Daily Observations from The Civil War

August 20.—General Rosecrans issued the following card to the press, dated Clarksburg, Va.:—The General Commanding the Army of occupation in Western Virginia, and the Department of the Ohio, invites the aid of the press to prevent the enemy from learning, through it, the position, strength, and movements of the troops under his command. Such information is of the greatest service to the enemy, and deprives the commander of our own forces of all the advantages which arise from the secrecy of concentration and surprise. These advantages are constantly enjoyed by the rebels, whose press never betrays them.

—The bill entitled an Act to increase the Corps of Artillery, and for other purposes, passed by the “Confederate” Congress at Richmond, Va., was approved by Jeff. Davis and became a law.—(Doc. 198.)

—A Skirmish took place to-day at Hawks’ Nest, in Kanawha Valley, Va., eight miles beyond the river. The rebels, some four thousand strong, advanced to where the Eleventh Ohio Regiment had erected barricades, and were driven back with a loss of fifty killed and a number wounded and taken prisoners. The Federal loss was only two slightly wounded and one missing. They captured quite a number of horses and equipments.—(Doc. 199.)

—The New Orleans Delta declares: We want no corn, no flour, no swill-fed pork, no red-eye, no butter or cheese from that Great Western Reserve, no “sass,” no adulterated drugs, no patent physics, no poisoned pickles. We want none of these, we say, to exchange our money for them. And we will not pay the “Blue Grass” country of Kentucky for its loyalty to Lincoln by opening our markets to its hemp fabrics. Let it lay in the bed it has chosen until it awakes to a sense of its duty as well as its interest. We must discriminate in favor of our gallant ally, Missouri, and give her the benefits of our marts in preference to either open foes or insidious neutrals. It is the clear duty of our Government now to declare Kentucky under blockade. If in the existing state of affairs a sea separated us from that State, it would, with the naval power to execute our behests, behoove us to close the ports of a people who seek for themselves profit by impoverishing us and enriching our foes. The fact of their territorial contiguity does not weaken the argument. Kentucky and the West must be made to feel this war, and feel it until they cry peccavi.

—The Fifth Regiment of the Excelsior Brigade, N. Y. S. V., under the command of Col. C. K. Graham, left New York for the seat of war.—N. Y. Herald, August 21.

—A Train arrived at Jefferson City, Mo., this morning from Syracuse, having on board twenty-five passengers and two hundred and fifty United States soldiers. When the train was near Lookout station, about thirty shots were fired into it from behind a wood-pile and bush skirting the road, killing one of the soldiers and wounding six others, one of them fatally. One secessionist was killed. The train was stopped half a mile beyond the point where the attack was made, and two hundred soldiers put off and sent in pursuit of the miscreants. Guerilla parties are scouring the counties west of Jefferson City, selling property and arresting prominent citizens.—N. Y. World, August 21.

—The Second and Fourth battalions of Boston, Mass., voted unanimously to offer their services to the Government for three months.

Gov. Andrew, in a brief proclamation, calls upon citizens of Massachusetts to come forward and fill up the regiments already accepted for the war.—(Doc. 200.)

—August Douglas, a merchant of Baltimore, was arrested in Philadelphia, charged with an attempt to induce Lieutenant Hain to join the rebels, promising him higher rank and pay.—N. Y. Evening Post, August 21.

—The Albany Journal of to-day has the following: “Men and presses who are to-day preaching ‘Compromise’ and ‘Peace,’ are doing more to cripple the Government and help treason than the rebel armies themselves. We would hang a spy who should be caught prowling about our camp to obtain information to be used against as; but we must tolerate if not respect these loyal traitors who labor in the rostrum and through the press to aid the enemy!”

