MONDAY
APRIL 8, 1861
THE SPRINGFIELD DAILY REPUBLICAN

LATEST SOUTHERN AND SECESSION NEWS

The design of the warlike preparations of the government is as yet unknown. But it is positively stated at Washington that neither the blockade of southern ports, nor the collection of the revenue on shipboard, is intended; and an attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter is out of the question. It is therefore nearly certain that the strong reinforcement of Fort Pickens and the stationing of a fleet off Texas, to watch the course of events there, and be ready to intervene against the Mexicans, the Indians, or the secessionists, as the circumstances may require, are the special objects that now  occupy the attention of the army and navy departments, and account for the unusual activity. It was believed at Charleston on Saturday that Fort Sumter would be bombarded within forty-eight hours, but it is denied that Major Anderson's supplies had been stopped. The southern commissioners at Washington still affirm there is no prospect of war, and that they believe in an amicable settlement of all difficulties. Since the new war excitement commenced, the president has received a number of telegraphic exhortations from leading politicians in all parts of the country, urging him not to surrender anything, and offering to volunteer in undertaking reinforcements. . . The sensation correspondent of the Tribune wrote from Baltimore, on Friday: "Things are rapidly verging toward a conflict, if the rebels are in earnest. The days are not many ere they will encounter the majesty and power of the federal government in a way they little dreamt of. If they resist, the blood be upon their heads."

A committee of Union men from the Virginia convention visited President Lincoln on Friday, to urge peaceful measures in order to prevent the success of secession in that state, of which they have fears. There is good authority for stating that the Richmond Whig will not advocate secession, but will stand by the policy of presenting an ultimatum to the North, which is only a trick of the shrewder secession leaders to carry the whole state off on a false issue. With reference to the recent threats of the secessionists of Virginia to seize certain guns belonging to the United States, Secretary Cameron addressed a letter to Gov. Letcher, informing him that as the United States needs money more than guns, and as Virginia seems to want guns more than money, she could have the guns in question if she would pay for them.

The Louisiana state convention refused to allow the vote by which they were elected to be published, but the New Orleans Delta prints what it affirms to be the true vote as follows: for secession 20,443, for co-operation 17,296--secession majority 3,152. The correctness of these figures is doubted, and the Union men insist that there was a small popular majority against secession.

A Philadelphia shirt manufacturer has respectfully declined an order for 833 dozen shirts for the confederate army. Why don't the patriotic southern women make shirts for their soldiers?

It is stated that 280 of the rank and file of the U.S. soldiers at Washington have deserted and gone into the service of the confederacy since the 4th of March. The defection of the troops in Texas is denied, and it is said they are in an excellent state of discipline. There is a report that a large number of volunteers have gone from Baltimore to rally around Gov. Houston.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS ITEMS

The police at Memphis charge girls $25 for wearing pantaloons and hats, and drinking punches.

President Lincoln has determined to receive no visitors on Saturday, but will devote that day to himself, in accordance with the practice established by President Buchanan.

Later reports from the peach regions in New Jersey and Delaware state that the crop of that fruit has not been destroyed by the frost and snow, but will be a full one, according to present appearances.

Henri and Felix Frebourg, brothers, of New Orleans, quarrelled with knives and forks at the dinner table in presence of their mother, and Felix was mortally wounded. A woman of loose character engendered the ill-feeling.

Alva J. Spear, receiving teller in the bank of Commerce at Baltimore, is a defaulter to the amount of $8,871. He pocketed sums deposited in the bank, and hoodwinked the book-keeper by shifting his stealings daily from one depositor to another.

The proposed amendment to the constitution of New York, prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, passed the Assembly, Friday, 69 against 33. It had already passed the Senate, and must be submitted to the legislature chosen at the next general election of senators, and, if again adopted, to the people.

The citizens of Talapoosa, Alabama, have pledged themselves to buy no goods from merchants who purchase in the free states. If they stick to this pledge, they will be in a seedy and comfortless condition, almost as badly off as savages, for none but "free states" keep decent stocks of goods, or manufacture them.

