Doc. 185.-fight at Warrenton Junction, Va.
Fairfax Court-House, May 4, 1863.
The telegraph last evening conveyed the intelligence of a fight at Warrenton Junction between a portion of Stahel's cavalry, under command of Colonel De Forrest, and Moseby's guerrillas.
The rebels, numbering about three hundred, succeeded in passing the outposts between eight and nine o'clock yesterday morning.
They then made a dash upon some eighty men of the First Virginia, who were dismounted, feeding their horses.
These men finding that they could not mount in time to resist the attack, prepared to defend themselves on foot.
As the rebels came up, they gave them a volley which emptied a number of saddles and checked the onset.
A desperate fight now occurred, and for a short time the First Virginia succeeded in keeping them at bay. But numbers told, and the rebels captured about half the force, the others fighting gallantly.
One of our men was shot after he had given up his arms, and this cowardly act aroused his comrades for revenge.
Meanwhile a force of the Fifth New-York, led by Major Hammond, had come up, and they gallantly charged the rebels with the sabre, completely routing them and recapturing all our men. Major Hammond continued in pursuit beyond Warrenton.
The rebels fought desperately, but only succeeded in killing one of the First Virginia and wounding sixteen, five of whom were officers.
The rebel loss was very heavy, their dead being left upon the field and scattered by the roadside.
Twenty-three prisoners were taken, fifteen of whom were wounded.
Among the prisoners is the notorious bushwhacker, Dick Moran.
Moran has been Moseby's right bower for a long time.
He says he told Moseby not to make this attack, that our force was too large, and that they would be whipped.
He thinks Moseby threw the command into a fight which he had no business to undertake, and so sacrificed his men. Moran is badly wounded.
Templeton, a rebel spy, who has been in Washington within a week, and who was supplied with all kinds of papers, was killed.
The prisoners belong to Stuart's Black Horse cavalry, Hampton's legion, Richardson's battalion, and Moseby's battalion.
One of them, formerly a Major in the Quartermaster's Department of the C. S. A., resigned his position for the purpose of joining Moseby.
His name is S. P. Lushane, and He has from Washington, Pa. The man who shot one of our men who was made prisoner is also wounded and with the prisoners.
Our officers and men behaved with great gallantry.
Mention is to be made of Major Hammond, Captains Krom, Penfield, and McMasters, of the Fifth New-York, Captain Harris, of the First Virginia, and Captain Bean, of the First Vermont.
Moseby begins to understand by this time that guerrilla fighting has its reverses as well as successes.
He has now lost within a week, by capture and death, over one hundred and fifty men, and General
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Stahel does not intend he shall have much peace until all are captured or dispersed.
casualties.
killed: Private Nichols, company C, First Virginia.
wounded: Major Josiah Steele, First Virginia, mortally; Captain Wm. A. McCoy, company C, First Virginia, slightly; Captain A. H. Krom, company G, Fifth New-York, dangerously; First Lieutenant Frank Munson, company L, Fifth New-York, slightly; Second Lieutenant Samuel McBride, company B, Fifth New-York, slightly; Levi Lowe, company C, First Virginia, slightly; James Swihart, company N, First Virginia, dangerously; Isaac Shaw, company H, First Virginia, dangerously; William McDade, company B, First Virginia, slightly; Michael Murphy, company C, First Virginia, dangerously; Franklin Doak, company B, First Virginia, slightly; Thos. P. Hatfield, company C, First Virginia, dangerously; David Stuller, company F, First Virginia, slightly; Bartholomew Grimer, company M, First Virginia, mortally; Jeremiah Riggs, company B, First Virginia, slightly;----Bowman, company B, First Virginia, mortally, (since died.)--New-York Tribune.
