The Rebellion Record—A Diary of American Events; by Frank Moore

November 4.—The troops belonging to the National expedition, under the command of Major General Banks, successfully landed at Brazos de Santiago, Texas, nine miles from the mouth of the Rio Grande del Norte.—(Doc. 6.)

—The bombardment of Fort Sumter continued.—Jefferson Davis visited James Island, Forts Pemberton, and Johnson, and all the rebel batteries around Charleston.

—The rebel Generals Chalmers and Lee attacked Moscow and La Fayette, Tenn., on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, this day, at noon. They burned La Fayette, and some small bridges on the road. The Nationals repulsed them at Moscow. Colonel Hatch’s cavalry followed their retreat, and forced them to another fight four miles out, and again repulsed them. Between twenty and thirty of their dead were found on the field, among them three officers. Their dead and wounded were scattered along the road. In addition, three wagon-loads were taken away. Their loss probably reached one hundred. The Union loss was three killed, forty-one wounded, and forty-one missing. Colonel Hatch, of the Second Iowa, commanding the brigade, was seriously though not dangerously wounded, a ball piercing his right lung.

November 3. — Colonel Fitzgibbon, of the Thirteenth Michigan infantry, overtook the combined forces of Cooper, Kirk, Williams, and Scott, numbering four hundred men, this morning, at Lawrenceburgh, thirty-five miles south of Columbia, Tenn. After a severe hand-to-hand fight, he defeated them with a loss on his part of three men wounded, and eight horses killed. The rebel loss was eight killed, seven wounded, and twenty-four prisoners, among them one captain and two lieutenants. General Bragg’s forage-train, sent up Lookout Valley, in front of his position, was captured. The train was sent to camp. The train-guard was also captured.—Official Report.

—General Saxton issued a circular to the freedmen of South-Carolina, authorizing them to locate in the lands in that department which were about to be sold by the Tax Commissioners, not exceeding twenty acres for each head of a family. The description of the land, when located, to be accompanied by the deposit of the Government price, about one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

—Major-General Grander reported, from Nashville, Tennessee, that he sent a detachment of cavalry from that place, under Colonel Shelby, to pursue Hawkins and other guerrillas. He overtook Hawkins near Piney Factory, and routed and pursued him to Centreville, where he made a stand; routed him again, and pursued him until his forces dispersed. The rebel loss was fifteen or twenty killed, and sixty-six prisoners. The Union loss was slight.—General Thomas’s Report.

—The battle of Bayou Grand Coteau, La., also known as the battle of Bayou Bourbeaux, was fought this day.—(Doc. 7.)

Colliersville, Tenn., was attacked by a body of rebels, belonging to the command of General Chalmers, who was repulsed with some loss, by the Nationals, under the command of Colonel Hatch.

November 2.—President Lincoln replied to the letter of Governor Bradford, of Maryland, on the subject of the election in that State.—W. G. Sparrow, son of the Rev. Dr. Sparrow, formerly principal of Fairfax Seminary, was arrested, on his arrival from Staunton, Virginia, with a rebel mail, containing letters of importance, and committed to the Old Capital Prison, at Washington.—A party of rebel guerrillas captured two trains of cars near Mayfleld, Kentucky.

—Jefferson Davis arrived at Charleston, S. C, from Savannah, and was escorted to the City Hall, where an address of welcome was made by Charles Macbeth, the Mayor of the city. Mr. Davis replied, in a speech setting forth the reasons of his visit, and urging upon the people the necessity of “harmonious cooperation with the commanding general. He who would attempt to promote his own personal ends in preference, would not take a musket and fight in the ranks, was not worthy of the confederate liberty for which we are fighting. He trusted the Yankee’s desire to possess Charleston would never be gratified; but if Providence ordered otherwise, he desired for her what he wished for his own town of Vicksburgh, that the whole should be a mass of ruins. He believed that Charleston would never be taken.”

November 1, 1863.

A plot to liberate the rebel prisoners in Ohio was discovered, and several parties to it were arrested. It was concerted that on a given night, which had not been definitely fixed, a sufficient number of the conspirators were to assemble in the vicinity of Camp Chase, and at a known signal were to overpower the guard, (which was far from being a strong one,) and at the same time the prisoners, who were to be apprised of what was going on, and who numbered about four thousand, were to make a rush from the inside, and thus secure their freedom. Having armed themselves with the weapons of the guard, they were then to march on Columbus, and seize the arsenal, arming themselves completely with the United States arms stored there. From thence, their next attack was to be on the Penitentiary for the release of John Morgan and his men, by whom the rebel army in Ohio was to be officered. Then the rebel campaign in Ohio was to be commenced, and the first proceeding on the part of the traitors was to be the cutting of the telegraph wires and the burning of the railroad-bridges, in order to prevent the arrival of National troops.

The parties involved in the matter were very numerous, and were to be found in almost every part of the State, some of them occupying positions under the United States and State government, which rendered it a somewhat easier task for the detectives to gain access to the nest of traitors. The leading man in the conspiracy was Charles W. H. Cathcart

A party of guerrillas, under Campbell, entered Charleston, Missouri, night before last, and after robbing the stores and private houses, retreated, carrying away with them Colonel Deal.—Charles R. Ellet, commanding the Mississippi Marine Brigade, died, at Bunker Hill, Illinois, on Thursday last, October twenty-nine. —Jay Cooke, the subscription agent of the United States Government, reported the sales of over thirty-six millions of five-twenty bonds during the previous week.

—The following official communication from Provost-Marshal General James B. Fry, to Colonel Robert Nugent, Assistant Provost-Marshal of New-York, was made public:

“The representations made by Dean Richmond and Peter Cagger, in a printed circular, dated October twenty-seventh, 1863, in respect to the action of the Provost-Marshal General, are untrue.

