SUNDAY
JANUARY 19, 1862
THE DAILY TRUE DELTA (LA)

SHIFTING THEORIES OF YANKEE BLOCKADE.

The theory of blockade troubles of the Yankees excessively.  They have now tried two forms, and the practice under both has baffled their calculations.  They are evidently hugely afraid that neither will stand the test of the principles of public law, whenever the nations whose interests are deeply wounded by the attempts shall have exhausted their patience and undertake to assert their rights.  These two forms--a proclamation blockade and a blockade by stone barricade--are in joint operation now.

The Federal fleet assert a blockade of all the coasts and ports of the Confederate States, and exclude where they can, and succeed very generally in excluding, all foreign vessels from trading with the South.  This is the right of blockade, to which foreign nations have indulgently given their sanction, by allowing it to stand as the act of a belligerent.  But they have held the Federal authorities to the necessary implications deducible from this assertion of belligerent rights, that the Confederates are also belligerents, and entitled to all the rights of public war.  Writhing under this bitter necessity, the Yankees have attempted to evade the force of the admission by holding foreign governments to the double and inconsistent obligation of disputing a blockade because made by the laws of public war, at the same time that it is denied in words that there is anything in the conflict the Federal Government is waging more entitled to the consideration of other governments than any insurrection which lawful authorities might undertake to suppress within their own territories.  England and France permitted even this, and continued to allow the blockade to be in force, as the act of the belligerent, in the face of the repeated public assertion by the blockading power, that there is no war--only the easy effort to suppress a "waning" rebellion.

But there have been symptoms that foreign indulgence to this crotchety way of dealing with great interests is coming to its close.  The dispatch of M. Thouvenel on the Trent affair contained some very significant passages, from which it is to be inferred that France will not continue to allow the Federal government any further benefit of the assumption that it can have the right of war without being held to the duties of war; that it may be a belligerent for the purpose of harassing and subjugating its enemies, but a non-belligerent for the purpose of escaping responsibility for the injuries which its gigantic warlike measures inflict upon the rest of the world.

There are further signs, too, that these powers, holding the Northern Government to the obligations of public war, may, under the provocations of its developed lawlessness, and faithlessness, and under the continual and aggravated pressure of its acts upon their interests, look with a closer scrutiny into the legal character of those acts, and try them by rules which will condemn them as offenses against the peace, the moral sense, and the law of the world.  There is immediate danger, therefore--and they feel it at Washington--that the first Lincoln theory of blockade, is to be exploded by foreign action, in both its facts; that it will be held to be rigidly a measure of public war, and, as such, found, or at least pronounced to be, wanting in traits of public law and respect to the interests of humanity and civilization, which are indispensable, to entitle it to be respected,

To strengthen the weakness of this theory, the Government of Lincoln added another form of blockade, which is meant to release itself from all the responsibilities to public law, by destroying the subjects upon which that law is meant to operate.  There can be no question of neutral commerce when commerce is obliterated.  There can be no dispute about the right to blockade a port, if the port itself can be made useless to mankind forever.  Moreover, the enormous expensiveness of maintaining fleets to seal up a whole coast against intercourse with foreign nations can be profitably spared if, by the exercise of the naked powers of destructiveness, the land may be made unapproachable, and left desolate.  The fiendish purpose is exultingly avowed by the North, that if it cannot repossess and control the doomed ports on which this vengeance is prepared to fall, they shall be lost to mankind forever.  They hold about where they cannot conquer they will utterly destroy--inflicting, to borrow the words of one of the eulogists of the devilish scheme directed against the harbors of Charleston and Savannah, "a silent blight, falling upon them as though out of the night--deadly, inevitable--and leaving those perfidious cities in a petrified death in life."

The atrocious experiment has begun with the harbor of Charleston.  The stone fleet deposited its barricades, but the winds and currents came, and bailed the hideous malignity which devised such an outrage upon the rights all mankind have in the bounty of God, who created diversities among nations, and laid the foundations of their common happiness in their mutual intercourse.  But the wickedness of the conception is not less horrible because it was impotent.  The

feebleness of the execution only added scorn to the indignation with which the avowed purpose was greeted abroad.  The English Minister kept within the bounds of official decorum, when he simply signified that governments would treat such attempts at evading the legitimate duties of maintaining a blockade, as an abandonment of the belligerent position.  The effect of this would be to revive at once all the rights of commerce between England and the Confederate States, which, under her practices and the accepted international law, as the United States have expounded it for themselves, would permit her to trade freely under her own flag, and everything but contraband of war, with ports of which the Confederate authorities have possession; this, too, without reference to the question of independence.

The hint has marvelously sharpened the wits of the Yankees, and taken some of the fiery edge off from their malevolent purpose of substituting stone barricades for armed ships in blockading the South.  It is now found out that Charleston could not be destroyed, and it is said that the attempt upon Savannah will not be made.  The stone blockade is therefore a blunder, a failure and a disgrace.