—This morning Albert Sanford, United States marshal of Rhode Island arrived at New York from Newport, having in custody a gentleman named Louis de Bebian, who claims to be a French citizen, but a resident of Wilmington, North Carolina. This gentleman is charged with some kind of political offence, or else appears to be suspected of going to Europe in the service of the Confederate States, or for purposes inimical to the United States. His story, which does not differ much from that of the marshal who has brought him here as a prisoner, is as follows:—He has been a resident and carrying on business as a merchant in Wilmington for several years, and being desirous to go to Europe on business and to see his family, he took passage on board a British vessel called the Adelso, bound to Halifax, N. S., in order to meet one of the Canard steamers. This vessel sailed from Wilmington without hindrance. During the storm of the 12th instant the vessel became disabled, and the captain, rather than let her go down with all hands on board, bore up for a friendly port, as he supposed, in distress. Having got safely into Newport, Rhode Island, under the British flog, the Adelso was boarded by the revenue yacht Henrietta, Lieut. Bennett, who, ascertaining that the Adelso was last from Wilmington, South Carolina, took possession of her and put a prize crew of one officer and five men on board, sealed up the trunks and papers of the master and passengers, and made them all prisoners, and processes for libel and condemnation were issued in the courts of that district by the captors. M. Bebian wished to go ashore and see the French consul, or to be permitted to go to some part of the British dominions, but was refused. After being kept in custody and subjected, as he complains, to a number of personal indignities, ho was sent to New York in custody, and will be transferred to one of the military prisons in the harbor until further orders as to his ultimate destination. Among the papers taken from the prisoner were letters of credit to the amount of $40,000, with which he was to purchase clothing, arms and iron, for shipment to Wilmington, N. C., and other places south.—N. Y. Evening Post, August 20.

—General McClellan assumed the command of the army of the Potomac, and announced the officers attached to his staff.—(Doc. 201.)

—The Convention of Western Virginia passed the ordinance creating a State, reported by the select committee on a division of the State, this morning, by a vote of fifty to twenty-eight. The boundary as fixed includes the counties of Logan, Wyoming, Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas, Webster, Randolph, Tucker, Preston, Monongahela, Marion, Taylor, Barbour, Upshur, Harrison, Lewis, Braxton, Clay, Kanawha, Boone, Wayne, Cabell, Putnam, Mason, Jackson, Roane, Calhoun, Wirt, Gilmer, Ritchie, Wood, Pleasants, Tyler, Doddridge, Wetzel, Marshall, Ohio, Brooke, and Hancock. A provision was incorporated permitting certain adjoining counties to come in if they should desire, by expression of a majority of their people to do so. The ordinance also provides for the election of delegates to a Convention to form a constitution; at the same time the question “for a new State” or “against a new State” shall be submitted to the people within the proposed boundary. The election is to be held on the 24th of October. The name of the new State is to be Kanawha.— National Intelligencer, August 22.

—Got. Curtin issued a proclamation to the freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, “in which he urges them again to sustain the country in its danger,” and calls upon every man to “so act that he will not be ashamed to look at his mother, his wife, or sisters.”—(Doc. 202.)

—Gen. Butler assumed command of the volunteer forces near Fortress Monroe in pursuance of the following order:

Headquarters Department of Virginia, &c.

Fortress Monroe, August 20, 1861.

Special Order No. 9.—Major-General B. F. Butler is hereby placed in command of the volunteer forces in this department, exclusive of those at Fort Monroe. His present command, at Camps Butler and Hamilton, will include the First, Second, Seventh, Ninth, and Twentieth Regiments, the battalion of Massachusetts Volunteers, and the Union Coast Guard and Mounted Rifles. By command of

Major-General Wool.

C. C. Churchill, Adjutant-General.

—Sterling Price issued a proclamation at Springfield, Mo., to the effect, that a great victory had been won; that northern oppressors of Missouri had been driven back; that every one belonging to the Home Guard organization would be regarded and treated as an enemy to the Southern Confederacy; but that his protection would extend to such who quietly return to their homes, and allow the Southern sway to prevail, and that whoever recognized the provisional government of Missouri would be considered as an enemy to the State, and dealt with accordingly.—(Doc. 204.)