BRIDGE BUILT BY UNITED STATES TROOPS, WHITESIDE, TENN.
(From a Government photograph taken during the war.)

The most considerable engagement that resulted from an expedition under General Jones was near Fairmount, where the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad crosses the Monongahela River. The defensive forces here consisted of only three hundred men, while the Confederates numbered several thousands. At their approach, a company of militia and armed citizens went out on the hills to meet them, and made such good preparations for disputing their passage by the turnpike, that a force was sent around the slopes to drive them off, which was accomplished after some fighting. As the Confederates approached the suspension bridge, a part of the defensive force made a gallant stand, taking shelter in a foundry and firing with great effect upon the Confederate skirmishers and sharp-shooters. After a time, this little force fell back, and the Confederates crossed by the suspension bridge and advanced toward the railroad bridge. At the latter there was a similar attack and defence, until the detachments that had crossed at the suspension bridge came up in the rear of those who defended the railroad bridge, and the little band was summoned to surrender. This, however, they did not do until they were completely surrounded and could fight no longer, when they raised a white flag and the firing ceased. Hardly had this taken place, when a detachment of National troops came up the railroad with two guns, and shelled the Confederates on the west side of the river. The Confederates then set about destroying the railroad bridge, which at that time was the finest in the United States. It was of iron, supported on tubular columns of cast iron, which rested on massive stone piers, and had cost about half a million dollars. They poured powder by the kegful into the hollow iron column and exploded it, blowing the whole structure into the river. They had lost in the fight nearly a hundred men, while the National loss was but half a dozen. After robbing every store in the town, and destroying much private property, including the law and private libraries of Governor Pierpont, which they carried into the street and burned, the Confederates departed.

On the 13th of July a cavalry expedition of two regiments, commanded by Col. John Toland, set out to cut the railroad at Wytheville, Va. They crossed Lens Mountain, reached Coal River, and moved along that stream toward Raleigh Court House, where they began to meet with resistance. They then ascended the Guyan Mountain, and descended on the other side into an almost unknown valley, where, writes one of the officers, "The few inhabitants obtained a livelihood largely by digging ginseng and other roots. They live in huts that the Esquimaux would scorn to be invited into. Long, dirty, tobacco-dried, sallow-complexioned women stare at you as you pass. Ask them a question, they answer you, giving what information they possess, but it is so little as to render you no assistance. Here stands a small, dirty tavern, with two or three half-starved old men gazing upon the Yankees as they march by." The expedition crossed the Tug Mountains, and descended to Abb's Valley. Here they captured a small Confederate camp with thirty-six men. The writer just quoted says of Abb's Valley: "The scenery beggars description for beauty. As far as the eye can reach, stretch hills and vales in every direction. The country is rich, owned principally by wealthy citizens who were very influential in bringing about the rebellion, living in luxury and ease. They little dreamed that they, living in so remote a place, should be made to feel the weight of the hand of war." The expedition then marched to Clinch River, and crossed Rich Mountain. "The people had heard much and seen little of Yankee soldiers, and the white population looked upon us with fear, ready to give all when attacked. On the other hand, the negroes assembled in groups, threw themselves in every conceivable form, jumping, singing, dancing, yelling, and giving signs that the year of jubilee had come. The white men fled as we approached, leaving their homes at our mercy, which were not molested, except those that had been used in some way to benefit the rebel army; in such cases, they were always destroyed." The next march was across Garden Mountain, Rich Valley, and Walker's Mountain, to the vicinity of Wytheville. Here the Confederate pickets were encountered, and skirmishing began. When the whole body of the expedition charged upon the town, they found the Confederates not in line of battle, but in buildings commanding the principal streets, from which they opened fire upon the advancing column. This firing from the houses was participated in by citizens, and also to some extent by women, and was very effective. The three companies that first rode into the town discovered two pieces of artillery in position, and made a dash and captured them. Colonel Toland hurried up with the remainder of his force, and, finding that the enemy could not otherwise be dislodged from the buildings, gave orders to burn the town. The officers were the special mark of the sharp-shooters, and in ten minutes the colonel fell dead, when the command devolved upon Colonel Powell, who also was struck and had to be carried off, seriously wounded. Reinforcements were sent to the Confederates from various points, but before they arrived the town was laid in ashes, and the expedition fell back, burning a bridge behind them. They then slowly retraced their line of march, with occasional skirmishes on the way, but finding their chief hardships in the lack of food and the exhaustion of the horses. "We ascended Blue Stone Mountain by file. The road was very steep, and ere we reached the top twenty-three horses lay stretched across the road, having fallen from exhaustion. The descent was terrible, cliffs ten to thirty-one feet, down which the smooth-footed horse would slip with scarce life enough to arrest his progress, except it be stopped by contact with a tree or some other obstacle." They at length reached Raleigh, N. C., where provisions were forwarded to them from Fayetteville. They had been absent eleven days, and had ridden about five hundred miles. Their loss was eighty-five men and three hundred horses.