And now a third plan is proposed, which may be used as ancillary to, or a substitute for, the other two.

A bill has been introduced into the Federal Congress to seal up the ports of the South, by law of Congress, against foreign trade, as ports of the United States, into which no vessel from abroad has the right to enter, except in pursuance of some law.  It repeals all the laws and parts of laws by which any port in any of the "rebellious States" was made a port of entry, and prohibits the entrance or departure therefrom of any vessel, foreign or domestic, except the public vessels of the Government of the United States.  Any vessel attempting to enter or depart from such port is liable to be seized, and, with its hold cargo, condemned, and the proceeds devoted as in case of prize!  The mover of the measure urged it on the ground that the existing blockade is in danger of being set aside by other nations, as defective, unless the state of war be conceded, and ineffective if it be; if and that the United States have no other lawful way to keep out commerce than by holding the ports to be its own property still, and legislating foreigners out of them.

The project is an imbecile one, but the confessions which it makes are all minutes.  It quails  under an approaching peril.  It is an insane thought that a practical denial of blockade, by the substitution of a purely municipal injunction--a harmless battery of words---for the more costly armaments of guns afloat, would weigh for a moment against the desire and design of foreign nations to trade with the ports of the South, whenever the blockade is intermitted, or can in any form of construction, be taken to be abandoned as a belligerent act.

The third form of obstruction is even more puerile than the other two.  There are none of these which could stand a moment in law or in morals before a resolute purpose of the commercial powers of Europe to try them by the standards which regulate the action of governments which take charge of the great interests of humanity and civilization.

The question recurs--how long will this patience endure?  The answer is obvious to our understanding--not a day longer than that one on which it is made manifest than the huge convulsive effort which the Northern Giant, in the spasms of dissolution, is now making to crush the Confederate cause by some signal blow at one of the points to which his armies are pressing forward does not accomplish its object.  Possibly their patience may not last even so long.  Certain it is, that it will not survive one more Southern victory on a great field of battle, a victory which we look for, with high confidence, whenever the armies come together.

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Wooden-Soled Shoes.--These offsprings of necessity are thus highly commended by the Mobile Register and Advertiser:

We learn that the Georgia-made shoes with double maple soles are in very good demand.  Several planters have been testing their merits, and the result has in all cases proved favorable.  In our own immediate vicinity, or in what might properly be called "the Army of Mobile," they have been tried, and the report is so favorable that only yesterday and additional lot was ordered.  We have no hesitation in saying that they will prove an excellent marching shoe.  Some other article might suit to better the double-quick movement, but for an all-day lick they will prove less fatiguing than a more elastic shoe.  Besides, the foot is less liable to heat in them, no matter what kind of a sock is worn, or even should the soldier find himself without any.  One thing we must say--though that will not diminish their value among our boys--they'll never do to run away in; indeed, they are a Southern shoe, and not designed for that kind of service.

MONDAY
JANUARY 20, 1862
THE SPRINGFIELD DAILY REPUBLICAN (MA)

Insignificance of the British Army.--The power of Great Britain lies almost entirely in her navy, while her army is comparatively small and insignificant; in fact she is the weakest of all the great nations in military power. In the late war with Russia, when England was an ally of France, the latter furnished the greater part of the soldiers, and half of those which England did furnish were raw and inexperienced troops. At that time, too, England was so situated that she could employ a larger force than usual in a foreign war.  She had nothing to fear from France, her quondam foe, but then acting in conjuncture with her, and her Indian possessions were quiet, so that the British force there could be reduced to the smallest figure.  And yet three years after the war broke out, England and the 72,000 troops in the field, and could expect to have no more.  The reason for this inferiority of England in military strength is the large amount of men required to man her gigantic navy, and the large number of troops required constantly in her colonial possessions.  The navy demands 300,000 men and for its full force, and granting that an equal land force could be raised, by far the larger part could not be spared from home and colonial your duty.

We derive from these facts the gratifying assurance that in case of a war with England we have but little to fear from her army.  It would take years for her to concentrate a force of 75,000 men on this continent, part of which must be located in Canada and the rest detailed for duty on the coast.  Canada would afford but a poor field for the operation of European troops, with the short summers and the long cold winters, and the number of troops England could place there need excite no apprehension.  On the other hand, while the main force in conjunction with England powerful navy, might do us considerable damage along the coast, this force would not be large enough to penetrate into the interior, and could in reality effect nothing towards conquering this country.  The bravery of English soldiers is undisputed.  An English soldier is surpassed by none in the world, and would prove a formidable adversary.  But the Yankees have some reputation for fighting qualities also, and with the numbers we could bring into the field, and with the consciousness of having justice on our side, we should be a match ten times over to any force England could send against us.  It is a question also, whether England would not need all her soldiers at home in the event of war with the United States.  India and Ireland are in no way in a contented state, and they would doubtless take this opportunity to rise and try once more to throw off the yoke of the oppressor of their liberties.  It requires a large force to keep England's dependencies in subjection in time of peace, and in the event of a war, it would have to be so largely increased as to leave but a merely nominal force for defensive operations.  England doubtless knows her weakness as well as her strength, and if she is wise, she will not rush into an unprovoked war with the United States.

