December 1.—The schooner Albion, of Nassau, N. P., formerly the Lucy E. Waring, of Baltimore, Md., arrived at New York, a prize to the U. S. gunboat Penguin, which captured her while attempting to run the blockade of Charleston. She was laden with arms, ammunition, salt, fruit, provisions, oils, tin, copper, saddles, bridles, and cavalry equipments, and valued at one hundred thousand dollars. On the morning of the 25th nit, she was observed endeavoring to work into the inlet near Edisto Island, and after a chase of three hours was overhauled and captured. The schooner was in command of Captains Christy and Stevens, who admitted that they were residents of Savannah, Ga. They were also part owners of the vessel. The captains and crew were put on board the U. S. steamer Penguin. Master’s mate George N. Hood was put on board the Albion with a prize crew, and ordered to proceed North.
—This morning, a party of Union men from Whitley County, Ky., headed by George W. Lyttle, marched into the town of Huntsville, Tennessee, after having travelled through the night from Williamsburg, Ky., a distance of near fifty miles, and about twenty-five miles into the Southern Confederacy; tore down the flag of rebellion, erected the Stars and Stripes, and captured five rebel troops, and bore them in triumph to Camp Calvert, with a number of good horses and rigging, also some splendid fire-arms, knives, &c[1]
Those composing the little patriotic band, were R. Bird, Speed Faris, Samuel Freeman, J. W. Smith, Clint. Roe, Ples. Jones, Joe Cain, S. C. Cain, Wm. Ellison, Frank and Abel Bryant, G. W. Lyttle, S. Stanfield, Jeremiah Meadors, R. and J. Pemberton, and some others, making between twenty and thirty in number.—Frankfort (Ky.) Commonwealth, Dec. 9.
—A party of Unionists attacked the Confederate pickets at Morristown, East Tennessee, killing a large number of them, and putting the rest to flight.—Memphis Avalanche, Dec. 2.
—Simon Cameron, the Secretary of War, in his report, proposed that the limits of Virginia be so altered, as to make her boundaries consist of the Blue Ridge on the east, and Pennsylvania on the north, leaving those on the south and west as at present. Thus Alleghany and Washington counties, of Maryland, would be transferred to Virginia, while all that portion of Virginia lying between the Blue Ridge and Chesapeake Bay, could be added to Maryland, and that portion of the peninsula between the Chesapeake and the Atlantic, could be incorporated into the States of Delaware.
[1] The Knoxville (Tenn.) Register, Dec. 3, gives the following account of this affair:
This morning a band of Lincolnites from Kentucky, assisted by a number of tories of Scott County, entered the village of Huntsville, Tenn., and seized the persons of John L Smith, John Catlin, Calvin Smith, Sterling Smith, Joe Smith, and five others, whose names we could not procure, and immediately started with them to Kentucky as prisoners of war, at the same time taking about a dozen head of horses. All the gentlemen abducted were quiet, unoffending citizens, belonging to no military organization in the Confederate service. Their only crime was that they were secessionists. John L. Smith is a clerk, and master of the Chancery Court at Huntsville, at least seventy years of age, and is respected by all who know him in the very slightest degree, and the others abducted are equally esteemed. The party from whom we derived this information, Mr. William Anderson, was likewise captured by the marauders, but made his escape. He says he could not ascertain the precise number of the enemy. He saw about forty or fifty, but they represented their number at several hundred. They were piloted in by the somewhat notorious John H. Smith, who was released by the Confederate Court at Nashville, some time ago, upon his taking the oath of allegiance, and who forfeited his recognizance some days ago in the Confederate Court at this place, upon a charge of counterfeiting; John Baxter, of this city, being his security. He was assisted in this infamous raid by other tory residents of Scott County, among whom was Riley Cecil, another individual who was released by Major Folkerson, at Jamestown, last summer, upon making the strongest promises of good behavior toward the Confederate States.
