April 2012

April 4.—General Burnside at Newbern, N. C, issued the following order: —

Dr. J. H. Thompson, Brigade Surgeon, First division, is hereby relieved from duty with the First division, and will report without delay to the Surgeon-General at Washington, with the recommendation to the President of the United States that he be dismissed the service as an alarmist.

It is expected that all important and reliable information should be duly reported through proper channels, but the stern realities of active warfare rob the soldier of quite sufficient of his rest and sleep without the aggravations of senseless rumors and imaginary dangers, and those who create or report them will be at once expelled from this department

—Gen. Magruder, in command of the rebel lines near Lee’s Mills, Va., issued the following general orders, to be read to each command in his army: “The enemy is before us—our works are strong—our cause is good—we fight for our homes, and must be careful. Every hour we hold out, brings us reenforcements.”—Richmond Whig, April 10.

—At Cincinnati, Ohio, a public reception was given to Parson Brownlow, who was introduced to the audience by Joseph C. Butler, President of the Chamber of Commerce, in a few appropriate remarks.

Mr. Brownlow, in reply, made a speech thanking the vast audience for their warm and friendly reception, relating his experience of the operations of the rebellion in East-Tennessee, and giving an account of the sufferings of himself and of other Union men while he was imprisoned at Knoxville. Speeches were also made by General S. F. Carey and Lieutenant-Governor Fisk, of Kentucky, and resolutions were adopted demanding a vigorous and unceasing prosecution of the war, and the punishment of traitors. — Cincinnati Times, April 5.

—The War Department of the United States this day ordered:

First. That the portion of Virginia and Maryland lying between the Mountain Department and the Blue Ridge shall constitute a military department, to be called the Department of the Shenandoah, and be under the command of Major-General Banks.

Second. That the portion of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge and west of the Potomac, and the Fredericksburgh and Richmond railroad, including the District of Columbia and the country between the Potomac and the Patuxent, shall be a military district, to be called the Department of the Rappahannock, and be under the command of Major-General McDowell.

—This morning the gunboats Benton, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh, with three boats, opened and continued for more than an hour a fire on the rebel heavy floating battery at Island No. Ten, when the latter, having received several shells from the rifles and mortars, cut loose from her moorings and drifted two or three miles down the river. The shells were thrown from the flotilla into different parts of the island, and into the rebel batteries lining the Tennessee shore. The return fire produced no effect on the National squadron. No more men than were actually necessary to man the batteries were visible.—Com. Foote’s Despatch.

—At Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn., this evening, the National troops were attacked by two regiments of rebel infantry, with two pieces of artillery and a strong force of cavalry. The Nationals immediately got into line of battle, when the rebels fired one volley and commenced to retreat The Nationals returned the fire, killing several and taking ten prisoners. The Union loss was one killed.—Chicago Tribune, April 1.

—A successful expedition was this day made from Ship Island to Pass Christian,[1] Miss., by the National gunboats New-London, Jackson, and Lewis. When off Pass Christian they were attacked by the rebel steamers Oregon, Pamlico, and Carondelet, but succeeded in driving them off, seriously damaging them.—(Doc. 117.)

—The schooner Resolution, having on board a party of rebels, attempting to escape into the confederate lines, was captured in Back River, Md., this day.—Baltimore American.

—This morning a spirited cannonade took place between some of the Union batteries near Point Pleasant, Mo., and a rebel one on the opposite shore. After an hour’s firing, a shell fell inside a large warehouse near the confederate battery, and the building was soon wrapped in flames. The rebels then ceased answering from their guns, and after shelling the position awhile, the Point Pleasant batteries stopped also.—St. Louis Republican.

—Governor Curtin issued a general order congratulating the Eighty-fourth and One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania regiments for gallant conduct at Winchester, Va., and directed that Winchester be inscribed on their flags, and the order be read at the head of all Pennsylvania regiments.

—Lieut. Fitz-James O’Brien, of Gen. Lander’s staff, died at Cumberland, Md., from the effects of the wound received in the fight at Blooming Gap, Va.— Baltimore American, April 7.

—A battle between the National gunboat Kinco and the flag-ship of the rebel flotilla, a few miles above the Passes of the Mississippi River, resulting in the defeat of the rebel vessel. —(Doc. 118.)

—At New-Orleans, La., all masters of steamboats engaged in trade were inhibited from taking white men as deck-hands, and were required to discharge at once such as might be employed by them. The captains, clerks, mates, carpenters, pilots, and engineers were the only white men to be employed on such boats.—New-Orleans Delta, April 4.

[1] Pass Christian is a post-village of Harrison County, Mississippi. It is located on a pass of its own name, near the entrance to St. Louis Bay. It la situated one hundred and sixty-five miles to the south-south-east of Jackson. It is fifty miles from New Orleans, thirteen miles from Mississippi City, and twenty-five miles from Biloxi. It is thirty miles from the eastern portion of Ship Island, and eighty miles from the mouth of Pass-a-l’Outre of the Mississippi River.