The Rebels Want a Flag.--The rebels are getting disgusted with their flag, the "stars and bars," which is merely an awkward burlesque of the beautiful stars and stripes.  The confederate generals in Virginia have got up a new flag, some of which have been seen about Centreville.  It is a number of stars in the form of a cross on a red ground.  It is intended to represent the constellation of the southern cross.  The Richmond Dispatch objects that the constellation is not seen in our hemisphere, but that only makes it a more fitting emblem of a political constellation that will never exist in this hemisphere, otherwise than in design.  The Dispatch proposes a flag, with a sun in the center, on a bar or a band of blue, on each side of which there is a stripe of white and the upper left hand and lower right corners are formed of a triangle of red.  The Richmond Examiner disposes of this by showing that the blue band or bar is a bar sinister.  This, in heraldry, signifies bastardy, and something not honestly or directly obtained.  Nothing could be more fitting.  A rebel flag without the bar sinister would be insignificant.  If the confederacy is not illegitimate it is nothing.  Some of the rebels propose the old French flag, the fleur de lis of the Bourbons.  This would be most appropriate as the symbol of a race of tyrants.  We should recommend to the confederates a combination of these various devices, or is something more simple and obvious is required, let the flag be a brown cotton sheeting, with several vertical black stripes, the whole to represent a cotton bale, with a wooly head couchant on the center, with handcuffs and a whip pendant.  That would tell the whole story of the republic built on cotton and slavery--and nothing else.

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The Rebellion and the Invalids.--The southern rebellion lays an unpleasant embargo on the social and sanitary visits of northerners to that milder section of the country during the present wintry season.  The deprivation is severely felt in many cases by invalids.  The West Indies are not an agreeable alternative because also of our national troubles and the active sympathy there with the rebels; though Nassau is receiving an unusual number of guests this season.  Many families are ameliorating their cold country homes by a temporary residence is in New York and Philadelphia--there being any great difference between the temperature even of the former city and our New England towns, while the latter is a half way point in the climactic scale between our North and South, and furnishes a temperature most agreeably softened from this section during all the winter months.  The hotels of these two cities are now experiencing the benefits of this condition of things in a larger company of visitors than at any time for many months. Mr. Stevens's Continental House at Philadelphia is conspicuous in that city for the comforts of a temporary home; in most respects it is regarded as the best hotel in all the country; and it is doing much to lift the city out of its provincial character which more than to any other of our cities so thoroughly attaches itself to Philadelphia, and to introduce it and its really charming attractions as a place of residence and visiting to the people of New England.  At New York, such houses as the Brevoort, New York Hotel and Fifth Avenue our quite full with private families boarding for the winter or parties of pleasure.

TUESDAY
JANUARY 21, 1862
THE PORTLAND DAILY ADVERTISER (ME)

Coast Defences.

Mr. Sweat, of the Senate, has reported a bill from his Committee on Frontier and Coast defences, authorizing a loan by the State to the United States Government for the purpose of such defences, and the Senate has ordered it to be printed. In nothing said respecting it, at the time it was submitted, and yet reported, have we learned the nature, or the extent of the proposed loan, which we trust is proportionate to the great necessities of the State--now the most important and yet most exposed territory of the Union to any foreign invasion that can be anticipated.  In Congress a fortification bill has passed the House of Representatives, containing an appropriation of $100,000 for Fort Knox on Penobscot River, and $100,000 for Hog Island Fort in our harbor, though $50,000 in each is to be expended in 1862.

Now if it to be a fact, as we believe it will turn out to be, that the most effective fortresses yet devised, are to be found in the recently developed Revolving Iron Fortress invented by Mr. Timby, and a model of which has been for some days past on exhibition in this city, to the complete and unqualified approval of every person who has seen it--and if the actual cost of constructing this Fortress must prove to be a vast saving of money to the Government and people, over any hitherto conceived, then we trust that our public authorities at Augusta, and in Washington, also, will not definitively appropriate vast sums of money for the specific construction of forts upon the old plan, until they shall have for thoroughly investigated and determined whether the Timby Fortress is not one of paramount advantages, both in efficiency and economy, and if found so apply the means raised, to its construction everywhere on the coast that can need it.  One thing is certain to be said of this Timby Fortress, which cannot be said of our old plans of forts--and it is, that both government and people--every body, we mean, will know when it is completed and when appropriations for its construction will cease.  It is a structure that can be finished.  All expenditures that have been made upon our yet unfinished forts, had better be abandoned for economy's sake, rather than have more money expended upon them, and the Timby Fortress be taken, if it be what every body declares it to be, comparatively the cheapest and most potent engine of defensive operations yet known in any part of the world.

