JULY 2D.—There has been some brilliant fighting by several brothers named Ashby, who led a mounted company near Romney. One of the brothers, Richard, was slain. Turner Ashby put half a dozen Yankees hors du combat with his own arm. He will make a name. We have accounts of an extraordinary exploit of Col. Thomas, of Maryland. Disguised as a French lady, he took passage on the steamer St. Nicholas at Baltimore en route for Washington. During the voyage he threw off his disguise, and in company with his accomplices, seized the steamer. Coming down the Bay, he captured three prizes, and took the whole fleet into Fredericksburg in triumph. Lieut. Minor, C. S. N., participated in this achievement. Gen. Patterson, who conciliated the mob in Philadelphia, which had intended to hang me, seems to be true to his pledge to fight the Southern people. He is now advancing into Virginia at the head of a brigade.
London, Tuesday, July 2,1861
My letters in the [New York] Times will give you pretty much all I have to say about politics. They are very correctly printed; at least the three first which are all that have reached me. There is no doubt in my mind that all the trouble with England arose from a mere blunder of the Ministry resulting from the suddenness of the change in affairs with us. Here it seems to have been thought with reason that the dissolution of the Union would go as it were by default, without much resistance, and the Ministry and even our warmest friends thought that this would be best for us as well as for themselves. The English are really on our side; of that I have no doubt whatever. But they thought that as a dissolution seemed inevitable and as we seemed to have made up our minds to it, that their Proclamation was just the thing to keep them straight with both sides, and when it turned out otherwise they did their best to correct their mistake. America seems clean daft. She seems to want to quarrel with all the world, and now that England has eaten her humble-pie for what was, I must say, a natural mistake from her point of view, I cannot imagine why we should keep on sarsing her. It certainly is not our interest and I have done and shall do all I can, to bring matters straight. As a counterpart to my letters in the Times, I am looking round here for some good paper to take you as its American correspondent. I don’t know that I can get one, but certainly it will be a good while before a fair chance is likely to happen. When it does I will let you know.
Seward’s tone has improved very much since that crazy despatch that frightened me so. If the Chief had obeyed it literally, he would have made a war in five minutes and annihilated our party here in no time at all. As it is we have worried through safely and are not likely to have much more trouble. There is nothing in the way of particulars to give you so far as I know, for there has been no great scene nor have I met with any very remarkable event. Our presentation was only memorable to my mind from having caused a relapse for me, which frightened me nearly to death.
As to your going to the war, I will tell you plainly how the case seems to me to stand. The Chief is unwilling to do anything about it. His idea is that the war will be short and that you will only destroy all your habits of business without gaining anything. If you will take my advice you will say no more about it; only make arrangements so as not to be taken by surprise, and when the time comes, just write and notify him. He will consent to that as a fait accompli, which he cannot take the responsibility of encouraging himself. . . .
Send us maps of the seat of war — the best ones.
Boston, July 2, 1861
There is little news politically, for I am no longer in the way of getting it. There is a marked improvement in the general feeling and in the tone of the press towards England and my apprehensions of trouble would have entirely subsided but that I cannot but fear future trouble on account of this blockade. I fear that it is not effective and that some blundering British admiral will undertake to raise it for that reason, and this will surely lead to trouble. Neither do I believe that our blockade is likely to be effective in less than a hundred days. There are rumors, and pretty well authenticated, that Seward is losing ground in Washington and in New York very fast. Sumner has been here fiercely denouncing him for designing, as he asserts, to force the country into a foreign war, and Mr. George Morey tells me that to checkmate this, Sumner intends on the opening of Congress to make a speech on our foreign relations in which he will declare his entire satisfaction with the position of England and France. .. .
—Between 3 and 7 o’clock this morning the troops which have been concentrating at Hagerstown and Williamsport, Md., for several days past, crossed the ford at the latter place. Gen. Patterson reviewed them as they filed past him.
