May 25. —General Banks at Winchester, Va., with about four thousand men, was attacked and compelled to retreat by Gen. (Stonewall) Jackson and Ewell with fifteen thousand men.—(Doc. 15 and 102.)
—The Government of the United States called for additional troops, and issued the following order:
Ordered—By virtue of the authority vested by an act of Congress, the President takes military possession of all the railroads in the United States from and after this date until further orders, and directs that the respective railroad companies, their officers and servants, shall hold themselves in readiness for the transportation of troops and munitions of war, as may be ordered by the military authorities, to the exclusion of all other business.
— The National forces under Gen. McDowell, advanced towards Richmond, and encamped on the Massaponax, six miles from Frcdericksburgh.
— The news of General Banks’s defeat, and the sudden call of the Secretary of War upon the State militia, created the utmost excitement at the North, not only among the military themselves, but among the thousands connected with them. The greatest enthusiasm and eagerness to march at once to any field of service named by the Government was every where apparent
— Great excitement existed in Baltimore, Md., consequent upon the rejoicings of the secessionists of that city, at the defeat of General Banks and the repulse of the First Maryland regiment— (Doc. 116.)
— A Reconnoissance of the rebel works at Vicksburgh, Miss., was this day made by the United States gunboat Kennebec, under the command of Captain Russell. The Kennebec approached within about two miles of the works, when a battery of four guns opened on her, killing one man and wounding another.—New-York Evening Post.
— General McClellan issued an order to the effect that upon the passage of the Chickahominy River, the troops of the army of the Potomac were to be “prepared for battle at a moment’s notice.”—(Doc. 117.)
