NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
October 1861
From The Missouri Democrat, Wednesday, October 23, 1861.
LATEST NEWS.
BY TELEGRAPH.
Victory at Fredericktown.
JEFF. THOMPSON ROUTED!
HIS ARTILLERY CAPTURED.
DEATH OF MAJOR GAVITT AND CAPT. HYMAN.
Death of the Rebel Leader Lowe.
COMPLETE VICTORY.
[From Last Evening’s Edition.]
The following dispatch was received at headquarters, in this city, this morning:
FIELD OF BATTLE,
FREDERICKTOWN, Oct. 22.
In conjunction with Col. Plummer’s command, we have routed the rebels of Thompson and Lowe, estimated at five thousand.
Their loss was heavy. Ours small, and confined principally to the First Indiana Cavalry. We captured four heavy guns.
Lowe, the rebel leader, was killed. Major Gavitt and Captain Hyman, Indiana Cavalry, were killed in a charge on a battery.
The command of Col. Plummer, referred to above, was on Friday morning last ordered forward by Gen. Grant from Cape Girardeau, with instructions to move toward Fredericktown, and cut off the retreat of Thompson and Lowe’s army.
The force which left Cape Girardeau consisted of Marsh’s Twentieth Illinois regiment, a section of Taylor’s battery, and Stewart and Lohrman’s companies cavalry, all from Cairo. Also a part of Plummer’s Eleventh Missouri, a part of Ross’s Twenty-first Illinois, and a section of Campbell’s battery, all from Cape Girardeau.
We shall obtain further particulars of this very gratifying affair for our morning edition.
FURTHER PARTICULARS.
Federal Loss Six Killed and Sixty Wounded.
REBEL LOSS OVER TWO HUNDRED.
FREDERICKTOWN SACKED AND BURNED.
[Special Dispatch to the Missouri Democrat.]
PILOT KNOB, Oct. 22.–The fight at Fredericktown lasted three hours. Our loss is six killed and sixty wounded. Two Surgeons came with a flag of truce for Col. Lowe’s body. They acknowledged a loss in killed and wounded of over two hundred. It must have been larger. Many of their dead were yet on the field. I counted twenty-five in one stubble field. The hogs had mutilated some of them. The enemy’s cannon were badly managed, the shot having little effect apparently, owing to the lack of powder.
Thompson got information of our movements by capturing the bearer of dispatches from Col. Plummer to Col. Carlin.
The Illinois Eleventh had one killed and twenty-eight wounded. The First Indiana Cavalry had four killed and twenty-eight wounded; Major Schofield none; Wisconsin Eighth none.
When our troops entered Fredericktown, the inhabitants all told them that Thompson had gone to Granville, when really he had taken his position little over a mile from town. The intention was to run our troops into the ambuscade. This so enraged our troops that they last night and to-day pretty effectually plundered it, and burned one-third of it. The remainder was seriously threatened.
The force which left Pilot Knob for Fredericktown on Sunday, the 20th, under command of Col. Carlin, consisted of the Thirty-eighth, Col. Carlin, Thirty-third, Col. Hovey, and Twenty-first, (Col. Alexander’s) Illinois regiments. The Eighth Wisconsin, Col. Murphy, Col. Barker’s First Indiana Cavalry, Capt. Hawkins’ Independent Missouri Cavalry, and Maj. Schofield’s battery of six pieces, for six-pounders and two twenty-four pounders.
