has been butchered. Had we had such a man as Stuart or Forrest or Jones, or any leader at all, not a man of them could have escaped. Our people are disappointed, for they see, with ample force in our midst, a Yankee army can invade us with impunity and stir up the worst feelings of those Union devils who live around and in our very midst.

I have made this letter too long, and hope you will excuse the liberty I take in writing it at all.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ISAAC B. DUNN.

Honorable J. R. TUCKER,

Richmond, Va.

DECEMBER 21, 1862.-Skirmish on the Wilson Creek Pike, Tenn.

Report of Captain Frank W. Mix, Fourth Michigan Cavalry.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH MICHIGAN CAVALRY,
Camp Rosecrans, December 21, 1862.

COLONEL: In obedience to orders I received last evening, I left camp this morning at 6 o'clock with 24 men of Company B and 25 of Company A, under command of Lieutenant Anderson, to report to General Negley, on the Franklin pike, as an escort for a forage train. I arrived at General Negley's headquarters a 7.30 o'clock, was informed that I was to take my command out to the fork of the Franklin and Wilson Creek pike for picket duty. I informed the general I did not come prepared as my men had no rations with them. He then ordered me to go out on the road, until I found the forage train, and to scout the country on both sides of the Wilson Creek pike, and gather what information I could. I found nothing worthy of mentioning until I came up with his train, about 4 miles out on the Wilson pike. There I found two regiments of infantry, on section of artillery, and 30 of the Fifth Kentucky Cavalry, under the command of Colonel Stanley. I reported to him; he informed me that the Kentucky cavalry were skirmishing with some of the enemy's cavalry off at the left of the pike, and wished me to go there with my command, and also take command of the Fifth Kentucky company, and to use my own judgment what course to pursue. I went down there, and found our men in an open piece of timber, firing away, and the enemy in a narrow, behind a stone wall. I at first dismounted my men (being armed with Colt's rifles, I could not use them on the horses), and went at them dismounted, but I soon found out that I would have to resort to some other way to get them away from the wall. I accordingly ordered my men to mount, and I started for the road, or lane, which they were in, with Company B in advance, and Third Kentucky in the rear. I started off at a brisk gallop, and as I came up on a line of the wall, I received a volley from them, wounding Sergeant McIntire, of Company B, who was in advance with me. They fired another volley at us, when they broke and ran; some going off to the left of the road, while the main body went down the road, with our boys close to their heels, firing at them at every chance. We soon passed those on the left of us, and I had made up my mind to cut them off at my leisure, and should have done so if it had not been for a lieutenant, who is, I believe, an aide-de-camp for Colonel Stanley, who, seeing those fellows