We hope shortly to be able to acquaint our readers with the character of Mr. Sweat's reported bill.  The Committee is an able, well constituted body for the advisory of the broader views which the events of the time foreshadow as needful on the part of those entrusted with providing for our frontier and coast defenses.

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Matters in St. Louis.--The citizens of St. Louis have all been classified, and their names registered in four classes--those who are out and out for the Union, those who are for it with a reservation, those who are secessionists, those who keep still and to say nothing.  At each hotel is a deputy, who furnishes passes to correspondents.  Citizens must go directly to the marshal's office, where some of them fled it is a difficult matter to obtain a pass.

War Facts and Rumors.

Louisville, Ky., Jan. 20.--Gen. Thomas telegraphs to head quarters that Friday night Zollicoffer team up to his encampment and attacked him, at 6 o'clock Saturday morning near Webb's cross roads in the vicinity of Somerset.  At half past 8 o'clock Saturday P.M., Zollicoffer and Bailey Peyton had been killed and that the rebels were in full retreat to their entrenchments at Mill spring, with the federals in full pursuit.  No further particulars respecting losses on either side.

Philadelphia, Jan. 20.--John Johnson, a native of New Jersey, who was impressed at the New Orleans and escaped from Manassas ten days ago, has arrived here on his way home.  He estimates the rebel force at Manassas at 40,000, at Leesburg 80,000, and at Ocoquan 15,000.  He had not heard of the Port Royal victory until he got within the Federal lines.  The Federal fight at Drainesville had a depressing effect upon the rebel army.  Their loss is conceded to be 800 in killed, wounded and missing.  He says the Louisiana regiment to which he was attached, contains a large number of steamboat man, all anxious to escape.

St. Louis, Jan. 20.--A passage was made through the ice opposite this city yesterday, and the ferry boats are running.  Two more days of solid weather will probably break the gorge and clear the harbor of ice.

Cairo, Jan. 20.--A gentleman from New Orleans, who arrived here last night, reports that when he left it there, the citizens were daily expecting that Fort Pike, commanding the entrance to Lake Ponchartrain, would be a attack and captured by the Federals from Ship Island.  There were not over 5000 troops in the city, and not exceeding 2000 more could be raised in case of emergency.  There are no batteries on the river above or below the city.  The only defenses against attack from the Gulf are two forts, on the opposite side of the river towards the mouth.  He thinks the city could be easily captured by a small force.

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A Startling Statement.--The Chicago Tribune publishes the following paragraph editorially:

"We have before us three cartridges brought to us from Annapolis by a friend.  They are a portion of the ammunition for Enfield rifles served out to Burnside's forces for the great expedition.  To the eye they are like in appearance, and the slight difference in the weight could not instantly be detected.  But the difference is that one of the three contains not a particle of powder.  A prominent officer of the expedition told our informant that this was about the proportion throughout the entire lot of Enfield cartridges--one third of them carefully put up without power.  Now here is a case for investigation.  Was it fraud, or treachery, that seeks to palm off upon our brave troops, on the eve of an expedition, sham cartridges?  Let us have an explanation of this affair, Secretary Stanton."

WEDNESDAY
JANUARY 22, 1862
LOWELL DAILY CITIZEN & NEWS (MA)

THE GREAT BATTLE IN KENTUCKY.

Previous reports of our signal victory in Kentucky are fully confirmed.  We give some further details reported by telegraph yesterday, from Cincinnati:

The Commercial's Louisville dispatches have been received at headquarters, which announced that the battle took place on Sunday, not Saturday and that Gen. Thomas continued the pursuit until night.  Our forces followed the rebels, who ran before them in the wildest confusion, like a flock of frightened sheep, close upon them to their entrenchments on the north bank of the river.

Our troops had possession of their entrenchments early this morning.  After reaching the opposite side of the river, the rebels dispersed in every direction. Two hundred dead and wounded rebels were picked up on the field.

In front of these they laid all night, expecting to storm them in the morning; but that the aid of their boats and barges the enemy managed to get across the river before daylight, leaving behind all their artillery, a munition, horses, tents, eighty wagon loads of quarter-master's and medical stores--all of which fell into our hands.

Zollicoffer was found in a wagon mortally wounded.  Our loss is not known, but must have been considerable.  The Surgeon of the 10th Indiana regiment telegraphs that that regiment had 70 killed and wounded.

Gen. Thomas's division in braces some of the best regiments in this department.  So far as I can learn the 9th Ohio, 10th Indiana, 2d Minnesota, 18th regulars, 4th and 10th Kentucky were among the engaged.

Col.  Tho. Manson's Brigade reinforced Gen. Thomas during a Saturday night, making a forced march of 25 miles through heavy roads, and managed to arrive three hours before the fight, in which they took part in spite of their fatigue.

