advanced cautiously, but with great difficulty, through the heavy swamps and thickets, skirmishers in front, until the rebel pickets were ousted. A brisk engagement opened immediately with their supports. They were speedily forced back, but rallied upon strong reenforcements, and the battle became general. It was impossible to distinguish anything but smoke and mounted officers dashing back and forth along the line. The furious tumult within the woody recesses was a sufficient assurance of hot strife. The firing on both sides was very heavy, and it was as easy to distinguish the respective volleys as it is to distinguish between two human voices-our own being sharp and ringing, those of the enemy dull and heavy, like the reports of shot-guns. Our men were armed with Springfield and Enfield guns, the enemy with Harper's Ferry muskets, which their officers prefer. I was impressed that the enemy were most numerous. Gen. Grover was so satisfied of the fact that he notified Gen. Hooker. He begun to think that it would have been wiser had he brought Colonel Wyman's Sixteenth Massachusetts regiment into battle. He had left him in reserve on the edge of the wood, consoling him with the remark that his regiment "had won glory enough at Fair Oaks." Sickles commanded not only his brigade, but each of his regiments, leading and inspiring each with his own fiery ardor. The first reports of picket alarms had hardly subsided before ambulances, loaded with wounded, began to debouch from the forest, and it was not a great while before a long procession of bloody forms upon stretchers followed them. A half-hour or more, perhaps, after the first attack, the fire extended across Hooker's entire line, to Hinks's flanking regiment, which was as hotly engaged as its neighbors. The fire gradually increased in intensity, indicating the arrival of new |