By a snow avalanche at Orum Hill, Sierra county, Cal., on the 11th February, Robert Hitsman and Peter Johnson, natives of Washington, St Lawrence county, N.Y., were killed. They were mining in a deep tunnel, which the snow closed up at the mouth and caused their suffocation. Three other men escaped from a neighboring tunnel by six hours' labor with an axe. A space of three acres was covered five feet deep with snow, and several cabins were destroyed.

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TUESDAY
APRIL 9, 1861
BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER

BOSTON

The steamship Baltic sailed from New York yesterday afternoon, laden with stores and munitions of war, part of which are directed at Fort Pickens; but we do not understand that she took any troops. The steam revenue cutter Harriet Lane sailed from New York yesterday, carrying the national ensign in place of the revenue flag.

The steamship Canadian at Portland brings five days' later news from Europe. Prince Albert will visit Canada this summer. The building strike in London is assuming formidable dimensions.

Lieutenant Talbot is reported to have left Washington yesterday for Fort Sumter.  The news from Charleston is of an exciting nature. Military preparations are in active progress, and all business is suspended. A private letter quoted in the New York Post, says that Major Anderson intends to retort upon the Charlestonians for stopping his supplies by prohibiting further intercourse by water with the forts that surround him. The frigate Savannah and brig Perry have been ordered into commission and are being fitted for sea. The Pawnee sails from Norfolk, Va., this morning for the South with sealed orders.

It appears certain that danger to the Capitol is apprehended, for  precautionary measures have been taken for the safety of the city. The State department declines receiving the confederate commissioners in their official capacity, but a peaceful policy is indicated towards them. The southern cabinet was in session all day yesterday at Montgomery, and anticipating important news from Washington.

The Virginia Convention yesterday adopted the resolution to appoint commissioners to wait upon the President to ascertain what policy he intends to pursue in the present crisis.

Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania in a message to the legislature, recommends an appropriation of half a million of dollars for munitions of war, judging it necessary in the present distracted state of the country to prepare the means for self-preservation, and also to aid in enforcing the national laws.

Despatches from Chicago and Detroit state that a large number of fugitive slaves have lately left each of those places for Canada.

THE RHODE ISLAND BOUNDARY

Mr. Slack resumed his remarks on the Rhode Island boundary question. He advanced the same arguments as before given, laying particular stress upon the fact that by adoption of the proposed line, many persons would be severed from the State of Massachusetts.

Mr. Durfee of New Bedford showed some discrepancies in the map which had been circulated, and which he said was a partizan affair.

Mr. Woodward of Taunton set forth the evils which would arise from the adoption of the conventional line, and after reiterating some of the statements made at the opening of the debate, said that the controversy between the mother country and the colonies, the revolutionary war, reconstruction of the government, and other matters, left to Massachusetts no time to look after her interests as respected the boundary question. But never did she, in any official act, assent to any such thing. . .  We have voted away hundreds and thousands during the session and now we propose to give away millions. If the generosity of Massachusetts is overflowing, if we wish to make grants of territory, there are other States that have greater claims on us than Rhode Island. . . The speaker closed by saying that of all the financing he had ever known, none came up to what is proposed in this measure. It is all summed up in this: Rhode Island modestly consents that we may take what is already our own for twice as much of that which she never claimed. This legislature is in a fair way to make itself immortal.

THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED

The New York Herald has solved the great problem. It has discovered that "war and not peace," has been the policy of Mr. Lincoln's administration all the time. Professions of conciliation and forbearance, the Herald says, were all very well while Mr. Chase wanted eight millions from Wall Street, and while the  elections were pending in Connecticut and Rhode Island; but now that these matters are settled the disguise can be thrown off. Two things in this explanation, however, themselves, need explanation. (1) How does anybody know that the policy of the administration is not peace after all; and (2) why was Mr. Chase contented with such a  drop in the bucket as eight millions, if he had to play such an elaborate game to get it?

