The American Civil War

April 13.—The rebel General Buford appeared before Columbus, Ky., and demanded its unconditional surrender. Colonel Lawrence, in command of the post, refused the demand, and the rebels retired.—The ocean iron-clad steamer Catawba was successfully launched at Cincinnati, Ohio.—The schooner Mandoline was captured in Atchafalaya Bay, Florida, by the National vessel Nyanza.—The rebel sloop Rosina was captured by the Virginia, at San Luis Pass, Texas.

—Last night the notorious bushwhacking gang of Shumate and Clark went to the house of an industrious, hard-working German farmer, named Kuntz, who lives some twenty-five to thirty miles from the mouth of Osage River, in Missouri, and demanded his money. He stoutly denied having any cash; but the fiends, not believing him, or perhaps knowing that he did have some money, deliberately took down a wood-saw which was hanging up in the cabin, and cut his left leg three times below and four times above the knee, with the saw. Loss of blood, pain, and agony made the poor fellow insensible, and he was unable to tell where the money was concealed. His mangled body was found to-day, life extinct. A boy who lived with him, succeeded in making his escape, terror-stricken, to give the alarm. After leaving Kuntz’s, the gang went to an adjoining American farmer, and not succeeding in their demands for money, they destroyed every thing in and about the place, took the man out, and literally cut his head off.—Missouri Democrat.

—The British schooner Maria Alfred, with an assorted cargo, intended for the rebels, was captured in latitude 28° 50′ N., longitude 95° 5′ W., by the National vessel Rachel Seaman.

April 12.—The English steamer Alliance, while attempting to evade the blockade, was captured near Dawfuskie Island, in the Savannah River, Ga. Her cargo consisted of assorted stores for the rebel government.

—Fort Pillow, Ky., garrisoned by loyal colored troops, under the command of Major Booth, was attacked by the rebel forces under General Forrest, and after a severe contest was surrendered to the rebels, who commenced an indiscriminate butchery of their prisoners, unparalleled in the annals of civilized warfare.— (Docs. 1 and 139.) •

—A detachment of the First Colorado cavalry had a fight with a party of Cheyennes on the north side of the Platte River, near Fremont’s Orchard, eighty-five miles cast of Denver, on the State road. Two soldiers were killed, and four wounded. Several of the Indians were also killed.—The steamer Golden Gate, from Memphis for Fort Pillow, laden with boat-stores and private freight, was taken possession of by guerrillas to-night, at Bradley’s Landing, fifteen miles above Memphis, Tenn. The boat, passengers, and crew were rifled of every thing.

April 11.—At Huntsville, Alabama, a caisson of Croswell’s Illinois battery exploded, killing instantly privates Jacob Engelhart, John Olsin, Win. Humphrey, David Roach, Wm. Mattison, and Horace Allen, and wounding George Barnes, and Wm. Regan. Several of the bodies of the killed were blown to atoms, and portions were found five hundred feet distant. The horses attached to the caisson were killed. The railroad depot was badly shattered. One citizen had his thigh broken, and several others were slightly injured.—Last night a gang of guerrillas burned two houses, and stole several horses on the Kentucky side of the river, opposite Cairo, Ill. — The Mexican schooner Juanita, while attempting to evade the blockade, was captured and destroyed by the steamer Virginia, off San Luis Pass, Texas.—The schooner Three Brothers was captured in the Homasassa River, by the National vessel Nita.

April 10.—The transport steamer, General Hunter, was destroyed by torpedoes in St. John’s River, twelve miles above Jacksonville, Florida. The quartermaster of the steamer was killed. All others on board were saved.

