To-night, half an
hour ago, received a dispatch from the top of Cheat, which reads as follows:
All
back. Made a very interesting reconnoissance. Killed a large number of the
enemy. Very small loss on our side.
J. J. REYNOLDS,
Brigadier-General.
Why, when the battle
was progressing so advantageously for our side, did they not go on? This, then,
is the result of the grand demonstration on the other side of the mountain.
McDougal's company
returned, and report the enemy fallen back.
The frost has
touched the foliage, and the mountain peaks look like mammoth bouquets; green, red,
yellow, and every modification of these colors appear mingled in every possible
fanciful and tasteful way.
Another dispatch has
just come from the top of Cheat, written, I doubt not, after the Indianians had
returned to camp and drawn their whisky ration. It sounds bigger than the
first. I copy it:
Found
the rebels drawn up in line of battle one mile outside of their fortifications,
drove them back to their intrenchments, and continued the fight four hours. Ten
of our men wounded and ten killed. Two or three hundred of the enemy killed.
If it be true that
so many of the rebels were killed, it is probable, that two thousand at least
were wounded; and when three hundred are killed and two thousand wounded, out
of an army of twelve or fifteen hundred men, the business is done up very
thoroughly. The dispatch which went to Richmond to-night, I have no doubt,
stated that "the Federals attacked in great force, outnumbering us two or
three to one, and after a terrific engagement, lasting five hours, they
were repulsed at all points with great slaughter. Our loss one killed and five
wounded. Federal loss, five hundred killed and twenty-five hundred
wounded." Thus are victories won and histories made. Verily the pen is
mightier than the sword.
SOURCE: John
Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 72-4
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