The tenor of all official dispatches shows that the affair resulted in the most brilliant victory of the war.  No prominent officers on our side were killed.

Gen. Schoeff was unable to cut off the retreat of the enemy, owing to the bluffy nature of the country, and the obstruction of the roads by felled trees.

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At least one thousand men and boys find employment in digging for clams at low tide, day or night, on the Mystic river flats, and other places about Boston. The clam-gatherers may be seen wading in the mud, when the thermometer is above or below zero, with buckets and spades in hand, to obtain the mollusks, which they can get without money or price. Some of the clam-diggers are organized on the mutual plan. They have a depot where all those who are connected with the “Clam Bank Society,” meet after they have obtained their buckets full from the flats, and heap the whole together. They then draw lots, daily, to see who of their number shall peddle them out to customers and others.

Who Are Our Soldiers?—The egotistic southerner, who believes himself so far above his countrymen of the north, and classes the soldiers of the Union as mudsills and the like, has yet to be undeceived, and to learn that the best blood, the wealthy as well as the poor, in fact the first business men of the country, have sacrificed the personal comforts of home and the society of most valued friends, and have taken their place in the lower ranks of the army. I could instance very many of these cases, but one will suffice to illustrate the patriotism that fills the regiments of the north. When it was proposed to raise the Twenty-Fifth Massachusetts Regiments, a gentleman from Worcester (who has been the fifteen or twenty years in an extensive business, covering hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly) took a lively interest in raising the first company.  There being considerable competition in the recruiting of business, it was found somewhat difficult to fill up his company, and this gentleman having considerable influence, resolved to enlist as a private, and thus offer an example to his acquaintances.  The result was that the company was raised in numbers from nineteen men to near one hundred and twenty in less than five days, and the extra men were transferred to another company.  This individual had an insurance of $10,000 on his life in a New York insurance company, and he immediately after enlisting, preceded two New York and paid $500 to the company to secure his policy, and he is to pay an equal sum each year he is in the service.  He is in General Burnside's division as a private, and draws $13 per month for his services, while his business in Worcester is wholly without his superintendence.  He left a wife and several small children at home, in whom he is deeply interested, and in leaving them he must have made a great sacrifice.--Correspondent in the Boston Journal.

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A immense number of hogs from the West have recently been brought to Boston, via the Western and Worcester railroads. The large new depot of the latter road, some 400 feet in length, is nearly full of the carcasses, and is indeed a sight to behold. Pork must be cheap in New England this winter.

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Another Confederate fast day has been appointed. Where bacon is 50 or 60 cents a pound and no money to be had, there seems a danger that soon every day will be a fast day.

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The European allies in invading Mexico appear to have united against them very nearly the whole population. In this they are having precisely the same experience which the United States had fifteen years ago. They will find the united Mexican population no insignificant enemy to contend with.

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There are now eleven vessels of war at the Charlestown navy yard finishing, repairing, undergoing alterations, or awaiting stores or orders, and three on the stocks. Among these are the ship Vermont, the frigate Macedonian, and the sloop-of-war San Jacinto. The Ino yet lays in the stream. The sloop-of-war that is building will be one of the most powerful and beautiful of her class in the navy. Her model is exquisite.

THURSDAY
JANUARY 23, 1862
THE VERMONT PHOENIX

SUFFICIENTLY HOAXED.

Those of our readers who are sufficiently interested in the details of the war to take a daily paper, have doubtless, like ourselves, become somewhat surfeited with frequently recurring “important news” that something was about to happen. For months a “grand advance” has been almost daily predicted, and for weeks the “grand concentric movement” that is to encircle and crush out, as with the folds of the anaconda, this great rebellion, has been foreshadowed in nearly every telegraphic dispatch. First, it was the Port Royal expedition that was to set the ball in motion; that failing in any very immediate practical results, Gen. Butler would initiate the commencement of offensive operations; when that apparently culminated in the occupation of a defenseless island and the birth of Gen. Phelps’ Proclamation, all eyes were directed to look first to the Great Expedition of innumerable gun-boats and mortar craft that was preparing to run the gauntlet of hostile forts on both banks of the Mississippi, and to open an unobstructed path to New Orleans, and second to Gen. Burnside’s Expedition, which would penetrate rebeldom in the rear and reach its vitals through scarcely defensible channels.

Well, we have looked long and patiently, and as yet in vain. Six months ago this blessed day (at the time of this writing,) was fought the unfortunate Battle of Bull Run. Since then what has been done? We have strengthened our army, increased its discipline and effectiveness, occupied three or four places along the coast, two only of which were defended and those with no great skill, got beaten back at Ball’s Bluff, and drubbed the enemy at Drainesville. Ah! just this moment the telegraph brings us word that portions of the contending armies have met at Somerset, Kentucky, and that after a hard day’s fighting our forces succeeded in putting the rebels to flight and in killing a brace of their generals.

