Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

April 8.—Island Number Ten, on the Mississippi River, with the neighboring rebel works on the Tennessee shore, having surrendered yesterday, was taken possession of by the United States gunboats and troops under the command of Gen. Buford. Seventeen rebel officers and five hundred soldiers, including the sick and those on board transports, were taken prisoners. Seven rebel steamers, including the gunboat Grampus, were captured or sunk, and large quantities of military stores and ammunition were taken.— (Doc. 120.)

—General Halleck at St Louis, Mo., telegraphed to Secretary Stanton as follows: “Brigadier-Gen. W. M. Makall, late of the United States Adjutant-General’s Department, and two thousand of the rebel forces, have surrendered to Gen. Pope, and it is expected that many more will be captured to-day. Immense quantities of artillery and supplies have fallen into our hands.

“Later.—Gen. Pope has captured three generals, six thousand prisoners of war, one hundred siege pieces, and several field batteries, with immense quantities of small arms, tents, wagons, horses and provisions. Our victory is complete and overwhelming. We have not lost a single man.”

—The guerrillas in Western Virginia are still troublesome. Two secessionists belonging on the Valley River, in the upper end of Marion County, were shot this day by a detachment of Capt. Showalter’s company. Their names were Sack Barker and Levi Ashcraft. A band of guerrillas (supposed to belong to the same gang from which Riblet and Conway were captured) had taken prisoners a couple of young men, soldiers in Capt. Showalter’s company, and their comrades in rescuing them captured the two guerrillas above named, and killed them on their attempting to escape. This took place near Texas, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.— N. Y. Tribune, April 15.

—Jefferson Davis proclaimed martial law over the department of East-Tennessee, under the command of Major-Gen. E. K. Smith, and the suspension of all civil jurisdiction, except in certain courts, and also the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. The distillation and sale of spirituous liquors was also prohibited. —(Doc. 141.)

—At Providence, Rhode Island, by order of Lieut. Gov. Arnold, a national salute was fired on the great bridge this afternoon, in honor of the National success at Island No. Tea—N. Y. Times, April 9.

—Gen. Milroy occupied Monterey, Va., this afternoon. The rear-guard of the enemy is at McDowell, and their mounted scouts were driven in on Wednesday, by a scouting party of Gen. Milroy’s command. Both Monterey and McDowell are in Highland County, Va.—(Doc. 121.)

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