The statement that Kilpatrick is attempting to get back to Meade's army, by crossing the Rappahannock, is confirmed by passengers who came from King and Queen last night. On Friday his cavalry left that county and went through Essex to Dragons Ford, on the Rappahannock. The heavy rains had so swollen the stream that they could not cross, and on Sunday they again returned to King and Queen, and went on down the Peninsula. The infantry which had been sent as their support had already gone aboard the transports and returned to Yorktown.--They said as they went down that they were going to come up with pontoons, and cross the Rappahannock, as that was their intended route back.
The burning of the village at King and Queen C. H. seems to have been an act of deliberate devilishness on the part of the Yankees. They burnt twenty houses, leaving only one dwelling standing — that of Mr. Byrd.
They had previously robbed the owners and the inhabitants of the neighborhood of all the provisions they had.
On their route down from Richmond, after the failure of the raid, Kilpatrick's men acted in a most barbarous manner to the inoffensive and helpless people of New Kent and James City. From the Cross Roads in New Kent, where the vandals entered the stage road, down to Barhamsville, in the same county, they burnt and pillaged nearly every house. At Barbamsville, they destroyed the barn of Nelson Timberlake, burning all his corn and fodder, and stole every pound of his meat. A Mr. James Taylor, who remonstrated with them for their outrages, was knocked down, and beaten until he became insensible. Other citizens were most outrageously treated.
