November 1.—Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, in a letter to the Secretary of War, dated October 31, having requested that his name might “be placed on the list of Army Officers retired from active service,” a special Cabinet Council was convened, and decided that Gen. Scott’s request, in view of his advanced age and infirmities, could not be refused; and his name was accordingly so placed, “without reduction in his current pay, subsistence, or allowances.” Major-General George B. McClellan was thereupon appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, to succeed Gen. Scott, and assumed the position in a general order, in which he expresses his regret “that the weight of many years, and the effect of increasing infirmities, contracted and intensified in his country’s service, should just now remove from our head the great soldier of our nation.” (Doc. 122.)
—Colonel Mulligan, made prisoner by the rebels at the capture of Lexington, was exchanged.—St. Louis Democrat, Nov. 3.
—The Federal prisoners at Charleston were removed from Castle Pinckney. Along the whole line of march, the streets were thronged with a motley crowd of people, juveniles, and darkies. Great eagerness was expressed to see the officers, especially Colonel Corcoran, late of the New York Sixty-ninth regiment. The privates were indeed a sorrowful-looking set, but seemed in quite good humor; and many of them carried along on their shoulders their chairs, chess beards, and other similar conveniences, which they had extemporized during their stay at Castle Pinckney.—Charleston Mercury, Nov. 2.
—The Tenth regiment of Connecticut Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Charles H. Russell, passed through New York.
—Lieutenant-Colonel Morse, with four hundred cavalry, surprised a rebel camp, eight hundred strong, near Renick, Randolph County, Mo., and drove out the rebels in complete rout. —(Doc. 123.)
—Some scouts from the Second Kentucky regiment, under Captain Wheeler, reported to Gen. Rosecrans, the rebels in considerable force on the west side of New River, some few miles above Gauley Bridge, in Virginia.
Shortly after Captain Wheeler’s return, two batteries were opened upon the National troops in the vicinity of Gauley Bridge from the hills on the opposite side of the river—one directly opposite the bridge, and the other two miles lower down, at the falls of the Kanawha, opposite a large brick house in which commissary’s supplies were stored. These batteries played away nearly all day, the commissary’s quarters affording them a fine mark; but so bad was their firing, they did not strike the building once! In almost every instance their balls and shell fell short. The upper battery, after wasting a good deal of ammunition, succeeded in driving the Eleventh Ohio from their camp on the hillside opposite, and in sinking a flat-boat, which served the army as a ferry. This was the extent of the damage done. Not a man was killed, and the flat-boat was raised again the same evening, and made to do good service that night.
It was not till the day had far advanced that the National artillery could be brought to bear upon the rebel batteries. The rifled guns were all at the various camps up New River; but when they were once placed in position, it was not long until both the rebel batteries were silenced. A train of wagons, on its way from Gauley Bridge to the encampments above, was fired upon the same day, when five or six miles up the river, by rebel infantry, and two of the Nationals were wounded. Three companies from General Benham’s camp, at Hawk’s Nest, came to their relief, and soon drove the enemy back of the hills.—Cincinnati Gazette, Nov. 5
—An important proclamation relating to the coming election in Maryland, was issued by General Dix. It having been understood that persons formerly residing in the State, but who had recently been bearing arms against the United States Government, had returned with the intention of taking part in the election, with the purpose of carrying out treasonable designs, General Dix ordered the United States Marshal of Maryland and the Provost-Marshal of Baltimore to arrest all such persons; and he further directed the election judges throughout the State to detain all such persons who might present themselves at the polls, until they could be taken into custody by the proper authorities.— (Doc. 124.)
—Since the Twentieth and Twenty-first regiments have been in camp near Griffin, Pike County, Georgia, the measles and typhoid fever have broke out among them. There are now over two hundred on the sick list and several have died. Two large buildings have been set apart as hospitals, and the sick receive the daily attentions of the benevolent ladies of Griffin.— Griffin Union, Nov. 1.
—General Fremont signed, at Springfield, Mo., an agreement entered into with two commissioners, on the part of the rebel General Price, “to facilitate the future exchange of prisoners of war,” and which provides, “that all persons heretofore arrested for the mere expression of political opinions, may be released from confinement on parole; also, that in future the war be confined exclusively to the armies in the field.” —(Doc. 125.)
