were sent in and declined. Under cover of the depot, the enginehouse, and the buildings covering the coal-chutes men were advanced, and each was fired and totally consumed. The stockade, erected long since, was built with reference to a defense of the store and buildings in the immediate vicinity of the store, and is so located as to afford no protection to the buildings that were burned. Six men were captured with Captain Upson, all of whom were stripped of overcoats, blankets, and money, and forced to take a parole administered to them under threats of death as the penalty of refusal. The rebels remained in position until dark, when, fearing re-enforcements from Cowan, by the cars which had been stopped and sent back during the afternoon, they left, resting that night about 7 miles from Tracy City, near the house of David Nunley. They then passed in the direction from which they came (near Altamont) toward White County, where I have reasons to believe a rebel force exceeding 500 can be assembled. During this assault but 3 of Captain Tipton's men could be found. All had fled to places of supposed safety, and are again slowly returning to Tracy City. Three of the rebel cavalry are known to have been wounded. The officers and men of the Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers there engaged exhibited great coolness and determination to do their whole duty. I have the honor to be, colonel, your obedient servant, Lieut. Col., Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers, Comdg. Post. Col. SAMUEL ROSS, Commanding First Brigade. Addenda.-At the time of the attack on Tracy City on the 20th instant the force consisted of 2 commissioned officers and 72 enlisted men from the Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers and Captain Tipton's cavalry (1 officer, 73 enlisted men) none of which are armedexcept some half-dozen with squirrel rifles-none mounted, and none of the slightest service. At the time of the attack I was at Anderson, and Colonel Sudsburg sent Captain George with a detail of 100 men, who proceeded by railroad to a point near Tracy City, where he threw out a line of skirmishers and advanced to the place, arriving about 3 a. m. on the 21st instant. Finding matters there quiet, he at once returned with his command to Cowan. Colonel Sudsburg then detailed Second Lieutenant Gould and 43 men from the Third Maryland Volunteers to proceed at once to Tracy City to remain until further orders. With this force I proceeded to Tracy City, and disposed of the same in such manner to add materially to the strength of the position. I placed 1 sergeant, 2 corporals, and 12 men at an important bridge on the railroad about 1 mile from the place. I placed William W. Morse, captain Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers, in command of the post in place of Captain Upson, wounded. This addenda is made pursuant to instructions from division headquarters. WM. B. WOOSTER, Lieut. Col. Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers, Comdg. Regt. [Indorsement.] HDQRS. FIRST BRIGADE, FIRST DIVISION, 12TH CORPS, Decherd, Tenn.; January 23, 1864. Respectfully forwarded, with recommendation that the troops be withdrawn from Tracy City, as I cannot see the public necessity of guarding a private trading establishment and coal mine. SAML. ROSS, Col. Twentieth Connecticut Vol. Infantry, Comdg. First Brig. No. 2. Reports of Col. Joseph M. Sudsburg, Third Maryland Infantry. COWAN, January 21, 1864. Our force at Tracy City was attacked yesterday afternoon by a mounted force of about 150 men. The force made a most determined resistance, being summoned three times to surrender. Captain Upson is shot through the body, and, it is feared, mortally wounded, and quite a number are missing. Captain Tipton's cavalry are nearly all missing. They burned the depot and other buildings. The reenforcements which I sent last night have returned, and I now send a detail of 50 men to permanently re-enforce the post, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Wooster. I also sent a surgeon to the wounded. The rebel force is supposed to be Murray's gang from the vicinity of Collins River. Lieutenant-Colonel RODGERS, JOSEPH M. SUDSBURG, Colonel, Commanding Post. Assistant Adjutant-General. HDQRS. THIRD REGIMENT MARYLAND VOLUNTEERS, Cowan, Tenn., January 21, 1864. SIR: I have the honor to transmit to you report of Capt. J. F. George, Company E, Second Massachusetts Infantry. I have sent to-day 1 commissioned officer and 50 men of my regiment for re-enforcement to Tracy City. General Knipe, with whom I had an interview some days ago, informed me that Tracy City was not under my command, but under Lieutenant-Colonel Wooster, Twentieth Connecticut. LieutenantColonel Wooster not being able to support the post at Tracy City from his regiment, of which the headquarters are in Tantalon, I considered it my duty under existing circumstances to act from here. I would respectfully request further instruction. