SUNDAY
AUGUST 31, 1862
THE NASHVILLE DAILY UNION (TN)

Rebels in Full Retreat from Manassas.

Headquarters, Battle-field, Groveton.
Near Gainesville, Aug. 30.

Maj. Gen. Halleck: We fought a terrific battle here yesterday with the combined forces of the enemy, which lasted with continuous fury from daylight until after dark, by which time the enemy was driven from the field, which we now occupy.

Our troops are too much exhausted to push matters, but I shall do so in the course of the morning, as soon as Fitz-John Porter’s corps comes up from Manassas.

The enemy is still in our front, but badly used up. We have lost not less than eight thousand men killed and wounded, an from appearance of the field the enemy has lost two to our one.¹

We acted strictly on the offensive, and every assault was made by ourselves. Our troops behaved splendidly. The battle was fought on the identical battle-field of Bull Run, which greatly increased the enthusiasm of our men.

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The Government having ordered all newspaper correspondents to leave the Virginia army, the reports sent us by telegraph are very unreliable, being made up of rumors fifty miles from the scene of action. The New York Tribune says:

The recent expulsion of newspaper correspondents from the Army of Virginia, and the order of the Government forbidding the transmission of intelligence from that quarter over the telegraph, has rendered the collection of trustworthy news extremely difficult and almost futile.

We put but little faith in the first dispatches we received in reference to the fighting and skirmishing in Virginia.

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St. Paul, Min., Aug. 26.—Ten white men were killed and 51 wounded at New Ulm during the fight on Saturday. The Indians fought bravely and recklessly. Their loss was considerable. On Sunday our small force under Major Flanders, feeling they could not stand another attack, withdrew to Mankato, leaving the town to the mercy of the Indians. It is reported that between 500 and 1000 Indians were in the fight. Colonel Sibley’s command probably reached Fort Ridgely yesterday.

The Adjutant General of Minnesota has issued orders to commanding officers to seize all horses and means of transportation necessary, giving receipts to the owners. The massacre does not seem confined to one locality, but is spread over a vast amount of territory.

It is reported that of forty-five families, all but two persons were killed at Lake Shetika, sixty miles south of New Ulm, but these reports are undoubtedly exaggerated. Many persons having fled or secreted themselves are probably supposed to be killed.

Chicago, August 28.—John Ross, Chief of the Cherokee Nation, and a retinue of fifty persons, passed here last night, en route for Washington, where he goes to lay his grievances before the President, and to urge the sending of a body of troops to clear the Territory of hostile tribes and rebels.

A dispatch from Des Moines, Iowa, to-day, says an arrival from Fort Dodge brings reports of the destruction of Springfield, on the Minnesota State line, by the Indians.

Connett and Dickinson’s companies are reported in danger. The settlers are fleeing south, to Fort Dodge, and other places, for safety. Persons from Fort Dodge are now here to procure arms and ammunition.

An Infernal Rebel Bullet.—We were shown, by Wm. T. Marks, a gentleman just from the army of the Potomac, a bullet invented by the rebels. It is a conical ball, screwed on to a chamber, at the bottom of which a percussion cap is fixed, surrounded with powder. A slender bolt or needle runs through the solid ball. This needle has a flat head on the outside of the bullet, and the needle works loose, so that when it strikes any hard substance, like the bone, it is driven against the cap and explodes it.—Philadelphia Inquirer.²

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The First Bread Riot.—Mr. Bacon, the manufacturer of ærated bread, recently celebrated his birthday in Boston by throwing out the national flag at his factory, and giving away bread to the company assembled. We have come so far towards the bread riots promised us last year by the secession leaders.

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Gen. Canrobert, one of Napoleon’s heroic officers, a sturdy soldier who believed in fighting, and not running, exclaimed, at Waterloo, "The Old Guard never surrenders!"

Some of our parlor officers, who draw their pay with astonishing promptness, when they are sent out to protect our railroads, modify Canrobert’s sentiment by saying, "The Bridge Guard ever surrenders!"

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Negro Merchants.—Boats that have been engaged in coasting trips down the river give strange accounts of the state of things between this place and Helena, especially about the mouth of the Arkansas. Negroes, it is stated, are selling the mules on the deserted plantations, in some instances as low as $5 a head. They are all represented to be bringing in cotton that has been hid away in the woods and selling it for fifteen cents a pound.

