| From the Richmond Daily Dispatch |
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| July 22, 1862 |
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| The Yankee Cavalry foray |
| Beaver Dam, where the Yankees made a raid
a day or two since, is forty miles from Richmond, and three miles from the line of Louisa county. Most of the
buildings of the locality were used for railroad purposes, and except
as a way station on the {Virginia} Central
route, Beaver Dam has heretofore possessed no special importance.
Within a circle of a few miles, however, reside many persons of wealth
and influence, and it was apprehended that the enemy, had they come
down in any force, would not have departed without indulging their
usual propensity for robbery and pillage; but so far as we have been
able to ascertain, this apprehension has not been realized. |
| Mr. Duke, the telegraph operator at the
Junction, took a hand car on
Sundayevening, and proceeded up as near as possible to Beaver Dam
Station, where he learned that the Yankees had taken their departure,
after having done as much injury to the railroad as possible during
the brief period of their visit. They burned the depot, offices, water
tank, and a large quantity of wood, and tore up the track in several
places. The telegraph operator at the Station, Mr. Smith, was
captured, but we understand that he succeeded in making his escape.
They manifested a strong desire to make a prisoner of Col. Fontaine,
the President of the railroad who resides in the vicinity; but in this
they old not succeed. It was doubtless their idea that in effecting
the destruction of the railroad they could strike no more fatal blow
than to capture a gentleman who has been closely identified with its
interests from the first moment of its existence; but they were either
too cowardly or too weak to complete a work so boldly and impudently
begun, and the result of the foray amounts to nothing more than a
destruction of some little property and a temporary public
inconvenience. It is believed that the Yankee cavalry engaged in this
work were not more than 150 strong, though there were probably more
within reinforcing distance. Although we have intelligence that the
greater portion of the enemy's troops have been withdrawn from
Fredericksburg there is no doubt that they have parties scouring
through the country below, and information communicated to them by a
spy quite naturally led to this descent upon the railroad at Beaver
Dam. |
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| Later -- the road open |
| No train was sent West from the Central
depot yesterday, but a dispatch was received last evening from Col.
Fontaine announcing that the enemy had left the neighborhood, and that
the necessary repairs to the road had been made. Consequently a train
will leave for
Staunton
this morning at the usual hour, and we have reason to believe that
travel will not again be interrupted. |
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