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOSEPH M. SUDSBURG, Colonel Third Maryland Regiment, Commanding Post. Capt. S. E. PITTMAN, Assistant Adjutant-General. No. 3. Report of Capt. John F. George, Second Massachusetts Infantry. HDQRS. DETACHMENT SECOND MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY, Cowan, Tenn., January 21, 1864. SIR: I have the honor to submit to you the following report of the expedition sent by your order under my command to Tracy City on the evening of the 20th instant : The expedition, consisting of details from the Third Maryland, Fifth Connecticut, and Second Massachusetts (in all about 100 men and 1 commissioned officer, Lieutenant Clary, Third Maryland), under myself, proceeded about 8 p. m. up the railroad some 6 miles, till we neared the water-tank on the Tracy City Railroad, where we found a train awaiting us. The men were immediately put upon the car, and we proceeded toward Tracy City till within about 4 miles of the town, when we slackened the speed of the train. When within three-fourths of a mile from the trestle bridge which crosses Gizzard Creek, about a mile from the town, and which is somewhat over 150 feet long, the men were disembarked and skirmishers thrown out about 60 paces in advance of the main body, and the command was cautiously advanced toward the bridge. Having learned from the inhabitants of a cottage near by that no firing had been heard and no enemy seen in that vicinity, and that our pickets were posted on the farther side of the bridge, I left a corporal and 10 men in an unoccupied stockade, near the southern end of the bridge, and proceeded across, but found no pickets on the other side. Thus we were in fear that the enemy had captured them, as well as the troops in the town. I then proceeded cautiously, keeping the skirmishers well advanced, till we reached a small trestle bridge. about 300 yards from Tracy City depot, when I halted and sent 10 men across to ascertain who were in possession of the town, and by whom was the stockade then occupied. These men soon returned, reporting that the town and stockade were in our possession; and Í thereupon advanced into the town and occupied the stockade, in which latter I found about 40 men and a lieutenant of the Twentieth Connecticut Infantry, it then being about 1 a. m. I found, on investigation, that about 3 p. m. a body of guerrillas, about 100 in number, had made a dash into the town, coming in from two opposite directions so suddenly as completely to surprise the pickets and outposts. The captain (Upson) of the Twentieth Connecticut commanding, who was within the depot at the time, having with him about 15 unarmed men, immediately started for the stockade (about 200 yards distance), but being cut off before reaching it was shot, after throwing down his revolver in token of surrender, and taken prisoner, together with about 15 of his men. Close to the stockade was a log building occupied as a store by a certain Benham. The rebels made a dash for this, and shot 1 of the men of the Twentieth Connecticut who was standing in the door-way, seriously wounding him. The store-keeper, who was within, immediately closed the door and fired with his revolver upon them from the window, wounding 2 of the band. Upon this they returned toward the railroad, thus giving our men an opportunity to enter the stockade, which they then immediately occupied under the command of Lieutenant [Jepson], of the Twen tieth Connecticut. The enemy then, after deploying along the edge I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient ser- Col. JOSEPH M. SUDSBURG, Third Maryland Infantry, Commanding Post. JANUARY 21, 1864.