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

September 4.—Knoxville, Tenn., was occupied by the National forces under Major-General Burnside. “The East-Tennesseeans were so glad to see the Union soldiers that they cooked every thing they had, arid gave it to them freely, not asking pay, and apparently not thinking of it. Women stood by the roadside with pails of water, and displayed Union flags. The wonder was, where all the Stars and Stripes came from. Knoxville was radiant with flags. At a point on the road from Kingston to Knoxville sixty women and girls stood by the road-side waving Union flags and shouting: ‘Hurrah for the Union.’ Old ladies rushed out of their houses, and wanted to .see General Burnside and shake hands with him, and cried: ‘Welcome, welcome, General Burnside! welcome to East-Tennessee !'”—(Doc. 168.)

—The women of Mobile, Ala., rendered desperate by their sufferings, met in large numbers on the Spring Hill road, with banners on which were printed such devices as “Bread or Blood,” on one side, and “Bread and Peace,” on the other, and, armed with knives and hatchets, marched down Dauphine street, breaking open the stores in their progress, and taking for their use such articles of food or clothing as they were in urgent need of.

September 3.—The battle of “White Stone Hill, D. T., was fought this day.—(Doc. 161.)

—The expedition under Acting Brigadier-General b. F. Onderdonk, which left Gloucester Point, Va., on the twenty-sixth of August, returned to the point from which it started, having been perfectly successful in accomplishing its object—(Doc. 159.)

September 2.—Kingston, Tenn., was occupied by a portion of General Burnside’s army, under the command of General Minty.—The gunboats Satellite and Reliance, which were captured by the rebels on the twenty-second of August, were destroyed by the Union forces under the command of General Kilpatrick, at Port Conway, Va.—The guerrilla Hughes, with one hundred rebels, appeared in Burksville, Ky.

—A joint committee of the Alabama Legislature reported a resolution in favor of the proposition to employ slaves in the military service of the confederate States, which proposition was favored by many of the presses of Mississippi and Alabama. After discussion in the Alabama House, the resolution was adopted by a vote of sixty-eight yeas to twelve nays, after striking out the words “military” before service, and “soldiers” at the end of the resolution. The resolution was amended and reads as follows:

“That it is the duty of Congress to provide by law for the employment in the service of the confederate States of America, in such situations and in such numbers as may be found absolutely necessary, the able-bodied slaves of the country, whether as pioneers, sappers and miners, cooks, nurses and teamsters.”—Savannah News, September 2.

September 1.—A fight took place at Barbee’s Cross-Roads, Va., between a patrol of forty-nine men belonging to the Sixth Ohio cavalry, under the command of Major John Cryor, and a party of rebel guerrillas, in which the former lost two killed, four wounded, and twenty-four prisoners.

— Thomas E. Bramlette was inaugurated as Governor of Kentucky, to-day. In his inaugural address he contends that the revolted States did not change their status by rebelling; that all that is necessary for them to do is to return to their fealty, and take their position as States; that the rebellion did not remit them to a territorial state.

He says we have now, and will have before the rebellion closes, the identical Constitution which extremists seek to destroy, the one by innovation, the other by force. It is not a restored Union, not a reconstructed Union that Kentucky desires, but a preserved Union and a restored peace upon a constitutional basis.

The Governor strongly objects to the arming of negro regiments, and asks what is to be done with such soldiers at the end of the war. He points to the result of the recent election as a proof that Kentucky will not fraternize with rebellion, either open or covert, and declares that Kentucky ever has been, and now is, and always will be, loyal to the Government of our fathers.

—A general engagement took place in Charleston harbor, between the iron-clads, and Forts Wagner, Sumter, and Moultrie. Fleet-Captain Oscar C. Badger, the successor of Captain Rodgers, was injured by the explosion of a shell.

—An engagement took place at the Devil’s Back-Bone, a point sixteen miles from Fort Smith, Arkansas, between a portion of the army of General Blunt, under Colonel Cloud, and the rebel forces under Cabell, in which the latter was routed with a loss of twenty-five killed and forty wounded. The National loss was two killed and twelve wounded and missing.—Fort Smith, Ark., was captured by the Union forces under General Blunt—(Doc. 179.)

