Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.,
the Affair at Mathias' Point — rapid retreat of the enemy — their loss, &c.
Urbana, Middlesex County, July 1,
On yesterday I saw and conversed with Captain Lewis, of the Lancaster Cavalry, who at the recent engagement at Math Point.
From him I learn that the No account of the affair was almost entirety false.
It seems that the Pawnee, * under cover of her guns, landed some fifty or sixty men, with instructions to destroy the embankment which was being thrown up by the Confederate troops.
After landing some above the encampment, they captured two horses of the Westmoreland Cavalry.
This was owing to the fact that the riders, who had been detailed on picket duty, had fallen a sleep.
The horses were immediately transferred to the Jas. Grey, which attended the Pawnee, and, not with standing it has been repeated from Washington that the said horses are safe in the Navy-Yard, it is but partially true.
One of them, alarmed by the heavy firing, paper overboard, swam ashore, and was recovered by his owner.
After this bold and wonderful achievement, the party proceeded cautiously down the shore towards the encampment.
In the meantime a company (the ‘"Sparta Guards,"’ I think,) advanced to meet them, and, throwing up a temporary breast-work, more adapted to conceal than protect them, awaited their approach.
When they made their appearance within the range of our guns, a volley was fired upon them, killing (it is estimated) about seventeen.
They fled with the speed of Mazeppa, the men crying out most piteously to the officers, ‘"We told you so!
We told you they'd shoot us!"’ At this moment, mirabile dictu, the Pawnee steamed off in the direction of Washington, thereby terribly alarming the poor wretches who were scampering towards their boats and crying out, ‘"We'll desert you if you don't return."’ This exclamation had the effect of stopping the revolution of the Pawnee's wheels, and the rest of the men escaped, for the present, the ‘"hospitable graves"’ awaiting them upon the soil of the ‘"Old Dominion."’ Among the killed was Capt. Ward, who was struck in the left breast by a ball from one of our sharp-shooters.
He fell dead upon the deck of the boat on which he was standing.
Our troops recovered a number of Sharpe's rifles, spades, shovels, pick-axes, &c., together with a large quantity of rope, which the Federalists discarded in their hasty but sensible flight.
The number of shells thrown from the Pawnee, and the proximity of the encampment to the shore, made it necessary to remove the tents about 50 yards to the rear of their former position.
And now let me mention one or two incidents, which, taken in connection with those which have occurred in many recent skirmishes, make it evident to every considerate mind that the God of Battles is with us: Balls, canister, grape and chain shot flew thick and fast, without injury to any one.
Shells were exploding everywhere in the encampment, over the heads and under the feet of our men, and still there was ‘"nobody hurt."’ As two members of the Lancaster Cavalry were riding side by side, a bomb exploded between them, injuring neither horses nor men. A bomb exploded in a few inches from a member of a Lancaster company, a portion of it glancing his foot, without in the least disabling him. Many other incidents of the kind occurred, which I cannot recall just now. But these suffice my purpose.
The victory will and shall be ours, for God has so ordained it. With a few companies of flying artillery, our troops at Mathias' Point can resist any attack.
You will perceive how grossly false is the Northern report of this engagement.
‘"Truth crushed to earth will rise again,"’ and surely the Northern press cannot much longer deceive its readers.
I leave to-morrow for Mathias' Point, to rejoin a volunteer company, and you shall have authentic accounts of whatever may occur there.
Let the God-forsaken goths and villainous vandals come on. The glorious boys of the ‘"sunny South"’ await them with bloody hands.
And when, if needs be, the bones of thousands of Virginia's best sons shall reach upon every hill-top, valley and plain, when the Potomac, Rappahannock and James shall be reddened with blood, with a record more stainless than theirs can we appear before the great white Throne and truthfully exclaim: ‘"Thou canst not say I did it."’ Sic Semper Tyrannis. L. H.
[* This is probably a mistake.
Should it not be the Freeborn?--Eds.
Dispatch] 