An eye-witness gives the following details of the engagement:

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo., Oct. 22, 1861. "We have met the enemy and they are ours.' Illinois has made another impression upon the rebels of Missouri; her gallant sons have fully sustained her reputation of former years, and given the lie to any slanderous imputations that may have been preferred against her; her blood has flowed freely in the defence of her country's honor, and nobly has she vindicated it.

Last Sunday the order was issued for the troops stationed at Pilot Knob to march on Fredericktown, the rebels supposed to be intrenched at that place four thousand strong, under command of Jeff. Thompson. At three o'clock in the afternoon they took up their line of march in the following order:

The Indiana Cavalry in the lead, under command of Colonel Baker, between four and five hundred. Then came the Twenty-first Illinois, Colonel Alexander commanding. Next came a battery of six pieces, under command of Major Schofield. Then followed the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-third Illinois, and the Eighth Wisconsin; making in all a force of three thousand five hundred men. At St. Francis Bridge we made a halt of about two hours, and then continued on toward Fredericktown, where we arrived at eight o'clock on the 21st, only to find that the enemy had evacuated the place the day before. The men were very much disappointed, and very anxious to give pursuit, although we had made a march of twenty-five miles since three o'clock of the day before, and were nearly exhausted.

At twelve o'clock of the same day a force of about three thousand arrived from Cape Girardeau, consisting of the Seventeenth Illinois, the Twentieth Illinois, and two companies of Illinois Cavalry, and a battery of two guns. They were sent to cooperate with Colonel Carlin, in capturing the rebels. Colonel Carlin concluded to pursue the enemy, and sent this body of troops in the direction which the enemy was supposed to have taken.

They took up their line of march immediately on the road leading to Greenville, where it was supposed the enemy would make a stand; the artillery was in advance, and had not proceeded more than three-quarters of a mile before they discovered a large body of the rebels a mile in advance of them, just on the edge of the timber that skirts the town on the south. They immediately opened their battery on them, which was replied to by the rebels with some warmth. While the cannonading was going on, the Seventeenth Illinois advanced to within about one hundred and fifty yards of the enemy's battery, and gave them a volley. The left company of the Seventeenth then charged upon the battery,

and took several prisoners. The Twenty-first and Thirty-eighth had taken position in the rear of the artillery. Three companies of the Thirty-eighth, A, B, and C, were then ordered forward, which they did, the rebels keeping about three hundred yards in advance all the time, and a running fight was thus kept up for four hours, the rebels stopping frequently and discharging their artillery at us, which did not do much execution.

The right wing of the Thirty-eighth had advanced about two miles, when they discovered a body of the rebels, with two field-pieces, about two hundred and fifty yards in advance. They immediately prepared to advance on them. At this time, the Indiana cavalry, under Major Gavitt, were advancing toward the rebels in the road, when the latter opened on them with their musketry, killing Major Gavitt, Capt. Highman, and one private, and wounding several men, and horses. While this was transpiring, the right wing of the Thirty-eighth delivered their fire, scattering death and destruction among the rebels, killing about ten or twelve and wounding several. The rebels immediately turned their guns on us, as we pushed ahead with shouts of vengeance, and gave us three volleys of grape and canister, and commenced a precipitate retreat, leaving their dead and wounded. Company A pushed on through the field to the right to gain the road on which the artillery had retreated; in doing so they left the remainder of the regiment to the left. They arrived at the road in the lead of every thing; the men were very nearly exhausted, but still anxious to push forward. They started down the bill, when they received orders to halt. Having advanced about four miles into the woods, and fearing an attack from masked batteries, company A was ordered forward as skirmishers to cover the right wing of the advancing column, which was promptly done; the line of skirmishers advancing steadily.

The Thirty-third regiment was then ordered forward, also a large body of cavalry in pursuit. They continued the pursuit about two miles further, when, being convinced that there was no infantry within eight or ten miles of us, we abandoned the pursuit. It was now about five o'clock, and the order was given to return to the town, which was accordingly done, and we arrived at about seven o'clock. The sum total of the battle was as follows:

The force of the enemy engaged could not exceed two thousand; what reserve they may have had, we cannot say, although we pursued them seven miles and did not see any large body of infantry. Our force engaged was about three thousand five hundred, and a reserve of three thousand.