The morning was bright and beautiful, and the soldiers were in excellent spirits; the advance took place before daylight, the post of honor being assigned to Captain McMullen’s Independent Rangers, and the First Wisconsin, and the Eleventh Pennsylvania regiments. The advancing column consisted of the brigades of Abercrombie, Thomas, and Negley. The Independent Rangers behaved remarkably well, getting close up to the rebels, within a distance of only 75 yards. Abercrombie’s brigade led the advance, and the casualties of the conflict were almost exclusively on the First Wisconsin and Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiments. Col. Jarrett and Lieut.-Col. Coulter led the skirmishers, opening upon them at 400 yards. The whole of the rebel forces at Martinsburg, consisting of four regiments of infantry and one regiment of horse, were engaged in the action.
They had with them four pieces of artillery, part rifled cannon, and were commanded by Gen. Jackson. The first city troops of Philadelphia were assigned a position near the United States cavalry, under Captain Perkins, and behaved remarkably well. The casualties on the Federal side are two killed and several wounded. Several of the dead and wounded of the secession troops were left on the field in their hasty retreat. In anticipation of a retreat by the Federal forces, the rebels had levelled the fences on both sides of the turnpike even with the ground, so as to cut them off in the event of their retiring to the Potomac.
The first stand was made at Porterfield Farm, on the turnpike, near Haynesville, where it was necessary to destroy a barn and carriage-house, to make a charge upon the enemy. Here the conflict was fierce, the rebels standing well up to their work, and finally slowly retreating. Knapsacks and canteens were hastily thrown aside as incumbrances to a backward march. The rebels left behind them a number of blankets, and other articles of value, indicating a heavy loss.
—The Thirty-fourth Regiment, N. Y. S. V., left Albany for the seat of war. It is commanded by Colonel William Ledeu.—The Twenty-fifth Regiment N. Y. S. V., under the command of Colonel James E. Kerrigan, left their quarters on Staten Island, New York, for Washington.—N. Y. Tribune, July 4.
—The steamer Cataline was burned at Fortress Monroe, this evening.—Philadelphia, Press, July 5.
—The Legislature of Western Virginia organized at Wheeling. Lieut.-Governor Parsley took the chair in the Senate, and Daniel Frost of Jackson was elected Speaker of the House.
Governor Pierpont’s message was sent to both Houses, together with, a document from Washington, effectually recognizing the new Government. The message is a very able document and gives universal satisfaction. It is a succinct review of secession in Virginia, and of the causes leading to the formation of the present Government, and recommends an energetic cooperation with the Federal Government. (Doc. 29.)
—Twenty-seven thousand dollars belonging to the State were seized and carried to Wheeling by order of the Governor, from the Exchange Bank of Weston, Virginia, where it had been placed to the credit of the Western Lunatic Asylum by the State authorities. Capt. List was commissioned by Gov. Pierpont to go and take charge of the money, the work on the Asylum having been stopped, and there being reasonable apprehensions that the gold might fall into the hands of Letcher’s government. The Captain proceeded to Grafton, and upon making known his object to Gen. McClellan, in less than twenty-four hours a regiment of men, under Col. Tyler, were on the march. The expedition left Clarksburg on Sunday evening, and marching all night, reached Weston the next morning, about five o’clock. The people were all asleep, but the fine band which accompanied the expedition aroused the drowsy population by playing the Star-Spangled Banner. Col. Tyler took possession of the place, and Captain List went down and demanded the money in the name of the State of Virginia. No resistance was made, and the money was soon given up. The troops captured some twenty prisoners, all of whom were released upon examination, except the following, who were carried to Grafton and placed under guard: James T. Jackson, George J. Butcher, W. E. Lively, John Kearns, Jr., and J. Shumat. — Wheeling Intelligencer, July 3.
Georgetown Heights, July 1st, 1861.
Headquarters 79th Regiment.
Dear Mother:
At length I have an opportunity to inform you of my doings since we parted.