WEDNESDAY
APRIL 10, 1861
THE SPRINGFIELD DAILY REPUBLICAN

WARLIKE MOVEMENTS AND RUMORS

The Washington correspondents for one day agree in their interpretations of the war movements, and assert that a portion of the fleet which ahs sailed from New York has gone to carry supplies to Fort Sumter. They say that messengers have been sent to Montgomery and Charleston to inform Jeff. Davis and Gov. Pickens of this design, and give them fair notice that if they resist this peaceful movement the responsibility of initiating war will rest upon them. The vessels were expected to reach Charleston harbor on Tuesday. If they are fired into they are prepared to resist the attack, and Major Anderson is said to be instructed in that case to open a fire upon the insurgent batteries, with the assurance that the government will sustain him at every hazard. Several laborers from Fort Sumter who were in Charleston on Thursday last, stated that there were in all thirty laborers in the fort, who are looking with anxious expectation for an opportunity to leave. They also state that there were seventy-two soldiers in the fort, most of tem Irishmen and married men; some of them have their families in Charleston. Nearly all the garrison are extremely anxious to avoid a hostile engagement, according to the statement of these men.

Recruiting for the navy was begun in Boston on Monday. So great was the rush of persons anxious to ship that two policemen had to be obtained to manage the crowd, Only about nineteen persons the first day passed through the examination necessary for ordinary seamen. The orders are to enlist a certain number of  firemen, coal-heavers and boys, but an indefinite number of seamen.

A letter from a young man in Georgia, published in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, says: "I was down to Macon last week, and saw a specimen of the military that is being enrolled for the southern army, I had supposed, from what the newspapers said, that the troops were principally the sons of the wealthy people, young men who were better fitted for peace than war, until I saw a company parading, but I must say that a dirtier and more outlandish and meaner looking set of loafers I never saw together, even on the police force of Chicago, than they were; and they knew about as much about discipline and military matters as they appeared to about decency. When they were not parading they were loafing around the whisky shops, drunk and carousing, but they are just that class of men that will fight like the dickens if they are paid for it, and not without.

A letter from Troy says that never since the Mexican war has there been such activity displayed at the United States arsenal in West Troy, as at the present moment. The works are kept going night and day, the Sabbath even being entirely disregarded. Immense quantities of six, twelve, and twenty-four pounder carriages, bombshells, canister and grape, rifle and musket balls, and all other known implements of war, are being prepared for shipment. A large number of siege guns and carriages are being shipped. Major Mordecai, who ahs command of the arsenal, is a Virginian, and is now absent in that state.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS ITEMS

There are rumors that the "knights of the golden circle" are organizing in New jersey, to carry that state for secession if they can. Such traitors will soon be brought up with a short turn.

Long John Wentworth, mayor of Chicago, was badly whipped, according to the local press, by Allen Pinkerton, last week, on lake Street. The Pinkerton chastisement is said to be the seventeenth he has received.

A liquor dealer at New York, in order to convince his customers that they are buying "good old wine," keeps a number of boys at work enveloping the bottles with cobwebs. This trick is far ahead of the old one of smoking the labels on the bottles.

The strike of the building mechanics of London is for the reduction of the day's work from ten to nine hours. The master workmen are willing to raise the wages in that proportion, but will not reduce the hours of work, and threaten to import laborers from Belgium.

The two snakes found in a mail bag at the Washington post office came from Virginia, and were in a small box addressed to President Lincoln. It accidentally fell on the floor and broke open, letting out the reptiles, two venomous copperheads. The cowardly malice of the trick was thus fortunately defeated.

Mr. Seward is still confident of a peaceful issue of the national difficulties, and is represented to have said in a recent conversation, in nearly these words: "I have no private opinion that is not a public opinion. I feel every confidence in the future, and I know of nothing in the policy of the administration that will interfere with an early restoration of peace and prosperity. It is of course impossible to say how the South may act, but this administration will do all that a wise and discreet government can do to bring about an early solution of the present difficulties. So far as commercial undertakings are concerned, I see nothing and know nothing which will interfere with any enterprise that may depend for success upon an early restoration of peaceful relations.

