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120.-the fight at old River, La.
sir: I have the honor to submit to you the following report of a skirmish which took place between the command of
Captain F. Tucker, company F, First Kansas volunteers, consisting of a detachment of infantry, numbering seventy men, detailed from the First Kansas infantry, Ninety-fifth Illinois, Seventeenth Illinois, and Sixteenth Wisconsin, together with company F, First Kansas volunteers, mounted, and numbering between twenty and thirty men, and the First battalion, Third regiment
Louisiana cavalry, at
Old River, on the tenth of February, 1863.
We met the enemy, numbering, according to the statement of prisoners, (and intelligent and reliable contrabands,) between three and four hundred, and whipped them badly.
The boys behaved as Western troops always do, which, I hope, they will all think praise enough for their good conduct during the fight.
I desire, however, to call the attention of the
Commanding Officer to the conduct of
Private Daniel Updegraff, of company F, First Kansas volunteers, who was not one of the detail, but, when the fight commenced, took a gun from a man who was sick and went into the fight; he stood and took the fire of five rebels, and then rushed on them with his empty gun, calling upon them, in language much more forcible than polite, to surrender, which they did, and he marched them to the rear.
I also desire to call attention to the fact, that after
Captain Tucker was knocked off his horse by one shot, and lying on the ground, within thirty feet of the enemy, unable to rise, an officer ordered one of his men to shoot him, which he did. We had one man killed and seven wounded; and killed four, wounded seven, and took one
second lieutenant, one sergeant, one corporal, and twenty-three privates; prisoners.
Appended you will please find a list of killed and wounded.
I have the honor to be yours to command,
S. P. Thompson,
First Lieutenant, Company F, First Kansas Volunteer Infantry.
Daniel H. Dow, First
Sergeant, company F, First Kansas, killed;
Theron Tucker,
Captain, company F, First Kansas, wounded;
Simon Atchison,
Sergeant, company F, First Kansas, wounded;
Milton Spencer, private, company F, First Kansas, wounded;
John F. Johnson, private, company F, First Kansas, wounded;
Rees Davidson, private, company K, First Kansas, wounded;
Curtis Benton, sergeant, company K, First Kansas, wounded;
C. R. Stevenson, sergeant, company G, First Kansas, wounded;
John Kennedy, corporal, company A, Ninety-fifth Illinois, wounded;
John Sexton, private, company B, Ninety-fifth Illinois, wounded;
Thomas Cahill,
private company E, Ninety-fifth Illinois, wounded;
Dennis Kellogg, private, company E, Seventeenth Illinois, wounded.