Map of Military Operations in N.E. Virginia – Maryland and Pennsylvania (Click on map for larger version)
I will spring over details.however, to say that I am now with Elliott at the Barracks of the 79th Regt. — that I slept last night upon the floor — that I am not yet Lieutenant, though assured of an eventual appointment — so until I write that I am entitled to wear the epaulets, please direct my letters to the care of Lieut. S. R. Elliott, 10th Co., 79th Regt., N. Y. S. M., Washington, D. C. Up to the present I have enjoyed myself much and am delighted with the novelty of the situation. However, I have no catalogue of hardships to complain of, as I have been dining in the best of company at a very good Secessionist Hotel which lies handy to our quarters, so please, dear mother, don’t expose yourself to any privations, for the purpose of better sympathizing with me as regards camp experiences. . . . Elliott you know, and I need not sound his praises. . . . By-the-way, my expenses here to Washington were paid by a grateful country, and in this wise. Young Quartermaster Elliott, meeting me at the Steamboat Landing, introduced me to some officers of a Maine Regt. on its way hither. I was introduced as Lieut. Lusk and in that capacity was invited to occupy the car appropriated for the staff. The officers manifested some curiosity regarding the Regt. I was supposed to represent, so it was with no little difficulty that I resorted to such evasions as would enable me to cover my ignorance. I pronounced the 79th Regt. to be the finest in the field, and was looked upon quite respectfully.
We are now delightfully quartered on Georgetown Heights in the Catholic College, but are going into Camp today. Yesterday a preacher from the Scottish Kirk discoursed to the soldiers in the yard. The Catholic priests must have shuddered at the terrible sacrilege, but even sectarianism must bend to meet the exigencies of war.
Elliott sends kind regards to you, and the sisters, and Hunt. Love to all.
Very affec’y-,
W. T. Lusk.
MONDAY, JULY 1
This has been a fine cool day, but a heavy rain this evening. We all (the family) took a ride after dinner to the Camps back of us. We saw the Camps of fifteen Regts and went into a number. Saw the officers of most of the NY Regts in that vicinity, Col [Roger?], Col Clarks, Col Lansing, &c. Got home in the midst of the rain and got quite wet getting out of the carriage. Spent the evening at the quarters of Capt Fowler & Lieut Whitlock of the 12th. Mr Woodbury was there. Got home 1/2 past 10 o’clock. Retired at 11 — .
______
The three diary manuscript volumes, Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, are available online at The Library of Congress.
At eight o’clock on the morning of the 27th I left Chicago for Niagara, which was so temptingly near that I resolved to make a detour by that route to New York. The line from the city which I took skirts the southern extremity of Lake Michigan for many miles, and leaving its borders at New Buffalo, traverses the southern portion of the state of Michigan by Albion and Jackson to the town of Detroit, or the outflow of Lake St. Clair into Lake Erie, a distance of 284 miles, which was accomplished in about twelve hours. The most enthusiastic patriot could not affirm the country was interesting. The names of the stations were certainly novel to a Britisher. Thus we had Kalumet, Pokagon, Dowagiac, Kalamazoo, Ypsilanti, among the more familiar titles of Chelsea, Marengo, Albion, and Parma.
It was dusk when we reached the steam ferry-boat at Detroit, which took us across to Windsor; but through the dusk I could perceive the Union Jack waving above the unimpressive little town which bears a name so respected by British ears. The customs’ inspections seemed very mild; and I was not much impressed by the representative of the British crown, who, with a brass button on his coat and a very husky voice, exercised his powers on behalf of Her Majesty at the landing-place of Windsor. The officers of the railway company, who received me as if I had been an old friend, and welcomed me as if I had just got out of a battle-field. “Well, I do wonder them Yankees have ever let you come out alive.” “May I ask why?” “Oh, because you have not been praising them all round, sir. Why even the Northern chaps get angry with a Britisher, as they call us, if he attempts to say a word against those cursed niggers.”
It did not appear the Americans are quite so thinskinned, for whilst crossing in the steamer a passage of arms between the Captain, who was a genuine John Bull, and a Michigander, in the style which is called chaff or slang, diverted most of the auditors, although it was very much to the disadvantage of the Union champion. The Michigan man had threatened the Captain that Canada would be annexed as the consequence of our infamous conduct. “Why, I tell you,” said the Captain, “we’d just draw up the negro chaps from our barbers’ shops, and tell them we’d send them to Illinois if they did not lick you; and I believe every creature in Michigan, pigs and all, would run before them into Pennsylvania. We know what you are up to, you and them Maine chaps; but Lor’ bless you, sooner than take such a lot, we’d give you ten dollars a head to make you stay in your own country; and we know you would go to the next worst place before your time for half the money. The very Bluenoses would secede if you were permitted to come under the old flag.”