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THURSDAY
APRIL 11, 1861
THE PITTSFIELD SUN

REINFORCEMENTS FOR THE SOUTH

New York and Brooklyn were in a great state of excitement on Friday and Saturday last, on account of the fitting out for immediate dispatch of the chartered steamers Atlantic and Illinois, and the war steamer Powhatan, for some Southern destination, not made known. Troops at Fort Hamilton an Fort Columbus were packing up for immediate movement. Capt. Barry's battery and sixteen double-banked boats for landing troops were on board the Atlantic, and accommodations were prepared for 800 men. The supplies included whisky, brandy, oil, bread-stuffs, pickles, water, fuel, &c. The boxes of ammunition contained 12-pounder shell, fixed; 6-pounder strap shot, fixed; 1000B. cartridges, rifle and M. rifle calibre 58, 1500 primers, 600 caps; 12-pounder howitzer shells, fixed; 12-pounder spherical case shot, fixed; 12-pounder gun canister, fixed.

On the table of the cabin were charts of Charleston harbor and of some points on the Florida coast. The steamers took the troops on as they passed the Narrows.

The Powhatan was got ready in three days, to be put into commission, and received her complement of officers and men, about 300, on Friday. She has on board an extraordinary armament and immense quantities of shell. She carries 0 nine-inch shell-guns, and one eleven-inch shell-gun; but a large portion of her ordnance consists of ten-inch shell, consequently these are probably intended for the reinforcement of some forts, or possibly for land service. There are a number of gun carriages on board, which are only applicable to land service.

The Powhatan crossed the bar about 6 P.M., on Saturday, and was to act as convoy to the transport fleet, which it is expected will include the steamer Baltic.

The Atlantic went to sea Sunday morning.

On Saturday intense excitement prevailed in army circles, in consequence of the resignation of Majors Holmes and Johnson, of the New York post. Maj. Holmes was the commanding officer of all the forces at the post, and General Superintendent of the recruiting business. He is a native of North Carolina.

The steamer Pawnee, which has been lying at the Washington Navy Yard since the 1st of March, left on Saturday for Norfolk, in full war trim. Her ultimate destination is not publicly known.

The Revenue cutter Harriet Lane sailed yesterday morning with sealed orders, doffing the Revenue flag, and hoisting the U.S. ensign, thus sowing that she is in the general service. She takes out a large supply of ordinary stores and ammunition, and is coaled for about 30 days. Her mission is supposed to be the same as that of the Atlantic, Powhatan, and the rest of the fleet. Proof accumulates that the reinforcement of Fort Pickens is one of the objects of this naval movement. At Governor's Island yesterday, the pier from which shipments were going on to the steam transports by means of barges, was lined with gun-carriages and columbiads, all marked "Captain L. Vogdes, Fort Pickens, Florida." These were awaiting their turn to be sent on board probably under over of night. Both the Illinois and Baltic take out a large variety of small ammunition boxes to the same address.

MILITARY

What effect the news that General Ampudia is marching on Texas with 3000 troops, with the design to re-annex Texas to Mexico, to which power he declares he rightfully belongs, is to have upon Gov. Andrew, the commander-in-chief of the Military of the Bay State, remains to be seen. It will be recollected that when Texas asked for admission into the American Union, our Legislature "Resolved, That if Texas is admitted, Massachusetts goes out of the Union."

Our warlike executive, on the part of the Massachusetts portion of the United States, has laid in, with the advice of his aids and the Adjutant General, a certain supply of military overcoats, blankets, knapsacks, haversacks, and buttons, besides running over again a lot of bullets on hand, at the cost to the Commonwealth of not less than $23,730--a further fund of $1270 remaining for the purchase of percussion caps, and perhaps it would be well to give the Massachusetts soldiers an opportunity of displaying their valor by taking a hand in the fight between Mexico and Texas. Gov. Andrew should head the troops in person, in case of such an arrangement.

OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE ON SECESSION

The State Department replied, Monday, to the note of the Confederate States' Commissioners. Secretary Seward declined to receive them in their official capacity, but expressed deference for them as gentlemen. The letter indicates a peaceful policy by Government, declaring its purpose to defend only when assailed. There will probably be a continuation of the correspondence. It is uncertain when the commissioners will leave Washington; probably not for several days.

A CRACK REGIMENT

The President of the Confederate States has accepted and drafted into the regular army the Zouave Regiment of New Orleans, numbering 630 men, commanded by Col. Coppen, formerly of the French army. A large majority of the regiment have seen real service in Europe--all are French, and the orders are given in the French language.

