The American Civil War

June 12.—The bark Tacony, in latitude 37° 18′, longitude 75° 4′, was captured by the Clarence, tender to the privateer Florida. Captain Murday gave the following account of the capture:

“On the twelfth of June, at six o’clock A.M., when about forty miles off Cape Virginia, I was spoken by the brig Clarence, of Baltimore, who said she was short of water, and wished for a day’s allowance. Of course I hauled to on this appeal to humanity, and their boat, with an officer and six men, immediately came aboard. They told me they were fifty-five days from Rio Janeiro, were bound to Baltimore, and were entirely out of water, and would assist me in passing it to the boat. While taking the after-hatch off, I was confronted by the officer of the boat, who presented a pistol at my head, and stated that my vessel was his prize — a prize to the confederate States, and ordered me to leave for New-York. Immediately after, or while transferring my crew, the schooner M. A. Shindler came up, and was hauled to and captured. While transferring the crew of the latter, the schooner Kate Stewart came along, but she having several lady passengers on board, and being an old vessel, was ransomed on giving bonds in the sum of seven thousand dollars. We were then all transferred on board the Kate Stewart. The pirates then transferred their guns, ammunition, supplies, etc., from the brig Clarence to the bark Tacony, and set fire to the former vessel, as well as to the schooner M. A. Shindler. We were then released, the pirate standing off to the south-east.—Major-general Darius N. Couch assumed command of the Department of the Susquehanna, and established his headquarters at Chambersburgh, Pa.—Governor Andrew G. Curtin issued a proclamation calling upon the people of Pennsylvania to rally for their defence against the rebels who were approaching under General Lee.—General Michael Corcoran, with twelve thousand men, left Suffolk, Va., on a reconnoissance to the Blackwatcr.—The reply of President Lincoln to the resolutions adopted by the Democrats at Albany, N. Y., on the sixteenth of May, relative to the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham, and the vindication of free speech, was made public.—(Doc. 67.)

—Major-general David Hunter was relieved of the command of the Department of the South, and Brigadier-General Quincy A. Gillmore assigned to the same. —Governor Oliver P. Morton issued a proclamation to the people of Indiana, warning all persons against resistance to the Government in any form, or hindering the Federal officers in the enforcement of the enrolment laws of the United States.—A skirmish occurred near Middletown, Va., between the Thirteenth Pennsylvania cavalry and Eighty-seventh infantry, with one section of artillery, and a body of about four hundred rebel cavalry. Eight of the latter were killed, a number wounded, and thirty-seven, including a captain and two lieutenants, were taken prisoners.—(Doc. 11.)

June 11.—Peter Everitt, with a body of three hundred rebels, attacked a portion of the Fourteenth Kentucky cavalry at Slate Creek, near Mount Sterling, Ky. A severe engagement, lasting three hours, ensued, when the Nationals retreated, fighting as they withdrew. — Triune, Tenn., was again attacked by the rebel cavalry, under General Forrest, who was repulsed with a loss of twenty-one killed, sixty prisoners, and ten wounded. The Union loss was six killed, among them Lieutenant N. C. Blair, of the Fourth Indiana cavalry.—A debate occurred in the British House of Commons on the slave-trade, and the independence of the rebels.—The blockade-runner Havelock was sunk by the blockading fleet off Charleston, S. C., while attempting to enter the harbor.—Five companies of the Fourteenth New York cavalry, Colonel Thaddeus B. Mott, doing out post duty near Port Hudson, were captured by a cavalry raid of rebels, under the command of Colonel Logan, of Bragg’s command, while encamped within three miles of General Banks’s headquarters. The capture was owing to the negligence of the officer, who should have posted and attended to the picket-guard. It seems that the guard were either never posted, or were at the time fast asleep, for in the middle of the night the rebels rode into the Union camp, surrounded the Unionists, roughly awakened them, ordered them to saddle up, and run off five companies of the cavalry, with all their horses, arms, and equipments. The rebels made them ride at speed for eighty-three miles, making but one stop in that distance. When a horse gave out, they entered a farmer’s premises and impressed another. At the journey’s end, the soldiers were thrown into a black hole, where they were under close confinement.

