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of contrabands.
The rebel officers told them they were not compelled to come.
We told them they were not compelled to stay.
They seemed to value our word most, and came.
One of them, an athletic, pure-blooded African, was relating his adventures.
He said his master, in Richmond, had sold him for one thousand six hundred dollars, to be sent South.
He ran away, and came to his wife, at Charles City Court-House.
His master offered two hundred dollars for his capture, and he was obliged to hide.
The morning of our arrival at the Court-House, he was lying asleep in the woods, and a little boy came and woke him up, and said that the Yankees had come.
He said: “Go ‘way, chile; what you want to fool dis nigga for?”
But just then he heard the firing, and raising up, saw the blue coats of our troops on the hill.
“I was so glad, dat I come right away, and left all my things.”
The following is a list of the killed and wounded in the Mounted Rifles: Sergeant Wood, company H, killed; Corporal Smith, company H, killed; Captain L. B. Gregory, wounded severely in thigh; Sergeant Hendrickson, company H, wounded in three places; private Stoppelbein, company H, wounded; private Johnson, company H, wounded slightly; guide, wounded in arm.
The rebels had three men wounded.
This raid has developed some interesting facts, which I would like to impart, but forbear, on account of their military importance.
C.