“It is not true that the State of New-York is charged as with a deficiency for every citizen who has paid the three hundred dollars commutation money, receiving no credit therefor. On the contrary, the State receives the same credit for a man who has paid commutation as if the drafted citizen had gone in person or furnished a substitute; and in like manner towns which had raised the money to pay their quotas receive the same credit as if actual substitutes had been furnished.

“And the President has ordered, that every citizen who has paid the three hundred dollars commutation shall receive the same credit therefor, as if he had furnished a substitute, and is exonerated from military service for the time for which he was drafted, to wit, for three years.

“As the misrepresentations of Dean Richmond and Peter Cagger have been published and circulated for electioneering purposes, it is proper that you give them immediate correction.”

—The bombardment of Fort Sumter continued without cessation. Yesterday morning, a portion of the wall fell in, burying beneath the ruins some men of the Twelfth Georgia and Twenty-fifth South-Carolina. Thirteen were buried by the falling in of the barracks on the sea-face of the Fort. Over one thousand two hundred shots were fired in twenty-four hours — the shots averaged four per minute. The firing was from two monitors—two heavy and two light rifled guns at Fort Gregg, four ten inch mortars at the middle battery, and four rifled guns at Fort Wagner.

October 31.—A. W. Bradford, Governor of Maryland, addressed a letter to President Lincoln, upon the subject of military interference in the election in his State.—The Texas expedition, under the command of General Banks, landed at Brazos.

October 30.—Unconditional Unionists, representing twenty counties of Western Arkansas, held a convention at Fort Smith, at which patriotic speeches were made, resolutions adopted, and Colonel Johnson of the First Arkansas infantry, nominated to represent that district in the Congress of the United States,—The National forces which occupied Loudon, Tenn., retired to the north bank of the river, and established themselves upon the heights commanding the town.

—The Richmond Whig of this date contained the following:

“Beef ought to be selling now at sixty-five to seventy cents a pound, in accordance with the proposed arrangements between the butchers and the government. It is quoted in yesterday morning’s report of the markets at a dollar to a dollar and a half a pound. The butchers say they are unable to get cattle, and may be compelled to close their stalls for want of meat to sell.”

October 29.—Major-General George H. Thomas sent the following dispatch to the headquarters of the United States army, from his camp at Chattanooga, Tenn.:

“In the fight last night the enemy attacked General Geary’s division, posted at Wauhatchie, on three different sides, and broke into his camp at one point, but was driven back in most gallant style by a part of his force, the remainder being held in reserve. General Howard, whilst marching to Geary’s relief, was attacked in flank. The enemy occupying in force two commanding hills on the left of the road, he immediately threw forward two of his regiments and took both of them at the point of the bayonet, driving the enemy from his breastworks and across Lookout Creek. In this brilliant success over their old adversary, the conduct of the officers and men of the Eleventh and Twelfth corps is entitled to the highest praise.”—(Doc. 211.)

—The flag of truce boat arrived at Annapolis, Md., from City Point, Va., with one hundred and eighty-one paroled men, eight having died on the passage from actual starvation. A correspondent says:

“Never, in the whole course of my life, have I ever seen such a scene as these men presented; they were living skeletons; every man of them had to be sent to the hospitals, and the surgeon’s opinion is, that more than one third of them must die, being beyond the reach of nourishment or medicine.

“I questioned several of them, and all state that their condition has been brought on by the treatment they have received at the hands of the rebels. They have been kept without food, and exposed a large portion of the time without shelter of any kind. To look at these men, and hear their tales of woe and how they have been treated, one would not suppose they had fallen into the hands of the Southern chivalry, but rather into the hands of savage barbarians, destitute of all humanity or feeling. If human means cannot be brought to punish such treatment to prisoners, God, in his justice, will launch his judgments upon the heads of any people who will so far forget the treatment due to humanity.

“It seems to be the policy of the South to keep the Union prisoners until they are so far worn out as ever to be unfit for service again, and then send them off to die; while the men captured by the Nationals are returned to them well clothed and well fed, ready to go into the field the moment they arrive within their lines.”

—Jefferson Davis sent the following letter to Lieutenant-General Polk, who had been relieved of his command, upon a charge of mismanagement at the battle of Chickamauga:

“After an examination into the causes and circumstances attending your being relieved from command with the army commanded by General Bragg, I have arrived at the conclusion that there is nothing to justify a court-martial or court of inquiry, and I therefore dismiss the application.

“Your appointment to a new field of duty, alike important and difficult, is the best evidence of my appreciation of your past services and expectation of your future career.”

October 28.—Major-General Benjamin F. Butler, by direction of the President of the United States, was appointed to the command of the Eighteenth army corps, and of the Department of Virginia and North-Carolina.—A heavy fire was kept up on the sea face of Fort Sumter during the whole of last night, by the monitors and two guns at battery Gregg, and this morning the bombardment of the rebel works was renewed with great vigor.—Correspondence in relation to the depredation of rebel privateers upon the commerce of the United States, passed between the merchants of New-York and Secretary Welles of the National Navy Department.—The battle of Lookout Mountain took place this day.—(Doc. 211.)

October 27.—A detachment of National troops, under the command of General William F. Smith, surprised and routed a large body of rebels at Brown’s Ferry, opening communication with Bridgeport—(Docs. 96, 210, and 211.)

—At Charleston, S. C., four monitors opened fire upon Fort Sumter, at a distance of one mile, and continued the bombardment until late in the afternoon. At eleven o’clock in the morning solid shot were thrown into the city of Charleston, one of which struck the building occupied by the Union Bank.