May 16.
Last night a company of United States cavalry was surprised and captured at Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va. Major-General Schenck, on being informed by telegraph of the disaster, immediately ordered General Milroy to send out a force to intercept and attack the rebels, and to-day he received the following despatch from General Milroy, announcing the result: “The Federal cavalry captured at Charlestown were recaptured by detachments of Virginia and Pennsylvania cavalry, under Captain Vitt, this afternoon, about three o'clock, at Piedmont Station, in Fauquier County. We also captured forty rebels and a corresponding number of horses. Two rebels were killed. I regret to add that we lost Captain Vitt and one sergeant. Our cavalry recaptured one Federal lieutenant, and fifty privates, and their horses. Major Adams, of the First New York cavalry, who arrived after the recapture, is still in pursuit of the rebels. The Virginia and Pennsylvania cavalry, who made the recapture, were sent out by me yesterday.”
The United States steamer Monticello, captured the schooner Odd Fellow, off Little River Inlet, N. C.--At Bradyville Pike, in the vicinity of Cripple Creek, Tenn., General Palmer, accompanied by an escort of twenty-five men, and sixty men from the Middle Tennessee Union cavalry, made a sabre-charge on a detachment of the Third Georgia regiment, numbering eighty-five men, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson. The rebels had no sabres, but fought desperately for a few moments. The Union force killed several of the enemy and brought in eighteen prisoners, among them Captains M. C. Edwards and Willis, the latter of the Third Georgia cavalry, and dangerously wounded.--Cincinnati Commercial.
The battle of Champion Hill, or Baker's Creek, Miss., was fought by the Nationals, under General Grant, and the rebels, under General Pemberton, in which the latter was compelled to fall back behind the Big Black River.--(Doc. 192.)
A reconnoitring party of the First New York mounted rifle regiment, under the command of Major Patton, were attacked in the vicinity of Suffolk, Va., by a large body of rebel cavalry and routed with considerable loss.
Sixteen men of the First New York cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant Vermillion, attacked a party of twenty-two rebel soldiers, at Berry's Ferry, Va., and killed two, wounded five, and captured ten of them.
The rebel government steamer Cuba, was destroyed by the National gunboat De Soto, Captain W. W. Walker, in the Gulf of Mexico, off Mobile harbor, Ala.--Captain Walker's Report.
At daylight this morning the National army, under General Grant, moved on from Champion Hill to the Big Black River, Miss., where a battle was fought with the rebels, under Pemberton, and they were again defeated and driven into their intrenchments around Vicksburgh with great loss of men and munitions of war.--(Doc. 193.)
Jackson, Miss., was evacuated by the National forces, belonging to the army of General Grant.
The schooner Isabel, attempting to run the blockade at Mobile, was run ashore close under the walls of Fort Morgan, and Master's Mate Dyer, of the R. R. Cuyler, was sent with boats, either to bring her off or burn her. They were just in time to capture sixteen men, being her crew and some passengers. Finding it impossible to get the schooner off, he set fire to her and then pulled for his own ship. By this time the alarm had been given and the rebels in the fort were on the alert. Mr. Dyer, finding that the schooner did not break out in a blaze, as he expected, turned back toward the fort, and effectually did his work.--The rebel schooner Ripple, was captured by the National gunboat Kanawha, blockading the port of Pensacola, Fla.--Rebel guerrillas visited Burning Springs, Wirt County, Va., where they burned oil-works and committed other depredations.
Yesterday a company of the First New York cavalry having been captured at Charlestown, Va., by a gang of guerrillas, under the leadership of Captain Mosby, the regiment left Berrysville to-day, under the command of Major Adams, in pursuit of the rebels. They were overtaken at Berry's [75] Ford, on the Rappahannock, and, after a brief skirmish, the rebels were completely routed and the prisoners recaptured.