-Scout from Chattanooga to Harrison and Ooltewah, Tenn. Report of Col. Geza Mihalotzy, Twenty-fourth Illinois Infantry. Chattanooga, Tenn., January 24, 1864. GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report, detailing additional results of the expedition under my command of detachment Third Brigade, First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, to Harrison and Ooltewah : On the 20th instant the following-named 4 deserters from the rebel army came into our lines, whom I sent to Provost-Marshal-General Wiles the same day: John L. Tanner, private, Sixteenth Tennessee Infantry; J. C. Cantrell, private, Sixteenth Tennessee Infantry; T. J. Cantrell, private, Sixteenth Tennessee Infantry, stationed 4 miles below Dalton; Wm. P. Worley, private, Thirty-fifth Tennessee Infantry, stationed at Tunnel Hill. They came from Tunnel. Hill and Dalton, and report the strength of the rebel forces at those places respectively as follows: At Tunnel Hill, three brigades of infantry and a large force of artillery; at Dalton, two divisions of infantry. On the 21st instant, the morning after receiving your dispatch, in obedience to orders, I proceeded with my command to Ooltewah. while I sent my train to Chattanooga by the direct road. With the train in charge of Lieutenant Hodges, Thirty-seventh Indiana Volunteers, I sent 3 citizen prisoners from the neighborhood of Harrison (J. T. Gardenhire, J. A. Hunter, and Lyon) to ProvostMarshal-General Wiles, who are charged with having aided rebel guerrillas. On approaching the town of Ooltewah about 10 a. m. I encountered a squad of rebel cavalry, some 60 men strong, who, however, precipitately fled from my advance guard, and having no cavalry at my disposal I was unable to pursue them. The intention of this force was to get into the rear and thereby cut off the communica tion of the scouting party of 50 under Capt. H. A. Sheldon, of First Wisconsin Volunteers, whom I had sent out on the preceding day, as reported in my dispatch of January 20, 1864. On my way to Ooltewah, at the house of Anthony Moore, I seized the records of the county registrar's office, comprising the following: Eighteen volumes of records of registrar's office, County of Hamilton; two volumes Laws of Tennessee, 1857-'59; one volume Code of Tennessee. The above volumes are at my headquarters, to be disposed of according to instructions. At Ooltewah I arrested Miss S. Locke and Miss Barnet, who have already been delivered to Provost-Marshal-General Wiles, both of whom are charged with carrying contraband information to the rebel army. Through the scouting expedition above mentioned I have obtained the following information: The rebel forces at Tunnel Hill and Dalton, whose exact strength I was unable to ascertain, were reported doing considerable moving and shifting recently, the object of which, however, could not be learned. A force of 300 of Wheeler's rebel cavalry are encamped 5 miles beyond Igou's Gap, whose pickets are stationed at the gap. This force is continually making raids in small detachments on the Union towns and farms of that neighborhood, and committing all manner of outrages and cruelties on the loyal population. As an incident illustrative of the barbarities constantly being perpetrated by these outlaws, I will mention that a Mr. Tallent, a loyal citizen living near the forks of the roads leading to Red Clay and McDaniel's Gap, recently found in his immediate neighborhood a young child in a perishing condition, stripped of all its clothing, which the rebels had left there, having attempted by that means to find the father of the said child, whom they proposed to hang, he being a loyal citizen. I have been reliably informed that a rebel raid on our river transportation at Harrison is now positively being prepared. This raiding force will have to pass through the mountain gaps near Ooltewah. The rebels infesting that region of country have been in the habit of disguising themselves in Federal uniforms, and have by this means often succeeded in deceiving the Union people. Messrs. Stone and Scroggins, Union citizens living at Julien's Gap, can give information of a guerrilla band commanded by a citizen of Ooltewah, who steal and plunder from the loyal citizens continually. They also know where a large portion of the spoils of this band are now secreted. A number of discharged soldiers from Tennessee regiments have banded together with Union citizens and organized themselves for self-defense. They are armed with such weapons as they have been able to procure, consisting of rifles, carbines, and revolvers. This band of loyal men, who are men of the highest sense of honor and true patriotism, are doing all they can to promote the success of our cause. Their number could be increased to 200 if arms could be provided for them. By their aid Surgeon Hunt, of the Ninth Tennessee Infantry, whom I previously reported captured by guerrillas, was enabled to escape, and he is now in safety. I have also learned that the following named citizens,* living in the vicinity of Ooltewah, are in the habit of harboring the *Not subsequently mentioned in the report. |