All night we travelled. A long day through a dreary, ill-settled, pine-wooded, half-cleared country, swarming with mosquitoes and biting flies, and famous for fevers. Just about daybreak the train stopped.
“Now, then,” said an English voice; “now, then, who’s for Clifton Hotel? All passengers leave cars for this side of the Falls.” Consigning our baggage to the commissioner of the Clifton, my companion, Mr. Ward, and myself resolved to walk along the banks of the river to the hotel, which is some two miles and a half distant, and set out whilst it was still so obscure that the outline of the beautiful bridge which springs so lightly across the chasm, filled with furious hurrying waters, hundreds of feet below, was visible only as is the tracery of some cathedral arch through the dim light of the cloister.
The road follows the course of the stream, which whirls and gurgles in an Alpine torrent, many times magnified, in a deep gorge like that of the Tête Noire. As the rude bellow of the steam-engine and the rattle of the train proceeding on its journey were dying away, the echoes seemed to swell into a sustained, reverberating, hollow sound from the perpendicular banks of the St. Lawrence. We listened. “It is the noise of the Falls,” said my companion; and as we walked on the sound became louder, filling the air with a strange quavering note, which played about a tremendous uniform bass note, and silencing every other. Trees closed in the road on the river side, but when we had walked a mile or so, the lovely light of morning spreading with our steps, suddenly through an opening in the branches there appeared, closing up the vista— white, flickering, indistinct, and shroud-like—the Falls, rushing into a grave of black waters, and uttering that tremendous cry which can never be forgotten.
I have heard many people say they were disappointed with the first impression of Niagara. Let those who desire to see the water-leap in all its grandeur, approach it as I did, and I cannot conceive what their expectations are if they do not confess the sight exceeded their highest ideal. I do not pretend to describe the sensations or to endeavour to give the effect produced on me by the scene or by the Falls, then or subsequently; but I must say words can do no more than confuse the writer’s own ideas of the grandeur of the sight, and mislead altogether those who read them. It is of no avail to do laborious statistics, and tell us how many gallons rush over in that down-flung ocean every second, or how wide it is, how high it is, how deep the earth-piercing caverns beneath. For my own part, I always feel the distance of the sun to be insignificant, when I read it is so many hundreds of thousands of miles away, compared with the feeling of utter inaccessibility to anything human which is caused by it when its setting rays illuminate some purple ocean studded with golden islands in dreamland.
Niagara is rolling its waters over the barrier. Larger and louder it grows upon us.
“I hope the hotel is not full,” quoth my friend. I confess, for the time, I forgot all about Niagara, and was perturbed concerning a breakfastless ramble and a hunt after lodgings by the borders of the great river.
But although Clifton Hotel was full enough, there was room for us, too; and for two days a strange, weird-kind of life I led, alternating between the roar of the cataract outside and the din of politics within; for, be it known, that at the Canadian side of the Falls many Americans of the Southern States, who would not pollute their footsteps by contact with the soil of Yankee-land, were sojourning, and that merchants and bankers of New York and other Northern cities had selected it as their summer retreat, and, indeed, with reason; for after excursions on both sides of the Falls, the comparative seclusion of the settlements on the left bank appears to me to render it infinitely preferable to the Rosherville gentism and semi-rowdyism of the large American hotels and settlements on the other side.
It was distressing to find that Niagara was surrounded by the paraphernalia of a fixed fair. I had looked forward to a certain degree of solitude. It appeared impossible that man could cockneyfy such a magnificent display of force and grandeur in nature. But, alas! it is haunted by what poor Albert Smith used to denominate “harpies.” The hateful race of guides infest the precincts of the hotels, waylay you in the lanes, and prowl about the unguarded moments of reverie. There are miserable little peepshows and photographers, bird stuffers, shell polishers, collectors of crystals, and proprietors of natural curiosity shops.