We have been slow to complain. Even now we do not complain of our army or its officers. We have no doubt but that they have as loyal men done what they believed to be their duty in the premises. But who that had predicted six months since that no considerable battle would be fought from that day to this, would have been believed? What we do complain of is this: rumors are daily sent out over the telegraph assuring us of an immediate advance, of a “grand concentric movement,” that all things and every body are now ready, and that effective blows will be immediately struck in all quarters of rebeldom that shall crush out the spirit and life of the rebellion, when nothing of the sort whatever is about to happen or is even intended. The people will bear with a number of such disappointments before uttering their loud complaints, because they have some appreciation of the difficulties in the way; but it is not wise to put them off too long, else they will demand that those in power shall confess their incompetency by resigning the posts whose duties they are not able to perform, and give place to abler and better men.

It may be that we are “taken in” this time, but it does appear as if there was a determination on the part of our civil and military authorities that something effective shall be speedily done to deracinate this most foul rebellion. There are indications that the powers that be have awakened to a realizing sense of the importance of raising and equipping armies for some nobler purpose than those of putting money into the pockets of favorites, hatching out broods of full fledged officers seemingly for no other object than to show the world how little of the raw material goes to the making of a whole tribe of generals. It is seriously hoped that all signs will not now fail; but that the tidings by mail shall confirm the predictions by telegraph. If our government is to be maintained, if the business of the country is not to be irretrievably ruined, if foreign powers are to be kept at wholesome distance, if the rebellion is ever to be crushed, now is the time to commence the first and most important lessons. It is of no earthly use to wrangle about what we will do with Slavery and the Negroes. Those things can take care of themselves for the present, or at least until we have obtained jurisdiction over these matters. If we do not succeed in reducing the rebels to submission we shall have no occasion to interfere with their domestic institutions, or if thus we do meddle our interference will be of no service to anybody; if we are successful in the great end for which our armies have been raised and treasure lavishly expended there will then be time enough to determine these minor questions of state policy.

What the country now demands is hard and effective blows that shall paralyze the rebels and pave the way for the speedy restoration of the just sway of the national government. This and nothing short of it will satisfy the just demands of the people.

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Readings from Shakespeare.—An opportunity to do a charitable deed in a most agreeable way, is offered to the public by the Ladies of the Soldiers’ Aid Society. Hon. Hampden Cutts of this village has kindly consented to give an entertainment, to consist of selections from Shakespeare (Henry IV, First Part,) and although we can only judge from the favor with which this gentleman’s readings have been received elsewhere, we feel assured that an agreeable evening is in store for all those who shall be present upon this occasion. Mr. Francis of the Wesselhoeft Water Cure throws open his saloons for the use of Mr. Cutts, and thus the proceeds of the entertainment are secured for the purchase of such articles as are necessary for the further benevolent operations of our ladies, in behalf of the sick and wounded soldiers. The readings will occur this (Thursday) evening and an admission fee of fifteen cents will be charged at the door.

FRIDAY
JANUARY 24, 1862
THE BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER

The Mississippi Expedition.

It is now apparent that all the recent talk about moving down the Mississippi with 75,000 men was intended to mystify the enemy, while a thorough reconnoisance was made towards Columbus, and possibly while arrangements were in progress for giving some support to Buell. A Cairo correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, under date of Jan. 17 now says—

“I take it for granted that the movement down the Mississippi—if it is really intended that there shall be such a movement—will not begin till the greater part of the gunboat fleet is ready, and till we shall have a cooperating land force at least equal to that now concentrated at Columbus.

“As to the fleet. A high naval officer made the significant remark, the other night, that they could go into an engagement with the most of the vessels, by the last of this week, but they would not be really ready for at least two weeks more. ‘And,’ he added, ‘we shall probably be ready then, before the army is.’ Few of the boats have all the carpenter’s work done yet. Their guns are aboard and mounted, but the ammunition is not yet all on.

“The flag-ship Benton, the largest and most relied-on of the whole fleet, fails to perform satisfactorily, and three weeks may be spent in certain changes that are talked of. Nothing whatever has been done with the mortar floats, and guns for them are still lying at the foundries in Pittsburg. Clearly the fleet isn’t ‘ready’ yet. And besides, tehse gunboats are looked upon by the naval authorities as only an experiment.

“There will be a good many trial trips, like that of the Benton the other day, before some of them will be taken under the powerful batteries at Columbus. One thing more: crews are essential for a cruise, even on the Mississippi. There are hardly men enough enlisted yet for half the gunboats, and recruits come in slowly. It may be that the deficiency is to be supplied from the seaboard, but the supply has not yet become apparent.

“As to the land force, we have here now only troops enough to hold Cairo, and the corresponding points opposite on the Kentucky and Missouri shores, Fort Holt and Bird’s point.”

