December 15.—This morning before daylight, a group attached to the pickets of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania regiment wanting to come over from the Virginia shore, opposite Berlin, Md., thirteen men of Company N were sent over in a boat, when two companies of rebels, in all about one hundred and twenty strong, sprang from an ambush and surrounded them. The men fought gallantly and cut their way through to their boat, while many of their comrades gathered on the opposite bank and caused the rebels to retreat. The Nationals killed two of the enemy and wounded five, and had one wounded and two taken prisoners.—Baltimore American, December 17.
—A despatch from Rolla, Mo., of this date, says: Several citizens of Arkansas have reached here during the past week, and enlisted in the Arkansas Company, under Captain Ware, late member of the Legislature from that State. These men say there was a Union society in Izard, Fulton, Independent, and Searcey counties, numbering two thousand five hundred men, which could have made an organized stand in two weeks more, but it was betrayed by a recreant member and broken up and scattered. Many of these Union men have been arrested and taken to Little Rock; some have been hanged, and a large number are now in the woods trying to effect their escape from the State.
—A portion of the town of Platte City, Mo., including the Court House and Post-office, was destroyed by fire. It was set on fire about one o’clock by some rebels, but suppressed by the troops under Col. Morgan. At four o’clock it was again successfully fired. The county records were saved, but the contents and office were destroyed. Many arrests were made, including some of Si. Gordon’s guerilla band and one of Price’s captains. — Cincinnati Gazette, December 18.
—The Forty-second regiment of Ohio Volunteers, commanded by Col. J. A. Garfield, left Damp Chase, at Columbus, for the seat of war n Kentucky.—Louisville Journal, Dec. 17.