The companies were: company G, under command of Captain Porter; company A, under Lieutenant Nolan ; company C, under Lieutenant Leroy Smith; company F, under Captain Thayer, who himself alone escaped, and the greater part of company E, under Captain Ayers. Lieutenant Vigel was also captured with Lieutenant Smith’s men. These five companies were under command of Major Mulvey, who was taken with his little boy, twelve years old.—Chicago Tribune.

—The Sixth regiment N. Y. S. V., Wilson’s Zouaves, returned to New-York from the seat of war in Louisiana.—Port Hudson was thoroughly invested by the Union troops under General Banks.—Darien, Ga., was visited and burned by a body of National troops under the command of Colonel Montgomery, of the Second South-Carolina colored volunteers. At the same time the schooner Pet, loaded with a cargo of cotton, was captured.—(Doc. 66.)

—The steamer Calypso was captured off Frying-Pan Shoals, thirty miles south-east of Wilmington, N. C., by the Union gunboat Florida.— (Doc. 65.)

—A new army corps, denominated the reserve corps, was created in the Department of Cumberland, and placed under the command of Major General Gordon W. Granger, with its headquarters at Triune, to be composed of three divisions, commanded by Brigadier-Generals J. D. Morgan, R, S. Granger, and A. Baird.

—A Party of rebel cavalry, numbering about two hundred and fifty, crossed the Potomac River this morning, and attacked a company of the Sixth Michigan cavalry stationed at Seneca, Md. The Nationals being outnumbered, gradually fell back, fighting, to within three miles of Poolesville, when the enemy retired across the river, after burning the camp at Seneca. The Unionists lost four men killed and one wounded. The rebels left a lieutenant and one man dead on the field.

June 10.—Governor Bradford, of Maryland, issued a proclamation, calling upon the citizens of Baltimore and the people of the State to rally for defence against the rebels under General Lee. —A Convention took place at the Cooper Institute in New-York, at which an address and resolutions, urging peace in the strongest manner, and denouncing the administration of President Lincoln, were adopted. Speeches were made by Fernando Wood, Judge J. H. McCunn, and others. —General Braxton Bragg, of the rebel army, was confirmed at Chattanooga by Bishop Elliot of the Episcopal Church.—The Democratic Convention of Ohio, by acclamation, nominated C. L. Vallandigham for Governor of that State; the same time refugees reported that Mr. Vallandigham had been imprisoned by the rebels.—Deputy Provost-marshal Stevens and a Mr. Clayfield, and an enrolling officer who accompanied them, were fired upon near Manville, Rush County, Indiana, when the former was instantly killed. Mr. Clayfield was mortally wounded, and soon after died. The outrage was committed by persons opposed to the draft.—The Forty-fourth regiment of Massachusetts volunteers returned to Boston from Newbern, N. C.—The Assistant Secretary of the Navy stated that the whole number of vessels captured or destroyed by the National blockading fleet up to June first, was eight hundred and fifty-five.—The enrolment met with resistance in Fulton County, Pa. Officers of the Government were shot at by parties concealed in the woods, and the houses of the enrolling agents burned.—Thirty mounted Indians attacked a coach at a point thirty miles west of Salt Lake, and killed and scalped the driver and another employe of the route. After opening the mail-bags and committing other depredations, the savages retired, taking with them the horses belonging to the stage.—The bark Lenox was captured and destroyed by the rebel pirates on board the tow-boat Boston, captured yesterday near Pass à 1’Outre, Mississippi River.

—Clark’s (rebel) Diary of the War for Separation has the following estimate of killed, wounded, and missing, from the commencement of the war to the first of January, 1863:

Federals—Killed, 43,874; wounded, 97,027; prisoners, 68,218—total, 209,115. Died from disease and wounds, 250,000.

Confederates—Killed, 20,893; wounded,69,615; prisoners, 22,169—total, 102,677. Died from disease and wounds, 136,000.

—The steamer Maple Leaf, en route from Fortress Monroe to Fort Delaware, with a large number of rebel prisoners, was taken possession of and run ashore about eight miles from Cape Henry Lighthouse, when a greater portion of the prisoners escaped.

June 9.—The tow-boat Boston was captured by a party of rebels under the command of Captain James Duke, while towing the ship Jenny Lind up the Mississippi River. The capture took place at a point about three miles from the Pass à 1′ Outre lighthouse.—(Doc. 63.)