Our loss is as follows: seven killed, and about sixty wounded, some of them mortally. We captured two of the enemy's field pieces, sixpounders, took sixty prisoners. Their loss of killed we cannot correctly estimate. Among

pectedly. Having examined the country to the left and front without discovering any thing of further importance, we fell back on our line of skirmishers, leaving the open country and the Monroe house occupied by our videttes. Thus closed our movements as a reconnoitring party; but, at their own request, Captain Murphy, Lieutenant Pierce, and Sergeant Chesbrough remained and gathered much important information during the day, and chased several parties who ventured out of the woods back into them. Upon one of these occasions they captured a wooden canteen and saddle-bag, which a scout dropped in his hurried retreat. In conclusion, sir, I cannot but commend in the highest terms the conduct of both officers and men under my command; their coolness and prompt obedience speaks well for their future reputation. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. Mix, Major Comd'g.

Gen. Albin Schoepff:

SIR: In pursuance of your order to take possession of, and occupy an eminence half a mile to the east of this camp, I took four companies of the Thirty-third regiment of Indiana Volunteers, at seven o'clock on the morning of the 21st instant, and advanced to the position designated. The command was composed of Capt. McCrea, Company D, Capt. Hauser, Company I, Capt. Hendricks, Company E, and Capt. Dille, Company G-about three hundred and fifty men. The companies were immediately deployed around the hill as skirmishers. In less than twenty minutes the rebels, who were concealed in the woods around, began firing. At almost the first fire private McFarren, of Company D, was killed. The enemy, in ten minutes after this, appeared in front of our position, to the south, at a distance of half a mile, in the valley. They were in large numbers, and for half an hour passed by an open space in the road and formed in line; very soon they drew near us under cover of a wood, which entirely concealed their approach until we were apprised of their immediate presence by the firing of their musketry. At this time we were reinforced by a portion of the Kentucky regiment of cavalry, Col. Woolford commanding, about two hundred and fifty in number. They immediately formed and took part in the engagement. The firing at this time was very hot, and for a moment this (the Kentucky) regiment wavered and retreated, but was rallied and formed in order, and after this fought with spirit.

The enemy engaged was composed of a portion of Gen. Zollicoffer's command, and consisted of two regiments of Tennessee volunteers

under Colonels Newman and Bowler. These regiments charged up the hill upon us, and were met by a galling and deadly fire which scattered them, wounding and killing many. The front of their ranks approached within a few rods of our men, ascending the hill with their caps on their bayonets, declaring they were "Union men " and "all right," at the next moment levelling their guns at us and firing. After a fight of about an hour, the enemy retreated, leaving part of their dead and wounded and arms. Our men have found and buried their dead, and taken the wounded to our hospitals. Nineteen corpses have been found up to this time. They carried off their dead and wounded in wagons in numbers greatly exceeding those left behind. It is fair to say their loss is three hundred.

The gallantry of the Thirty-third was tested thoroughly, and I can say without hesitation that universal cheerfulness, promptness, courage, and good sense characterized their action in the fight. I will mention the brave conduct of Capt. Hauser, in fighting in company with his men, musket in hand, upon the very brow of the hill, until disabled by a wound, though he continued on the field all day and did his duty nobly. Capt. McCrea with his men held a small breast work, and did fearful execution among the enemy. Capt. Dille was active in rallying and urging on the fight in all parts of the field. Capt. Hendricks, with cool and quiet courage, kept his men in their places, and fought without slacking during the engagement. I cannot pass by the active and bold Adjutant Durham, who was wherever duty and danger called him. Lieut. Maze, of Company D, exhibited remarkable coolness, daring, and energy.

About the close of the engagement, four companies of the Seventeenth Ohio regiment came upon the hill and formed in the line of battle. Company E, Captain Fox, Company C, Captain Haines, Company R, Captain Rea, and Company H, Captain Whisson, took their positions with promptness, eager for the fray, under the command of Major Ward. They remained on the field during the day and night, and assisted in fortifying the place. About two o'clock P. M. we were again attacked, and at this time Company C, Capt J. W. Brown, of the Fourteenth Ohio regiment, appeared on the field. They immediately formed and fired upon the enemy, and this company, with others, also assisted in making fortifications. Later at night Company G, Captain Eccles, Company B, Captain Kirk, of the Ohio Fourteenth, Colonel Stedman, reinforced us. At ten o'clock at night Lieut. Sypher, of Capt. Standart's Artillery, came on the hill, and on an alarm fired three rounds: these were the last shots fired. At about two o'clock in the morning we heard sounds which betokened a movement of Gen. Zollicoffer's army. It proved to be the retreat. From a prisoner I have ascertained that his command consisted of two Tennessee regiments, two Mississippi, and two Alabama regiments,

In conclusion, I must commend the coolness, courage, and manliness of Col. Woolford, who rendered most valuable assistance to me during the day. JOHN COBURN,

Col. Thirty-third Regt. Ind. Vols.