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Noble Iowa Women.—The Des Moines Register says that enlistments have almost depopulated Taylor Township, in Polk County. Nearly all the voters have gone to the war. It says:

"A few days since a number of the citizens of Taylor Township were anxious to go to the war, but were troubled because no one would be left to take care of their crops. The ladies held a meeting, and it was resolved that the men should have full permission to go to the war, and that the crops should be cared for by the patriotic women of the township. The men enlisted straightaway, believing that these noble-hearted women, who were making such sacrifices in behalf of the Government, should have sons and husbands and brothers worthy of such women."

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We learn that several drinking-shops have been closed for selling liquor to soldiers. If they have not, they ought to be. The drunkenness to be seen every day upon our streets is highly detrimental to the public welfare, and the good order of the army, and if tolerated will produce intolerable evils. Stop it at once.

MONDAY
SEPTEMBER 1, 1862
THE MACON DAILY TELEGRAPH (GA)

Affairs on the Peninsula.

Information from the Peninsula is up to Saturday last. The Yankee advance pickets were six miles from Williamsburg. During the retreat about 20,000 passed over the route by Diaskon bridge, and stripped the whole country through which they passed of everything like provisions for man and beats. Their wagons were driven into the fields, the corn pulled and loaded up, and then they would drive on. What they could not take they destroyed. At Eltham they fired a barn containing 500 bushels of wheat, after first sprinkling the floor with sulphur, to render it more combustible. They burned Mrs. Caroline Christian’s house, at the Forge, in New Kent, and Wm. A. Blayton’s house, near Diaskon bridge, was also destroyed. Several houses in the vicinity were torn down, and the timber used to rebuild the bridge which had been torn up by our troops in their retreat from Yorktown. Among those who left with the Yankees were M. Q. Gilman, of the 3d Virginia cavalry, and John Jennings, of the 53d Virginia infantry. At every step of the march the Yankees were fearful of and expected an attack from our troops. There are about 800 or 1,000 Yankee troops in Williamsburg.

Deserters have informed our troops where many secreted arms were. About 125 Enfield rifles arrived at York River depot yesterday, which were discovered at White House by their information. The same parties offered to guide our men to where 1,500 pistols had been hidden. The county of New Kent is literally laid waste. Its citizens have lost everything. One of them, Mr. O. H. Taylor, a scout in our army, lost $450 worth of provender by one squad of three Yankees, who loaded their wagons and went on. The citizens of that county and the country through which the enemy passed, except on the river banks, are really suffering for food, and anxiously expect our government to take some steps for their relief. One gentleman, Mr. Beverley Anderson, had offered to sell his corn, which he saved, at $4 a barrel to those in need, and it is hoped that those as fortunate as he may be as liberal.

Many of the Yankee troops visiting the farm houses on the retreat expressed the wish that the “d----d war was over and they were at home.”--Richmond Dispatch, 27th.

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Salt Making.

Newport, Fla., 25th Aug. 1862.

Editor Telegraph: Dear Sir—I have been engaged for several months manufacturing salt on this coast, and believe a supply may be obtained in this way, but from the process generally adopted, I fear the country will be no better off with it than without it.

The common process is to boil the sea-water, or from wells sunk in the sand on the beach, which is usually much stronger, until it is ready to grain, then take off and settle in barrels, or whatever will hold it, and then draw off into other kettles and put to boiling, when the salt is formed very rapidly; and just here, from experience, I find the trouble commences. Brine produced from salt water is composed of, besides salt, Glauber and Epsom salts, Lime, Soda, Magnesia, and perhaps a half-dozen other impurities in a liquid state, a great portion of which form with and stick to the salt, when the brine is boiled during the process of granation.

Salt thus made is very fine—utterly impossible to be dried effectually—bitter, and will usually drip constantly in damp weather. In proof of its impurity, let any one who has made or bought any of this bitter salt wash a small quantity until even half of it has dissolved, and it will be found to be so bitter as before.

Some scientific Chemists say that the impurities thus extracted with the salt will not only prevent this salt from saving pork properly, but will generate decomposition very rapidly in such articles as fresh butter, fish, &c. Your correspondent tested some of it on a piece of fresh beef, which turned green during the night.