There is, besides, a large village population. There is a watering-side air about the people who walk along the road worse than all their mills and factories working their water privileges at both sides of the stream. At the American side there is a lanky, pretentious town, with big hotels, shops of Indian curiosities, and all the meagre forms of the bazaar life reduced to a minimum of attractiveness which destroy the comfort of a traveller in Switzerland. I had scarcely been an hour in the hotel before I was asked to look at the Falls through a little piece of coloured glass. Next I was solicited to purchase a collection of muddy photographs, representing what I could look at with my own eyes for nothing. Not finally by any means, I was assailed by a gentleman who was particularly desirous of selling me an enormous pair of cow’s-horns and a stuffed hawk. Small booths and peepshows corrupt the very margin of the bank, and close by the remnant of the “Table Rock,” a Jew (who, by-the-bye, deserves infinite credit for the zeal and energy he has thrown into the collections for his museum), exhibits bottled rattlesnakes, stuffed monkeys, Egyptian mummies, series of coins, with a small living menagerie attached to the shop, in which articles of Indian manufacture are exposed for sale. It was too bad to be asked to admire such lusus natures as double-headed calves and dogs with three necks by the banks of Niagara.
As I said before, I am not going to essay the impossible or to describe the Falls. On the English side there are, independently of other attractions, some scenes of recent historic interest, for close to Niagara are Lundy’s Lane and Chippewa. There are few persons in England aware of the exceedingly severe fighting which characterised the contests between the Americans and the English and Canadian troops during the campaign of 1814. At Chippewa, for example, Major-General Riall, who, with 2000 men, one howitzer, and two 24-pounders, attacked a force of Americans of a similar strength, was repulsed with a loss of 500 killed and wounded; and on the morning of the 25th of July the action of Lundy’s Lane, between four brigades of Americans and seven field-pieces, and 3100 men of the British and seven field-pieces, took place, in which the Americans were worsted, and retired with a loss of 854 men and two guns, whilst the British lost 878. On the 14th of August following Sir Gordon Drummond was repulsed with a loss of 905 men out of his small force in an attack on Fort Erie; and on the 17th of September an American sortie from the place was defeated with a loss of 510 killed and wounded, the British having lost 609. In effect the American campaign was unsuccessful; but their failures were redeemed by their successes on Lake Champlain, and in the affair of Plattsburgh.
There was more hard fighting than strategy in these battles, and their results were not, on the whole, creditable to the military skill of either party. They were sanguinary in proportion to the number of troops engaged, but they were very petty skirmishes considered in the light of contests between two great nations for the purpose of obtaining specific results. As England was engaged in a great war in Europe, was far removed from the scene of operations, was destitute of steam-power, whilst America was fighting, as it were, on her own soil, close at hand, with a full opportunity of putting forth all her strength, the complete defeat of the American invasion of Canada was more honourable to our arms than the successes which the Americans achieved in resisting aggressive demonstrations.
In the great hotel of Clifton we had every day a little war of our own, for there were but why should I mention names? Has not government its bastiles? There were in effect men, and women too, who regarded the people of the Northern States and the government they had selected very much as the men of ’98 looked upon the government and people of England; but withal these strong Southerners were not very favourable to a country which they regarded as the natural ally of the abolitionists, simply because it had resolved to be neutral.
On the Canadian side these rebels were secure. British authority was embodied in a respectable old Scottish gentleman, whose duty it was to prevent smuggling across the boiling waters of the St. Lawrence, and who performed it with zeal and diligence worthy of a higher post. There was indeed a withered triumphal arch which stood over the spot where the young Prince of our royal house had passed on his way to the Table Rock, but beyond these signs and tokens there was nothing to distinguish the American from the British side, except the greater size and activity of the settlements upon the right bank. There is no power in nature, according to great engineers, which cannot be forced to succumb to the influence of money. The American papers actually announce that “Niagara is to be sold;” the proprietors of the land upon their side of the water have resolved to sell their water privileges! A capitalist could render the islands the most beautifully attractive places in the world.
Life at Niagara is like that at most watering-places, though it is a desecration to apply such a term to the Falls, and there is no bathing there, except that which is confined to the precincts of the hotels and to the ingenious establishment on the American side, which permits one to enjoy the full rush of the current in covered rooms with sides pierced, to let it come through with undiminished force and with perfect security to the bather. There are drives and picnics, and mild excursions to obscure places in the neighbourhood, where only the roar of the Falls gives an idea of their presence. The rambles about the islands, and the views of the boiling rapids above them, are delightful, but I am glad to hear from one of the guides that the great excitement of seeing a man and boat carried over occurs but rarely. Every year, however, hapless creatures crossing from one shore to the other, by some error of judgment or miscalculation of strength, or malign influence, are swept away into the rapids, and then, notwithstanding the wonderful rescues effected by the American blacksmith and unwonted kindnesses of fortune, there is little chance of saving body corporate or incorporate, from the headlong swoop to destruction.
