The American Civil War

April 3.—This night a band of forty rebels landed at Cape Lookout, took possession of the lighthouse, put the keeper and his wife in durance, and exploded a keg of powder, which seriously damaged the building. They then retired on the approach of the steamer City of Jersey.

—General J. P. Hatch, commanding the district of Florida, issued the following order from his headquarters at Jacksonville: “The Brigadier-General Commanding desires to make known to his command the successful accomplishment of a daring and difficult expedition, by a detachment of twenty-five men of the One Hundred and Fifteenth New-York volunteers, commanded by Captain S. P. Smith, of the same regiment. This little party, sent from Pilatka to a point thirty-two miles from the post, surprised and captured a picket of the enemy, consisting of one sergeant and nine men, with their arms, and thirteen horses, and equipments complete. To bring off the horses, it was necessary to swim them across the St. John’s River, and force them for a mile and a half through a swamp previously considered impracticable. The energy, intrepidity, and skill with which this expedition was conducted demands the praise of the commander of this district, and the imitation of troops hereafter detached on similar expeditions.

“II. The Brigadier General Commanding announces that the Marine Battery, which was so promptly and cheerfully placed on the line of our intrenchments when they were first thrown up in the vicinity of Jacksonville, and at a time when it was much needed, has been ordered on board the sloop-of-war Mahaska. He takes this opportunity to return his thanks to Captain G. B. Balch, commanding United States naval forces on St. John’s River, for his kindness, and to Ensign Augustus E. French, and the petty officers and men under him, for their valuable services, very good conduct, and exhibition of excellent discipline, throughout their intercourse with the troops of this command.”

April 2.—Captain Schmidt, of company M, Fourteenth New-York cavalry, while scouting near Pensacola, Florida, with thirty of his men, came upon a party of fifty rebels belonging to the Seventh Alabama cavalry, under command of Major Randolph, C. S. A. The Nationals immediately charged them, and after a hand-to-hand fight of about ten minutes, defeated them with a loss of from ten to fifteen killed and wounded, eleven prisoners, one lieutenant, two sergeants, and eight men. The loss of the Nationals was First Lieutenant Lengerche and two men slightly wounded.

April 1.—The funeral ceremonies of Owen Lovejoy, were held at his late residence near the town of Princeton, Illinois.—The steamer Maple Leaf, while returning to Jacksonville from Pilatka, struck a rebel torpedo, which exploded, tearing off the steamer’s entire bow, the vessel sinking in ten minutes. Two firemen and two deck-hands were drowned. The passengers, sixty in number, were safely landed, but their baggage was all lost, including that of two or three regiments.—The battle of Fitzhugh’s Woods, Ark., was fought this day.—(Doc. 128.) —A party of rebels made an attack on Brooks’s plantation, (which was being worked on a Government lease,) near Snydersville, on the Yazoo River, and destroyed all the valuable buildings and machinery. The First Massachusetts cavalry, (colored,) six hundred strong, drove the rebels off, after an hour’s fight. The enemy numbered nearly one thousand five hundred. The Union loss was sixteen killed. Ten killed and wounded of the rebels were left on the field.

March 31.—Colonel Powell Clayton, from his headquarters at Pine Bluffs, Ark., despatched the following to General Halleck, at Washington: “The expedition to Mount Elba and Long View has just returned. We destroyed the pontoon-bridge at Long View, pursued a train of thirty-five wagons loaded with confederate equipments, ammunition, some stores, etc., and captured three hundred and twenty prisoners; engaged in battle, yesterday morning, General Dockney’s division of about one thousand two hundred men, from Monticello; routed and pursued him ten miles, with a loss on his side of over one hundred killed and wounded. We captured a large quantity of small-arms, two stand of colors, many negroes, and have three hundred horses and mules. Our loss will not exceed fifteen in killed, wounded, and missing. We brought in several hundred contrabands. The expedition was a complete success.”—Lieutenant-General Grant, accompanied by General Meade, left Washington for Fortress Monroe.

