Camp Number 5, Princeton, May 2, 7:30 A. M., 1862.
Sir: — Your
strictures on the expedition under Lieutenant Bottsford are very severe. I
wrote you my account of it hastily during a momentary delay of the column and
am perhaps blamable for sending to you anything so imperfect as to lead to such
misapprehension. I was, however, compelled to write such an account or none at
all. I trusted to your favorable judgment of what was done rather than to the
fulness and accuracy of what I was writing. I thought that a most meritorious
thing in all respects had been done and did not imagine that it could be
so stated as to give you such a view of it as you have taken.
You seem to think that the expedition was an improper one
and that Lieutenant Bottsford or his men must have been guilty of great
negligence. I think the expedition was strictly according to the spirit and
letter of instruction given by both you and General Fremont and that no blame
ought to attach to any one for the manner of it in any particular. I knew by
reliable information, which turned out to be perfectly correct, that Captain
Foley and his notorious gang of bushwhackers were camped within sixteen or
eighteen miles of the camp at Shady Spring where I was stationed; that Foley's
force was from thirty to sixty men, and that the only way of catching him was
by surprising his camp at night or early daylight. I sent Lieutenant Bottsford
with about seventy-five men of Company C, aided by Sergeant Abbott and his
scouts, six in number, to do this service. I was satisfied that the enemy had
no force worth naming nearer than Princeton, and at Princeton their force was
small, probably not over two hundred or three hundred. All this information has
turned out to be correct. Lieutenant Bottsford left camp at 9 P. M., April 29,
and reached Foley's about daylight. He found the nest warm but the bird was
gone. I can find no blame in this. He was compelled to move slowly in a strange
country at night. A scout could easily give the required warning without fault
on our part.
On the 30th, Lieutenant Bottsford scouted the country for
the bushwhackers; camped in a house very defensible within four to six miles of
where he knew I was to camp with the regiment. In the meantime
Lieutenant-Colonel Fitz Hugh, or Fitzhugh, had marched with the whole force at
Princeton, four companies of Jenifer's Cavalry, dismounted, numbering over two
hundred, to aid Foley. This was done on the morning of the 30th, and on that
evening Foley with bushwhackers and militia, to the number of seventy-five or
one hundred, joined Fitzhugh. During the night they got as near Lieutenant
Bottsford as they could without alarming his pickets, not near enough to do any
mischief. In the morning Lieutenant Bottsford prepared to return to camp. He
drew in his pickets, formed his line, and then for the first time, the enemy
came within gunshot. Bottsford's men, in line of battle in front of a log
house, saw the enemy approaching. A volley was fired on each side, when Lieutenant
Bottsford, finding the strength of the attack, took shelter in the house and
fired with such spirit and accuracy as to drive the enemy out of gunshot,
leaving his dead and four of his wounded on the field, all of whom were taken
possession of by Lieutenant Bottsford's men immediately, besides four wounded
prisoners who didn't run far enough before hiding.
This attack was in no blamable sense “a surprise.” It found
Lieutenant Bottsford perfectly prepared for it.
You seem to think there was nothing gained by this affair;
that it is a “disaster” and that “we lost twenty men.” Surely I could have said
nothing to warrant this. Of the twenty wounded over two-thirds were able and
desired to march to Princeton with us. Our loss was one killed, two dangerously,
perhaps mortally, wounded, and two, possibly three, others disabled, — perhaps
not more than one. The enemy's loss was thirteen dead and disabled that “we
got.” Captain Foley was disabled and we know of four others in like condition
and I know not how many slightly wounded. This is not a disaster, but a fight
of the sort which crushes the Rebellion.
You speak of Company C as advanced beyond “supporting
distance.” We heard the firing and if the enemy had been stubborn should have
been in good time to help drive him off. He reported here that our advance did
in fact drive him off. If this is not supporting distance, parties cannot leave
camp without violating an important rule. Lieutenant Bottsford had retreated to
within four miles of us.
Upon the whole, I think that the affair deserves
commendation rather than censure, and I take blame to myself for writing you a
note under circumstances which precluded a full statement; such a statement as
would prevent such misapprehension as I think you are under.
Respectfully,
R. B. Hayes,
Lieutenant-colonel 23RD Regiment, O. V. I.,
Commanding.
[colonel Scammon.]
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 240-2
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