February 22.—Two companies of the Thirty-fourth Kentucky infantry (A and I) were engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter of about four hours’ duration, against superior numbers of the enemy. The rebels, about five hundred strong, attacked them at Powell’s River Bridge, Tenn., at six o’clock A.M., and after making four separate charges on the bridge, which were gallantly met and repulsed, the rebels were driven from their position and compelled to retreat in disorder, leaving horses, saddles, arms, etc., on the field. They took most of their dead and wounded with them.
There were a great many daring acts of bravery committed; but as the whole affair is one of the most brilliant of the war, it would be almost impossible to make any distinction. There is one, however, that is well worth recording. The attack was made by infantry, while the cavalry prepared for a charge. The cavalry was soon in line and moving on the bridge; on they came in a steady, solid column, covered by the fire of their infantry. In a moment the Nationals saw their perilous position, and Lieutenant Slater called for a volunteer to tear up the boards to prevent their crossing. There was some hesitation, and in a moment all would have been lost, had not one William Goss (company clerk of company I) leaped from the intrenchments, and, running to the bridge under the fire of about four hundred guns, threw ten boards off into the river, and returned unhurt. This prevented the capture of the whole force.—Louisville Journal.
—A fight occurred near Mulberry Gap, Tenn., between the Eleventh Tennessee cavalry and a body of rebels, in which the National troops were obliged to retreat
—Lieutenant-General J. B. Hood, of the rebel army, in an address to his old division, concludes as follows:
“A stern conflict is before us; other hardships must be borne, other battles fought, and other blood shed; but we have nothing to fear if we only prove ourselves worthy of independence—it is ours, but our armies must deliver us. With them we must blaze a highway through our enemies to victory and to peace. In the trials and dangers that are to come, I know you will claim an honorable share, and win new titles to the admiration and love of your country; and in the midst of them, whether I am near you or far from you, my heart will be always there; and when this struggle is over, I shall look upon no spectacle with so much pleasure as upon my old comrades, who have deserved so well of their country, crowned with its blessings and encompassed by its love.”
—A small force of National troops left Hilton Head, S. C, in transports, and proceeded up the Savannah River to Williams’s Island, arriving at that place about dark yesterday. A company of the Fourth New-Hampshire regiment landed in small boats and made a reconnoissance, in the course of which they met a small body of the enemy. The Nationals lost four men of the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania. This morning the Union forces withdrew, bringing twenty prisoners. The reconnoissance was highly successful.
—This morning, about eleven o’clock, as a detachment of the Second Massachusetts cavalry, under command of Captain J. S. Read, who had been out on a scouting expedition, were returning toward Dranesville, Va., on the way to Vienna, they were attacked on the Dranesville Pike, about two miles from the latter place, by a gang of rebel guerrillas, supposed to be under Mosby, concealed in the pines. In the detachment of the Second Massachusetts there were one hundred and fifty men, while Mosby had at least between two and three hundred men. The Second Massachusetts were fired upon from the dense pine woods near Dranesville, and retreated. Afterward eight of their men were found dead and seven wounded, and at least fifty or seventy-five were taken prisoners, or missing. Among the prisoners was Captain Manning, of Maine. Captain J. S. Read, the commander of the detachment, was shot through the left lung, and died a few moments after being wounded.
