Page:The Rebellion Record - Volume 7.djvu/621

 enemy. In half an hour the quick and continuous firing of their heavy rifles told plainly that they were hotly engaged. Lieutenant Colvin was then ordered forward with his battery, and did good execution. Company C, Captain Smith, and company I, Captain Morse, Fifth Indiana, were ordered by Colonel Foster to charge on a detachment of the enemy who were supporting their battery. The frightened rebs, seeing three columns moving upon them—the Sixty-fifth on the right, Colonel Butler leading the Fifth cavalry in the centre, the Eighth Tennessee on the left—gave up in despair, and, panic-stricken, left in hurried confusion. Our brave boys, seeing the enemy give way, raised a shout, put spurs to their horses and made chase. Colonel Butler charged on after them, capturing one twenty-four pound gun and one wagon. The gun was taken by Orderly St. John, company H, with a small squad of men. The charge through the town was perhaps the most exciting part of the battle. The sun had set far in the west, behind the column. The town in front was already on fire, and mostly consumed, from the rebel shells. The Sixty-fifth Indiana, on the right, was sharply engaging the enemy. Companies C and D, on the left, were driving the rebels out of the corn-field back to their guns, when our men dashed on through the smoky streets, with burning timbers and columns of blaze on both sides. The shout of victory was soon raised, and our never-flinching soldiers, who had been exposed from nine o'clock in the morning to the firing of a secreted enemy, now felt that they were reaping a full harvest in seeing the enemy completely whipped and themselves the victorious party. Great praise is due to each commander of the three regiments and two batteries engaged in the battle, and the men have the real Spartan metal in them.

The result of the battle is as follows: Rebel loss fifteen killed, fifty wounded, and one hundred taken prisoners. Our loss was five killed and twenty-two wounded. Only one killed in the Fifth Indiana cavalry—John W. Johnson, saddler in company C. We camped on the ground occupied by the enemy that night and the next day, when we took up our line of march for this place.

Since entering Knoxville, on the first of September, our regiment has been to Sevierville, nearly to the top of Smoky Mountains, N. C., to Greenville, to Bristol, Va., to Zollicoffer, where we had a sharp fight, killing fifty and wounding one hundred. We had a short skirmish also at Bristol, where we had five men wounded and none killed.

We are now at Knoxville, waiting further orders. Our horses are jaded and our men tired, but at the sound of the bugle will all jump, give one whoop and start off to win new laurels, and hasten the time when we can all return to our homes again.

JEFFERSON DAVIS AND POPE PIUS IX.

, September 23, 1863.

The letters which you have written to the clergy of New-Orleans and New-York have been communicated to me, and I have read with emotion the deep grief therein expressed for the ruin and devastation caused by the war which is now being waged by the United States against the States and people which have selected me as their President, and your orders to your clergy to exhort the people to peace and charity. I am deeply sensible of the Christian charity which has impelled you to this reiterated appeal to the clergy. It is for this reason that I feel it my duty to express personally, and in the name of the Confederate States, our gratitude for such sentiments of Christian good feeling and love, and to assure Your Holiness that the people, threatened even on their own hearths with the most cruel oppression and terrible carnage, is desirous now, as it has always been, to see the end of this impious war; that we have addressed prayers to heaven for that issue which Your Holiness now desires; that we desire none of our enemy's possessions, but that we fight merely to resist the devastation of our country and the shedding of our best blood, and to force them to let us live in peace under the protection of our own institutions, and under our laws, which not only insure to every one the enjoyment of his temporal rights, but also the free exercise of his religion. I pray your Holiness to accept, on the part of myself and the people of the Confederate States, our sincere thanks for your efforts in favor of peace. May the Lord preserve the days of your Holiness, and keep you under his divine protection.

Salutation. We have just received, with all suitable welcome, the persons sent by you to place in our hands your letter, dated twenty-third of September last. Not slight was the pleasure we experienced when we learned, from these persons and the letter, with what feelings of joy and gratitude you were animated, illustrious and honorable President, as soon as you were informed of our letters to our venerable brothers, John, Archbishop of New-York, and John, Archbishop of New-Orleans, dated the eighteenth of October of last year, and in which we have, with all our strength, excited and exhorted these venerable brothers that in their episcopal piety and solicitude they should endeavor, with the most ardent zeal, and in our name, to bring about the end of the fatal civil war which has broken out in those countries, in order that the American people may obtain peace and concord, and dwell charitably together. It is particularly agreeable to us to see that you, illustrious and honorable President, and your people, are animated with the same desires of peace and tranquillity which we have