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Lieut.-Col. Hayward beside the bravest men of the United States army.
The line officers of the different regiments discharged their duty nobly, and deserve special mention by their
Colonels,
Capts. Clark,
Robinson, and
Huntington served their guns with great credit, and deserve particular notice.
To the members of your staff,
Lieut.-Col. Shriber,
Capt. Keiley and
Capt. Keogh, I am under many, very many obligations, for the prompt, efficient, and officer-like manner in which they discharged the duties assigned them.
The two latter were in the field through the hottest of the engagement, exposed to the enemy's fire from first to last.
Capt. Keiley received a severe wound in the face, while urging forward the men, and was carried off the field.
For a list of the casualties of the engagement, I respectfully refer you to the reports of the several regiments, accompanying this paper.
The loss of the enemy must have been very heavy.
The grape and canister from our batteries and the fire of our musketry mowed them down like grass before a well-served scythe, and the fact of their heavy force retiring before us is an evidence that they suffered severely.
Aid-de-Camp Eaton was the only officer of my own staff present.
Capt. Quay being too ill to take the field,
Chaplain D. C. Wright, of the Seventh Ohio, volunteered to serve me. The duties these gentlemen were called upon to perform were arduous, and led them almost constantly under the fire of the enemy.
Yet they executed their duties with commendable coolness and energy, meriting my warmest thanks.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
camp near
Luray, June 11.
The Fourth brigade, under the command of
Col. Carroll of the Eighth Ohio regiment, was repulsed on Sunday, the eighth, when the Third brigade, under
Gen. Tyler, was ordered to support him. We met some of the men of the Fourth brigade five miles from the battle-field, straggling along the road.
We reached the battle-field about five o'clock on the afternoon of the eighth, and lay on our arms till morning, when we were opened upon from the rebel battery.
We were soon placed in line of battle, but none too soon, for the enemy's infantry was moving on us. The Seventh Indiana regiment was on the right of our lines, the Fifth on the left of the Seventh, about two hundred yards to the rear, the Seventh Ohio on our left, about two hundred yards to our rear, the Sixty-sixth Ohio on the left, the Seventh Ohio on a line with the Fifth.
We had a battery on our right and left.
The enemy's battery was in front of the Seventh In-, diana regiment.
We were ordered to support the Seventh Indiana, when we moved on the rebels, and soon succeeded in routing the rebels from their position.
Our advance was so rapid that we conceived the idea of taking the battery.
I gave the orders to take it, when the old Fifth moved forward and drove them from the gun.
John Gray mounted the horse and brought that piece off. We were then ordered to support the Sixty-sixth on the left.
When I arrived there I discovered the enemy were slaying them from some log-houses immediately in front of them.
I found that to remain there was folly; and I ordered the old Fifth forward, by the right flank, advancing rapidly.
We again started them on a full run and occupied the houses ourselves.
At this time, to my astonishment, I received an order to cover their retreat, when I retired, firing.
Before I had rallied my men on the colors, the whole of our force was retiring, if you choose to call it so. Then
Col. Daum came to me and asked me to cover his men while he drew off his pieces, which I agreed to do. He drew off two guns and started, leaving the balance behind and me to defend them.
When I asked him why he did not draw off his pieces, he said he had not the horses to do it with.
By this time the enemy's battery commenced on me with canister, grape and shell, and their infantry, within two hundred yards of me, when I ordered my men to take to the mountain, where I led them, as far as my horse could go, and told the men to go over the mountain, and bear to the right.
I am in hopes that they all got in the roads, but it is doubtful.
I was at the head of the column, and could distinctly hear the rebel cavalry call on my men to surrender.
I counted the guns in the stacks last night, and found I had only one hundred and eighty-five left, but the boys are getting in. To-day I have two hundred and fifteen, and those that have got in, state that there are more on the road.
As to the colors, presented by the city, we carried them through the fight, and if they are captured, they have taken the bearer with them.
I send you a list of our killed and wounded, as far as I can ascertain at present.
Your friend,
The part borne by Colonel.
Carroll.
The first reports of battles are often incorrect.
The confusion incident to an engagement of itself precludes the possibility of a fair estimate of affairs at the first, and it is only after the smoke of battle has passed away that a clear view can be had.
The
battle of Port Republic forms no exception to this general experience.
Appreciating, as everybody could, after the disaster there had occurred, that it might have been avoided by the destruction of the bridge across the
Shenandoah at that place, it was taken for granted that it should have been burnt, and that orders had been given to that effect.
Upon that assumption,
Col. Carroll, who had command of the advance, has been loudly censured, and the failure of the expedition, and the terrible destruction of life consequent upon it, have been visited upon his head.
Without reflecting in any way upon others, it is the purpose
