The American Civil War

September 21.—Twenty-one persons, exiled for various degrees and offences of disloyalty, accompanied by nine ladies, who went by permission of the War Department to rejoin their families, permanently residing at the South, left St. Louis, Mo., in charge of Captain Edward Lawler, of the First Missouri infantry. They were sent within the rebel lines in accordance with orders of the National War Department, of April twenty-fourth, 1863.—James M. Mason, the rebel commissioner in England, informed Earl Russell, at-.the Court of St James’s, that his commission was at an end, and that he was ordered by Jefferson Davis to remove from the country.— The British schooner Martha Jane, was captured by the gunboat Fort Henry’s tender Annie, off Bayport, Florida.

—The revenue steamer Hercules, while lying off the Virginia shore, was attacked by a large party of rebel guerrillas, but they were driven off after a fight of about twenty minutes, without inflicting any serious damage to the steamer or her crew.—The battle of Chickamauga, Ga., was concluded by the Union forces falling back on Chattanooga, after a gallant fight by General Thomas’s corps.—(Doc’s. 43, 105, 123, and 184.)

September 20.—Lieutenant Earl, of the Fourth Wisconsin regiment, in command of a squad of forty cavalry, marched from Baton Rouge, La., as far as Comite River, and captured fourteen prisoners, with their arms, horses, and equipments. Among the prisoners were Colonel Hunter and Captain Perry, notorious guerrilla chiefs.

September 19.—A party belonging to the command of General Buford, swam the Rapid Ann River, near Raccoon Ford, and after capturing a considerable number of prisoners, returned to their camp in safety.—The battle of Chickamauga, Ga,, between the Union forces under General Rosecrans, and the rebels under General Bragg, commenced this day.—(Docs. 43, 105, and 123.)

September 18.—General Schofield, in command in Missouri, issued a General Order, stating that martial law would be enforced throughout his department against all persons who should in any manner encourage military insubordination, or endeavor to create disaffection among the troops and against all persons who should publish or utter publicly words calculated to excite insurrection, lawless acts among the people, or who should publish falsehoods or misrepresentations of facts, calculated to embarrass or weaken the military authorities, or in any way interfere with the men in the discharge of their duties. Any person guilty of either of the offences above mentioned, should be punished by fine and imprisonment at the discretion of a military commission, and any newspaper which might contain said publications in violation of this order would be suppressed.

—A party of soldiers, belonging to the Eighty-third Illinois regiment, were attacked, about five miles above Fort Donelson, Tenn., by a party of rebel guerrillas, led by the notorious George Hinson. The guerrillas were secreted in bushes, from which they fired a volley, killing two of the soldiers, named John Pickerel and A. P. Wolfe, of company E. The guerrillas escaped after the firing. The soldiers sent a man to the fort for an ambulance, removed a short distance from the road, and hid in the bushes. The guerrillas soon returned, when the soldiers fired on them five rounds. Hinson was shot in the head. The rest fled.

—Major-General Dix issued general orders thanking the troops quartered in the city of New York, during the difficulties consequent upon the draft, for their admirable discipline and soldierly deportment.—Colonel Trusten Polk, formerly United States Senator from Missouri, with his wife and daughter, was captured at Bolivar Landing, Arkansas, and delivered to General Buford, commanding at Helena. Colonel Polk was General Holmes’s Judge-Advocate General, and was with the rebels at New-Madrid.

September 17.—The steamer Marcella was seized and plundered by rebel guerrillas, in the vicinity of Dover Landing, ten miles below Lexington, Mo. Four soldiers of company A, Fifth M. S. M. — Edwin Ross, Chris. Sele, Martin Fisher, and Charles Waggoner — were on the steamer visiting their homes at the latter place, on furloughs. They were taken out and marched off with the assurance that they were to be exchanged for other prisoners or paroled. When the rebels had marched about two miles, they stopped and divided the plunder and money, which employed them about an hour, after which the prisoners were put in line, and instantly the order was given to fire, at which Ross, Sole, and Fisher fell dead, but young Waggoner, finding himself unhurt, sprang away for safety, and though shot after shot rattled past him, he finally made his way uninjured to the brush, and went into Lexington.

—A rebel raid was made upon a collection of vessels on the eastern shore of Virginia. The schooners Ireland and John J. Houseman were taken out to sea, plundered, and set adrift. The schooner Alexandria was also plundered, and the government schooner Alliance, loaded with stores valued at thirty thousand dollars, was captured.

September 16.—The rebel steamer Lizzie Davis, from Havana, for Mobile, Ala,, was captured in latitude 25° 58′ north, longitude 85° 11′ west, by the National flag-ship San Jacinto.—The rebel forces made an attempt to recross the Rapid Ann River, but were foiled by the National artillery and cavalry. They advanced in three columns, with artillery, toward the river, but being opposed by the Union troops on the north side, soon fell back.—A spirited skirmish took place at White Plains, Va., in which the rebels were dispersed in disorder.

