A Diary of American Events.

December 9.—President Lincoln granted a pardon exempting E. W. Gantt, of Arkansas, from the penalty of treason, which he incurred by accepting and exercising the office of Brigadier-General in the service of the rebels. The pardon also reinstated General Gantt in all his rights of property, excepting those relating to slaves.—The Marine Brigade, under the Command of General Ellet, and a portion of Colonel Grcsham’s command, returned to Natchez from an unsuccessful expedition after the rebels under Wirt Adams, who had mounted a battery on Ellis’s Cliff.—The English steamer Minna, while attempting to evade the blockade of Charleston, S. C, was captured by the United States gunboat Circassian.