—A Magazine at Fort Lyon, near Alexandria, Ta., exploded, killing twenty and wounding fourteen men belonging to the Third New-York artillery.—The Union cavalry, under General Mitchell, at Triune, Tenn., were attacked this morning by a large body of rebels under General Forrest After a severe fight, the rebels were routed and pursued over five miles, losing over one hundred in killed, wounded, and prisoners.—A petition to Earl Russell, concerning the departure from English ports of vessels intending to commit depredations upon the commerce of the United States, prepared and signed by a number of shipping merchants of Liverpool, was made public.—(Doc. 59.)

—General Foster, in command at Newbern, N. C., issued the following order:

“The Commanding General orders that all white male citizens between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, within the lines of this Department, shall be at once enrolled, and the rolls forwarded to these headquarters. Commanders of districts will appoint enrolling officers, and take such steps as may be necessary to fully and promptly carry out this order.”

—A fight took place near Monticello, Ky., between the National cavalry under Colonels Carter and Kautz, and the rebels under Pegram, resulting in the rout of the latter, and the occupation of Monticello by the National troops.—(Doc. 60.)

—The Savannah Republican, of this date, says: “The movements of Rosecrans still continue clouded in mystery, and it is not known whether he has sent off any of his force or not. It is very difficult to obtain any information of his movements, as he has established a chain of patrols, and it is well-nigh impossible for scouts and spies to penetrate his lines. Rosecrans appears better informed of our movements. Late Yankee papers publish a list of forces which Bragg has sent to Mississippi.”—The brig Mary Alvina was captured and burned by the confederate privateer Coquette.—The Military Departments of the Monongahela and the Susquehanna were created; Major-General Wm. T. H. Brooks being assigned to the former, and Major-General Darius N. Couch to the latter.—Brigadier-general Pleasanton, in command of a cavalry force numbering about six thousand, supported by the column of infantry under the command of Generals Russell and Ames, had a severe engagement near Brandy Station, Va., with the enemy’s cavalry, estimated at twelve thousand men, in which he so seriously crippled the enemy that they were unable to follow him, when, at the close of the day, he returned to the north side of the Rappahannock. General Pleasanton’s men behaved in the most gallant, manner, handsomely driving back superior forces of the enemy. Over two hundred prisoners and one battle-flag were captured.—(Docs. 10 and 62.)

—The Military Districts “of the Frontier,” and “of the Border,” were created by order of Major-General Schofield; the former under the command of General J. G. Blunt, headquarters at Fort Scott, Indian Territory; and the latter under Brigadier-General Thomas Ewing, Jr., headquarters at Kansas City.—Colonel Lawrence Williams Orton, formerly Lawrence Williams, of the Second United States cavalry, one time on General Scott’s staff, and late General Bragg’s Chief of Artillery, and Lieutenant Dunlop, of the rebel army, were arrested and hung as spies at Franklin, Tenn.—(Doc. 61.)

June 8.—Governor Yates, of Illinois, adjourned the Legislature of that State, fully believing “that the interests of the State will be best subserved by a speedy adjournment, the past history of the present Assembly, holding out no reasonable hope of beneficent results to the citizens of the State, or the army in the field, from its further continuance.”

—A Convention of Editors was held at New York, to consult upon the rights and duties of the public press in the present war crisis. After an interchange of opinions, the general sentiment was expressed in a series of resolutions affirming the duty of fidelity to the Constitution, the Government, and the laws ; that treason and rebellion are crimes nowhere so culpable as in a republic, where every man has a voice in the administration ; that while journalists have no right to incite or aid “rebellion or treason, they have the right to criticise freely and fearlessly the acts of public officers ; that ” any limitation of this right created by the necessities of war should be confined to localities wherein hostilities actually exist or are imminently threatened, and we deny the right of any military officer to suppress the issue or forbid the general circulation of journals printed far away from the seat of war.”

—Colonel Montgomery, with four companies of the Second South-Carolina colored regiment, on board the Harriet A. Weed and the John Adams, ascended Turtle River to within a short distance of Brunswick, Ga., and after throwing a few shells into the place, discovered that it was entirely deserted. The Harriet A. Weed getting aground, and the John Adams drawing too much water, it was deemed advisable not to occupy the city, or proceed further up the river.

Captains Apthorp and Adams, desiring not to return without accomplishing something, took a skiff with six men, rowed up to the bridge of the Savannah and Brunswick Railroad, fired it in four different places, and had the satisfaction of seeing it totally destroyed before they returned.

