Battle With Moonshiners

On tlie lst inst., Special Deputy Collector J. M. Phillips left here with fifty well-equipped men for i raid on tlie illicit distilleries of üverton, Putnam, Fentress and Jackson counties, destroyinfi- eight illieit concerns valuad :it $1,300. Phillips sayx that on approaching the distillery of Jonathan Allred, on the 3d inst., tliey wcrefiredinto at short range by James Pitman, an employé of Allred, but without effect. At the distillery of O. N. Bowman, four shots were fired at them, and two or three men were seen at a distance with arms in their arms. On reaching Crawford mili, on Roaring river, at a momitain ;orrent which passes tlirough some of the roughest country in Christendom, consisting of high, abrupt bilis, bluffs, and deep rávines, they heard a hom jlawn, and, in response, four or five men made their appearance on tlie crest of a bluff 100 feet in height, which commanded a ford which Phillips and his men expected to cross. Phillips sent Special Deputy Collector Mauphin with eighteen men np the river with instructions to cross that stream and come down in the rear of the wild-cat men. As Boon as Mauphin and his men came in sight of the distillers on the opposite side the bluff from Phillipa, the moonshiners formed in regular line of battle and at once opened flre on Mauphin, who returned it, killing four illicit distillers, breaking aiiother's thigh, and slightly wounding another. The revenuo men were then forced to retreat for want of ammunition, but were not followed by the inoonshiuers, wlio still kept around their very advantageous position. None of the revenue raiders received a scrateh. Citizens who claimed to know told Phillips that there were not less than 100 moonshiners armed with long-range gans, and that they are being reinforced by parties from other localities. The illicit distillers fired at random, making scattering shots, while the revenue men, who are composed equally of ex-Federal and exConfederato soldiers, coolly reserved their flre, and only pitt their bulléts where they thought most was to be accomplished. The illicit distillers had formed an anibush for the revenue men, supposing they would cross the ford on their way to Flat creck. They were preparod to cover their rear from the first point where the moonshiners were observed, drive them through a narrow ]ass hito the very clutobes of tho illicit distillers, who would bc enabled to fire at them from four sides, and thus