July 13.—A fight took place at Donaldsonville, La., between the rebels and a force of National troops under the command of Brigadier-General Dudley and Colonel Morgan, resulting in the retreat of the Nationals with a loss of four hundred and fifty killed and wounded, and two guns.
—President Lincoln wrote the following letter to Major-General Grant:
“My Dear General: I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburgh, I thought you should do what you finally did, march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I never had any faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition, and the like, could succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join General Banks; and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I thought it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you was right and I was wrong.”
—The funeral of Brigadier-General Samuel K. Zook, who was killed at the battle of Gettysburgh, took place at New-York City.—General George G. Meade issued a proclamation in reference to depredations committed by citizens, or rebel soldiers in disguise, and announced the punishment therefor.—A riot was threatened in Newark, N. J.—D. H. Hill, the rebel Major-General, was appointed Lieutenant-General, and assigned to command by Jefferson Davis.—Williamston, on the Roanoke River, was bombarded by four National gunboats under Captain Flusser, the bridge across Gardner’s Creek destroyed, and the rebels driven entirely from the river.—The case of Clement L. Vallandigham was elaborately discussed in the New-York World.—Fort Powhatan, on the James River, Va., was taken possession of by the National fleet under Admiral Lee. The rebels had removed the guns before evacuting the Fort.—The draft was resisted, and a riot broke out in New-York City. The offices of the provost-marshals were burned, the machinery for the drawing destroyed, telegraph wires cut, railroad tracks torn up, private houses sacked, the Colored Orphan Asylum burned, and a number of the police force badly injured, among them Superintendent Kennedy.—(See Supplement.)
—The rebel army under General Lee crossed the Potomac River at Williamsport, and escaped. —(Doc. 95.)
—Yazoo City, Miss., was captured by a combined naval and military National force. Rcar Admiral D. D. Porter, hearing that General Johnston was fortifying the place and gathering troops there for the purpose of obtaining supplies for his army from the Yazoo country, and that the remainder of the rebels’ best transports were there, consulted with Major-General Grant, and determined to send an expedition to capture and destroy them. The Baron de Kalb, National, Kenwood, and Signal, were despatched, under command of Lieutenant Commander John G. Walkcr, with a force of troops, numbering five thousand, under Major-General Frank J. Herron. Pushing up to the city, the Baron de Kalb engaged the batteries, which were all prepared to receive her, and after finding out their strength dropped back to notify General Herron, who immediately landed his men, and the army and navy made a combined attack on the enemy’s works. The rebels soon fled, leaving every thing in the possession of the Nationals, and set fire to four of their finest steamers that ran on the Mississippi. The army pursued the enemy and captured their rear-guard of two hundred and sixty men. Six heavy guns and one vessel, formerly a gunboat, fell into the hands of the Union troops, and all the munitions of war. Unfortunately, while the Baron de Kalb was moving slowly along she ran foul of a torpedo, which exploded and sunk her. There was no sign of any thing of the kind to be seen. While she was going down another exploded under her stern. No lives were lost on the National side.—Admiral Porter’s Despatch.
