November 20.—An extensive display of flags was made throughout New York City in honor of the Port Royal victory, and Mr. James E. Ayliffe, the chimer, rang the following airs on the bells of Trinity Church: ringing the changes on eight bells, Hail Columbia, Yankee Doodle, airs from Child of the Regiment, Home Sweet Home, Last Rose of Summer, Evening Bells, Star-Spangled Banner, ringing the changes on eight bells, airs by De Beriot, airs from Fra Diavolo, Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, Hail Colombia, and Yankee Doodle.
—Several old whale ships purchased by the U. S. Government at New London, Connecticut, and New Bedford, Massachusetts, and loaded with what the soldiers of the Massachusetts Sixth regiment call ” Baltimore rations,” (stones and brickbats,) sailed for the South, to be sunk at the entrances of certain harbors.
—Seven divisions of troops, embracing all arms of the service, and about seventy thousand men, were reviewed, on the Potomac, by General McClellan and staff, accompanied by the President and cabinet, the diplomatic corps, &c., all of whom were mounted. The General was escorted by his body guard (Major Barker’s dragoons) and two regiments of regular cavalry— in all nearly two thousand mounted men. The salute was fired from fifteen batteries of artillery —about a hundred guns—and the whole was witnessed by between twenty and thirty thousand spectators.
—Colonel Burchard and twenty-four men of Jennings’ brigade attacked Captain Hays, with one hundred and fifty rebels, at the latter’s place of residence (near Kansas City) today, and succeeded in driving them away, burning Hays’ house, and the house of a man named Gregg. Both Hays and Gregg were captains in the rebel army. Colonel Burchard and Lieut. Bostwick were slightly wounded, and their two horses were killed. The rebels had five men killed and eight wounded.
—News from the eastern shore of Virginia —Aocomac and Northampton Counties—represent that the advance of General Dix and the distribution of his proclamation give general satisfaction. The rebels, three thousand in number, have disbanded, and the Union men have gained courage. The Stars and Bars have been lowered, and the glorious Stars and Stripes have taken their place, and the residents of these counties have welcomed the advance of the Union troops as a harbinger of returning peace and prosperity.—(Doc. 179.)
—A sensation was produced this morning in Baltimore, Md., by the seizure of Miller’s Hotel, corner of German and Paca streets, with all its contents, including a large number of horses. The object of this movement was to prostrate the mail arrangements of the rebel sympathizers there. It was supposed that from the hotel there had been regular communication kept up with teams to West River and thence to Virginia. The proprietors of the hotel had not been suspected generally, and were regarded as loyal men; but it was supposed that certain employees or lodgers had been receiving and transmitting letters forward to Secessia.
—The Richmond Enquirer, of this date, contains the report of the committee appointed by the Virginia State Convention to report on amendments to the State Constitution. It commences by saying that all good governments and the great interests of every community depend on the elements of labor and capital, which it is the part of enlightened statesmanship to equalize. It complains that, in the Northern States, the element of labor preponderates, which has caused the division of society into two distinct classes, thereby destroying the social system. It denounces the system of free schools, by which the children of the poor are educated at the expense of the rich, and rejects universal suffrage as calculated to demoralize the masses and foster corruption at the polls.— (Doc. 180.)
—Marble Nash Taylor, chosen Provisional Governor of North Carolina by the Union men at Hatteras, issued a proclamation calling upon the people of that State to return to their allegiance to the United States.—(Doc. 181.)
—The Richmond Dispatch, of this date, has the following: We are informed by one of our principal publishers, that the demand for Yankee books is not affected by the war, and that, a few days ago, he had an order for a considerable number of a Yankee arithmetic, although his shelves are filled with a work by an eminent Southern scholar, which is confessed to be the best in the language.
There was one sentiment in the first letter of Prince Napoleon from this country, which filled us with dismay. He freely expressed in his letter his opinion of the uphill job which the North had undertaken in its attempt to subjugate the South. But he added that, in his opinion, after the war, trade would resume its usual channels.
If he was right in that prediction, the war might as well—might better—have never been fought. If the South is to continue a commercial tributary of the North—if, above all, it is to look to the North for the education of its children, it is a subject and dependent province, and nothing more or less, no matter by what mocking name of freedom it is deluded.
How long a war will it require to win this people from dependence upon the North? Better it should last forever than that the priceless blood already shed should have been shed in vain. We have no reason to fear the North in war; but when the army of bayonets becomes converted into an army of drummers, .the structure of Southern independence will be subject to a test more severe and terrible than any which Scott or McClellan are able to apply.
As soon as this war is over, a Northern horde of salesmen will overrun the land, or come here to live, and vote down our liberties at the polls. If we do not make provision in our laws to prevent these objects, Southern independence is an idle dream.
—Letters from Loudon, Laurel County, Ky., emphatically deny the prevalent reports that the citizens of Loudon refuse to sell the Federal Government forage and ask exorbitant prices therefor, and also that General Zollicoffer had blockaded the Cumberland Gap by blasting rocks, etc.—Louisville Journal, November 20.
—In pursuance of a resolution of the Common Council, salutes of thirty-four guns each were fired in New York City, and the bells were rung as a token of rejoicing for the brilliant victory at Port Royal.—N. Y. Commercial Journal, November 20.
—The Congress of the Confederate States has passed an act to remove the capital from Richmond to Nashville, Tennessee.—Richmond Enquirer, November 20.
—The rebel Gen. Floyd suddenly broke up his camp in the vicinity of the Gauley River, and made a hasty retreat. Tie burned over three hundred of his tents, and destroyed a large amount of camp equipage. In his flight he cast aside ten wagon loads of ammunition and arms.
—The Ninety-third regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, under the command of Colonel McCarter, left Harrisburg for Washington.
—The new steam sloop-of-war Housatonic was launched at the Charleston, Mass., Navy Yard.
The Fourth Massachusetts Light Battery went on board the ship Constitution at Boston.
