May 16, 1863, The New York Herald
Our Murfreesboro Correspondence.
MURFREESBORO, Tenn., May 10, 1863.
My despatches of last night will have intimated to you the loss of the forces under Colonel A.D. Streight, sent to destroy the military machine shops and arsenals at Rome, Georgia. The rebel papers received stated the capture positively; but it was thought advisable to suppress the news until we should have something definite in regard to the capture either from Gen. Hurlbut or Gen. Dodge. Little doubt is entertained at headquarters that Streight has been taken: Indeed, I imagine that when the expedition was planned the probability of Streight’s capture was freely discussed and admitted. The proposed end would have justified the expensive means. Had Streight succeeded in his efforts the capture of seventeen hundred men, as now reported, would have been a cheap price to pay for that success.
The unfavorable reports, it must be remembered, are those of the Chattanooga Rebel of May 7. Our reports from Dodge, at Tuscumbia, are only to April 27. On that day Streight, with a portion of his force, had penetrated as far east from Tuscumbia as Blountsville, the enemy, who is under Brigadier General N. B. Forrest, following him rapidly. Both forces were mounted. Being pressed rather hard by Forrest, Streight turned at Blountsville and fought him. He succeeded in drawing Forrest into an ambuscade; and opened upon him a heavy fire. Forrest was badly whipped, and gave no more trouble that day, keeping at a respectful distance. Further we do not hear from Streight except through the Chattanooga Rebel.
Streight’s force consisted of the Third Ohio infantry Lieutenant Colonel Lawson commanding; Fifty-first Indiana, Eighteenth Illinois and Seventy-third Indiana.
THE REBEL ACCOUNTS.
The following is the rebel account verbatim, as published in the Rebel of May 7: –
GENERAL FORREST’S LATE VICTORY.
General Forrest’s recent grand detour from Spring Hill, in Middle Tennessee, to Courtland, Alabama, and thence through the northern portions of Alabama and Georgia, in pursuit of the enemy, was the most brilliant performance of the present revolution, if not in the history of wars from time immemorial. If, before, his deeds were not sufficient to insure his name an immortality, this last bold exploit would of itself establish him beyond peradventure the greatest of cavalry chieftains (!). To start from the central portion of Tennessee to the north of Alabama to the assistance of another gallant officer, there to meet and hold in check a force with cavalry, artillery and infantry double that of his own veteran command; to pursue them through Courtland then to turn in pursuit of another party, 2,000 strong already in the start of him in an opposite direction nearly a hundred miles, to follow them through a mountainous region one hundred and eighty miles, and at least to over take them and compel them to surrender to four hundred and fifty of his own men, is a feat so marvellous as to seem incredible if the facts did not establish the reality of the occurrence.
We have just had an interview with Captain Moses Cliff, an old resident of this county, who is Col. Starne’s regimental commissary, and who was a participant in all the engagements, and who accompanied the expedition from its starting point. From him we glean the following detailed account of the movement: –
A FIGHT NEAR TUSCUMBIA.
General Forrest, with his old brigade, consisting of his own original regiment, Starne’s, Billie’s and Edmonson’s regiments, with six pieces of artillery, 2,5000 strong, to Spring Hill last Friday week, to go to the assistance of Colonel Roddy, who was gallantly holding a large force of the enemy in check beyond and near Courtland, Alabama. The column, with Forrest at the head, moved southward rapidly through Giles county to the Tennessee, and crossed at Brown’s ferry. On Tuesday, General Forrest came up with Roddy at Town creek, a small stream in a open flat country, studded with undergrowth, a few miles beyond Courtland, in the direction of Tuscumbia. Here the united commands attacked the enemy in force believed to be near 10,000, under General Dodge, with cavalry, artillery and infantry. The fight lasted several hours, and the artillery firing ceased about three P.M. Occasional skirmishing with small arms wound up the engagement of the day, and at dusk Forrest fell back to Courtland and threw out pickets on all the roads leading into the town.
COLONEL STREIGHT MAKES A DETOUR.
In the meantime a force of mounted infantry, 2,000 strong, under a Colonel Streight, had gone round Courtland, as if designing to get in the rear of Forrest’s forces. The next morning early Forrest started in pursuit of the party, leaving a portion of Roddy’s command in Courtland. Streight and his men, instead of attempting to go in the rear, were really on an expedition to Central Georgia, and were already nearly one-hundred miles away in that direction.
A BATTLE AT DAYTON’S GAP.
