Fight near Harper's Ferry.
Col. Asbby's Successful encounter with the enemy — gallant charge of the Militia — the Federals Repulsed at the Point of the Bayonet.
Official advices have been received at the War Department of an attack, by Col. Turner Asbby, commanding a small force, with a superior body of the enemy, on Wednesday, the 16th instant, at a place called Bolivar, contiguous to Harper's Ferry. The Federals, numbering, with subsequent reinforcements, from 800 to 1,000 men, were sent over to protect the transportation of grain from Butt's Mill, on Shenandoah Island, and Col. Ashby, with 550 men, 200 of whom were militia, met and drove them back with considerable slaughter. The action commenced at eight o'clock in the morning, and terminated about eleven. It is to be particularly noted as the first in which the Virginia militia have been engaged in a hand-to- hand encounter with the enemy, and the result reflects the highest credit upon that branch of the service. At a charge bay onces, they drove the Hessians before them down the hill into the village of Harpers Ferry, at which point in the pursuit they were checked by a detachment of artillery, supposed to have been Doubleday's battery, stationed on the Maryland Heights Col. Ashby now withdrew his troops to a point behind the hill, for the purpose of protecting them from the shot and shell, which fell thick and fast around them, but fortunately with little effect. The loss of the enemy in the engagement, as reported by a woman who afterwards came out from Harpers Ferry and saw the dead carried away in wagers, was at least fifty or sixty, in addition to which our men captured twelve or fourteen prisoners. Among the latter are some Union men, who had been particularly busy to aiding the Federals by means of signals. Our loss was one killed (Zamper, of the Shenandoah militia,) and ten wounded--two supposed mortally.
A painful incident attended this brilliant affair. Three members of the Botts Greys, of Jefferson county, who were at home on furlough, participated in the fight as volunteers, and two of the number were wounded--one (named Bell) desperately, and his life despaired of.
Col. Ashby's success would have been much greater but for a lack of cannon, and very few of the enemy would have escaped from the field of battle. He had but one efficient gun, and another improvised for the occasion — a 24 pounder mounted on wagon wheels, which, any artillerist will readily concede, was very difficult to manage. Justice to this brave and gallant officer demands that he should be amply supplied with every facility for successful warfare, to increase his influence on that border as a terror to the invaders. By a curious coincidence, this fight took place on the second anniversary of the John Brown raid, and in the very locality of that notable event.
Rev. James B. Averick, captain of Col. Ashby's regiment, who reached the city yesterday afternoon, is bearer of dispatches to the War Department.