—”We can hope no good results from trivial and light conduct on the part of our women,” says the Mobile News of this date. “Instead of adorning their persons for seductive purposes, and tempting our officers to a course alike disgraceful and unworthy of women, whose husbands and brothers are in our armies, they had better exhort them to well-doing, than act as instruments of destruction to both parties. The demoralization among our women is becoming fearful. Before the war, no woman dared to demean herself lightly; but now a refined and pure woman can scarcely travel without seeing some of our officers with fine-looking ladies as companions. You are forced to sit at the tables with them; you meet them wherever you go. Is it that we, too, are as wild as our enemies, scoffing at God and at all rules of social morality? For heaven’s sake, let us frown down this growing evil, unless all mothers and fathers would have their daughters grow up in a pestilential atmosphere, which but to breathe is death. Is not the hand of the enemy enough to send destruction to our homes, or must we have disgrace added to death? The evil can only be remedied by banishing the frail sisters from society, and putting no man in position who is not moral. Are not the bright and shining examples of Lee, Jackson, Johnston, Wheeler, Maury, and many others, enough to teach aspirants for office, that pure and moral men can make generals? that it is not necessary to play lackey to fast women to gain their country’s applause? Nor need they think they are not known. By their deeds we know them. Our President is a pure and moral man; were it not well for him to set an example, by discountenancing and refusing promotion to this set of moths? We have no laws to reach such a class but public opinion; then let that be used without mercy.”—The battle at Prairie D’Ann, Arkansas, took place this day.—(Doc. 130.)

April 9.—In the National House of Representatives, there was a very exciting discussion, in Committee of the Whole, on a resolution offered by Mr. Colfax to expel Mr. Alexander Long, of Ohio, for disloyal sentiments uttered in his speech on Friday last. During the discussion, Mr. Benjamin G. Harris, of Maryland, arose, and boldly avowed his gratification at the secession of the South, justifying it fully, and rebuking the Democratic party for not daring to come up to his standard of political morality. Mr. E. B. Washburne, of Illinois, instantly offered a resolution to expel Mr. Harris, which received eighty-one votes against fifty-eight; but two thirds being required, the resolution was not adopted. Mr. Schenck, of Ohio, then offered a resolution, severely censuring Mr. Harris, declaring him to be an unworthy member of the House, which was adopted. The proceedings were very turbulent, and the debates very sharp. —The heaviest freshet known in Virginia for ten years occurred this night on the line of the Orange and Alexandria road. Several bridges were seriously damaged, and one was washed away entirely.

—This morning, about two o’clock, a small tug was discovered approaching the flag-ship Minnesota, lying off Newport News, Va. She was hailed, and answered in reply to the question, “What boat is that?” “The Roanoke.” Still approaching, she was warned to keep off or she would be fired upon. Regardless of the warning, she came on, drifting with the tide, and when quite near, steamed straight at the port quarter, striking the Minnesota with a torpedo or infernal machine, which exploded, shaking the vessel with a terrible concussion from stem to stern, and throwing the tug several yards from the ship. Immediately steam was raised on the tug, and before any thing could be done by the people on board the ting-ship, the tug was safe off in the darkness.

The Government tug, laying alongside the flag-ship, that should have had steam up and given chase, as she was ordered on the spot, danced up and down on the disturbed waves, powerless for harm to the unknown midnight visitor.

—The battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, was fought this day.—(Doc. 131.)

April 8.—Last night, a scouting-party of one hundred men of the Second Missouri volunteers, from New-Madrid, was surprised in camp and in bed by guerrillas, at a point sixteen miles northwest of Osceola, in Arkansas. A member of the attacked band gives the following detailed account of the expedition and surprise. He says: “The rebels demanded a surrender, firing on our men in their beds, before they could get up, and as they sprang up, the assailants fired a dreadful volley from double-barreled shot-guns. Lieutenant Phillips, springing up, and calling to his men to rally, discharged one shot with revolver, and was struck in the left temple by a ball, and killed instantly. Major Rabb called to the men to rally, but they were so tightly pressed for the moment, that they fell back to a house at which was company K. The combatants were so close, that it was dangerous to our own men for those at the house to fire. The firing on our part was thus much curtailed for the moment. But all was soon over; the rebels have fallen back, and taken covering in the darkness of the night. But they were not all as fortunate as they might have wished; for at the close of the fray, some of them were heard to call out: ‘Don’t leave us, for we are wounded.’ The fact of finding some arms on the ground, twenty or thirty feet off, where Lieutenant Phillips lay, proved that some of them had got their rights, (Federal lead.) In a few minutes after the fray, Sergeant Reese was ordered to take eight men and carry the wounded to the house, which was done immediately. Here is the list of the unfortunate—Lieutenant Phillips, killed: Lieutenant Orr, severely wounded; Sergeant Handy, killed; Sergeant Millhouse, severely wounded; Sergeant Claypool, slightly, in arm; William Julian, slightly ; Thomas Jump, slightly, in leg; Joseph W. Davis, slightly; Milton R. Hardie, mortally, (has since died 😉 Able Benny, slightly, in leg; William Chasteen, mortally, (has since died in hospital.) Total—four killed, seven wounded, all of company I, Second Missouri.”

