Statement of a contraband.
A colored boy, the servant of
Captain Miller, of the Washington Artillery, of New Orleans, now in the Confederate army in
Virginia, having made his escape to the
Federal lines, has made his ‘"statement."’ He claims to have been at the battles of
Bull Run and Ball's Bluff, and alleges that he left
Centreville on Saturday, the 7th inst.
We extract the following:
‘
He says that on Friday there was a grand review at
Centreville of seventy-five or eighty thousand troops.
He heard the list read by
Major J. B. Walton, of the Washington Artillery.
There were at the review, also, one hundred pieces of artillery — all light, except two 24-pound howitzers.
General Beauregard commanded, and
President Davis reviewed the troops.
Generals Johnston,
Longstreet, and
Stewart were also there.
On the 24th of November
Gen. Beauregard gave orders to prepare for winter quarters, and on the 29th they commenced cutting logs for houses.
President Davis came two or three days after and countermanded the orders, because, he said, the
Union forces would soon be there, and they might have to destroy them.
They have at
Centreville a fort or earth work for every letter in the alphabet, and designated by the letters, also a strong fort called
Beauregard, and one called
Davis, besides another not yet finished, and unnamed.
The forts are connected by rifle pits, and the embankments are so prepared that the field artillery can be wheeled into the embrasures, the caissons being disposed in the rear.
There is a drill of the artillery every day in placing the guns and caissons in position.
There are four guns to each fort.
In
Fort Beauregard there are three rifled guns pointing down the
Fairfax road.
There are two regiments of colored men at
Centreville, under the command of
Jordan, an old colored veteran of 1812, having been a drummer boy under
Gen. Jackson. One of these numbers eleven hundred, and the other fourteen hundred. Two other colored regiments were sent to
Missouri since the last battle there.
These regiments are composed of both free and slave.
They are not allowed to do picket duty, but are drilled and encamped separate from the white men. Their officers are all colored.
This boy says there is much dissatisfaction among the private soldiers of the army; that great numbers are sick; that they have no salt nor salt meat, but live almost entirely on fresh beef and hard bread.
The officers alone have salt, but neither tea nor coffee.
That the common talk among the officers is that if they are beaten at
Centreville they will fall back to
Manassas, where their flanks are well protected.
’