The American Civil War

May 21.—A band of guerrillas who day before yesterday plundered the town of Richmond, Mo., this day visited Plattsburgh, in the same State, and carried off eleven thousand dollars belonging to the State, beside committing other depredations.

—The Mobile Register of this date said: “We are informed by the Mayor that the British subjects residing in Mobile have formed a company, known as the British Consular Guards, commanded by F. J. Helton, Captain, and have offered their services to the Mayor to aid in the preservation of the good order of the city in case of insurrection, invasion, inundation, devastation by fire, or any other duty not inconsistent with the retaining of their original nationality.”

—Last night a large steamer was discovered by the gunboat Powhatan, coming out of Charleston by the North channel. She was fired at repeatedly, and finally driven back; but before she reached the bar again the Powhatan’s fire, and that of two or three other blockaders that had slipped their cables and come up, was so heavy and well-directed that the Anglo-rebel was bored through and through and sunk in about eight fathoms of water. Nothing but her topmasts were visible this morning at daylight. She was a very large steamer, loaded with an immense cargo of cotton and tobacco. Her name was not ascertained, nor the fate of her officers and crew.—An expedition of National troops composed of levies from Massachusetts, New-York, and Maine, left Bemis’s Landing, La., this morning at daybreak.—(Doc. 197.)

—Vicksburgh, Miss., was completely invested by the National forces under Major-General Grant. The rebels sent out a flag of truce offering to surrender the place and all their arms and munitions of war, if they would be allowed to pass out. The offer was refused. —William Robe, a citizen of Morgan County, Ind., was shot while at work in his field, by a man named Bailey. Robe had been instrumental in collecting evidence against the Knights of the Golden Circle.

—The Twelfth regiment of New-York volunteers returned to Syracuse from the seat of war.— A rebel camp near Middleton, Tenn., was attacked and broken up by a party of National troops under the command of General Stanley.—(Doc. 198.)

—The citizens of Richmond, Va., were organized for the defence of the city, and officers were appointed by General George W. Randolph, assisted by a select committee of the City Council. The people of Manchester, on the opposite bank of the James River, were invited to cooperate in the movement.—Richmond Examiner.

May 20.—On Sunday last, the seventeenth, the National pickets stationed on the road between Fayetteville and Raleigh, Va., were attacked and surrounded by a force of rebels, but, after a short fight they escaped all but one, the skirmishing continuing until noon, when the National pickets were driven in. Yesterday the attack was renewed and kept up until to-day, when the rebels were repulsed with slight loss.—(Doc. 195.)

—Colonel William A. Phillips, commanding the Indian brigade, had a severe fight with the rebels, belonging to the army of General Price, near Fort Gibson, Ark. The rebels crossed the Arkansas River, near the fort, when they were attacked by Colonel Phillips and driven back, with a loss of one major and several men killed.— (Doc. 196.)

—The steamships Margaret and Jessie, the Annie and the Kate, arrived at Charleston, S. C, from Nassau, with “valuable cargoes,” having run the blockade.—The schooner Sea Bird was captured and burned by the rebels, while aground at the mouth of the Neuse River, N. C.—The steamer Eagle, having just left the harbor of Nassau, N. P., with a cargo intended for the rebels, was captured by the National gunboat Octorora.— Charleston Courier.

May 19.—The rebel schooner Mississippi, from Mobile, Ala., to Havana, with a cargo of cotton and turpentine, was captured by the gunboat De Soto.—The National cavalry, under General Milroy, had a skirmish with the rebels, at a point six miles from Winchester, Va., in which they killed six and captured seven prisoners.—Richmond, Clay County, Mo., was captured, together with the National force occupying it, by a band of rebel guerrillas, after a severe fight, in which two officers of the Twenty-fifth Missouri regiment were killed. A lieutenant belonging to the captured party was shot after the surrender.—The Spanish steamer Union, was captured by the National gunboat Nashville.

May 18.—In England, in the House of Lords, the Marquis of Clanricarde moved for copies of any reports from British consular or diplomatic agents in the United States respecting the decisions or proceedings of the Federal prize courts. The Marquis accused President Lincoln’s Cabinet of having acted unfairly and illegally toward British shipping, and said it was absolutely necessary for Her Majesty’s government to take more action than it had hitherto done in defence of the rights of English ship-owners. Earl Russell, in reply, stated that every complaint made by the owners of vessels seized by Federal cruisers had been duly considered, and that the law officers of the crown had decided that no objection could so far be fairly established against the proceedings of the United States prize courts. The Earl took advantage of the opportunity to deny the statement that the British government had connived at the construction and escape of the confederate cruiser Alabama, and to repeat the assurance that England had no desire to interfere unfairly in the dispute between the North and South. Lord Derby expressed approval of Earl Russell’s speech, and the Marquis of Clanricarde, being satisfied with the discussion, withdrew the motion.

—To-day a party of twenty-two white men, of the Second Kansas artillery, and thirty-two negro soldiers, under the command of Major R. G. Ward, on a foraging expedition near Sherwood, Mo., were attacked by a gang of two hundred rebel guerrillas, under the leadership of Colonel Livingston. Under the inspiration of Major Ward, the Union party rallied together and fought desperately, falling back until the survivors reached their camp, six miles from the place where the fight commenced. Of the white men, two were killed, four wounded, and two were taken prisoners, twelve escaping. Fifteen of the colored troops were killed, two captured, and fifteen escaped, all but one of whom were wounded.