Next to the purveyors of curiosities and hotel keepers, the Indians, who live in a village at some distance from Niagara, reap the largest profit from the crowds of visitors who repair annually to the Falls. They are a harmless and by no means elevated race of semi-civilised savages, whose energies are expended on whiskey, feather fans, bark canoes, ornamental mocassins, and carved pipe stems. I had arranged for an excursion to see them in their wigwams one morning, when the news was brought to me that General Scott had ordered, or been forced to order the advance of the Federal troops encamped in front of Washington, under the command of McDowell, against the Confederates, commanded by Beauregard, who was described as occupying a most formidable position, covered with entrenchments and batteries in front of a ridge of hills, through which the railway passes to Richmond.
The New York papers represent the Federal army to be of some grand indefinite strength, varying, from 60,000 to 120,000 men, full of fight, admirably equipped, well disciplined, and provided with an overwhelming force of artillery. General Scott, I am very well assured, did not feel such confidence in the result of an invasion of Virginia, that he would hurry raw levies and a rabble of regiments to undertake a most arduous military operation.
The day I was introduced to the General he was seated at a table in the unpretending room which served as his boudoir in the still humbler house where he held his head-quarters. On the table before him were some plans and maps of the harbour defences of the Southern ports. I inferred he was about to organise a force for the occupation of positions along the coast. But when I mentioned my impression to one of his officers, he said, “Oh, no, the General advised that long ago; but he is now convinced we are too late. All he can hope, now, is to be allowed time to prepare a force for the field, but there are hopes that some compromise will yet take place.”
The probabilities of this compromise have vanished: few entertain them now. They have been hanging Secessionists in Illinois, and the court-house itself has been made the scene of Lynch law murder in Ogle county. Petitions, prepared by citizens of New York to the President, for a general convention to consider a compromise, have been seized. The Confederates have raised batteries along the Virginian shore of the Potomac. General Banks, at Baltimore, has deposed the police authorities “proprio motu,” in spite of the protest of the board. Engagements have occurred between the Federal steamers and the Confederate batteries on the Potomac. On all points, wherever the Federal pickets have advanced in Virginia, they have encountered opposition and have been obliged to halt or to retire.
As I stood on the verandah this morning, looking for the last time on the Falls, which were covered with a grey mist, that rose from the river and towered unto the sky in columns which were lost in the clouds, a voice beside me said, ” Mr. Russell, that is something like the present condition of our country, mists and darkness obscure it now, but we know the great waters are rushing behind, and will flow till eternity.” The speaker was an earnest, thoughtful man, but the country of which he spoke was the land of the South. “And do you think,” said I, “when the mists clear away the Falls will be as full and as grand as before?” “Well,” he replied, “they are great as it is, though a rock divides them; we have merely thrown our rock into the waters,—they will meet all the same in the pool below.” A coloured boy, who has waited on me at the hotel, hearing I was going away, entreated me to take him on any terms, which were, I found, an advance of nine dollars, and twenty dollars a month, and, as I heard a good account of him from the landlord, I installed the young man into my service. In the evening I left Niagara on my way to New York.
—General Banks issued a proclamation announcing the arrest of Charles Howard, William Getchell, John Hincks, and John W. Davis, late members of the police board of Baltimore, and giving his reasons therefor.— (Doc. 62.)
—This afternoon Lieutenant Yelverton and eighteen men of the Seventh New York Volunteers, made a reconnoissance from Newport News, Va., up the James River road to within a mile and a half of Great Bethel. At that point they came upon five of the rebel pickets, who precipitately fled, leaving behind, with other trophies, their hats and coats, which showed that the owners were officers. In the pockets of the hitter were several letters just finished, giving a complete account of the late advance of 2,800 men from Yorktown to attack Newport News. One of an amusing character from the pocket of James Steele, bookseller, Richmond, describes the federal troops as a set of baboons, to be speedily driven from the sacred soil of Virginia.—N. Y. Evening Post, July 3.
