September 23—Left here this morning at 10 o’clock and got to our old camp at 4 o’clock this evening. This expedition was to strengthen Longstreet’s forces near Suffolk. We got there after he was relieved and the siege of Suffolk abandoned.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
SEPTEMBER 23D.—Jackson, the ubiquitous and invincible, fell upon Burnside’s division and annihilated it. This intelligence has been received by the President.
We have, also, news from Kentucky. It comes this time in the New York Herald, and is true, as far as it goes. A portion of Buell’s army, escaping from Nashville, marched to Mumfordsville, where Bragg cut them to pieces, taking 5000 prisoners! It cannot be possible that this is more than half the truth.
The newsboys are selling extras in the streets containing these glorious accounts.
[September 23d]
From Bolivar Heights, on which our camp is pitched, we have a magnificent view of the Shenandoah valley, limited only by the distant horizon. Immediately across the river are the Loudon Heights, and there, perched up well in the clouds, are several batteries and a large force of infantry. The place is of great strength naturally, but requires a big garrison to hold it. Unless both heights many miles in extent are held, it is untenable, and I suppose Miles with his eleven or twelve thousand men, who surrendered so promptly to General Jackson, concluded it was useless to fight with his small command. It seems Miles retired from the heights on the approach of the enemy, and took shelter in the town, where he was absolutely powerless. As the general was killed, his apparently poor judgment and wretched defense will never be explained. But if the place had held out for twenty-four hours which seems quite possible, Franklin’s corps would have reached it from the Maryland side, and together they could not only have held the fort, but prevented Jackson from joining Lee at Antietam, which would very likely have resulted in Lee’s destruction. Miles probably knew nothing of the measures taken for his relief, but the result shows how imperatively necessary it is for all commanders of detached posts to hold on to the very death. What a chance Miles had for making a hero of himself!
Lee’s army is reported in the neighborhood of Winchester, and is believed to be wholly west of the Blue Ridge. No attempt, apparently, at present is to be made to renew the campaign, and so we are putting up our tents and forming regular camps. The losses have been so great, that few of the old regiments now exceed two hundred men each. The recruiting service is entirely out of joint, and does not furnish in six months as many men as we sometimes lose before breakfast. The total force of the army is maintained by raising new regiments, instead of filling up the old ones, and consequently half the men are inexperienced and useless. It is a wonder to me, that such a vital point should be overlooked by the Government, and no attempt made to keep the force up in quality as well as in numbers.
Another difficulty with the service is the lack of system in promotion. Excepting subaltern commissions, nearly all are obtained through influence at home. There are notable instances in my own regiment, where officers have been commissioned, directly in opposition to the colonel’s recommendation, and the seniority and rights of other officers.
September 23.—Three hundred Sioux Indians, under Little Crow, attacked Colonel Sibley’s command near Yellow Medicine, Minn. The battle lasted two hours, resulting in the repulse of the Indians with the loss of thirty killed and a large number wounded. Four whites were killed and from thirty to forty wounded.—(Doc. 209.)
—This being the last day for taking the oath of allegiance, at New-Orleans, La., in accordance with the order of Gen. Butler, the City Hall and Custom House in that city were besieged by thousands, desirous of availing themselves of the privilege.—The schooner Nellie was captured by the United States steamer Alabama.
—This morning the town of Sutton, Va., was attacked by a body of about one hundred rebel cavalry, but were repulsed by the Union force guarding the post, under Major Withers, Tenth Virginia, and driven nine miles, when, the rebels being reenforced, the Unionists retired, but being in their turn pursued, and being greatly outnumbered, they abandoned their position and fell back to Bulltown.— Wheeling Intelligencer.
—Colonel Switzer, Sixty-second Pennsylvania, in command of his own regiment, with a section of the First New-York artillery, and Griffin’s brigade, crossed the Potomac from Maryland into Virginia at Reynolds’s Ford, below Shepherdstown, Va., and captured over four hundred rifles, mostly marked “London, 1862,” and a twelve-pounder rifled brass cannon of English manufacture. The capture was accomplished without firing a shot; the rebel pickets falling back as the Union men advanced.
—The One Hundred and Forty-ninth (Fourth Onondaga) regiment, nine hundred strong, commanded by Col. Henry A. Barnum, left Syracuse for Washington at nine o’clock this morning. They went by way of Geneva, Elmira and Harrisburgh through Baltimore. Col. Barnum was not able to go with the regiment further than Elmira, not having fully recovered from his wound received on the Virginia Peninsula.
—Major-General Wright, in a special order issued at Cincinnati, Ohio, declared that the daily prohibition of business after four P.M. was rescinded. On every Saturday, after two P.M., business of every kind was to be suspended until five P.M., during which interval all able-bodied men in Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport were to meet for drill. Passes to citizens, except to enter the military lines, and passes issued under the orders regarding the drafting of the enrolled militia, were dispensed with. In dispensing with the daily drills and suspension of business, the General Commanding had in view the relief, as far as was practicable, of the people from burdens to which they had not been accustomed, but would impress upon the minds of all the fact that danger had not passed away; that the present military organization must be rigidly adhered to and carefully preserved. He thanked the citizens for the general alacrity with which they sprung to arms and entered upon the labor for the common defence, and the patience with which they had borne the various restrictions imposed upon them.
—Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, issued an order returning thanks to the people of that State for the manner in which they responded to his call for fifty thousand volunteers to resist invasion.—The National War Committee of the city of New-York held a special meeting, at which the sub-committee submitted an addendum to their report of the fifth instant, having relation to their conference with the Governors of the New-England States, concerning the adoption of measures to hasten forward troops to the seat of war.
—Yesterday the steamer Eugene, plying between Cairo and Memphis on the Mississippi River, carrying the United States mail and a large number of passengers and troops, was attacked at Randolph, Tenn., by a band of rebel guerrillas, but she got off. This, on the arrival of the boat at Memphis, being reported to General Sherman, commanding the Union forces there, he despatched, in the steamers Ohio Belle, and Eugene, a force of troops who to-day burned the town.—Cincinnati Commercial.
—The day on which the draft was to take place in Pennsylvania was postponed to the sixteenth October.
—The steamer Emma was boarded at Foster’s Landing, on the Ohio River, by a party of rebel guerrillas, who, after plundering her of all they wanted, allowed her to proceed.
