October 10.—Early this morning one of General Kilpatrick’s cavalry brigades, consisting of four regiments, attempted a reconnoissance on the south side of Robertson’s River, when they were met by a large body of Stuart’s rebel cavalry. A fight ensued, which lasted about an hour, when the Union cavalry fell back upon the infantry reserves. Another severe conflict ensued, which resulted in the giving way of the Union infantry and the capture of a considerable number of them. A detachment of the cavalry afterward made a dash upon the rebels and recaptured all, excepting fifteen or twenty, of the infantry. The entire National force were then pushed back toward Culpeper, skirmishing all the way.—(Doc. 196.)
—Zollicoffer, Tenn., was captured by the Union forces under General Shackelford.— (Doc. 198.)
—Lieutenant-Colonel G. W. Lee has recently returned from his deserter-hunting trip into the mountains of North-Carolina. He has captured between three hundred and four hundred deserters and tories. Their leader, Colonel Busty, notorious for his daring outrages, was said to have about six hundred men under him. They were not, however, in a body, but scattered through the country, engaged in their treasonable work of stealing and destroying the property of the people, and carrying off cattle fattening for the army. With two hundred men, Colonel Lee pursued and drove him to Loudon, and captured fifty prisoners, among them two Yankee recruiting officers, and about seventy-five fine beef cattle.— Richmond Whig, October 10.
—A large and enthusiastic meeting of mechanics was held in Richmond, Va., at which the following resolution, among others, was adopted:
Resolved, That, awakened to a sense of the abject posture to which labor and we who labor have been reduced, and to the privileges which as citizens and people the institutions of our country rest in us, we will not sleep again until our grasp has firmly clenched the rights and immunities which are ours as Americans and men, until our just demands have been met by the concessions of all opposing elements.
—The National forces under General Burnside defeated the rebels at Blue Springs, Tenn.— (Doc. 192.)
