November 19.—General Hampton and General Thomas L. Rosser returned to Fredericksburgh, Va., from a most successful expedition into Culpeper County. On Tuesday night last they crossed the Rapidan with detachments from Rosser’s, Gordon’s, and Young’s brigades, all under the immediate command of General Rosser, for the purpose of ascertaining the position of the enemy on the other side. After marching all night over a desperate road, they succeeded, about daylight on Wednesday morning, in locating the pickets of the enemy. That being accomplished, General Rosser immediately ordered a charge, which was executed by his brigade in the most gallant style, driving the advance back upon the main body, which was encamped a short distance in the rear. Here the enemy had formed a line of defence; but, in defiance of a heavy fire poured into his command, General Rosser pressed forward, and soon drove the entire force (the Eighteenth Pennsylvania cavalry) through their encampment, and pursued them some miles beyond, in the direction of Stevensburgh.
The result of this gallant exploit was the capture of sixty prisoners, among them an adjutant and one lieutenant, two flags, one hundred horses and mules, a number of tents, all the wagons, baggage, etc., of the encampment. The enemy fled through the woods in every direction, many of them without having completed their toilet for the day. Having located the enemy, (the original object of the expedition,) and obtained other valuable information, the command was withdrawn, by the way of Germanna Ford, to the other side of the river, where the prisoners and other captures had been previously forwarded.— Richmond Enquirer.
—A detachment, composed of companies G, H, T, and K, of the Fifty-eighth regiment of Illinois infantry, with a portion of the Second Illinois cavalry, under the command of Captain Franklin B. Moore, pursued Faulkner’s rebel partisans to a point on Obion River, four miles from Union City, Tennessee, where, in attempting to cross the river, the rebels were fired on, and eleven of their number killed. The Nationals captured fifty-three prisoners, a wagon-load of small-arms, thirty-three horses, and four mules. Their casualties were one man wounded and five horses shot.—Large and spirited meetings were held in all the wards in Boston, Mass., last night, to encourage volunteering. Committees were appointed, and the work was pursued with energy. A similar movement was made in cities and towns throughout the State.—At Gettysburgh, Pa., the national cemetery, for the burial of the Union soldiers who fell in the battles fought at that place in July, 1863, was consecrated.
—A combined expedition, consisting of the gunboat Morse, commanded by Captain Charles A. Babcock, and four hundred and fifty men from the One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiment of New-York volunteers, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel George M. Guion, left Yorktown, Va., on Monday, November sixteenth, in search of a party of the rebel “Marine Brigade,” reported to be on their way from Richmond to Mob Jack Bay, to commit depredations on the Northern commerce.
The Morse landed the regiment the same evening at the head-waters of East River, which at once marched across the county to Matthews Court-House, where information was obtained that the “Marines” had left the place but a few hours previously. Passing the night there, early the next morning the march was continued northward as far as Shuffletown, on the Piankatank River. No traces of the rebels being discovered, the regiment turned about and scoured the country down to the mouth of the Piankatank, encamping that night at Cricket Hill.
The next morning, the eighteenth, crossing in small boats to Gwynne’s Island, the men were deployed across it, and the cover beaten as they advanced. About noon, near the lower end of the island, their labor was rewarded by the discovery of the entire party for which they were in search, consisting of an acting master in the rebel navy, named Webb, and fifteen men. The marines were hidden in the reeds and bushes of swamp, and offered little resistance. Each man was armed with a carbine, cutlass, and pistol of English manufacture. They had with them a twelve pounder breech-loading brass howitzer, which, however, they had previously concealed in the woods. A sloop, with which they intended to commit depredations on passing vessels, was discovered up a creek, and burned.
They were expecting to capture a large vessel, and eventually to attack one of the mail-boats plying between Fortress Monroe and Baltimore, from which city Webb and nearly all of his gang of pirates hailed. In the possession of Webb was found his commission as master in the rebel navy, together with a letter of instructions from Secretary Mallory, ordering him to proceed to the rivers and creeks of Eastern Virginia, organize his party, and annoy commerce as extensively as possible.
The One Hundred and Forty-eighth returned to Yorktown to-day with their prisoners, who were sent to Fort Norfolk.