On their return to the steamer, they were fired upon from a thicket by some fifteen or twenty rebels, but with the exception of Sergeant Leonard, who received a slight flesh-wound in the arm, not a man was hit.

After shelling the woods by the John Adams, the party returned to St. Simon’s Island.

—The Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth regiments N. Y. S. V., returned to New-York from the seat of war, and were welcomed home by thousands of their fellow-citizens.

June 7.—The expedition under General P. P. Blair, sent out from Haines’s Bluff to the Big Black River, on the twenty-seventh of May last, returned to-day. The captures made during the expedition amount to five hundred head of cattle, five hundred horses and mules, one hundred bales of cotton, and ten thousand pounds of bacon, together with a number of small articles, taken by the soldiers and never accounted for. All bridges were either burned or demolished and the forage destroyed.—Partisan guerrillas burned the railroad bridge over the Little Harpeth River, at Brentwood, Tenn.—The battle of Milliken’s Bend was concluded this day. After a most desperate fight, the rebels were repulsed, and retired, leaving over one hundred dead on the field. The Union loss was three hundred and ten killed and wounded.— (Docs. 8 and 27.)

—The plantation of Jefferson Davis was visited by a party of Union troops, who “rifled it completely, destroying every implement of husbandry, all his household and kitchen furniture, defacing the premises, and carrying off every negro on the place. The plantation of Joe Davis, brother of the President, was treated in the same way, if we except four or five domestic servants which the robbers left.”—Jackson Mississippian, June 11.

—The schooner Alfred H. Partridge, belonging to Gloucester, Mass., was captured by the rebel privateer Clarence.

June 6.—The rebel General J. E. B. Stuart held a grand review of the forces under his command, at his camp near Culpeper, Va., preparatory to his advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania.—Near Nicholasville, Ky., a locomotive exploded, killing six and wounding three soldiers belonging to the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts, Seventh Rhode Island, Fifty-first New-York, and Ninth New-Hampshire regiments.—The schooner Statesman, loaded with cotton, was captured by the National gunboat Tahoma, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Semmes.—Shawneetown, Johnson County, Kansas, was sacked and burned by a force of rebel bushwhackers, under Cy Gordon, and Dick Yeager. They plundered a number of Union men, and killed four, who resisted. When they had obtained all the plunder possible, they fired the village in several places, and left by the light of the flames.—The bark Whistling Wind, in latitude 33° 38′, longitude 71° 29,’, was captured and burned by the rebel privateer Coquette.— Guerrillas destroyed portions of the railroad track, near Germantown, Tenn.—General Sibley’s command left St. Paul, Minn., for an expedition against the Sioux. There were two columns employed in this expedition. One started from Sioux City, Iowa, and consisted of three thousand cavalry, one battery of artillery, and a proportionate amount of infantry, under command of Brigadier-General Sully. The other column was under command of Brigadier-General H. H. Sibley, and numbered three full infantry regiments, one battery mountain howitzers, and one thousand two hundred mounted rangers. The two divisions will meet at a given rendezvous in Dacotah. The object in sending a part of the force up the Missouri is to cut off the retreat in that direction of the Indians.

—The ship Southern Cross was captured and burned in latitude 1° 34′ south, longitude 36° west, by the rebel privateer Florida.—Major General John C. Fremont addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, on the subject of the ranking officer in the army of the United States.— A skirmish took place near Berryville, Va.— (Doc. 57.)

—The battle of Milliken’s Bend commenced this day.—(Docs. 5, 8 and 27.)

—General Foster, in command of the Union forces at Newborn, N. C., received instructions from the authorities at Washington, to place in close confinement all rebel officers captured by him.—The rebel steamer Lady Walton, was surrendered by her crew. She was engaged in the carrying trade for the Confederacy up Arkansas River, and left Little Rock under orders to proceed through the cut-off into White River, thence up that river for a load of corn. On reaching White River, her Captain, Moses Pennington, a native of Illinois, and W. H. Caldwell, another of the crew, put in execution, with the concurrence of the rest of those on board, being three white men and six negroes, a scheme they had long meditated, and, instead of going up White River, turned her head down-stream, and coming into the Mississippi, under a flag of truce, delivered her over to the officers of the first gunboat they met, which was near Island No. 82.