March 10.—Jacksonville, Florida, was captured by the First South-Carolina colored regiment, under the command of Colonel T. W. Higginson, and a portion of the Second South-Carolina colored regiment, under Colonel Montgomery. The people were in great fear of an indiscriminate massacre; but the negroes behaved with propriety, and no one was harmed.—(Doc. 132.)
—The sloop Peter, of Savannah, Ga., while attempting to run the blockade at Indian River Inlet, Fla., was this day captured by the gunboat Gem of the Sea.—General Granger came up with the rebels at Rutherford’s Creek, Tenn., and captured several of their number.
—President Lincoln issued a proclamation, ordering all soldiers, whether enlisted or drafted, who were absent from their regiments without leave, to return to their respective regiments before the first day of April, on pain of being arrested as deserters, and punished as the law provided.—(Doc. 133.)
—A detachment of National troops, consisting of the Sixth and Seventh regiments of Illinois cavalry, under the command of Colonel Grierson, attacked a body of rebel guerrillas, numbering four hundred men, under Colonel Richardson, encamped near Covington, Tenn., killing twenty-five, capturing a large number, and utterly routing and dispersing the rest. The camp and its contents were destroyed.