"STARVING KANSAS"

The Legislature of Pennsylvania recently passed a bill appropriating $30,000 for the relief of the alleged starving people of Kansas. But they afterwards received information which led them to see that they had been imposed upon, and the Senate passed a resolution requesting the Governor to return the bill.

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE

Many of the Base Ball Clubs in this County, and various parts of the State, are reorganizing for the Spring and Summer "campaign."

FRIDAY
APRIL 12, 1861
THE LIBERATOR / THE BARRE GAZETTE

WAR AT HAND!

The last dispatch of our Secessionist friend at Montgomery leaves no room for hope of a peaceable adjustment of our country's intestine troubles. The Jeff. Davis Confederacy has resolved towage offensive war on the Government of the United States, and will assault or open fire on Fort Pickens forthwith. Meantime, the limited daily supply of fresh provisions hitherto allowed by Gov. Pickens to be furnished to Fort Sumter has been stopped, and we may hear at any moment that this Fort, too, has been carried by assault, or is so pressed that it must speedily surrender. Within a few days at farthest, the cannon of the insurgents will be battering down the defences and slaughtering the defenders of the American Union.

Let us pause a moment and consider.

Slavery makes open war upon that Union which has so long been its protection and security.

For thirty years, the opponents of slavery have borne the imputation--which not one in a hundred of them deserved--of seeking their end through the dissolution of the Union.

In all this time, not a squadron has charged, not a platoon has fired, on the National flag and forces, under the inspiration of Anti-Slavery. Its advocates have been beaten at elections, hunted out of halls which they had hired and paid for, mobbed and maimed in the slave States, and generally proscribed and stigmatized in the free, without being goaded into hostilities. Only in Kansas, when compelled to choose between resistance and annihilation, have they been moved to repel force with force.

The Slave power, after enjoying undisturbed sway for half a century, has at length lost an election. Hereupon, it proceeds to treat hat election as a farce and a nullity, and defy those whom it invested with authority.

It has, while in power, loudly vaunted its fidelity and devotedness to the Federal Constitution. Losing power, it deliberately repudiates that charter, and adopts one radically different in its stead.

"The Union, the Union forever!" has been the vociferous cry of its servitors. Having lost an election, they treat that same Union as a hated curse, passing ordinances and raising armies for its overthrow.

"Let the laws be enforced!" it was thundered whenever the consciences of freemen revolted at the inhuman atrocities of slave-hunting in free States. But the moment the enforcement of the laws has devolved on Republicans, slavery denounces it as "coercion," and insists that it is inaugurating civil war!

And in fact to very many, North as well as South, slavery is above the Union, above the laws, above the Constitution. Rebellion, in their view, is opposition to slavery; while love of slavery and love of the Union are synonymous.

They plead for Peace, meaning that there be no further resistance to slavery. "National Unity," in their vocabulary, means a universal agreement that slavery is eminently right, and that it ought to be diffused universally and maintained forever. . . .

There is not even a pretence that the Federal Government has done or refused to do anything whereby this rebellion is justified. It has been pacific, forbearing, and most anxious to avoid a collision. It has allowed its troops to be disarmed, its arsenals to be robbed, its forts to be seized, its money to be stolen, and its revenues to be collected and appropriated by its open enemies. Through these high-handed villainies, a whole frontier has been open to savage incursion and massacre, until even Mexico threatens an invasion. It has seriously lost ground with its friends by vainly seeking to conciliate its implacable foes. At length the great slaveholding rebellion is ready to unmask its batteries and open fire on the most exposed and isolated of the National defences. The challenge of its opening cannonade will soon reverberate over the country. The Union flag on Fort Sumter is to be shot down by the rebel batteries unless speedily lowered by the devoted garrison. The American Republic now enters upon the gravest peril it has known since the treason of Arnold. God grant that it pass through them with undoubting reliance on the omnipotence of Justice, and emerge at length, however tried and tested, unwavering in its loyalty to Freedom and the Rights of Man!

