time. We could not see the rebel battery, it scalded; Paymaster Gunn, dying, (since dead ;) being concealed from us by a bend in the river, Doctor Jones, dying; Mr. Young, pilot, the but their balls whistled freely over and around same; and Lieut. Fry, of the rebel navy, (danus, striking the water some twenty yards in front gerously shot through the back while running of us, and ricocheting some ten feet over our from his battery,) in Capt. Blodgett's cabin, and heads, with that peculiar whistling sound by the ward-room full of wounded men and officers. which a rifled ball can always be distinguished. The Musselman stopped on her way up and We advanced steadily all the time, the Mound buried twenty-seven, and by the time she got to City being only about five hundred yards from Memphis seven more were dead. We buried the battery, and in full view of it, and we some fifty-eight that same night, and the men who five hundred yards behind, when precisely at were not hurt came to take supper on our boat, three minutes past ten we suddenly saw steam and out of a crew which in the morning numbered rushing from all the port-holes of the Mound one hundred and eighty-five men, only twentyCity, soon enveloping her completely. I turned two were left. All the masters were scalded to away sick at heart, for I knew what an awful death except the First Master, Mr. Daniel, and he scene was being enacted on board of the ill-fated being upon the quarterdeck escaped. All the boat. When I looked again, a minute after-engineers were killed except the First Assistant, wards, the violence of the steam had already sub- Mr. Clemens, and he had gone up on the Clara sided, and the water was full of men struggling Dolsen, also one of the pilots. One of the Maswith the swift current which was sweeping them ter's Mates was killed, the other badly scalded. away to a speedy death, but far preferable to the torture which they afterwards endured. All the boats were immediately lowered and sent to pick them up, and soon the poor wretches were trying to crawl into the boats, while the rebels kept up a sharp fire of musketry and grape upon them, sending a shot through the launch of the Conestoga, which was filled with scalded men, killing and wounding several.

Soon the ward-room of our boat was filled with men shrieking with agony. In such a case everybody is a doctor, so I got out my knife, and commenced cutting their clothes off, for wherever they were pulled off, the skin and flesh, which was literally boiled on their bones, came off with them. After getting their clothes off we deluged them with oil and flour, and covered them with raw cotton, they crying to us to shoot them and put them out of their pain. It made me so sick I was obliged to go on deck.

When I got up the firing had ceased. An army officer had come down to the bank and told us that the land forces had surprised the enemy and taken their battery, just as they were about retreating from the fire of our boats. The Conestoga and the Spiteful in the mean time had towed the Mound City down-stream. I went on board of her in the afternoon, but I cannot describe the horrible scene which met my eye. The decks were covered with dead and dying men, here and there skin from men's hands and feet, with the nails yet attached; men crying for water! water! to quench the heat from the steam which was burning them inside.

The Musselman, a small stern-wheel boat we had with us, went alongside of her to take on the wounded. I went into Capt. Kilty's room on the Mound City. A man lay on his bed gasping for water; I went to get him some; when I returned he was dead. We put some sixty-five scalded men on the Musselman, and a quarter of an hour afterwards we had to carry out seven of them which had died.

The Musselman started for Memphis in the evening with fifty-eight scalded, accompanied by the Conestoga, with Captain Kilty dangerously VOL. V.-Doc. 15

The ball that did all this mischief was a thirtytwo pound rifled, and entered upon the port side just above gun No. One, and killing two captains. of guns, passed clear through the steam-drum and lodged in the forward officers' mess-room. In looking at that poor mess I thought that perhaps it was foreördained, but may God preserve me from such a fate. Your affectionate son, FRED. WISE.

MISSOURI "DEMOCRAT" ACCOUNT.

MEMPHIS, June 19, 1862..

The

The gunboat Conestoga and transport Jacob Musselman have just arrived from White River, and bring the news of the capture of Fort St. Charles, on that river, by the gunboats of the expedition which left here on Friday last. fleet consisted of the gunboats Mound City, (flagship,) St. Louis, Conestoga and Lexington, and the transports New National, White Cloud and Jacob Musselman, having on board the Fortysixth Indiana regiment, in command of Col. G. Ñ, Fitch.

On Saturday last the fleet reached the mouth of White River, and on Monday, the eighteenth, began to ascend the stream. On Tuesday morning, at about seven o'clock, being within two miles of the supposed locality of the Fort, and the Mound City being in advance, Capt. Kilty began shelling the woods on each side of the river as they moved up, in order to cover the landing of Col. Fitch's troops from the transports. The landing was effected a little over a mile below the Fort, on the south-west bank of the river.

The Fort, situated on a ridge of about seventyfive feet in height, which runs nearly parallel with and about two hundred feet back from the south-west bank of the river, was not completed, having only breastworks for the two batteries, but no works of defence for the rear. The upper battery of two forty-two-pounders, was on the point of the ridge where it puts in close to the river. These two guns had been the armament of the gunboat Ponchartrain which the rebels had sunk so as to obstruct the channel of the river immediately abreast of the battery. Two trans

effect on the New National, which had landed her troops and come up to the rescue of the Mound City. The ball struck her behind the wheel, and, ranging forward, cut off the steam-pipe, immediately disabling her and slightly scalding the second engineer.