From close application to the subject, and what experience I have, I think the proper mode to adopt by those whose arrangements are rude and simple, is to boil the water until it is brine or granulation commences, take off a settle, and then draw off into other kettles so as to keep the brine hot, but not enough so to boil it, when the salt will form beautifully on the surface and sink incessantly to the bottom of the kettle, and when it ceases to thus form and settle, the manufacturer may know he has obtained all the pure salt the brine contained, no matter if half or more of it is left in his kettles. When the salt thus ceases to form, the impurities commence forming, and as rapidly as the salt, but in the midst of the brine and not on the surface as the salt, and when dipped up, present a different appearance, being disposed to slip out of the vessel dipping it if turned sideways, and the brine runs from it very slowly, and not until then will you discover the intensely bitter taste in the grains. This process, I admit, is much slower, as I find a 100 gallon sugar kettle of the usual form will make about 2½ to 3 bushels in 24 hours, when the same kettle would make 5 or 6 bushels mixed up with the impurities, if the brine is kept boiling.

What remains of the brine after the salt is properly extracted, will not evaporate, but if boiled will burn, and commences burning if boiled when the salt commences forming. In proof of this the smoke arising from the kettle has a strong bitter smell, and there is constantly rising to the surface a thick yellow skim, whereas by the process there is no smoke, bitter smell or skim.

I advise those who have bought or may be compelled to purchase this fine, bitter, clammy, dripping and frequently yellow salt, to remake it before using, which may be done in pots or kettles, by the process I have described, and when the grains cease forming on the surface, they may know they have obtained all the pure salt they bought, notwithstanding there may not be more than half as many bushels, and a great portion of the brine left, which will contain the impurities in liquid form.

If it were not for intruding too far on your columns I would be pleased to give further practical knowledge I have of salt making, but for the present will close by saying that I would be pleased if the above practical information could be known to every individual in our young and struggling Confederacy, and candidly think the press of the country could not render a greater service to our suffering and bleeding South than by publishing this article.

I remain yours, &c.,

Thos. J. Boynton.

TUESDAY
SEPTEMBER 2, 1862
PORTLAND DAILY ADVERTISER (ME)

The New York Tribune Office Closed.

Philadelphia, Sept. 1.—The Tribune’s report accusing Gen. McClellan of treachery produced great excitement in this city, on being posted on bulletin boards, and in some cases altercations occurred between excited friends and opponents of Gen. McClellan. About noon it was torn from the boards, on information being received that the government had ordered the Tribune office to be closed in consequence of the publication of this horrible rumor.

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From Fortress Monroe—Destruction of City point.

Fortress Monroe, Aug. 30.—City Point has been entirely demolished by the Federal gunboats.

For some time past, the rebels have been firing into the transports passing up and down James River. Comm. Wilkes sent the rebels word that if it was not discontinued, he would destroy their rendezvous—City Point.

On Thursday last, the rebels brought down to City Point 8 cannon and about 200 riflemen, and opened fire upon the federal flotilla which at that time was abreast of the place, whereupon our gunboats opened fire upon them and demolished every building in the place and dispersed the rebel forces.

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The Last Refinement of Barbarity.—We have it—the last refinement of barbarous warfare. It is thus described by that fantastic rebel, Lieut. Maury, in his letter to the French Admiral Carbonne:

“I pass by Butler’s infamous proclamation at New Orleans, and the arming [of] our slaves against our wives and children, to tell you of a Yankee refinement upon savage barbarity which we have to contend with. To shoot with poisoned arrows is universally admitted to be both savage and barbarous, but our men have been shot with explosive bullets. Imagine a Minié bullet to be cut in two transversely, and a wire to be inserted axially through the front half or cone; the other part is then hollowed out into a cup, filled with fulminate or some other explosive preparation, and then securely fitted into the front part, in such a manner that when the ball strikes, the wire is driven back, and so by percussion explodes the ball inside the wounded man. Is it not, think you, equal to the poisoned arrow? There can be no mistake about it, for I have seen the missile itself, and would send you one if I could find a safe conveyance for the dangerous thing. The true aim of savage warfare is to kill and murder—of civilized to wound and disable. Which is it that the Yankees are waging?"³

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Wooden Guns Left by McClellan’s Army.—A letter from Gen. McClellan’s army says:

“On our march we were afforded no little amusement in the way of seeing dummies placed along the entire line of our breastworks, an officer of the day mounted on a worn out Government horse, logs with charred ends mounted and covering the walls of the works, resembling columbiads, stove pipes resembling the rifled cannon, and around each stood the gunners, with their implements in hand, ready to salute an approaching army with the cannon’s wild roar, and so perfectly executed that it was well calculated to deceive and cause an army to come to a stand still with the anticipation of work ere a further advance might be made."⁴

Pen & Scissors.