CINCINNATI "GAZETTE" NARRATIVE.

CAMP WILD CAT, October 23.

If you look at a map of Kentucky, you will find that two roads lead from the "bluegrass country"-the heart of the State-toward Cumberland Gap. The one runs from Nicholasville, through Camp Dick Robinson, Lancaster, Crab Orchard, Mount Vernon, and Camp Wild Cat, to London, four miles this side of which place it is joined by the other route, leading from Lexington through Richmond. The first is a good turnpike road as far as Crab Orchard, | eighteen miles from this camp. The other is an equally good road till it reaches the "Big Hill," nineteen miles south of Richmond, when it becomes as "hard a road to travel" as ever Jordan was.

On Monday evening, the 14th, the Seventeenth Ohio, Col. Connell, was quietly reposing in Camp Coffey, at the foot of the Big Hill, surrounded by castellated mountains, and happy in the recollections of the golden days preceding, when they found how warm Kentucky hearts can be in the kindness of Richmond. But they had come to the South, not to receive magnificent ovations, but to fight, and they were not sorry to receive the command to march to London. One day was spent in making the road passable, and on the 16th our brave boys, each company detailed to push hard, yell at mules, "chunk," and pry its own wagon, marched through a weary rain, and at nightfall encamped on a wet hillside-Camp Goulding. That night, while a few of us sat trying to dry our clothes before the fire, a messenger came from Col. Garrard, in command at this post, saying that Gen. Zollicoffer was advancing by forced marches toward London, and would certainly attack one of us. As it was most probable that Camp Wild Cat, long hated for the protection it has given to the Union men of this mountain region, would be the point of attack, he desired us, if possible, to cooperate with him in meeting the enemy. The next morning, while our regiment pushed forward toward Rockcastle, now on its prescribed line of march, Lieut. Showers and myself rode through the mountains here bearing promises of all the assistance possible, though that was necessarily a vague hope, as you will see what we had to do to fulfil it. Immediately after our arrival, Col. Garrard-a plain, earnest,

After crossing Rockcastle River, the road ascends gradually, for about two miles, a wooded ridge, with steep sides, looking, on the west, toward the slightly-diverging river, and on the east, into a valley, broken by frequent spurs from the hills, heavily timbered for the most part with oak and pine. The highway then deflected from the river to the left, creeping around a frowning limestone cliff which sweeps around in almost a semicircle, its face to the road, its back high and thick with evergreens, leaning on the river. After winding along the foot of this cliff for a distance of three hundred yards, you rise by a steep ascent to an open space on which Col. Garrard had pitched his camp. Leaving this space you find yourself at the base of another cliff, thrown across from the first one I have mentioned, and forming the front of another ridge stretching nearly parallel to the first, but beyond its furthest extremity to_the_distance of three-quarters of a mile. This ridge is wider than the first, by which it is commanded, and upon it, at a distance of about two hundred and fifty yards, were encamped a small body of Home Guards. At the point where their tents were pitched, the valley-or rather broken succession of valleys, of which I have spoken, running back from the point where the road crosses the river, and forming the left outlook of the road, is divided by a narrow ridge, barely wide enough for a single wagon to pass. This ridge is about a hundred yards long, and at its east end rises into a bluff commanding every portion of the camp. A road, known as the Winding Glades road, runs on this natural bridge, and crossing a wilderness of hills intersects the Richmond road at a point four miles distant from the upper Rockcastle ford, and nine miles from London. The bluff over which it climbs after leaving the Home Guard camp, was the first position of great importance which met the eye. It could be reached either by marching from London by the Winding Glades road, or by crossing the hills which intervened between it and the road running from the camp to London. To defend this point nothing had been done except to cut trees across the Winding Glades road, at various places within two miles of the camp. An enemy in possession of this road would have been able to cannonade the camp, and at the same time, by throwing skirmishers along the valley and over the hills toward the lower Rockcastle ford, surround any force situated on the camp ground.