FEEDING HORSES--A COMMON MISTAKE

The Southern Homestead says that, "The practice of regulating the feed of horses by the amount of work they are required to perform, i a good one if properly followed. For example, a horse when lying comparatively idle, as in winter, should have less solid food than amid the hard work of spring and summer. Again, if a horse is about to be perform a work of labor, it is well to fortify him with a little extra feeding beforehand. But the mistake we refer to is the practice of over-feeding him in an hour or so before putting him to work. If an extra service is required of a horse on any particular day, and an extra feed is to be given him, let him have it the evening beforehand, rather than in the morning, an hour or two before being put to work. Why so? Because if h is put to work so soon after eating, his food does not become digested, and he is obliged to carry about with him a large mass of undigested fodder, which is rather a burden than a help to him. If he is well fed the evening beforehand, the food is assimilated--changed to flesh and blood--and sends health and vigor through all the system. As a general rule, a working horse should be fed regularly, both as to the time and the amount."

TERRIBLE SCENE IN CHINA

The Canton Press gives the particulars of a frightful execution by wholesale of Canton river pirates by the Cantonese authorities. The pirates with their lorchas were first enticed out of the river, and then a military and naval force was stationed ten or twelve miles below Canton to prevent their ascending the river above that point. The pirates attempted to get past this station in a body, but were only partially successful, while the Chinese Commodore pursued and destroyed those who did. The Press says:

"There sailed past his guard three, some say ten, Canton lorchas, others hanging on outside in case this detachment succeeded. They were attacked by the mandarin force; three were burnt, two ran up to take refuge at the Pagoda anchorage, and the rest made out to sea as fast as they could. The remainder of that day was occupied in pursuing and capturing the fugitive pirates who had escaped on shore. Next morning, the 20th, the mandarin armed hosts were in pursuit of the two boats that had escaped up the river. They came up with them about noon, lying in shore at the Pagoda. There they were attacked; their crews dashed into the stream to swim ashore, and while floating on the water some forty or fifty were speared and shot; a fine sight to be seen for foreign seamen and residents!

Early on the morning of the 21st, it was evident, from the packed throngs on the great bridge, and the hubbub around, that something strange and novel and exciting had occurred. About 9 o'clock, some of the Mandarin war boats had come up with two prizes and two hundred captured pirates. The latter they commenced to land, each man under the guard of at least four marines, bearing drawn swords, spears, matchlocks or sporting gay flags. The captives were in a terrible plight, stripped and naked, hands tied with awful tightness behind their backs, and feet scarcely able to walk, while they were driven along with the most barbarous savageness. Eight or ten had been beheaded on their way up the river, and two or three just as they were shoved on shore, for showing fight and their reluctance to move on. The heads of these unfortunates were slung on poles, and swung before the eyes of the remainder, as a token of what awaited them very shortly. When all had been landed, they were marched across the bridge to the Northern end, and on the way, as if to gratify the public gaze, the heads of four were deliberately chopped off, and their corpses flung into the river below."

Thirty of the captives were executed at the Northern gate, when the remaining 170 were carried around to the South gate. The work was short; one after the other the whole lot were beheaded, and in half an hour the judge, troops, and staring mob were dispersed. The executioners, of whom there were several, vied to see who could do the largest amount of work; one succeeding in cutting off 63 heads. . .

SATURDAY
APRIL 13, 1861
LOWELL DAILY CITIZEN & NEWS

THE WAR BEGUN!

Following the pacific intimations of yesterday, we have this morning most exciting intelligence from Charleston. The south ahs struck the first blow and was has begun. The first accounts have an exaggerated look, but there is no reason to question the fact of a determined engagement, and under circumstances which gave the attacking forces, for the time, the advantage.