March 29.—An expedition under Colonel Clayton, from Pine Bluff, made a descent upon a party of rebels who had been committing depredations in the neighborhood of Little Rock, Ark., and captured a large number of them.— The following order was issued by J. P. Sanderson, Provost-Marshal General of the department of the Missouri, from his headquarters at St Louis: “The sale, distribution, or circulation of such books as ‘Pollard’s Southern History of the War,’ ‘Confederate Official Reports,’ ‘Life of Stonewall Jackson,’ ‘Adventures of Morgan and his Men,’ and all other publications based upon rebel views and representations, being forbidden by the General Commanding, will be suppressed by Provost-Marshals, by seizing the same, and arresting the parties who knowingly sell, dispose, or circulate the same.”

—A battle took place this day at Cane River, La., between a portion of the National forces under General Banks, engaged on the expedition up the Red River, and the rebels commanded by General Dick Taylor.—(Doc. 131.)

—The United States steamer Commodore Barney, with fifty-six picked men from the Minnesota, all in charge of Captain J. M. Williams, left Fortress Monroe, Va., yesterday afternoon, proceeded up the Chuckatuck Creek, and landed the men in small boats at the head of the creek. They then took a guide to the headquarters of Lieutenant Roy, where they arrived at four o’clock this morning, when they immediately surrounded the houses, and captured two sergeants and eighteen privates, with their small-arms, without firing a shot. Masters Pierson and Wilder had charge of the Minnesota’s boats. The capture was important, as the officers taken prisoners were in the rebel signal service.

March 28.—A riot occurred at Charleston, Illinois, in which several persons were killed and wounded.—(Doc. 136.)

—The election, ordered by Major-General Banks, for delegates to the Constitutional Convention of Louisiana, was held, and resulted in the success of the Free State party.

—Two rebel spies were captured in the navy-yard at Mound City, Arkansas, this morning.— An express train, which left Louisville, Ky., this morning, for Lebanon, was captured by a body of guerrillas, and two of the cars were burned. A guard of seventeen National soldiers on the train surrendered without firing a gun.

March 26.—President Lincoln issued a proclamation specifying the persons to whom the benefits of the Amnesty Proclamation of December last were intended to apply. He also authorized every commissioned officer in the United States service, either naval or military, to administer the oath of allegiance, and imposed rules for their government, in the premises.— (Doc. 113.)

—General Rosecrans, from his headquarters at St. Louis, Mo., issued the following special orders: “The attention of the General Commanding has been called to various articles of an incendiary, disloyal, and traitorous character, in a newspaper entitled the Metropolitan Record, without ecclesiastical sanction, called a ‘Catholic family newspaper,’ published in New-York March twenty-sixth, 1864. The articles on ‘Conscription,’ the ‘Raid upon Richmond,’ ‘Clouds in the West,’ and the ‘Address of the Legislature of Virginia,’ contain enough to satisfy the General Commanding that the reasonable freedom, nor even license, of the press, suffice for the traitorous utterances of those articles. They are a libel on the Catholics, who as a body are loyal and national; no man having a drop of Catholic charity or patriotism in his heart could have written them, expressing, as they do, hatred for the nation’s efforts to resist its own dissolution, and friendship for those who are trying to destroy the great free government under which so many have found an asylum from oppression in other lands.

“The Provost-Marshal General will cause to be seized all numbers of the Metropolitan Record containing those articles; and venders of them, if found guilty of having sold or distributed them, knowing their traitorous contents, will be punished.

“To protect the innocent from imposition, the circulation of this paper is prohibited in this department until further orders.”

—An official announcement from Washington was made, that Illinois was twelve thousand four hundred and thirty-six “ahead of all quotas under the calls of President Lincoln for more troops.”

March 25. — Major-Generals Newton and Pleasanton, having been relieved of their commands in the army of the Potomac, issued general orders in accordance therewith.—Padccah, Kentucky, was attacked by the rebel forces under General Forrest—(Docs. 1, 127, and 139.)

—The steamer La Crosse was captured and burned by a party of rebel guerrillas, at a point on the Red River, below Alexandria; her crew was released, but the officers were carried off.