Col. Fitch, who had now gained the summit of the ridge a short distance below the lower battery, fearing that one of the other gunboats might meet with an accident similar to the Mound City's, signalled the gunboats to cease firing, and that he would storm the batteries. The gunboats accordingly ceased firing, and after making considerable of a detour, the Forty-sixth attacked the batteries in the rear, delivering their fire as they came up, charging over the guns and killing the gunners at their posts. The rebels fought stubbornly, asking no quarter, and receiving none from the men of the Forty-sixth, who were enraged at the dastardly firing upon the helpless men in the river; only two of those who were in the battery were taken prisoners, the rest were killed. The Indiana troops then came over the brow of the ridge and down into the wooded bottom-land next the river in pursuit of those who had been firing on the Mound City's crew, the rebels retreating rapidly up the bank of the river, the Forty-sixth firing on them as they fled, killing the greater portion of them. In the flight, Capt. Fry, their commander, was wounded by a ball in the back, was captured, and is now a prisoner on board the Conestoga. The rebel loss in killed is not known, but must have included the greater portion of their force, as we have only thirty prisoners, and only a few are known to have escaped. Opinions differ also as to the number of the rebels, some setting it as high as five hun dred, and saying that Col. Fitch's estimate of one hundred and fifty referred only to the gunboat's crew, who manned the upper battery.

ports had also been sunk close to her, one of loaded just before the shot struck the steam-drum, which had on her pilot-house "Eliza G." The and had not been fired since, but nearly half an battery on the point of the ridge was manned by hour afterwards one of the wounded gunners had the former crew of the Ponchartrain. The lower become entangled in the lanyard which is atbattery, composed of five twelve-pound field-tached to the lock of the gun, and in his writhpieces, was about three hundred yards further ing with the pain fired the gun. The ball took down-stream, where the ridge was further from the river; and the whole place was in command of Capt. Fry, the former captain of the Ponchartrain, and who was once a lieutenant in the U. S. navy. At about half-past eight, when the Mound City approached within less than a mile, the first or lower battery opened fire upon her; this was the first indication of the exact location of the batteries, as they had been concealed by the heavy timber in the intervening bottom land, which was only cleared along the river's edge, and at one or two other places, so as to give the guns of the batteries a clear range. The Mound City immediately moved up and delivered several broadsides, and leaving the St. Louis and Conestoga engaged, passed on up to engage the upper battery, which had now opened fire. The fight had lasted about thirty minutes after the firing had become general on both sides, and the lower battery of field-pieces was nearly silenced, when a forty-two-pound shot from the upper battery struck the Mound City on the port side, near the second gun from the bow, passing through the casemate, killing five or six men, and knocking a large hole in the steam-drum. Instantly the hot steam burst out in dense volumes, filling the engine-room, gun-room, and pilot-house, and scalding over one hundred and twenty-five persons. The shrieks of the poor fellows confined between decks in the scalding vapor were said to be heart-rending beyond description. Many were instantly suffocated, but all who were able groped their way to the ports and jumped into the river, and a minute after the explosion, fifty or sixty of them were struggling in the water. The Conestoga immediately came up and sent out two boats to pick them up. One of the Mound City's boats was also launched by Master's Mate Simmes Browne, one of the few officers who was not seriously hurt. During this time both gunboats and the small boats were drifting down the river. As the Mound City drifted near the shore, near the lower battery, a sortie was made from the battery, which some supposed to be an attempt on the part of the enemy to board the Mound City, but which afterward proved to be for the purpose of firing on the scalded men in the river, which the prisoners say they did at the command of Capt. Fry. The field-pieces of the lower battery were also turned upon the boats that were picking up the wounded, and a twelve-pound shot knocked away the bows of one of the Conestoga's boats. Many were hit by the firing, and sunk before the boats could reach them, and only twenty-seven out of the Mound City's crew of one hundred and eighty, answered to their names at the calling of the roll, and were all that escap

ed unhurt.

Another singular accident now occurred: The Mound City's starboard broadside-guns had been

Col. Fitch, in his report, states that the casualties in his regiment are unimportant, being only five or six slightly wounded. But for the one shot which burst the Mound City's steam-drum, there would not have been a man hurt on the fleet, as not a single shot that struck the gunboats did any damage whatever except that. No one was hurt on either of the gunboats, and none of the transports were struck except the New National, by the accidental shot from the Mound City.

Col. Fitch was so exasperated at the murderous fire that had been poured upon the scalded men who were struggling in the water, that when he came on board the Conestoga, where Col. Fry was a prisoner, he reproached him bitterly for his inhuman conduct in giving the order, and asked him to compare his own conduct with our course towards them only ten days before, at Memphis, when all of the small boats belonging to the

sault upon their position, which was to take place the very morning Col. Elliott carried out his instructions at Booneville, and the last rebels left Corinth.