The dead were necessarily left, and after burying them, the party conveyed the wounded the long distance to the river, and taking the steamer Darling, returned to quarters at New-Madrid tonight.

—By a general order, issued this day from the headquarters of the army of the Potomac, all civilians, sutlers, and their employés, were ordered to the rear by the sixteenth. Members of the Sanitary or Christian Commissions, and registered news correspondents only, were allowed to remain. All property for which there was no transportation, also was ordered to the rear, and the authority of corps commanders to grant furloughs was revoked, and none to be granted save in extreme cases, or in case of reenlisted veterans.

—A party of guerrillas entered Shelbyville, Ky., at one o’clock A.M., this day, stole seven horses, and broke open the Branch Bank of Ashland; but before they could rifle it of its contents, they became alarmed at the proximity of the Twelfth Ohio cavalry, and decamped. The rest of them were arrested, and confined in Taylorsville jail.—This evening, the National cavalry, under the command of General Grierson, made a descent upon a bridge over Wolf River, Tenn., which had just been completed by the rebel General Forrest, and succeeded in capturing and destroying it, with a loss of eight killed and wounded, and the capture of two rebel prisoners.

—The battle of Sabine Cross-Roads, La., took place this day. A participant in the fight gives the following account of it: “On the morning of the eighth of April, the regiment broke up camp at Pleasant Hill, and with the Twenty-fourth Iowa, Fifty-sixth Ohio, Forty-sixth Indiana, and Twenty-ninth Wisconsin, which composed the Third division, moved in the direction of Mansfield. After marching ten miles, the division halted and went into camp, as was supposed, for the night At half-past two o’clock P.m., we (the Twenty-eighth Iowa) were ordered into line, and forward with the division, to support General Lee’s cavalry and the Fourth division of the Thirteenth army corps, then engaging the enemy. A rapid march of an hour brought us to the scene of action. The Twenty-eighth Iowa was formed on the extreme left, supported by four companies of the Twenty-fourth Iowa, and advanced into an open field to meet the enemy. Here the regiment (the Twenty-eighth) halted, and was ordered to fire. After a spirited contest of about fifteen minutes, being exposed to a terrible fire of grape, shell, and shrapnel from the enemy’s batteries, causing sad havoc in our ranks, we were ordered to fall back a short distance to secure a better position. This was accomplished in the best possible manner. Our second position was taken behind a fence, near a small ravine, and held two hours, receiving the constant fire of the enemy’s infantry, and being exposed to their artillery. At this time the enemy had gained our left flank and rear, and were pouring a deadly fire upon us. Our ammunition being, in a great measure, exhausted, and having no support whatever, we were obliged to retreat with the rest of the division. After a running fight of three miles, in which we harassed the advance of the enemy, we were met by the Nineteenth army corps, and, with their assistance, succeeded in checking them. Night soon caused a cessation of hostilities.”—(Doc. 131.)

—Colonel Howell, of the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania volunteers, continued his reconnoissances toward the rebel outposts, in the neighborhood of Hilton Head, S. C. To-day, he advanced up the May River, in the patrol-boats Foulk and Croton, guarded by the gunboat Chippewa. Detachments from the Seventy-sixth and Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania volunteers accompanied the expedition. Landing on Hunting Island, the forces drove in the rebel pickets, and skirmished with the force in their rear. Captain Phillips, with some men of the Eighty-fifth, drove away the pickets in another locality, and regained the main body without casualty. Meanwhile, the Chippewa shelled the woods on and about the neighboring shores. Reembarking, the force proceeded toward Bluffton, shelling that place and its vicinity.