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Damming up the Mississippi.—The Richmond Whig, frantic with despair, says:

“The channel of the Mississippi must be obstructed. Flatboats, steamboats, logs, frame houses, anything which will answer the purpose, must be anchored of weighted down, so that neither Yankee smartness nor the mighty current of the river can remove them. This accomplished, their mighty Mississippi scheme is a ‘bubble.’”

If the Mississippi scheme is not a “bubble” before that happens, we may feel very safe. When modern engineering achieves such a triumph as to plant in that stream any impediment besides its own snags, sufficient to prevent boats from descending, “may we be there to see it”—only we should prefer not to be on the bank near the spot where the channel is blocked.

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Wait Before Condemning.—It is reported that Secretary Stanton's intimation that the nominations of officers now in the field are to be suspended to the 1st of March, "to enabled them to win their spurs before wearing them," meets with general approbation.  It is highly probable that before that time the senate will learn to take a rather more just few of some excellent officers, then it now seems disposed to take.  Gallantry and conduct in the field may efface some prejudices, to which misrepresentation and narrow views of military duty have given rise.

Rebel Discontents before Defeat
From the Memphis Argus, Jan. 2

Price is in full retreat southward. Price will probably continue in full retreat, for there are several--indeed no less than three--federal armies, each as large, better armed and better equipped, converging upon him. His past victories have been rendered valueless. Federal forces have been massed in Kentucky too great for a man of Sydney Johnson’s caliber to venture to attack, and the paralyzing of Price through the withdrawal of McCulloch has rendered the overrunning of Missouri, to the Arkansas frontier, an easy task to the federals. We’re forced back out of Missouri—checkmated in Kentucky. Chase has obtained his money in Wall street. The blockade is unbreakable by us as yet. In one word we’re hemmed in. We’ve allowed the moment of victory to pass. We were so anxious watching the operations of England, that we stand aghast on turning our eyes homeward again to find ourselves ten times worse off than we were ere the commencement of Price’s last forward march, and that accursedly used sensationsim, the arrest of Messrs. Mason and Slidell. Day follows day, and in lieu of being weakened, we find the federal armies, at all points, being strengthened; almost every article of manufacturing and domestic necessity quadrupled in price, and our money will soon be exceeding scarce for lack of paper and pasteboard wherewith to make it. We pay fifteen cents apiece for sperm candles, and we are told we ought to be glad to get them at that. Our twelve months soldiers’ time will soon be up; and we cannot help asking, as they do themselves, what have they been permitted or led to do? Indirectly every mouthful we eat is taxed, or babies wear taxed caps and shoes, our boys write on taxed paper, our girls wear taxed calicoes, our men do a taxed business, and hopelessly ride in a taxed hearse to a taxed grave, and we, forsooth, are hurting “the cause” if we dare to turn from Messrs. Mason and Slidell to look at the country we were born and bred in, and, having looked, we are hurting the cause if we dare tell what we see.

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The Sumter at Cadiz.--The news of the arrival at Cadiz of this notorious marauder, first announced on the authority of a telegraphic dispatch from Mr. Adams, Minister at the Court of St. James, is fully confirmed by the steamer if City of New York, which passed Cape Race yesterday.  The Sumter arrived with forty-five Federal prisoners, taken from three merchant vessels which she had burned--and was permitted to enter the port against the protest of the United States Consul, on the condition that the prisoners should be placed under the protection of Spain.

The vessels reported burned by the Sumter, were probably captured in the vicinity of the West India Islands, and are as follows: Ship Vigilant, 652 tons, rating A1½, and built in the fall of 1859, in Bath, where she was owned by Messrs. E. & A. Sewall; whaling barque Eben Dodge, 221 tons, owned in New Bedford, R. F. Howland, agent; and schooner Arcade, probably belonging to Searsport, Me. The ship Vigilant sailed from New York about Nov. 20 for Sombrero, a guano island in the Caribbean Sea, and was in ballast. It is understood that she was insured, but without the war risk, which will make her a total loss to her owners. The barque Eben Dodge sailed from New Bedford Nov. 25, on a whaling cruise in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but at last accounts had taken no oil. The schooner Arcade was bound from Bangor for St. Croix, and probably had a cargo of lumber.

SATURDAY
JANUARY 25, 1862
THE HARTFORD DAILY COURANT (CT)

Relief of Prisoners.

Washington, Jan. 24.—The following has been issued by the War Department: “The Department recognizes as the first of its duties to take measures for the relief of the brave men who, having imperiled their lives in the service of the government, are now prisoners and captives. It is therefore ordered that two commissioners be appointed to visit the city of Richmond and wherever else prisoners belonging to the army of the U.S. may be held, and there take such measures as may be needful to provide for the wants and contribute to the comfort of such prisoners at the expense of the United States, to such extent as may be permitted by the authorities under whom such prisoners are held.

