November 25.— J. W. Shirk, of the gunboat Lexington, had a skirmish with a body of rebels at a plantation on the Mississippi River, twenty miles below Helena, Ark. The gunboat was fired upon by a party of infantry, assisted by a piece of artillery, without damage, however, except to the wood-work of the vessel. Captain Shirk brought his guns to bear on the attacking party, and soon compelled them to retreat, leaving behind several killed and wounded. He afterward landed a party of sailors, who captured and carried off twenty contrabands, and sixteen bales of cotton.—Official Report.
—James Buchanan, in the National Intelligencer of this day, closed a controversy between General Winfield Scott and himself, on subjects growing out of the rebellion.—The Eighth and Fifty-first regiments of Massachusetts volunteers, under the command of Colonels Coffin and Sprague, embarked from Boston for Newbern, N. C.
—This morning at daylight, a body of rebel cavalry entered Poolesville, Md., seized the government telegraph operators stationed there, paroled them, and then permitted them to telegraph to the authorities at Washington an account of what had befallen them.—Colonel Dodge, with two battalions of mounted rifles and one howitzer, had a spirited but short engagement with the rebels at Zuni, on the Backwater River, Va., resulting in the rout of the rebels, with the wounding of one private on the National side.
—Henderson, Tenn., was captured by the rebel cavalry, who burned the railroad station at that place, and made prisoners of a company of Union troops.—The rebel guerrilla Burke was killed at Shepherdstown, Md., by a party of the Second Massachusetts regiment, under the command of Captain Cogswell.—Baltimore American.
—A party of rebel guerrillas, who were making a raid in Crawford County, Mo., robbing the farmers of their fire-arms, horses, harness, clothing, negroes, etc., were to-day overtaken in the vicinity of Huzza River, Iron County, by a company of volunteers, under the command of Captain N. B. Reeves, and dispersed, with the loss of all their plunder, two of the party being killed.—(Doc. 69.)
