September 8.—L. C. Turner, Judge Advocate of the War Department, issued the following instructions to United States marshals, military commandants, and their officers in the several States:
“The quota of volunteers and enrolment of militia having been completed in the several States, the necessity for stringent enforcement of the orders of the War Department in respect to volunteering and drafting no longer exists. Arrests for violation of these orders, and for disloyal practices, will hereafter be made only upon my express warrant, or by direction of the military commander or governor of the State in which such arrests may be made; and restrictions upon travel imposed by those orders are rescinded.”
—Boyd’s Station, Ky., was taken possession of by a large force of rebel troops.
—A meeting took place at London, England, between the American and British Sunday-school delegates, relative to the civil war in the United States. The opinion seemed to prevail that the end of the war would be also the virtual end of slavery. One or two of the English delegates declared that the North, in attempting to preserve the Union and destroy slavery, had the sympathy of all Christian men in England.—London News, September 9.
—A meeting of several hundred women of various denominations was held at the Park-street Church, Boston, at which a circular was adopted to the women of the United States, suggesting to them to form circles of prayer throughout the land, and to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the entire nation; for the President and his councillors; for the officers of the army and navy; for the soldiers and seamen; for their families; for ministers of the Gospel, and for the oppressed of the land; and agreeing to observe Monday of every week as a day of special prayer, assembling at ten A.m. and at three P.M.; each service to occupy two hours.—The Fortieth regiment of Massachusetts volunteers, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph A. Dalton, left the encampment at Boxboro’ for the seat of war.
—This afternoon two companies of the Third Indiana cavalry, under command of Major Chapman, went to Poolesville, Md., which they found in possession of a rebel cavalry regiment, who had planted on a hill to the right of the town one field-piece, which was opened on the Nationals as they approached. The command did not stop, but made a charge through the town. The enemy were then forming a line of battle near their gun. In a few moments reinforcements came up, consisting of two pieces of artillery and several companies of the Eighth Illinois cavalry, who, after a few shots, succeeded in silencing the enemy’s piece, when another charge was made by Major Chapman’s command, and the rebels broke and ran, leaving seven dead on the field. The National loss was one man killed, Sergeant David A. Fallis, of company B, and eight men wounded, Lieutenants Ladue and Davis, of company B, and six men of company A.—Washington Star, September 9.
—The water stations at Benson and Bagdad, Ky., on the Louisville and Frankfort Railroad, were destroyed and the road at the latter place torn up by a party of rebels.—Louisville Journal.
—A fight took place at a point on the right bank of the Mississippi River, twenty-five miles above New-Orleans, La., between the Twenty-first regiment of Indiana volunteers, and five hundred mounted Texan Rangers, resulting in the dispersion of the latter, and the capture of a greater part of their horses.—(Doc. 205.)
—Colonel Bradley T. Johnson, having been appointed by Gen. Lee, Provost-Marshal of Frederick, Md., on his entrance into that city, issued a proclamation addressed to the people of Maryland, in which he told them that after sixteen months of oppression, more galling than the Austrian tyranny, the victorious army of the South brought freedom to their doors; that its standard waved from the Potomac to Mason and Dixon’s line; that the men of Maryland had then the opportunity of working out their own redemption; and he called upon them to do their part, and to rise at once. He asked them to remember the cells of Fort McHcnry, the dungeons of Forts La Fayette and Warren; the insults to their wives and daughters; the arrests, the midnight searches of their houses, and to rise at once in arms and strike for liberty and rights.
—General Lee, commanding the rebel army in Virginia, issued a proclamation from his headquarters at Frederick, Maryland, addressed to the people of that State, in which he informed them that the people of the confederate States had long watched with the deepest sympathy the wrongs and outrages that had been inflicted upon them by the Government of the United States; that, believing they possessed a spirit too lofty to submit to such a Government, the people of the South had long wished to aid them in throwing off the foreign yoke, to enable them again to enjoy the inalienable rights of freemen, and restore the independence and sovereignty of their State. In obedience to this wish the Southern army had come among them, and was prepared to assist them with the power of its arms in regaining the rights of which they had been so unjustly despoiled. This was the mission of the Southern army. No restraint upon their free will was intended, no intimidation would be allowed, at least within the limits of his army. But it was for the people of Maryland to decide their own destiny, freely and without constraint. The army would respect their choice, whatever it might be; and while the Southern people would rejoice to welcome them to their natural position among them, they would do so only when they came of their own free will.
—Governor Bradford, of Maryland, in view of the fact that the rebel army under General Lee had entered the State and menaced the city of Baltimore and other places with a hostile attack, issued a proclamation calling upon the citizens to enroll themselves at once in volunteer military organizations; that no possible power at command might be overlooked in preparing to meet every emergency. Arms and accoutrements would be distributed to all military organizations, whether infantry or cavalry.
—The excitement among the people of Pennsylvania, consequent upon the invasion of the neighboring State of Maryland by the rebel army under General Lee, threatening an advance upon their own State, was most intense. Yesterday the citizens of Lancaster County held a great meeting, at which they appointed a committee of safety, who, to-day, issued an address appealing to the inhabitants of every township and borough in the county to organize committees of safety; to make out lists of all able-bodied men capable of bearing arms; to organize them into companies, and drill them daily; to put in order and have ready for immediate service every rifle and shot-gun; to provide themselves with ammunition; to form squads of cavalry in every district; to arrest every man who uttered a traitorous sentiment against the Government, and to watch every suspicious character whom they might find prowling about their neighborhoods.