—Major-general John J. Peck, in official orders, issued the following from his headquarters at Newbern, N. C: “The Commanding General has the satisfaction of announcing another expedition against the enemy, in which both the military and naval forces of North-Carolina took part, sharing the honors equally.

“On the twenty-fifth of March, Colonel J. Jourdan, commander of the sub-district of Beaufort, with two hundred men of the One Hundred and Fifty-eighth New-York volunteer infantry, embarked on board the United States gunboat Britannia, Lieutenant Huse commanding, and steamed for Bogue and Bear Inlets, for the purpose of capturing two of the enemy’s vessels en gaged in contraband trade, and also a body of cavalry reported to be at Swansboro. Nearing the inlets, a portion of the command was transferred to small boats, and an effort made to effect a landing and move on Swansboro. All night long, in the breakers and storm, these little boats, with their patient crows, were tossed about. Several craft, in the violence of the gale, were dashed to pieces; but, through the energetic exertions of Colonel Jourdan and others, no lives were lost, although one officer (Captain David, of the One Hundred and Fifty-eighth New-York volunteers) was seriously injured.

“In the morning the storm abated, and another attempt was made. As the boats moved up, instead of seeing the expected cavalry, they were saluted by heavy volleys of musketry from the river-banks. The enemy proving too strong, the party was obliged to return to the vessel.

“At the same time, Lieutenant King, of Colonel Jourdan’s staff, with a body of men in boats, moved up Bear Inlet: he found and burned one of the vessels sought, together with its cargo of salt and leather. He returned to the gunboat, bringing with him forty-three negro refugees. The whole expedition arrived at Beaufort on the morning of the twenty-sixth ultimo, without the loss of a man.

“Great credit is due Colonel Jourdan and the officers and men of his command, together with the officers and men of the navy, for the efficient service performed. The Commanding General tenders his thanks especially to Colonel Jourdan, Captain Cuff, and Lieutenant King, of the army, and to Commander Dove and Lieutenants Huso and Cowie, of the navy.”

April 7.—The rebels made a dash within the National picket-lines at Port Hudson, La., and a brisk skirmish ensued, without important results to either side. A detachment of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Illinois mounted infantry, and a section of Barnes’s battery, Twenty-first New-York, with one gun, had been out mending the line of telegraph to Baton Rouge, and on their return were attacked by a superior force of rebel cavalry and driven in. Simultaneously an attack was made on the pickets by an equally large force, and the detachment on the telegraph road was cut off and flanked. The cavalry came in by wood roads, but the piece of artillery was spiked and left, and afterward carried off by the enemy. In the several skirmishes the Nationals lost one killed, four wounded, and six prisoners. They took two prisoners, one of them an officer. General Ullman’s division marched several miles outside, but on the approach of the infantry the rebels left without hazarding a tight. The rebel force was the Wirt Adams’s cavalry from up the river, numbering nearly a thousand. They were well mounted and equipped.— The rebel schooner Spunky was captured by the National schooner Beauregard, off Cape Canaveral.

April 6.—Brigadier-General Guitar, from his headquarters at Macon, Missouri, issued general orders relinquishing his command of the district of North-Missouri, to Brigadier-General C. B. Fisk.

—Reuben Patrick, captain of a company of secret service employed by order of Governor Bramlette, by Colonel G.W. Gallup, commanding the district of Eastern Kentucky, with fifteen men of company I, Fourteenth Kentucky, and four of his own company, surprised Captain Bradshaw, with eighty men of Hodge’s brigade, on Quicksand Creek. He drove them in all directions, they leaving all their horses, arms, and camp equipage in Patrick’s possession, who selected thirty of the best horses, and, with three prisoners, made quick time for camp, where he arrived, having left ten dead rebels, and seven mortally wounded on the ground. The captured arms were destroyed by burning them. This is the same Patrick who stole Humphrey Marshall’s artillery out of his camp at Shelbyville, last spring.

—An election was held in Maryland, to determine whether a convention should be called for the purpose of amending the Constitution of the State. The question was carried by a large majority.—The schooner Julia A. Hodges was captured off Matagorda Bay, Texas, by the National vessel Estrella.

April 5.—The government powder-mills, belonging to the rebels, at Raleigh, North-Carolina, exploded this day, and killed several persons.