—Haines’s Bluff, on the Yazoo River, having been evacuated by the rebels, was occupied by the National forces, under Admiral Porter.—(Doc. 194.)

—A serious mistake occurred at a point between Carrsville and Deserted House, Va., in which two bodies of National troops fired into each other, and killed three men and wounded four, belonging to the One Hundred and Seventieth regiment of New-York volunteers.

—At daylight this morning the National army, under General Grant, moved on from Champion Hill to the Big Black River, Miss., where a battle was fought with the rebels, under Pemberton, and they were again defeated and driven into their intrenchments around Vicksburgh with great loss of men and munitions of war.—(Doc. 193.)

—Jackson, Miss., was evacuated by the National forces, belonging to the army of General Grant.

—The schooner Isabel, attempting to run the blockade at Mobile, was run ashore close under the walls of Fort Morgan, and Master’s Mate Dyer, of the R. R. Cuyler, was sent with boats, either to bring her off or burn her. They were just in time to capture sixteen men, being her crew and some passengers. Finding it impossible to get the schooner off, he set fire to her and then pulled for his own ship. By this time the alarm had been given and the rebels in the fort were on the alert Mr. Dyer, finding that the schooner did not break out in a blaze, as he expected, turned back toward the fort, and effectually did his work. — The rebel schooner Ripple, was captured by the National gunboat Kanawha, blockading the port of Pensacola, Fla.—Rebel guerrillas visited Burning Springs, Wirt County, Va., where they burned oil-works and committed other depredations.

—Yesterday a company of the First New-York cavalry having been captured at Charlestown, Va., by a gang of guerrillas, under the leadership of Captain Mosby, the regiment left Berrysville today, under the command of Major Adams, in pursuit of the rebels. They were overtaken at Berry’s Ford, on the Rappahannock, and, after a brief skirmish, the rebels were completely routed and the prisoners recaptured.

May 16.—Last night a company of United States cavalry was surprised and captured at Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va. Major-General Schenck, on being informed by telegraph of the disaster, immediately ordered General Milroy to send out a force to intercept and attack the rebels, and to-day he received the following despatch from General Milroy, announcing the result: “The Federal cavalry captured at Charlestown were recaptured by detachments of Virginia and Pennsylvania cavalry, under Captain Vitt, this afternoon, about three o’clock, at Piedmont Station, in Fauquier County. We also captured forty rebels and a corresponding number of horses. Two rebels were killed. I regret to add that we lost Captain Vitt and one sergeant. Our cavalry recaptured one Federal lieutenant, and fifty privates, and their horses. Major Adams, of the First New-York cavalry, who arrived after the recapture, is still in pursuit of the rebels. The Virginia and Pennsylvania cavalry, who made the recapture, were sent out by me yesterday.”

—The United States steamer Monticello, captured the schooner Odd Fellow, off Little River Inlet, N. C.—At Bradyville Pike, in the vicinity of Cripple Creek, Tenn., General Palmer, accompanied by an escort of twenty-five men, and sixty men from the Middle Tennessee Union cavalry, made a sabre-charge on a detachment of the Third Georgia regiment, numbering eighty-five men, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson. The rebels had no sabres, but fought desperately for a few moments. The Union force killed several of the enemy and brought in eighteen prisoners, among them Captains M. C. Edwards and Willis, the latter of the Third Georgia cavalry, and dangerously wounded.—Cincinnati Commercial.

—The battle of Champion Hill, or Baker’s Creek, Miss., was fought by the Nationals, under General Grant, and the rebels, under General Pemberton, in which the latter was compelled to fall back behind the Big Black River.—(Doc. 192.)

—A reconnoitring party of the First New York mounted rifle regiment, under the command of Major Patton, were attacked in the vicinity of Suffolk, Va., by a large body of rebel cavalry and routed with considerable loss.

—Sixteen men of the First New-York cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant Vermillion, attacked a party of twenty-two rebel soldiers, at Berry’s Ferry, Va., and killed two, wounded five, and captured ten of them.

—The rebel government steamer Cuba, was destroyed by the National gunboat De Soto, Captain W. W. Walker, in the Gulf of Mexico, off Mobile harbor, Ala.—Captain Walker’s Report.

May 15.—A fight took place in the vicinity of Camp Moore, La., between the expeditionary force under the command of Colonel Davis, and a body of rebel troops, resulting in a rout of the latter with great slaughter. After the fight, Colonel Davis advanced on Camp Moore, which he burned, together with the railroad depot and bridge, and a great quantity of property.—New Orleans Era.

— William Corbin and T. P. Graw, found guilty of enlisting for the rebel service within the National lines, were executed at Johnson’s Island, near Sandusky, Ohio.—The rebel schooner Royal Yacht, was captured by the bark W. G. Anderson.— The rebels captured two small steamboats in the Dismal Swamp Canal, N. C.—The ship Crown Point, in latitude 7° south, longitude 34° west, was captured and burned by the rebel privateer Florida.

—Several desperate infantry fights took place to-day in the vicinity of Carrsville and Suffolk, Va., between the National forces under the command of General Peck, and large bodies of rebel troops, in which both parties suffered severely, without gaining any material advantage.