Saturday, December 26, 2009

Report of a Reliable Gentleman from Memphis

ST. LOUIS, April 22 – From a gentleman who left Memphis a few days after the battle of Pittsburg, we learn that the rebels, putting both days of the battle together, still claim a victory. Their claims rest on the supposition that there were more killed, wounded and taken prisoners on the Federal side, than on their own.

Our informant says that Prentiss made a speech to his troops in Memphis, in which he endeavored to modify their complaints in relation to their treatment, food, &c. He told them that they would soon be exchanged, and rallied them generally to keep good spirits. Prentiss was in [excellent] temper. He owned up to a defeat on Sunday, but said that the rebels were badly whipped on Monday. The prisoners were being sent to Richmond.

Our informant was in Huntsville when Mitchell reached there with his division. The seizure of the place was a complete surprise, and the occupation of the railroad between Decatur and Stevenson, was regarded as the hardest blow the Rebels had yet received.

The rebels were preparing to make a desperate stand at Corinth, and fresh troops were constantly arriving at Memphis.

When he left, business at Memphis was almost entirely suspended, and the people generally believed that there were on the eve of events which will speedily decide the war.

Rev. D. R. McInally, Editor of the St. Louis Christian Advocate, has been arrested and placed in military prison, and his paper suppressed, for published treasonable matter. This arrest causes no surprise, as in the course of McInally’s paper, for some time past, has been very obnoxious to the Government.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 26, 1862, p. 4

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