(424) In the morning before the fight, Gen. Jones drew his men up and told them that we were going to avenge Fort Pillow, that to surrender would be to die; and such stuff for an hour. If anything was wanting to prove the superior humanity of the Union soldiers or the barbarism induced in the South by slavery here it might have been found. First Sergeant Hart Marks, of Company K, accepted the surrender of a Rebel lieutenant and passed on to the front. The Rebel drew a revolver from under his coat and shot him, fortunately slightly, in the back, yet our boys spared him. I know of more such cases, several. Marks shortly afterwards received two wounds, one in side, and one in the shoulder, the last having passed through a twisted blanket, while charging the woods, the Rebels being behind the trees. Another of our regiment, the eccentric Barney Wyles, pressed ahead too far and was surrounded; he surrendered but his captor shot at him after surrender, with a revolver, cutting his clothes. Our men rushed on him, wrested the revolver from him, and then spared him. All evening could you see Union soldiers feeding wounded Rebels, and food was scarce with us then, having to come all in the shape of forage. In every regiment a number of instances can be given of such treachery as above. Could any contrast be greater?
(425) The day after the fight we came to this place. I wish that some of our copperheads, who have "nigger on the brain" could come here. You have heard that southern people are darkened by their sun. One can hardly tell which are the whites—not that the whites are so black, but that the blacks are so white. Miscegenation is played out. At this place 1,700 rifles were captured and therewith a government armory; cotton factories, commissary stores, railroad buildings and bridges were burnt. A brass field piece was found here all right. Two 100 pound guns were rendered useless, by the trunnions being broken off. But I cannot enumerate one-half the damage, and will leave that to more general correspondents.
(426) I append a list of killed and wounded in this regiment. In addition to this list David Severe, Company G, was killed. I have just heard on picket this morning, that Corporal W. L. Herbert and Frank Metz were captured, both of the same company as Severe.
(427) Returns of killed and wounded and missing of the Twelfth regiment. West Virginia Volunteer Infantry in the battle of Piedmont, Virginia, on the 5th of June, 1864.
COMPANY A.
KILLED—First Sergeant Wm. H. Leach, Privates Lawis Manning, Geo. L. Jones and Reuben G. Boyd.
WOUNDED—Capt. Hagar Tomlinson, left leg flesh wound; Sergeant John G. Jones, fourth finger, left hand off; Corporal George Orum, head slightly; Private Thos. M. Turner, left thigh, severely; Private Wm. F. Magers, right hand, slightly.
COMPANY B.
WOUNDED—James B. Manning, left thigh, flesh wound.
COMPANY C.