September 15.—Rear-Admiral D. D. Porter, writing to the Navy Department from Cairo, Ill., under this date, says:

“The river below seems quiet. There has been but one attempt made to obstruct commerce or transportation. A party of guerrillas attacked the gunboat Champion from behind the levee while she was convoying a body of troops below. The troops passed on safely, and the Champion stopped and fought the rebels until she made them retire, losing some of their men—report says fifty-seven. They have not been heard of since, excepting that they were falling back on Alexandria, General Herron having given them a chase with his division. As I came up, I overtook a part of the Marine Brigade under Colonel Curry. He reported to me that he had just captured at Bolivar three rebel paymasters with two million two hundred thousand dollars in confederate money to pay off the soldiers at Little Rock. He also captured the escort consisting of thirty-five men. This will not improve the dissatisfaction now existing General Price’s army, and the next news we hear will be that General Steele has possession of Little Rock. The gunboats pick up deserters every day, who say the rebels do not intend to fight in Arkansas, and that with proper steps she will be in the Union again in forty days. Lieutenant Bache captured a Colonel Mattock, who was on a conscription expedition, and it gave unusual satisfaction to all the people.”

—At Richmond, Va., three Irishwomen were charged with buying a load of mush-melons in the Second Market, with intent to retail them, and were fined five dollars, and the melons were ordered to be confiscated.

It is well the attention of the efficient clerk of the Second Market has been called to these creatures. They swarm through the market every morning, and buy up the major part of the fruit brought in by the country people, and take it to their houses to retail. As they understand the world, a jug of whisky and a half-dozen melons, and a dozen hard-boiled eggs, constitute a respectable store.—Richmond Examiner.

—M. Larue Harrison, commanding a force of National troops three hundred strong, attacked the combined forces of the rebels Coffee and Brown at Seneca Station, one mile west of Enterprise, at the mouth of Buffalo Creek, Indian Territory, at ten o’clock this morning, and after an engagement of two hours, completely routed them, driving them southward in disorder. As the engagement occurred in a dense grape-vine thicket, it was impossible to estimate the loss of the rebels; five were ascertained to have been killed, among them a Captain W. R. Johnson. Colonel Harrison lost none, either in killed, wounded, or missing.—A magazine on James Island, S. C., belonging to the rebels, exploded, killing a lieutenant and six men.—President Lincoln issued a proclamation suspending the writ of habeas corpus in certain cases.—(Doc. 171.)

September 14.—This evening three squadrons of the First Maryland cavalry, commanded by Major Russell, were ordered to the front to relieve the Sixth Ohio, then engaged with the rebels at Rapidan Station. When it reached the battleground the enemy was forming for a charge. One squadron was immediately dismounted and deployed as skirmishers, and the other two formed in line of battle. Scarcely were they formed when the enemy charged with a full regiment upon the line of skirmishers. These two squadrons promptly charged the enemy and drove him back. The enemy soon rallied and charged again; but Major Russell had his men well in hand, and met the enemy the second time and drove him back again, capturing one officer and one private. The enemy was satisfied with charging. All this time the rebels had four batteries playing at cross-fires upon the Unionists, and yet, strange to say, the only casualties in the regiment of First Maryland cavalry are Captain Joseph Cook, company D, slightly wounded; Corporal Jno. McCowhen, company G, killed; private John Otto, company F, wounded; private John Schmits, company A, wounded, and three privates missing. Never did men charge more gallantly, or behave better than did these sqadrons. They met more than double their number, and twice drove them back and held the field. Lieutenant Bankard, company A, distinguished himself by his cool and gallant conduct.

—The following circular was issued this day from the headquarters of the army of the Potomac, by command of Major-General Meade:

I. Newspaper correspondents will be admonished to hold no communication with prisoners of war, whether on their way to headquarters or temporarily detained in the custody of any guard, or to seek any information from guides, scouts, or refugees, coming from beyond the lines.

II. No newspaper correspondent or civilian, not connected with the army, will be permitted to accompany or remain with cavalry serving in the front, or on the flank of the army.

—The cavalry advance of the army of the Potomac, under the command of General Pleasanton, reached the Rapid Ann River, at Raccoon Ford, after considerable heavy skirmishing between Culpeper and that point. No rebel infantry had been met with, though a strong force of rebel cavalry had been constantly driven back by the National forces.

