December 27.—Elizabethtown, Ky., was this day captured by the rebel forces, under General J. H. Morgan, after a short resistance by the Union garrison of the post, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel H. S. Smith. An immense amount of public and private property was destroyed and carried off by the rebel troops.— (Docs. 52 and 88.)
—A fight took place at Dumfries, Va., between the garrison of the town, consisting of three infantry regiments, a section of a field-battery, and a regiment of cavalry, under the command of Colonel Charles Candy, and the rebel forces of Generals Stuart and Fitz-Hugh Lee, with a battery of artillery, in all about three thousand five hundred men, resulting, after a desperate conflict of several hours’ duration, in a retreat of the rebel forces with great loss.—(Doc. 89.)
—Yesterday the expeditionary army, under General Sherman, successfully disembarked near the mouth of the Yazoo River, and to-day marched on Vicksburgh.—(Doc. 91.)
—To-day the Union army under General Sherman, in conjunction with the gunboats on the Mississippi, commenced the attack on the rebel forces before Vicksburgh. The gunboats, after several hours’ firing, were compelled to retire, considerably disabled, but the Union troops, after a desperate contest of eight hours’ duration, closing at nightfall, drove the rebel forces back some distance toward their works, both forces resting on their arms for the night.—(Doc. 91.)