Forrest overtook them at Dayton’s Gap, in the Sand Mountains, in Alabama, on Thursday. Here an engagement occurred, in which the enemy were driven forward with a loss of forty killed and wounded, and a few prisoners. The engagement was between the enemy and Roddy’s and Edmonson’s commands. About six miles further the enemy was again overtaken by Starne’s and Billie’s regiments, and a quick brush ensued of an hour and a half’s duration, in which the enemy was again driven forward and the two pieces of artillery taken from Roddy at Town creek were recaptured from the enemy. In this little skirmish eighteen of the Yankees were struck down by one discharge of our artillery, four pieces playing upon them.
ANOTHER BATTLE THE SAME DAY.
About fifteen miles south of this point our men again came across the enemy in ambush, and another fight ensued. Our boys drove them from their ambush by a vigourous charge. Indeed, it was one succession of both desperate charges upon the ambuscaded Yankees for three hundred miles, until they were finally overtaken for the last time and captured.
THE ENGAGEMENT AT BLOUNTSVILLE.
The next day the Yankees were overtaken again at Blountsville, from which place they were driven as before, with a loss this time of three killed and twelve wounded. Prisoners and negroes were captured at intervals all along the route. General Forrest still pursued close upon their heels, determined to run them down and capture the whole party; the Yankees as fully determined to escape, and burning bridges behind them as they fled. The bridge near the town of Gadsden was destroyed; but the enemy was driven from that town before he had time to destroy anything. The citizens here, and indeed everywhere along the route, could scarcely realize that the enemy were Yankees, and many persons along the road never once dreaming of such a raid from the Yankee cavalry, took it for granted they were our own forces.
COLONEL HATHAWAY KILLED.
Nine miles beyond Gadsden our men again came upon the enemy in ambush, and, again a fight ensued, in which the Yankee Colonel Hathaway, a captain and several other officers were killed. The iron works, a few miles further into the interior of Georgia, were set fire to by the Yankees, but only partially destroyed, and can be repaired (so the proprietor says), in a few weeks.
THE FINAL FIGHT AND SURRENDER.
The Yankees were finally overtaken about two miles from Cedar Bluffs and about twenty-six miles from Rome. Their advance guard, of about two hundred, had gone towards Rome, and were checked about two miles from that city by the armed citizens.
General Forrest dashed upon them, his gallant little band by this time, after the long and tiresome pursuit dwindled down to an insignificant squad of four hundred and forty men. The enemy fired one or two rounds from four little mountain howitzers they had with them, and a slight rifle skirmish was all the fighting that occurred here. Forrest coolly demanded their surrender, and Col. Streight, the Yankee commander, complied – the condition of the surrender being that the captured officer should retain their side arms. The prisoners, one thousand seven hundred in number, were then moved fully a mile before they were required to stack arms, actually guarded by a force four times less than their own. In reality it was Forrest who was the prisoner, but the Yankees never thought it, and never for a moment doubted that he had a larger force in the rear. They were also perhaps deceived by the story of one of our men whom they captured at Dayton’s Gap, who told Col. Streight, when cross examined, that “Forrest had with him five thousand men.”
“What brigades has he?” demanded Col. Streight.
“Armstrong’s , Roddy’s and his own,” was the prompt reply of the prisoner.
“Then we are lost, by Jupiter!” exclaimed the non-plussed Yankee, turning to his men.
And so they were; for they surrendered their whole force in half an hour after this dialogue. The reception in Rome beggars description. The entire population turned out to greet the hero, and, with waving handkerchiefs and amid the booming of the minnie guns, General Forrest and the war-worn veterans who had followed him through flood and field a distance of nearly five hundred miles entered the city, welcomed by the smiles and tears of gratitude of a thousand ladies.
It was the most brilliant feat of the war. Both men and their leaders have won the lasting gratitude of their countrymen, and Nathaniel Bedford Forrest today stands at the head of the list of the cavalry chieftains of the South.
REBEL VIEW OF STREIGHT’S OBJECT.
The object of this incursion of the Yankees so far from their main force – aside from their intense anxiety to avoid the redoubtable Forrest – was to reach the […..] State road, burn the bridges, tear up the rails, and play the “Old Harry” with everything. As soon as they found they were pursued their escape was considered doubtful but the capture of even that many men would be more than compensated by the damages they would be enabled to do the Confederates. The force under the command of Colonel Streight consisted of the Third Ohio, Eighteenth Illinois, Fifty-first and Seventy-third Indiana, together with three companies of renegade North Alabamians. The latter, we understand, will be sent to Richmond, the others will be paroled.