A Card

    Col. Bunch, in his card which appeared in the Mississippian of the 9th inst., has so grossly misrepresented facts, in reference to one or two very material points connected with the affair at Cardenas, that I am compelled to say that he has deliberately lied.
    He says, "my (his) command was not in the battle of the evening with the Lancers, because they were on duty at the steamship by General Lopez's orders." My impression is that Col. Bunch volunteered his services to assist in unloading the vessel; at least, he remained on board , or at the wharf, from about 2 o'clock,
P. M., until he left the vessel with the volunteers for the purpose of assisting General Lopez and the Kentuckians. In the meanwhile, I was placed in the Plaza with one company of the Mississippi Battalion and Capt. Mizel's Independent Company. About 3 o'clock, General Lopez, anticipating the attack which was afterwards made. designing to support the Kentuckians by a company of the Mississippi Rifles, dispatched the Adjutant of the battalion, Mr. J. Collins, of Adams county, with an order to Col. Bunch to send forward one of those companies of his battalion. The statement made to me by the Adjutant was, that Col. Bunch neglected doing so, and afterwards said, in explanation of his conduct, that the General was going back to New Orleans, and that his men were safe on board and that he intended that they should go if others went. This was after it had been made know that the General intended to re embark.--General Lopez, perceiving that his order had not been obeyed, after waiting some two hours, commanded me to return to the vessel with the companies under my command; the time for re-embarking the troops having arrived, and intending, without doubt, that the Kentuckians should follow as soon as the outposts should be recalled.
    Colonel Bunch, in his card, further says, "when the guns of the battle were heard, I, without orders, marched the battalion to the scene of action and joined it in the street to the left of the Louisiana Regiment." These are the facts: I arrived at the wharf about the time the firing commenced, with the two companies under my command. In the presence of Capt. Hoy, Quartermaster of the Kentucky Regiment, I requested Col. Bunch to order out his command to the relief of the Kentuckians; this he declined to do. He was then standing on the hurricane deck of the Creole, I on the wharf.
    At this juncture, the cable was cut. By whose order and for what purpose, Colonel Bunch should at least know. After the confusion which ensued on the cutting of the cable, had susided, Col. Bunch came to the prow of the vessel, when I again urged my request that he would order out his command. His reply was, in effect, that he would not take the responsibility of so exposing the men under his command. Finding it impossible to induce him to give the order, I remarked that I being his subordinate, could not command the men to follow me, but that I would lead any who would volunteer to go to the relief of our friends. Upon making a call, I was instantly joined by nearly every man on board; Col. Bunch then said he too would go with me. Although my superior officer, by doing so he placed himself temporarily under my command; in which position we remained, until we were met by Gen. Lopez on his return from the scene of the action, although Colonel Bunch may have, as he says, reported to Col. Bell.
    Having heard from reliable sources that Colonel Bunch has threatened to call me to account for remarks made about him, I have deemed it a duty owed, as well to myself as to the public, to acquaint him with the substance of those remarks.
 

                                                                                        PETER SMITH
                                                                        Late Major of the Mississippi Battalion,
                                                                            in the Liberating Army of Cuba.
                                                                         Woodville, Misp., August 20, 1850

A Card
 
JACKSON, Miss., 2d September, 1850
 
To Peter Smith, Major of the Battalion of Rifles from Mississippi, in the Liberating Army of Cuba:
 
    I direct you this letter, in answer to your card published in the Woodville Republican of the 27th of August. That card is aggressive, uncalled for and full of lies.
    Since the return of the Cuban expedition, I have ever spoken of your conduct in Cardenas in terms of the highest praise. On the voyage over to Cuba, I made more sacrifices to befriend you than I did for any other officer in the battalion. I appointed three out of the four staff officers of the battalion from the company of which you were then the Captain, and previously insisted with Gen. Lopez on your promotion to the majority of the battalion until he complied; thus again promoting every officer of the company which you had commanded.
    You state, in your assailment of me, that I "at least should know" who ordered the cable at Cardenas to be cut. I did not know before, that the cable had been cut at all. You appear so well informed on the subject, that I state that you "at least should know" more about the cutting of it than I do.
    The statement that I volunteered under you in the evening to go to the relief of our friends up in the town, is simply absurd and ridiculous. During the few seconds I was organizing, with your assistance, the battalion, preparatory to moving up in the town, I did make some slight remark about placing under your command on the left and rear of our battalion, all those volunteers from other corps, who joined us.
    That I, who was twenty-four consecutive months in the army of Mexico--a year under General Taylor, and the same length of time under General Scott--who passed through the ordeal of Buena Vista, should, at Cardenas, become so alarmed at the sound of a few dozen guns half a mile off, as to volunteer as a private under an inferior officer, when as Colonel in command I would be in precisely the same danger, is a conception worthy of the imagination of the youthful Peter Smith. If I volunteered under you, how did it occur that I was not in the ranks, and you not at the head of the battalion, instead of myself.
    The truth is, that the high anticipation of yourself and others, of Cuban fame, not having been realized, you naturally hunt up some officer at rank on whose shoulders you try to place the onus of the failure of the attempt to revolutionize the Island. As I was a stranger in Mississippi and Louisiana, you, sir, have joined in a combination conceived by a scoundrel more experienced than yourself in such matters, to make me the scape-goat of the expedition. You may rest satisfied I will fight that combination as long as I am alive.
    It would have been shrewder in you and others to have borrowed Santa Anna's idea in such cases, and have cast all the blame on some man who had got killed. One of your party has felt that I am not yet dead, and it is quite probable that you may soon realize the same disagreeable truth.
    Quarrels among the officers of the late Cuban expedition, are in bad taste, and an injury to the cause. The assault made upon my reputation as a soldier, by Captain Lewis, has caused three very bloody fights, for which I do not consider myself responsible. You are the assailant on this occasion, and on your hands be the blood that may be shed in this quarrel.
    Were I to challenge you (who are comparatively a boy, and a son of Judge C. Pinckney Smith,) and kill you, the people of the State of Mississippi would censure me for the deed. But allow me to hope that just here will end our newspaper warfare. By promptly causing to be delivered to me the proper manuscripts, you will get the fight you seem so desirous of engaging in. You are seeking a fight, why do you resort to newspapers?

                                                                                                M. J. BUNCH
                                                                                Lt. Colonel of the Battalion of Rifles
                                                                                   of the Liberating Army of Cuba.