NEW YORK, April 7.
A special dispatch to the Philadelphia Inquirer, dated Thorof [sic] Gap, Va., April 2d, via Baltimore, April 6th, says that a rebel force of 7 regiments of infantry, 2 of cavalry, and 3 batteries, were thrown across the Rappahannock to cut off Col. Geary’s command at White Plains by a forced march. They reached Salem, within 5 miles of the Union band last evening, with the intention of attacking Col. Geary in two columns, cutting off his retreat, and then seizing this formidable gap to intercept the progress of the reconstruction of the Manassas Gap. R. R.
The attack was to be made at daybreak this morning. Their movements were made secretly, with the intention of making a dash, and cutting the command to pieces. Col. Geary became apprised of their designs, and moved his command off during the night, and battled with the mountain roads, wading swamps and rivers of mud for five miles, and by daylight occupied this Gap, where he prepared for a resolute stand in the mountain defiles. The movement was most important, frustrating a design to accomplish a victory by the destruction of a much dreaded command, thus to revive the drooping feelings of the rebels in Virginia.
The calls were beaten in the evening and the camp fires left burning as usual. After the command marched, although in such superior force, the enemy had not the temerity to follow and attempt an entrance into the rugged defiles. It is supposed they returned at once to their original position south of the Rappahannock.
One of the Union scouts was killed and three of the rebels were taken prisoners. Thorof Gap is a station of the Manassas Gap Railroad, fourteen miles west of Manassas. It is a gap in the Bull Run Mountains.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 8, 1862, p. 1
No comments:
Post a Comment