August 18.—The following orders were issued from the War Department at Washington: “Hereafter no appointments of Majors-General or Brigadiers-General will be given except to officers of the regular army, for meritorious and distinguished services during the war, or to volunteer officers who, by some successful achievement in the field, shall have displayed the military abilities required for the duties of a general officer.
“No appointment to such grades will be issued by the War Department till an examination is made to ascertain if there are any charges or evidence against the character, conduct or fitness of the appointee, and if there should be any such charges or evidence a special report will be made to the President.”
— The One Hundred and Twenty-fifth and the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh regiments of Pennsylvania arrived at Washington, D. C.
— The National pickets were fired on at Romney Road, Va., and one man mortally wounded. A force sent in pursuit overtook a party of bushwhackers near North River Mills, attacked them, and killed the notorious guerrilla, Bob Edwards. The rest escaped to the mountains. — Colonel Michael Corcoran, of the Sixty-ninth New-York militia, was appointed a Brigadier-General in the volunteer service of the United States.
— The Congress of the rebel States reassembled at Richmond, Va., when Jeff Davis delivered his annual message, addressed “to the Senate and House of Representatives of the confederate States.”—See Supplement.
— The steamers Skylark and Sallie were burned by guerrillas, at the mouth of Duck Creek, fifty miles above Fort Henry, Tenn. The Skylark was heavily laden with government stores. She got aground and an officer unloaded a portion of her stores when he was attacked by thirty rebels. The crew, being unarmed, were compelled to surrender. The guerrillas, after removing the furniture and silver ware, set fire to both the boats. The crews were released on parole.
— The rebel Colonel John H. Morgan, issued a proclamation from Hartsville, Tenn., in which he said that in consequence of the Federal Government causing his friends to pay for property destroyed by him, he would thenceforth put the law of retaliation in full force, and act upon it with vigor. For every dollar exacted from his Southern fellow-citizens, he would have two from men of known Union sentiments, and would make their persons and property responsible for the payment
— Clarksville, Tenn., garrisoned by a small number of Union troops, under command of Col. Mason, was this day surrendered to Col. Woodward and a superior force of rebel guerrilla troops, without firing a shot.—(Doc. 186.)
