May 14.—President Lincoln, accompanied by Secretary Stanton, and Captain Dahlgren, visited Fredericksburgh, Va., to-day. The Martha Washington conveyed the party to Acquia Creek, from whence they were taken by railroad to Gen. McDowell’s headquarters, opposite Fredericksburgh. The occasion was made a gala-day. Flags were displayed from the steamboats and shipping at Acquia Creek. Several regiments were reviewed by the President. In the afternoon Mr. Lincoln, accompanied by General McDowell, Gen. Patrick, and a body-guard, visited and rode through the streets of Fredericksburgh. The President was greeted by the troops and many of the citizens with the utmost enthusiasm. A National salute was fired by one of the batteries in Falmouth. The Presidential party returned late in the evening to Washington.
—A skirmish took place about five miles from Trenton Bridge, N. C, between a detachment of Union troops under command of Colonel Amory, consisting of twelve companies of cavalry, the Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Massachusetts infantry, and a section of the Third New-York artillery, and a body of rebels secreted in the woods along the roadside. After a fierce contest, which lasted only about ten minutes, the rebels were routed, leaving nine of their number dead on the field, among whom was Lieutenant Rogers, a favorite officer among them.—N. Y. Tribune.
—A soldier, belonging to Col. Catherwood’s regiment, Sixth Missouri State Militia, named Donegan, was inhumanly murdered by “bushwhackers,” within gun-shot hearing of his father’s house, from which he was returning unarmed to his regiment. Several outrages of this kind having occurred about this time in the neighborhood of Cameron, Missouri, Col. Catherwood detailed a scouting party of sixty men, under the command of Capt Bassett, to ferret out the perpetrators. After four days’ ceaseless riding, they succeeded in capturing eighteen prisoners, twenty-nine Mississippi rifles, and three kegs of powder.—Missouri Democrat.
—The Charleston Mercury of this day publishes the following circular, which, it says, is “the deliberate expression of probably the largest, wealthiest and most influential class of the citizens of New-Orleans,” and says, also, that “for reasons that will be manifest to all,” no signatures are attached to it:
“To Cotton Planters. — New-Orleans has fallen, not degraded or enslaved, but yielding to armed ships with guns levelled at the homes of our defenceless wives and children. The escutcheon of Louisiana is unstained, and her flag has been desecrated but by her enemies. None could be found among us so vile, low or degraded as to lower her national insignia. We have yielded to brute force but for the moment.
“It becomes now the duty of all planters to display more than ever their patriotism and devotion to their country. They have sealed that devotion upon the battle-field. Now let us fight our enemies, as well by burning and destroying every bale of cotton upon the river or rivers liable to capture, as well as refusing ever to ship or sell a bale of cotton until peace is declared and our nationality is fixed. Let their conquest be a barren one.
“The merchant fleets of Europe and of Yankeedom will soon be bringing their riches among us to trade with us, expecting an exchange of cotton. If commerce is once revived we are enslaved for ever. Let Europe howl at the waste the barbarity of the North will have brought upon the country. The United States Government has promised renewed trade to the world so soon as our ports are opened. If we are true to ourselves, there will be no trade, and the countless millions of foreign products will be without purchasers. How long will they remain idle spectators of such a scene? The Powers of Europe will see that there is no sentiment of regard for the old flag—that we despise the race; and when we withhold or destroy our property, they will find that Unionism is dead for ever.”
The United States steamers Ceres and Lockwood pursued the rebel steamer Alice up Roanoke River, and captured her about two miles below Williamston. She had on board bacon for the rebel army, and the church-bells of Plymouth, which were to be cast into field-pieces. At Plymouth, the Commodore Perry found the lantern from the light-boat at the mouth of Roanoke River, concealed in the Custom-House.— Official Report.
—In the United States Senate Mr. Wright, of Indiana, presented a petition from citizens of that State, asking Congress to stop the agitation of the negro question and attend to the business of putting down the rebellion.