Just at this point where the Winding Glades road joins the main road, at the camp, the lat ter begins a rapid descent into a valley, winding for miles between thickly wooded hills. The western face of this valley is the chief

To the left of the road, when it reached the valley under the fortified cliffs, arose the crowning strength or weakness of the whole position. A round, wooded hill, steep and with frequent ledges of rocks cropping out from its sides, its top overlooking the camp from a distance of six hundred yards, its base lying heavily in narrow valleys separating it from the great sweep of the Winding Glades bluff on the left, and the camp ridge on the right.

While artillery held this position, no force could hope to successfully assail the camp in front. The only modes of attack would have been by flanking it by means of the Winding Glades road, as I have before said, or by obtaining possession of the first high spur I have mentioned, rising between the camp and the river to the west. But were the enemy to obtain possession of this hill with artillery, they could have at once rendered the whole position untenable. The same result would have been obtained had the enemy succeeded in planting artillery on the extreme edge of the ridge on which the second camp was situated. There were then four points vital to defence, and separated from each other by almost impassable valleys-the Winding Glades bluff, the Round Hill, and the south ends of the two cliffy ridges I have described. A line thrown through these points would have approached a semicircle of two miles, which must be defended at the same time that the Home Guard camp, the centre of the whole position, should be retained, and so that the only chance of retreat toward the river and the north should be retained.

To defend these isolated and widely separated points, Col. Garrard had, on the evening of the 18th, barely six hundred effective men. The Home Guard camp was almost deserted, and nearly three hundred gallant fellows lay wasting with dysentery and measles.

The nearest assistance that could be obtained was from the Seventeenth regiment, which could only come by venturing to reach the Winding Glades road in the face of the enemy, lying near London, and scouring the country with his cavalry, or by crossing mountains traversed by a single bridle path on the north side of the river. At Crab Orchard, eighteen miles toward Dick Robinson's, lay the Thirty-third Indiana, which could advance only by disobeying orders. Forty-five miles to the north was Gen. Thomas at Camp Dick, but so swift was

We lay down that night, fearing that day would break to the thunder of rebel guns attacking us. The sick were hastened through the short night across the swollen river, but with a Spartan resolution the brave Kentucky colonel resolved to defend his position to the last, against a force estimated by the best information we could obtain at eleven thousand men.

There was little sleep that night in Camp Wild Cat. I left it early in the morning of Saturday with the heavy heart one carries when he sees his friends lying on the brink of destruction, and fears no help can save them. My companion had returned to our regiment the evening before. I hurried along the mountain paths in despair at the thought of ever crossing them with the train of a regiment. I had nearly reached the point where our men had encamped the night before when I heard the sound of axes, and the voices of eager men hurrying, in a work of life or death, and in a few minutes more I saw a hardy band of pioneers under the command of my comrade of the preceding day, and hurrah!-the bayonets of the Seventeenth, with our noble colonel, rushing through the forest. There was no pause that day. Four companies were left to drag the train through, each loaded wagon drawn by doubled teams of mules and oxen, and lifted up the steep ascents and down the miry mountain sides by fifteen strong men. Never did human hands work harder; and yet it was the fourth day, when the last wheels climbed the long ascent from the river to our present camp. six hundred men were free, and in four hours they marched the fourteen miles that lay between them and the place where, in all probability, they were to find in bloody graves the reward of their courage and labor. That night the men lay down supperless, tentless-even without blankets; for, to hasten their march, they had left their knapsacks in the wagons. It was raining drearily. A dismal Saturday night-and the morrow? Was it a Sabbath rest we looked for?

But

The morning came. I went among the boys as they arose from their comfortless bivouacs, with no prospect of any thing to eat before midday. You must remember that orders to join Col. Garrard, at all hazards, had reached our colonel only at midnight the night before, and there was no time to prepare rations. It was a scene dismal enough. There seemed to be no spirit left in our hearts. But suddenly a messenger dashed down the hill from Garrard's camp two miles distant. The sound of Zollicoffer's morning gun had not been a dream. "Our pickets are driven in. The enemy is attacking." The long roll was beaten. In three minutes the regiment was in line of battle, and in a moment more the column was rushing up the