The subjoined letter is from JOHN LYNDE, a young man who went from this place, and was formerly a clerk in this office. The letter is directed to Mr. Moody:
Pittsburgh, Tennessee,
March [sic] 8th, 1862.
Friend Moody: –
Agreeable to my promise, I write you the first opportunity after anything of importance had taken place, and I am sure a battle of the greatest importance to our cause has taken place here within the last two days. I shall be very brief as I have not time to write much, and it is doubtful whether this will be permitted to reach you.
That you may better understand the description I will speak of the country around here, and the position of our forces.
We are encamped on the West bank of the Tennessee river, at, and near Pittsburgh. The town (six houses originally,) is between two sloughs which are filled with water from the river at the present time, running back to the west one-third of a mile or more. Our encampment occupies this space, and when beyond the sloughs, extends both North and South for nearly a mile, while it runs back four miles from the river. The ground is covered with heavy timber, with the exception of here and there a small clearing, and is rolling, like our prairies in Iowa.
On Sunday morning, the 6th, the enemy drove in our scouts and attacked us in full force, driving us nearly a mile before they could be checked. At about half past seven, we succeeded in getting force sufficient to check them for a while, and they, bringing up reinforcements, extended the line of battle full three miles in length. By this time the battle had become general throughout the whole line; but they brought such great odds against us, in spite of the numbers which were killed by our batteries and infantry, they would crowd up to and force our lines back, in some instances taking our batteries from us, and though our men fought desperately they were obliged to fall back and take new positions. – The battle continued thus until about half past five o’clock in the evening, our forces making a stand and forming a line on a slight elevation of ground extending North and South, and parallel with the river; maintaining their position as long as possible, then falling back to another ridge and forming again. This was repeated again and again until the last stand was made on a ridge running from the sough on the South in a north-westerly direction back from the river. If they had carried this line the day would have been theirs, and our whole transportation; for it was between our line, the river, and the slough on the north, with no opportunity of escape if our line was once broken. You may rest assured that I felt some anxiety at that time, if not before, for I was with the train of our regiment and must necessarily be taken or swim. At that time our new line was forming. Buell’s forces from Nashville began to arrive on the opposite side of the river, and before the enemy began the attack about 5,000 had crossed to our assistance. In this attack they failed and were driven back with great loss, and routed for the night. At daylight the next morning, we being reinforced, commenced the attack, and by 2 o’clock P.M., had re-taken all the ground lost, and the enemy soon running. During the evening I rode over the field, and everything indicates terrible fighting, and indeed there was; from until after 2 o’clock there was one continual discharge of musketry, and only twice during that time did I hear the distinct and separate discharge of a single musket; the rest of the time it was one continual roar, much of the time increased by the discharge of cannon, and these decreasing as they ceased.
You can travel miles through the timber and can not find a tree of any size but that is marked by the balls. In many places the small trees are entirely cut down by the fire of the small arms, while larger trees are torn and broken in all directions by shell and shot from the cannon.
Our Regiment was ordered into position about 9 o’clock in the morning and with the 14th, 12th and 7th Iowa Regiments, forming a brigade under Col. Tuttle, were placed a little to the left of the centre of the line of battle and maintained their position until Gen. Wallace ordered them to fall back; which order came so late that the brigade was outflanked nearly a mile. Our boys did not fall back until ordered, and then only the 2nd and the 7th got out, passing through a cross fire for nearly the whole distance. – The 12th and 14th both fought bravely but were overpowered, and surrendered.
Our boys in the 2d, suffered severely then, but were in the fight again the next day and made the last charge on the right; which may be said to have commenced the race. We have lost nearly 100 in killed, wounded and missing. In Co. D, we have no one killed that we know of. Two are missing. These are Austin Rush and James Crystal, son of R. S. Crystal of Lee township. These will come in, I presume, in a day or two. Wm. Riddle, John Looby, Leonard Houston, Sergeant Wm. Houston, and some others are wounded, more or less, but not very severely. The whole Regiment behaved with the utmost coolness during the time they were in the fire.
The prisoners taken say that they had sixty thousand men at the commencement of the action and were re-inforced by sixty thousand more during the day. I do not think that we had over forty thousand in all the first day, and many of them were new troops and did not stand fire. So that our force cold not have been half of the enemy on Sunday. On Monday Buell took the field with fourteen thousand of his men and then we drove them without check.
I have not time to write any more at present, will write again soon. I have written this in a great hurry, and you must excuse errors. The boys send their best wishes, and I include mine.
JOHN LYNDE.
P.S. By-the-way I wish you would send me a half dozen postage stamps, as it is almost impossible to get any. This is my last.
JOHN
– Published in the Daily State Register, Des Moines, Iowa, Tuesday, April 22, 1862