More iron-clads have been commenced. The keels of two were laid near Pittsburgh, Pa., on Saturday. These are intended for river service chiefly. The government is also negotiating for the purchase of two Mississippi steamboats with the view of making mailed ships of them. The Choctaw and Ft. Henry, (iron-clads) now pretty well advanced at St. Louis, were not originally intended for government duty, but are expected to make very serviceable craft nevertheless.

In his recent speech at Washington, Orestes A. Brownson advocated emancipation, not as an abolitionist, but as a military measure. He declared himself anti-slavery, indeed, but at the same time, anti-Negro; that is, he went for the President’s scheme of colonization, of taking the Negro out of the country.

The Passaic, one of the nine Monitors ordered from Ericsson by the government, was launched Saturday last. The iron-clad steam gunboat, Naugatuck, will leave New York immediately under sealed orders.

The rebels do not succeed very well in erecting batteries upon the James river. Our gunboats disturb their operations.

At a recent war meeting in St. Louis, Gov. Gamble expressed himself in favor of less etiquette and more hanging.

We are glad to hear that the new iron-clad frigate, New Ironsides, thus far proves a success. The great desideratum now is to obtain heavy iron-clad ships, manageable at sea and not drawing too much water. The New Ironsides is said to have behaved well in a rough sea, and to have made 6½ to 9 miles an hour. She draws only 15 feet of water, and can go into Charleston, Savannah or New Orleans, and up James river as far as Harrison’s Landing.

The new sea-going Monitor is to be named the Puritan. One of the new vessels building by the Navy Department will probably be named the Shamrock.

The Irish soldiers in the United States army at Baton Rouge have been highly complimented for their bravery by Gen. Butler in one of his late proclamations; and it is said that of the fifteen or sixteen thousand Union men in New Orleans—known to be such by their oath of allegiance—nearly one-half drew their first breath in Green Erin.

The New Orleans Delta records an immense Union meeting in the Crescent City, at which resolutions pledging Louisiana to the Union were passed. The working men turned out in great strength, and the gathering was highly patriotic and enthusiastic.

Major Cassidy, of Albany, lately returned from imprisonment at Salisbury, says the rude behavior of Southern women towards Northern soldiers was abundantly exemplified in his observation. Anything like courtesy, or even civility, was unknown. A sick soldier, borne on a litter, politely solicited a cup of water from a woman wearing the outward appearance of a lady. He was refused with the remark that she “would sooner give him arsenic.”

There has not been any great arrival of cotton at this point, owing to the interruption given to the business by the order forbidding its purchase with specie. The reversal of that order will doubtless cause the trade to revive. The Cairo Gazette of Wednesday states that they have large arrivals there by way of Columbus, more than the daily packets can carry forward. On Monday about two thousand bales were lying on the wharf there, and more rapidly coming in. On Tuesday the steamer Pringle brought in five hundred bales and returned for more. The efforts of the guerrillas to destroy cotton leads to its being shipped to market at every opportunity.—Memphis Bulletin, Aug. 23d.

WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 3, 1862
THE HARTFORD DAILY COURANT (CT)

The Battles Friday and Saturday.
Terrific Contest.
A Reverse, A Retreat, and a Victory.

The Philadelphia Press has been furnished with many interesting facts from its Washington correspondents of the late battles in Virginia. We give some of them.

The Battle of Friday.

On Friday, after a tedious night advance, McDowell, Sigel, and Reno came upon Jackson, six miles west of Centreville, as he was retreating to Gainesville, and a severe pitched battle took place, which lasted all day, and the field was stoutly contested. This was a drawn battle, but Jackson’s loss was very heavy, and, observing the trap that had been set for him, he endeavored to retreat across Bull Run on Friday night, but from some cause he did not get his army entirely over. Our forces moved after him, that night, and by daybreak yesterday morning, had driven the enemy over Carharpin Creek. Up to the date of General Pope’s dispatch, headed “Groveton, near Gainesville,” we had captured all of Jackson’s baggage wagons, and camp equipage, and a large number of prisoners. The fields were said to have been full of rebels overcome with exhaustion, hunger, and thirst, who readily gave themselves up. Some of these men state that they started out from Thoroughfare Gap in light marching order, with ten days’ rations of very poor quality, and that this had been all consumed. If this is true, future victories over him will be easy.