—Edward Clark, the Governor of Texas, issued a proclamation, in which he said: “It will also be treasonable for any citizen of Texas to pay any debts now owing by him to a citizen of either of the States or Territories now at war with the Confederate States of America.—National Intelligencer, July 3.
—Fifty Home Guards under Captain Cook, from De Soto and Hopewell, Mo., proceeded last night by rail to Irondale, where they arrived this morning at 9 o’clock, and marched towards Farmington in search of contraband arms, &c., reported to be in the neighborhood of that place. They passed through Farmington about three miles eastward towards the river, but finding nothing, were returning home, when about six miles west of Farmington, they were attacked by a body of some 250 to 300 well armed and mounted secessionists, who were in ambush. Their fire was returned by the Homo Guards, mortally wounding Win. Hunter, one of the secession leaders. The Home Guards returned to De Soto without the loss of a man or a gun.
The rebels in that section are in possession of artillery, and gathered their clan by the discharge of their cannon, and were rallying all their forces in anticipation of the return of the Home Guards. The brave 300 were concealed in the brush, and fired upon the Home Guards in an open field.—Missouri Democrat, July 3.
—The marine artillery of the First Rhode Island Regiment left Washington, at night, by rail; destination unknown.—The Third Massachusetts Regiment moved from the encampment within Fortress Monroe, to occupy a position between Hampton and Newmarket Bridge. Col. McChesney’s Regiment (N. Y.) took the place of the Third Massachusetts.—N. Y. World, July 3.
—The Governor of Tennessee stationed an agent at Mitchellsville, on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, near the northern Tennessee line, to prevent goods declared contraband in the southern confederacy from coming north.—Louisville Journal, July 2.
—James M. Sanderson assumed the control of the culinary department of the army at Washington, under the direction of the Sanitary Commission.—N. Y. World, July 1.
—Ben. McCulloch, Brigadier-General of the rebel forces, issued a proclamation to the citizens of Arkansas, as follows:—”To defend your frontier, troops of Missouri are falling back upon you. If they are not sustained, your State will be invaded and your homes desolated. All that can arm themselves will rendezvous at Fayetteville, where they will await further orders. All those who have arms of the State, will march to the scene of action, or give their arms to those who will not desert their country in the hour of danger. All organized companies, whether cavalry or infantry, will report at Fayetteville, and will at once be formed into regiments and battalions. The necessary subsistence stores will be forwarded from this post. Rally promptly, then, citizens of Arkansas, and let us drive this Northern horde back from whence they came.”—Memphis Argus, July 1.
—The Fifteenth and Seventeenth Regiments of Indiana volunteers, left Indianapolis this afternoon for Virginia. Each regiment has a corps of fifty sharpshooters, and two pieces of artillery.—N. Y. Tribune, July 2.
—The Fourth Regiment of Michigan volunteers, numbering 1,046 men, under the command of Colonel Dwight A. Woodbury, passed through Baltimore on the route to Washington.—Baltimore American, July 2.
Cairo, July 1, 1861.
Writing letters is getting to be harder work than drilling, and is more dreaded by the boys. Lots of people are visiting the camp now, many of them ladies, but I tell you that they use their fans more than their spy-glasses after a very few looks.
I was up to Mound City yesterday with nine others of our company on a United States boat that has three cannons on her. Mound City is a beautiful little place, and takes it name from a mound about 30 feet in diameter and 10 feet high, on which grow a dozen spindling locusts. I have been about 12 miles up each river from the point here. At that distance the river banks are, say 25 feet high, and slope down to the point, and run into a broad wide sandbar that ends Illinois.
Fishing is a principal amusement or time-killer now. I have fished about four days and caught nary a “minner.”
There is no outside influence used to induce a man to re-enlist. Officers tell every man to use his own judgment, and each fellow does his own thinking and—another long dash or words to that effect.
July 1.—A rumour of a skirmish, in which the Messrs. Ashby were engaged, and that Richard Ashby was severely wounded. I trust it may not be true.