MAJOR-GENERAL
W. H. FRENCH. 		BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL
EDWARD FERRERO.

An invasion of Kentucky by the Confederate General Pegram, with about two thousand six hundred men, in March, came to a sudden end at Somerset, in the central part of the State. General Gillmore, with twelve hundred mounted men, set out from that town to attack him, and found him in a strong position at Dutton's Hill, twelve miles from Somerset. Gillmore drew up in line of battle, placed his guns in the centre, and, in an artillery fight of an hour and a half, dismounted three of the enemy's pieces. He then ordered his wings to advance, which they did in the face of a brisk fire. But, disregarding this, they pressed on up the hill rapidly until the enemy broke and fled. A body of Confederate cavalry, led by Scott and Ashby, were then detected in a flank movement. This was promptly met, and, after a short conflict, sixty of them were made prisoners and the remainder were put to flight. Three miles from Somerset the Confederates made a stand, but here again they were routed, and in the night they crossed the river, where it was said many of them were drowned. The Confederate loss was nearly a hundred killed or wounded, besides many prisoners. Gillmore's loss was about forty. They placed a battery on the river bank in the morning, but Gillmore's artillery soon knocked it to pieces, and in another dash four hundred cattle that they had taken were recaptured. His men captured the flags of a Louisiana and a Tennessee cavalry regiment. A participant wrote: "Wolford himself pursued the rebel leader, Colonel Scott, so closely that when within thirty paces of him, with levelled pistol he called upon him to die or surrender. At the moment, Wolford's horse was shot, and Scott escaped. When McIntire arrived, cheering his men forward on foot, the rebels broke in confusion and fled. Wolford halted for ammunition, but McIntire, with seventy-two men yelling like a thousand, followed across an open field and into the woods, and here began the most extraordinary flight and pursuit, I venture to assert, that has been recorded during the war. The rebel panic increased with every rod passed over in their terrific flight over hill and valley, brook and rock, tangled brush and fallen timber. Any one to review the field to-day would pronounce such a race over such ground impossible. At the base of a precipitous hill, and embarrassed by the contracting valley, high fences, and a complication of lanes, the rebels were evidently about to turn at bay in very desperation, when additional reinforcements, under Colonel Sanders, appeared dashing along at their left. This completed their consternation, and they again broke, every man for himself."

Early in January Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut, commanding the district of Tennessee, issued a proclamation at Memphis, in which he warned the resident sympathizers with the Confederate cause that they must expect to suffer if the guerilla operations, which had become very frequent and annoying in that State, were continued. He alluded especially to the threat to tear up the railroads, and declared that for every such raid he would select ten families from the wealthiest and most noted secessionists in Memphis and send them South.

A detachment of Confederates, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Dawson, made a raid into Tennessee in January, and busied themselves especially in burning all the cotton they could find. But on the 8th a detachment of the Twentieth Illinois cavalry, under Captain Moore, surprised Dawson's camp, near Ripley, at sunrise, and, without losing a man, killed eight of the Confederates, wounded twenty, and captured forty-six, while the remainder escaped.

On the last day of January a scouting party of National cavalry, setting out from Nashville, came unexpectedly upon a portion of Wheeler's cavalry at the little village of Rover, and immediately attacked them. A hand-to-hand sabre fight ensued, which resulted in the complete defeat of the Confederates, who had thus been taken unawares. About twenty-five of them were disabled, and three hundred made prisoners.

Fort Donelson, which Grant's army had captured in February, 1862, was now held by six hundred men under Col. A. C. Harding, and on February 3, 1863, was attacked by a force of five thousand under Generals Wheeler and Forrest. At the approach of the enemy Harding sent out his cavalry to reconnoitre, but they were all captured. At the same time his telegraph lines were cut, and he sent out mounted messengers to bring up a gunboat that was down the river. He had hardly placed his little command in position for defence, when the Confederates sent in a flag of truce and demanded a surrender, which he declined. The enemy then opened upon him with eight guns, and he replied steadily with five, called in his skirmishers, and strengthened his line as much as possible. The fight continued from noon till evening, when surrender was again demanded and again refused. The Confederates now made arrangements for an assault, and Harding placed his men in the rifle-pits with fixed bayonets to await the onset. A distant gun told him that help was coming, and very soon the black hull of the Lexington was seen moving up the river. The garrison began to cheer, and when her shells were sent over their heads and fell among the enemy, the siege was raised at once and the Confederates quickly fled away. In a charge made at the moment when they broke, Harding took some prisoners. He had lost about seventy-five men, killed or wounded, and the Confederates over four hundred.