The dispatches open with a telegraphic correspondence between the southern was department at Montgomery and Gen. Beauregard, which resulted in an order to the latter from L. P. Walker, secretary of war, that if Major Anderson would state the time at which he would evacuate, and agree not to use his guns against theirs unless theirs in the meantime should be employed against Sumter, he was thereby authorized to avoid the effusion of blood. But in case of refusal the fort was to be reduced. Major Anderson of course refused to evacuate, and the batteries on Sullivan's Island, Morris Island and at other points opened on Fort Sumter at 4 o'clock yesterday morning. What followed, so far as is yet known here, is to be learned from the several dispatches, which are given below:

Charleston, April 12--The ball has opened. War is inaugurated. The batteries . . . opened on Fort Sumter at 4 o'clock this morning. Fort Sumter has returned the fire, and a brisk cannonading has been kept up. No information has received from the seaboard as yet. The military are under arms, and the whole population is in the streets. Every available space facing the harbor is filled with anxious spectators.

Third Dispatch, Charleston, April 12--The firing has continued all day uninterruptedly. Two of Sumter's guns have been silenced, and it is reported that a breach has been made in the southeast wall. The answer to Gen. Beauregard's demand by Major Anderson was that he would surrender when his supplies were exhausted, if he was not reinforced. Not a casualty has happened to any of the forces of nineteen batteries; only seven had been opened on Fort Sumter, the remainder being held in reserve for the expected fleet. Two thousand men reached the city this morning and embarked for Morris Island and the neighborhood.

Fourth Dispatch, Charleston, April 12--The bombardment of Fort Sumter continues. The floating battery and Stevens' battery are operating freely, and Fort Sumter is returning the fire. It is reported that three war vessels are outside the bar.

Fifth Dispatch, Charleston, April 12--The firing has ceased for the night, to be resumed at daylight in the morning, unless an attempt is made to reinforce Fort Sumter, to repel which ample arrangements have been made. Only two men were wounded during the day. The Pawnee, Harriet Lane and another steamer are reported off the bar. Troops are arriving by every train.

DEFENCE OF WASHINGTON

The government is still carrying forward preparations to defend the capital against threatened attacks. The district militia, to the number of one thousand, are enrolled in the regular service. The military occupy the capital building at night, and picket guards are stationed at the long bridge communicating with Virginia, and in the city.

THE ISSUE

Let it be remembered that civil war has been begun for no other cause than a peaceful attempt to supply Major Anderson with provisions to keep his garrison from starving. That is the immediate issue. Whatever may be the result of the first struggle, the judgment of the great men of our country and of mankind cannot be mistaken. Nor can the slightest doubt be entertained that the government will be upheld in its purpose to vindicate its honor and the supremacy of the laws. The people will accord with the patriotic sentiment of Charles Francis Adams, that "the crisis through which the country is passing demands of all good citizens that, surrendering minor considerations and personal or party predilections, they should rally in one mass to strive to uphold the pillars of the federal government."

TELEGRAPHIC

Dispatches were sent forward from the confederate war department yesterday for additional troops. A Kentucky volunteer regiment was announced to be in instant readiness.

At Mobile guns were fired in honor of the attack on Sumter. There was great excitement and rejoicing.

In the Pennsylvania legislature last evening, a bill appropriating a million dollars to arm and equip the militia, was passed.

The Virginia commissioners were in conference with the president yesterday, but not officially.

On reception of the Charleston news at Baltimore, the general feeling was in favor of the government.

CONCERT NEXT WEEK

The complimentary testimonial to Mr. Currier next Friday night, promises to be one of the finest musical entertainments ever given in this city. Among the vocalists who will be present is Mrs. J. P. Kempton (formerly Miss Jenny Twichell) and Mrs. D. C. Hall. Hall's Brass Band will appear with a new set of copper instruments, with which they challenge competition.

CHANGE OF CLOTHING--A CAUTION

Don't be in haste to put off woolen garments in spring. Many a "bad cold" (whoever saw a good one), rheumatism, lumbago, and other aches and pains, are lurking in the first sun-shiny days, ready to pounce upon the incautious victims who have laid aside their defensive armor of flannel. All sudden changes in the system are attended with more or less of danger, but the body can accommodate itself to almost any condition, provided it be assumed gradually. The use of flannel guards against sudden change of temperature. In a warm day, when perspiration flows freely, if it be allowed to pass off freely, the quick evaporation carries with it much heat from the body, and a chill may be produced, followed by a derangement of some function, as "cold in the head" or unnatural discharge from the bowels. Flannel contains much air in its meshes, and is therefore a slow conductor of cold or heat.