December 2011

December 20.—George W. Jones, late United States Minister to Bogota, was arrested at New York on a charge of treason, and sent to Fort Lafayette.—New York World, Dec. 21.

—In the House of Representatives at Washington, D. C., a resolution was adopted, thanking Colonel Mulligan and his command for their heroic defence of Lexington, Mo., and authorizing the Twenty-third regiment of Illinois, to inscribe on their colors the name “Lexington.”

—General Burnside arrived at Annapolis, Md., this evening to take command of the expedition destined for the North Carolina coast.

—Seven hundred regulars of the force surrendered to the rebels in Texas by Major Lynde, passed through Rochester, N. Y., destined for Rome and Syracuse, whence they -went to Sackett’s Harbor and Oswego, to garrison the forts at these places.

—An engagement took place to-day near Drainesville, on the Leesburg turnpike, Va., between a foraging party under command of Brig.-Gen. E. O. C. Ord, (consisting of his brigade, a regiment of rifles, a battery of light artillery, and two squadrons of cavalry,) and four regiments of rebel infantry, with a six-gun battery, commanded by Gen. Stuart. The rebels were completely routed, lost many killed and taken prisoners. The National loss was seven killed and sixty wounded.—(Doc. 234.)

—The Ninety-first regiment of New York volunteers, under the command of Colonel Van Zandt, left Albany for the seat of war.

—At Washington, Mr. Lovejoy offered in the House of Representatives a resolution directing the Committee on the Judiciary to report a bill for the confiscation of all rebel property whatever, and for the liberation of the slaves, who should be protected from recaptare by their masters. The resolution was laid aside by a majority of two.

—A Party of rebels from Gen. Price’s army destroyed about one hundred miles of the Missouri Railroad. Commencing eight miles south of Hudson, they burned the bridge, wood-piles, water-tanks, ties, tore up the rails for miles, bent them, and destroyed the telegraph line. This was continued to Warrenton, where the work of destruction ceased.—National Intelligencer, Dec. 24.

—The London Times of this date, in noting the departure of the transports Adriatic and Parana with troops for Canada, holds the following language: “As the Adriatic moved out of dock, the large shields on her paddle-boxes, emblazoned with the Start and Stripes, reminded everybody of the remarkable coincidence that a American-built steamer, and until within a few months ago the property of American owners, should be one of the first employed in the transport of British troops to the northern part of the American continent, to operate, probably, against the country in which she was built.

“On the two vessels leaving the docks, the volunteer band took up a position on the extreme end of the jetty, and as the Adriatic slowly moved past, they played the appropriate airs ‘I Wish I Was in Dixie,’ and ‘The British Grenadiers,’ followed by ‘Cheer, Boys, Cheer,’ and ‘Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot,’ as the Parana passed, in each case closing with ‘God Save the Queen,’ after which several parting rounds of enthusiastic cheers were exchanged between the multitude of spectators on shore and the gallant fellows on board the vessels.”

—Major McKee, with one hundred and three men of Col. Bishop’s command, encountered and repulsed four hundred rebels four miles south of Hudson, Mo., and killed ten, and took seventeen prisoners and thirty horses. Five of the National troops were slightly wounded. The rebels had attacked a stock train, captured all the stock, and held the railroad men as prisoners. They were in the act of unloading the stock, when the train, stock, and men were rescued.

—Yesterday morning the stone fleet of sixteen old whalers arrived off Charleston Harbor, S. C. In the afternoon, one of the lightest draught was sunk on the right of the main ship channel; during the night four more were sunk, and to-day the remainder, eleven in number, were made to complete the work. All the vessels but one, which was reserved for a pyrotechnic display, were dismantled, and deprived of masts, rigging and every thing but the hulls. The sinking of the fleet was under the direction of Captain Charles H. Davis, U. S. N., who, by his able and scientific management of the work, effectually closed the main ship channel of Charleston Harbor.—(Doc. 235.)

—The brave little steamer Theodora, which has won for her name so prominent a place in the history of the Confederate States, is still “bobbing around” on the high seas. A despatch from Thos. J. Lockwood announces that he has arrived safe, ” as usual,” in the flourishing Confederate seaport of _____, after paying a flying visit to several foreign lands, and running half a dozen times under the very noses of the Yankee cruisers.—Charleston Mercury, Dec. 21.

—This afternoon, Richard Gatewood, a private soldier of the First Kentucky regiment, was executed at Charleston, Va., for the combined crimes of desertion, mutinous conduct, and a murderous assault upon a sentinel while on duty.— Cincinnati Gazette, Jan. 1, 1862.