In the mean time the Second Iowa, Lieut.-Col. Hatch, commanding, under the immediate supervision of Colonel Elliott, had entered the town, where they found one locomotive and a train of twenty-six cars, containing large quantities of ordnance, ordnance stores, quartermasters' property, commissary stores, and private baggage of officers, estimated in value at from one half to three quarters of a million of dollars-all of which, with the exception of the locomotives that

In accordance with the above order, the brigade started out precisely at midnight of the twentyseventh. Col. Elliott, being perfectly ignorant of the roads and country he had to traverse, had procured two guides from among the native residents about Farmington to where he was to strike the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and after-were merely disabled, was effectively destroyed. ward secured the necessary guidance by picking up every citizen he met and forcing them to show him the way, their persons being sufficient guarantee that they would act in good faith.

The presence of the Union cavalry had now become known to the rebels, who were in strong force both north and south of the town. Without knowing any thing of the evacuation of Corinth, Col. Elliott had, indeed, wedged his command in between the main body and rear of Beauregard's army. The pickets he had thrown out reported strong bodies of the enemy advancing from both directions upon the town. Fearing that his retreat might be cut off, and having done all and more than he had been or dered to do, Colonel Elliott determined to make a retrograde movement at once.

The brigade crossed the Mobile and Ohio Railroad with daylight on the morning of the twentyeighth, some two miles east of Iuka, and twenty miles from Farmington, and pushed ten miles further to the south, when they rested. Late in the afternoon the march was resumed, and continued until daybreak the next day, for a distance of nearly forty miles, to the head-waters of the Tombigbee, over little travelled roads and through an extremely rough, broken, thickly-wooded country, watered by numerous streams. Here another halt was made until the cool hours of the evening. The inhabitants, not for a moment suspecting that the "Yankees" could have found their way so far south of Corinth, flocked togeth-ning about wildly upon the sudden entrance of er, bringing water, milk, and eatables for the supposed Southern cavalry. The one day's rations for the animals being consumed, forcible foraging was resorted to during the day, which speedily opened the eyes of the astonished and affrighted natives.

At four o'clock P.M. the column was again in motion, and marching all night to the north-west arrived in the vicinity of Booneville at three P.M. Reconnoitring parties were sent out to ascertain the condition of things about the town, and upon nearing it discovered that an apparently interminable train, loaded, as was afterward learned, with nearly three thousand confederates, was just about departing south. Retreating upon the main body, they allowed the train to pass out of sight before they commenced operations. Col. Sheridan of the Second Michigan was then ordered to leave one half of his regiment in reserve, and with the balance to proceed south of the town and destroy the track. While marching in that direction the battalion came up with numerous detachments of the enemy, evidently strag glers. They were immediately charged upon and scattered to the four winds. They threw away their arms and rode off at a wonderful rate, outrunning the jaded horses of the pursuers. Reaching the track at a point three fourths of a mile south of the town, Col. Sheridan put his men to work without delay, knocking off and destroying the rails with their axes, the only implements of destruction they had brought along. In less than twenty minutes a quarter of a mile of the track was thus destroyed, when an order was received from Col. Elliott directing Col. Sheridan to join him at Booneville.

Both the Second Iowa and Second Michigan, while moving to and fro about town, had taken several hundred prisoners, belonging to a regiment that had been stationed at Booneville to guard the town and road, completely surprised and run

our cavalry. Nearly every house was also full of rebel sick, numbering, in the aggregate, nearly two thousand. A speedy retreat having now be come necessary, these prisoners had to be abandoned; not, however, until after their arms and equipments were rendered useless.

The pickets being all drawn in, with the exception of a squad of ten belonging to the Second Iowa, who ventured too far north and were surrounded, and either killed or captured, the bri gade started upon the return march. Before setting out, Col. Elliott had become satisfied, by information obtained from prisoners, that Beauregard's army was retreating along the left of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and hence he took the right, and succeeded in safely reaching our lines, meanwhile extended south of Corinth on Satur day morning. On the way up he picked up three rebel officers and fifty-seven privates, and brought them into camp.

His command had marched nearly two hundred miles in three days and a half. His men had hardly any sleep, in spite of their fearful fatigue, and nothing to eat for the last twenty four hours of the expedition. The animals had to subsist during the last three days on what forage could be hunted up along the route. Yet, notwithstanding this exhaustive taxation of men and animals, the cavalry brigade sought no rest, but immediately joined in the pursuit, and engaged as energetically in it as though riders and horses had not just made the severest and longest march in the shortest time, but were just entering the field fresh from camp. They kept always in the advance, scouting in all directions, scouring every woods for the enemy for miles

GENERAL: In accordance with orders from the Brigade-General commanding the First brigade, I left my camp at Fair Oaks yesterday morning, and proceeded with my command to the front Its efficiency is principally due to the efforts into the fallen timber, where I deployed the regiof Col. Elliott, than whom a better cavalry officer ment as skirmishers, throwing out advanced pickcan hardly be found in the service. It is but ets in front of my line, and supported by the regratifying that he has already obtained his well-mainder of the brigade, advanced for the purpose deserved reward by his promotion to a BrigadierGeneralship. He is now on duty on Gen. Pope's staff, and Col. Sheridan is permanently assigned to the command of the brigade.