Wilson's cavalry operations.

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subjects, for it is they who, in their desperation, set fire to this immense mass of royalty. The quiet streets and silent halls, the fleeing troopers and hiding citizens,, are in striking antithesis to the pomp, the boast, and the maddened multitude of a former day.

Having destroyed five steamboats, several locomotives, one armory, and several foundries, General Wilson resumed motion on the 14th. General Upton moved through Mount Meigs and Tuskegee, toward Columbus, Georgia, and Colonel La Grange followed the railroad through Opelika, to West Point. Two clays later, General Upton, with three hundred dismounted men, assaulted and carried the breastworks at Columbus, saving by the impetuosity of his attack the bridges over the Chattahoochee, and capturing fifty-two guns in position, and twelve hundred prisoners. The ram Jackson, nearly ready for the sea, and carrying six seven-inch guns, was destroyed ; also the navy-yard, foundries, arsenal, armory, sword and pistol factory, accouterment-shops, paper-mills, four cotton factories, fifteen locomotives, two hundred cars, and one hundred and fifteen thousand bales of cotton. The assault was made at night, by men from the Third Iowa, Colonel Noble commanding, the Fourth Iowa and Tenth Missouri being held in support. Generals Upton and Winslow directed the movement in person. The enemy opened a heavy artillery and musketry fire as the troops advanced, but their Spencer rifles gave response as they rushed through the abatis and over the parapet. When this had been accomplished, General Upton sent Captain Glassen, with two companies of the Tenth Missouri, to get possession of the bridge over the Chattahoochee. The captain passed through the inner line of defenses, under cover of the darkness, and seized the bridge before the enemy was aware of his movement. Then General Upton made a general charge, swept away all opposition, seized the bridges, and stationed his troops thoughout the city. The fortifications were held by three thousand men, and yet three hundred penetrated the main line, and this primal success was followed by overwhelming victory, with a loss in all of twenty men killed and wounded.

Colonel La Grange had spirited skirmishing on the way to