Edwin M. Stanton, Sec. of War

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The Rebels Don’t Believe the Truth.—The Norfolk Day Book publishes the federal account of the defeat of Zollicoffer, and says it don’t believe a word of it, and tells its readers that it is a Wall street lie, got up to raise their spirits after the defeat by Jeff. Thompson at Ironton.

The Richmond Dispatch has the following in regard to the federal accounts of the fight at Somerset, Ky.: “We publish a batch of federal dispatches, and do not believe that there is a word of truth in them. The fact is, as the reader will perceive on reading the money article of the New York Evening Post, that stocks were going down at such a rapid rate, owing to the failure of the Burnside expedition, and the licking the federals recently got at the hands of Jeff. Thompson, that it was necessary to steam up in some way or other to keep down the rebellion at home, and so they resorted to these dispatches, their regular plan of operating on the stock market and of keeping their spirits up. We suspect that Gen. Zollicoffer has given them a licking, as he commenced the attack according to their own accounts, as contained in one of their dispatches, and it is not likely that so prudent a commander as Zollicoffer would have opened the ball on them and then suffered them to defeat him so easily. The whole yarn is fishy, and smells strongly of Wall street stock operations.”

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A Serious Domestic Difficulty.—On Monday, an affair of crime occurred at the corner of Thirteenth and F streets, in Washington, which occasioned considerable excitement The wife of a Massachusetts officer, boarding in the neighborhood, had discovered an amatory correspondence between her husband and a married lady residing at the scene of denouement, and watched him entering the house, into which she followed, but was ejected by her husband and the lady of the house. In her rage she assailed the house, completely smashing the windows, with bricks and paving stones, and finally used a ladder, which she found convenient as a battering ram to beat in the door. Upon being remonstrated with by the bystanders, she exclaimed, “I am a Massachusetts woman, and I will not submit to have my husband taken from me by a Louisiana prostitute.” She was arrested, but immediately released, as no one appeared to make any charge against her. During the transaction, the husband of the lady occupant of the premises came home, but could not gain admission to his house.

Port Royal Matters.—The second stone fleet, consisting of fourteen vessels, left Port Royal on the morning of the 20^th inst., for their destination off Charleston. They are to be sunk in the entrance to Maffit’s Channel, the passage through which the steamer Isabel recently went into Charleston, after eluding the vigilance of the steam frigate Mohican, which was then blockading off that point. Mr. Geo. H. Bradbury, of the Navy, who sank the first fleet successfully, has the exclusive direction of this squadron, and when he shall have got all the vessels into position, it is said there will be no more complaints of an “ineffectual blockade,” at least off Charleston. Everything indicates stirring matters soon, and a chance, with apparent certainty of success, for Gen. Sherman’s command [to be relieved] of the stigma of inaction which has been cast upon it.

A correspondent writes that Yankee energy and ingenuity among the soldiers are at work to make Hilton Head a model of a northern growing prosperous city on southern soil. We have a post office established here, and I understand that the postmaster, Mr. Joseph Sears, is on the point of establishing a newspaper here, to be called the New South.

Many of the officers have had their wives or families brought here, or have sent home for them, and women and children, and people in civilian’s dress, are numerous about the town. It is looking here more like a city and less like a camp. It is certain that the chivalry of this hot-headed State do not take our occupation of this place and the possibility of our advance so coolly as we do. It is plain that the chivalry is very much frightened, and would prefer that the Yankees had not accepted the challenge to come down and meet them on their own soil. It is not altogether certain that the federal flag may not float proudly over Charleston a  month or two hence as ever it did of old. Yankee vessels whiten the waters hereabout, and merchant vessels from the North are quite frequent here.

On Tybee Island our troops are at work, ready to defend themselves or attack the enemy. The rebels in Fort Pulaski occasionally amuse themselves by firing at our troops, and have, after weeks of exertion, killed a private in the Forty sixth New York. They have a rifled gun of heavy caliber, possibly one of the Armstrong guns which they received by the Fingal, with which they fire very accurately, and which would be likely to do very disagreeable execution if we should get in its range. They have also several other rifled guns of English make.

The enemy is evidently continually strengthening his forces and defenses along the coast. There are about eight hundred confederate troops on Cole’s Island, having a number of batteries with heavy guns stationed at different places. The principle channel to Charleston, Stono Inlet, is well guarded by our naval force, and any rebel steamers that happen along that way meet with warm reception. The troops here are in the best of spirits.

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The Rebel Zollicoffer.—Zollicoffer was shot through the heart, at the head of his staff, by Col. Frye of the 4^th Kentucky. It appears that he lost his way in the bushes and suddenly emerged before Frye, who was accompanied by some staff officers. The two parties mistook each other for friends, and approached each other within a few yards, when, finding their mistake, both parties prepared for a hand to hand fight. One of Zollicoffer’s aides shot at Col. Frye, but only brought his horse down. The Colonel at once drew his six-shooter and brought Zollicoffer from his saddle at the first fire. The rebel staff deserted their chief’s body, which was taken to Somerset the day after the battle.