—This morning, at about six o’clock, a regiment of Texas Rangers, the Second Texas cavalry, two hundred and fifty strong, under command of Colonel George Madison, charged on the Union picket stationed about one mile south of the town of Vidalia, La., on the road leading along the levee, near the river. The picket—only one lieutenant and six men strong — had to fall back against such an overwhelming power. The musketry firing was distinctly heard in town, where only two companies of the Thirtieth Missouri regiment were stationed. Colonel Farrar, who happened to be present, at once ordered all his men to “fall in,” and was in a few minutes at the place of attack, having only about twenty men, who were first under arms, along with him, the whole force at Vidalia who were fit for duty consisting only of about fifty men. In the double-quick he rushed forward, and was received by a heavy fire of the enemy, who had taken possession of a pontoon train encamped in the southern part of the town, and were just preparing to burn up the wagons loaded with the pontoons. The Union skirmishers opened a brisk fire on the enemy, who was covered by a live hedge, and could not be seen by the men, though the distance was only about twenty yards. Colonel Farrar seeing that the object of the enemy’s attack was the destroying of the pontoon trains, ordered a charge at once, and with cheers his men rushed to the guard, where a lively skirmish for about fifteen minutes took place, and he succeeded in driving the enemy back. The Unionists lost two men killed and four wounded. The enemy lost six killed, eleven wounded, and two prisoners, among whom was a Lieutenant Skinner, of the Twenty-sixth Tennessee cavalry, who stated that the strength of his regiment was two hundred and fifty, and that Brigadier-General Majors, with a body-guard of thirty men from a Louisiana cavalry regiment, was near, but did not take part in the charge; that his regiment had crossed Black River near Trinity City, La., on the evening of the thirteenth, to charge on Vidalia for the purpose of burning down the pontoon train; that besides his regiment there were two Texas cavalry regiments, under command of Colonels Stone and Lane, at Black River, seventeen miles distant, and also one Louisiana and one Arkansas cavalry regiment, all under command of Brigadier-General Majors. Colonel Farrar, who had sent notice to Natchez about the attack, at once prepared to have his men mounted to follow up the enemy as quick as reenforcements came. At about eight o’clock two regiments of infantry and a few companies of cavalry had crossed the river and come to his assistance. The enemy was followed up closely and overtaken at Black River, where another skirmish took place, lasting until dark. The enemy was forced to cross the river, and the National forces returned to camp, where they arrived at eleven o’clock P.M.

September 13.—A portion of rebel guerrillas belonging to the band of the Chief Biffles, amounting in number to over one hundred and ten, was surrounded by a detachment of Missouri cavalry and a company of mounted infantry from Paducah, Ky., near Paris, Tenn., and six of them killed, twenty-one wounded, and the rest captured.—The Clyde-built side-wheel steamer Jupiter, a noted blockade-runner, one hundred and eighty-four feet long, nineteen feet beam, formerly a passenger-boat on the Clyde, was captured by the United States steamer Cimarron, at half-past three o’clock this morning, in attempting to run the blockade into Savannah, by the way of Warsaw Sound. She had for passengers four officers of the Royal Navy, an agent of the Confederacy named Weaver, and a commercial agent. Also Nassau and Savannah pilots.—A cavalry fight took place near Culpeper Court-House, Va., between the Nationals, under General Kilpatrick, and the rebels, under General Lomas and Colonel Beale, of the Ninth Virginia cavalry, resulting in a complete rout of the rebels, with considerable loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners.—(Doc. 169.)

—The National troops stationed at Salem, Dent County, Mo., were attacked by four hundred rebels, who were repulsed, with a loss of twenty killed and a number wounded.—The expedition against the Sioux Indians, commanded by General H. H. Sibley, returned to Fort Snelling.—The United States steamer Genesee, and gunboats Calhoun and Jackson, shelled the rebel iron-clad Gaines near the fort at Grant’s Pass, below Mobile, and compelled her to retire behind the fort, together with another vessel belonging to the rebel fleet. After the retreat of the rebel iron-clad and the transport steamer behind the fort, the shelling was directed solely against the latter. Twenty-two shells from the Genesee alone, fell inside the fort, and the firing from the other boats was remarkably accurate. Sand, stones, logs of wood, etc., were sent flying upward in great quantities, and before the action terminated every gun was dismounted, and, it is believed, disabled. One large gun in particular was knocked completely end over end, as could be plainly seen from the vessels, and the achievement drew forth hearty cheers from the gallant tars.—An expedition composed of sailors and marines from the Navy-Yard and frigate Potomac, was organized at Pensacola, Florida, and sent up the Blackwater River to destroy a ferry and bridges used by the rebel troops in passing from Alabama into Florida, for the purpose of annoying our garrisons and stealing supplies. Lieutenant Houston, United States Marine corps, employed the captured steamer Bloomer, and accomplished his mission with a loss of two men, namely, Corporal Enderly, marine guard, killed ; private ——, Potomac guard, wounded.