— A force of rebel cavalry crossed the Upper Potomac, at Edwards’s Ferry, Va., and captured a large number of cattle, which, however, they were unable to carry off, being pursued by the National forces.—Six hundred persons, chiefly heads of families, and resident in Kansas City and vicinity, who were believed to be aiders and abettors of the rebellion, or strong sympathizers with it, were ordered to remove from the district, by General Ewing.

August 31.—The rebel transport, Sumter, having on board the Twentieth regiment of South Carolina volunteers, and the Twenty-third regiment of Georgia, was sunk in Charleston harbor by the guns of Fort Moultrie. The Twenty-third Georgia had been on duty at the rebel Battery Wagner, and, being relieved, went on board the steamer to go to Fort Johnson. The tide being low, they could not go the usual course, but steamed off in the direction of Sullivan’s Island. The watch at Moultrie, supposing it to be a Yankee monitor, awakened the gunners, when they opened a spirited fire on the defenceless vessel. Every means possible were employed to signal to them, both from Sumter and the boat, but they recognized no signal.

“The third and fourth shots sunk the boat, yet they kept firing until a small boat was sent to tell them who we were. This was about three o’clock A.M. The men were panic-struck, and leaped off into the water by fifties and hundreds, and it seemed for a while that nearly all would be either killed or drowned; but the cool conduct of Major Ballinger, the Commandant of the Twenty-third Georgia, and a sand-bar on the left of the boat, covered by some four or five feet of water, saved them from a watery grave.

“By nine o’clock, the whole regiment was once more on dry land, and, miraculous as it was, not a single life has been lost by the dangerous wreck. But guns, blankets, oil-cloths, haversacks, canteens, boots and shoes, and, in fact, all kinds of clothing, were left upon the rugged waters of the boiling deep.”—Atlanta Intelligencer.

—The sloop Richard, loaded with cotton, was captured off the coast of Florida, by the United States bark Gem of the Sea.

August 30.—Lieut.-Colonel Clark, with the Ninth Kansas cavalry, returned to Kansas City, from the pursuit of Quantrell, through Jackson, Cass, and Johnson Counties, Missouri, having killed, during his expedition, forty of the perpetrators of the Lawrence massacre.

August 29.—Five deserters, belonging to the Fifth corps of the army of the Potomac, were executed according to sentence.—General Wistar’s cavalry returned to Yorktown, Va., from an expedition to Bottom’s Bridge. The force engaged were parts of the First New-York Mounted Rifles, Colonel Onderdonk, and of the Fifth Pennsylvania cavalry, Lieut-Colonel Lewis. They left Williamsburgh on the twenty-sixth instant, and pushed through New-Kent Court-House, directly to Bottom’s Bridge. At the latter place, they found one regiment of infantry in rifle-pits, supported by a squadron of cavalry. A charge was immediately made, which carried the rifle-pits, and drove the enemy across the bridge, which they took up. The Union troops lost one killed, and one wounded. They captured five prisoners from the enemy, who left dead on the ground one officer, one sergeant, and two men, besides those they carried off. The bridge being rendered impassable, and the object of the expedition being entirely accomplished, the troops returned.—(Doc. 159.)

—Correspondence between Major-General Dix and Governor Seymour, relative to the draft, was made public.

August 28.—The Board of Supervisors of the city of New-York devoted two millions of dollars to exempt the firemen, the militia, and the police, and to provide for the families of drafted men in indigent circumstances.—By direction of Jefferson Davis, Lieutenant-General W. J. Hardee assumed command of the paroled rebel prisoners, captured at Vicksburgh and Port Hudson.—(Doc. 158.)

—Samuel Jones, a Major-General in the rebel service, issued an order from his headquarters at Dublin, Va., thanking the home guard and other citizens for their services in the action at White Sulphur Springs.—A party of rebel guerrillas attacked the mail-carriers from a cavalry division of the army of the Potomac, stationed at Harwood Church, Va., killing one man and capturing four others, together with the mail.

August 27.—John B. Floyd, a General in the rebel service, died at Abington, Virginia.—A portion of Colonel Wilder’s cavalry, belonging to the army of the Cumberland, encountered a rebel force at Hanover, Ala., and succeeded in defeating them, killing three, and capturing one. —A Government train of twenty-eight wagons was captured by a party of rebel guerrillas, at a point about six miles from Philippi, on the road to Beverly, Va.—The battle at Bayou Metea, Ark., between a large infantry and cavalry force of rebels, and General Davidson’s division of National cavalry, took place this day.—(Doc. 156.)