November 29.—The following was drawn up to-day on board the British frigate President, lying in one of the docks in England, and signed by all the men of the naval reserve in the ship.
To Capt. Lacy, R. N., her Majesty’s ship President, City Canal:
Sir : Having heard that our flag has been grossly insulted by an American ship-of-war, and people who claimed its protection forcibly taken from it and made prisoners, we write this to let you know that we are ready to fulfil our engagement and protect the honor of our flag, our good Queen and country, whenever called upon to do se. We respectfully request you will make this our determination known in the proper quarter.
[Signed on behalf of the volunteer reserve on board the President.]—London Telegraph, Nov. 30.
—At eleven o’clock to-night the heavens to the southwest of Charleston, S. C., were brilliantly illuminated with the patriotic flames ascending from burning cotton. As the spectators witnessed it they involuntarily burst forth with cheer after cheer, and each heart was warmed as with a new pulse. Such a people can never be subjugated. Let the holy flames continue to ascend, and let the demons of hell, who come here on their diabolical errand, learn a lesson and tremble. Let the torch be applied whenever the invader pollutes our soil, and let him find, as is meet, that our people will welcome him only with devastation and ruin. Our people are in earnest—men, women, and children—and their sacrifices will ascend as a sacred holocaust to God, crying aloud for vengeance against the fiends in human shape who are disgracing humanity, trampling down civilization, and would blot out Christianity. Patriotic planters on the seaboard are hourly applying the torch to their crops of cotton and rice. Some are authorized by military authorities to destroy their crops to prevent ravages by the enemy. Plantations on North Edisto and in the neighborhood, and elsewhere on the coast of South Carolina, are one sheet of flames and smoke. The commanding officers at all of the exposed points on the coast have receive positive instructions to burn or destroy all property which cannot be conveniently taken away and is likely to be seized by the enemy.— Charleston Mercury, November 30.
—An official order was received at the Custom-house, in London, England, not to allow the shipment of any saltpetre to any place till further order. A large quantity had been placed in lighters previous to shipment for export, but the whole was relanded under the supervision of the Customs officers, and returned into warehouse.—London Times, November 30.
—Major R. M. Hough, aide-de-camp to Gen. Hunter, in command of four companies of the First Missouri Cavalry, as escort to a large train from Sedalia, Mo., arrived at Leavenworth, Kansas. The command had an engagement with rebels at Black Walnut Creek, and killed and wounded seventeen and took five prisoners. Five Federals, including Major Hough, were wounded, but none seriously.— N. Y. Commercial, December 2.
—The Jackson Mississippian, in an article on the pay of the privates in the rebel army, holds the following language:—It has been a conviction of ours since the beginning of the war, that there was too great a distinction made between the privates and commissioned officers of our army. Under the old order of things, such a distinction and difference in pay was, perhaps, altogether proper. But our Southern army is composed of the flower of the country. The privates occupy respectable social positions. They are not, as in the case with Northern horde, the refuse of society, who take up arms as a means of securing their daily bread, but they are .the social equals of their officers. They have enlisted in the service of the country from the purest promptings of patriotism. They endure all the privations and hardships of the camp; and their high tone of character, disinterested and quenchless love for the cause of liberty, make each one of them equal to at least three of Lincoln’s mercenaries. They deserve to receive more, nay, and higher consideration than the mere brutish hirelings of a despot, who know not, and care not, what they are fighting for.
When it is considered that the officers are already handsomely paid, that they monopolize in a great measure the honors of the war, and their names figure conspicuously in the official reports and newspaper accounts, surely it will not be denied that the poor private, whose name is never mentioned, and to whose courage and patriotism the army is indebted for its most brilliant victories, should receive a better compensation for the sacrifices and hardships which he undergoes than is now allowed by the pay regulations. And when it is further considered that many of them are poor, with dependent families to support, and that provisions and clothing of every description have largely increased in price, it will be universally admitted, we think, that their pay should be increased. For these and many other reasons, we think the Confederate Congress, when it reassembles, will promptly raise the pay of the private soldier.
—Lieutenant John L. Worden, of the U. S. Navy, who had been seven months a prisoner in the South, arrived at Washington.—(Doc. 204.)
—To-day Drake DeKay, aide-de-camp to General Mansfield, accompanied by Major Sharfp, Captain Hellerer and Capt. Breck, left Fortress Monroe, Va., with a party of about forty men. They had not travelled long before they met with a body of the Prince Edward Cavalry, twenty-five to thirty in number, about a mile beyond New Market. De Kay had not more than a dozen men, the balance being in reserve. The enemy attacked with fire, but the Federals took to the woods and opened upon them so briskly that they were soon forced to retreat, leaving two killed, while they succeeded in carrying off the wounded.
One of the former was Mr. Edward A. Scott, of Richmond, a gentleman well known in Baltimore as well as Virginia. Upon his person was found, among other things, a letter from a lady, dated Richmond. The following was the concluding sentence, saying: “Now be sure, my darling Edward, that this letter does not fall into the hands of the rascally Yankees.” The Federals took a number of pistols, some of which were of the most approved standard, and handsomely ornamented with silver.—N. Y. Commercial, December 8.
—At Nashville, Tenn., twenty-one prisoners from East Tennessee appeared in the Confederate court, acknowledged the error of their ways, took the oath of loyalty to the Southern Confederacy, and attached themselves to a company being raised in Nashville. — Nashville Gazette, November 30.
— The rebels at Harper’s Ferry, Va., opened a hot fire of shells on the quarters of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania regiment, causing some excitement among the men. Major Tyndall returned the fire with Enfield rifles, but the distance was too great to do any damage. None of the Pennsylvania men were hurt. — N. Y. Herald, November 30.
— General Carroll has received orders from the War Department at Richmond, Va., to march immediately to the support of General Zollicoffer. The step is one in the right direction, and will, we doubt not, be taken without delay. —Memphis Appeal, November 2.(sic)
