The following is the official dispatch of Brigadier General Kelly, relative to the stolen cattle in Hardy county, Virginia
CUMBERLAND, Md Oct. 29.
Brigadier General H. B. MARCY, Chief of Staff: I ordered Lieutenant Colonel Quick, of the 23d Illinois, to take the Ringgold cavalry and two guns of Rourk’s battery, and pursue the party that took the cattle in Hardy county. He left New Creek last night at dark, and by a rapid march all night he overtook the enemy at daylight this morning, attacked him, and recaptured 170 head of cattle, and took 10 prisoners and 20 horses.
B. F. KELLY,
Brig. General.
The rebels who stole these cattle, it appears, was a portion of Stuart’s cavalry. A correspondent of the Wheeling Press states that they were recaptured by “three companies of Captain Key’s celebrated battalion of Ringgold cavalry and one section of the Mulligan battery, Capt. Rourke.” They marched a distance of forty miles during the night, and came upon the rebels just as they had finished their breakfast—thus helping them to digest their bacon, if they had any, but spoiling their prospects for “beef.”
Civilian & Telegraph, Cumberland, MD