Our Captures.

It is said that our captures of prisoners and stores, camp equipage, &c., are immense. The various trains returning from the battle fields are loaded with tons of stores of every description, taken in the recent battles.

How the President Received the News.

The intelligence of Pope’s reverse, received early Sunday morning, had a visible effect upon the President, and he continued uneasy until General Halleck informed him of the concentration of our forces beyond Centreville, and our success in driving the enemy back this afternoon.

Our Wounded.

It was not a little remarkable to notice leading citizens of Secession proclivities sending their wagons, horses, and, indeed, everything they had, to the Government in this, one of its saddest extremities. The fact is worthy of note, that one prominent citizen, at daylight this morning, had his fifty omnibuses all geared up, and the horses gaily decorated with American flags; and, having driven them to the War Office, he tendered them to the Government for such service as it might deem proper. Accordingly, this afternoon, about 4 o’clock, a grand cavalcade of fifty omnibuses arrived in town, accompanied by about two hundred and fifty wagons, from the vicinity of Centreville, loaded with such of our wounded as were not seriously injured. It was astonishing to observe what good spirits these poor fellows were in. They cried out, as they passed the crowded corners, “We ain’t whipped!”

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The report of the suppression of the Tribune proves to have been a hoax, and was probably started in Philadelphia to pacify the crowd who were wrangling over McClellan’s virtues and faults. It is a curious commentary upon the changed state of affairs that such a rumor could have gained credence, but the arbitrary arrests of the Government—arrests which at one time were, no doubt, necessary, have blunted popular sensitiveness to our personal rights. Some of these imprisonments have been most ill-advised, premature, and hasty. That of the “substitute” advertisers in New York, and several others which have recently occurred, are instances. The release of Col. Stone, after nine months imprisonment without trial, demands severe investigation. Arrests are necessary; a great fault has been committed by the Government in not making the right ones, but these imprisonments of persons, only to free them the next day, are foolish and unjust. It does not seem as though the golden mean of prudence and rigor might be attained by our authorities.

A Call for Reform.

The following petition to the President, is made by the women of the United States:

We, the undersigned, women of the United States, who have freely given our brothers, sons, and husbands to fight for their country in this deadly struggle, and who will seek every opportunity to aid, cheer, and uphold them to the end—seeing our army, the flower and hope of the land, exposed to needless danger and suffering—do hereby ask of you, Abraham Lincoln, that you, as chief ruler of this nation, see to it that the strength which is needed against the enemy be not wasted by a foe within—and that you cause all negligent, incompetent, drunken or knavish men, who in the first hurry of selection obtained for themselves weighty charges and posts of responsibility, be at once sought out and dismissed—and that you give our precious soldiers in keeping to the most honest, the most capable, the most faithful, trusty, and zealous officers, both civil and military, that can be found within our land.

So that we, waiting at home that issue which the God of battles alone can give, need fear for our soldiers no evils but those inseparable from war—need fear no inefficient or untrusty quartermasters, no careless, ignorant or drunken officers, no unskillful, unfeeling or drunken surgeons. . .

We have intrusted to you all that we most value; we believe that you will care for it tenderly and conscientiously, remembering that of this host, when one man suffers, many hearts bleed. We suffer willingly in the cause of civilization and humanity, and to maintain our national self-respect, but we look to you, our chosen ruler, that we do not suffer in vain.

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The Aggressive is now the game of the rebels. Immediately after the Bull Run panic of last year, there was a general cry throughout the South that Washington must be laid in ashes, and even Philadelphia, New York and Boston were not spared in the imaginations of the more enthusiastic. But the good sense of Jefferson Davis fought stoutly against any movements of the kind. Now, however, it seems that the opposition of Davis has been withdrawn and overcome, and the rebels are bent upon sacking and burning the northern cities. Cincinnati is threatened, and Washington will be captured if a determined and persistent effort of the rebels can bring it about. Prisoners captured in the recent battles agree that Washington is the goal for which the rebels are struggling. Colonels and generals, for weeks past, have encouraged their faltering men by holding out the possibility of taking Washington, and the certainty that it should be handed over to indiscriminate plunder, whenever taken. As for provisions, the prisoners now in Washington say that Jackson has captured enough provisions at Warrenton, laid in for the federal armies, to supply the whole rebel force for a month. Having possession of all the ground in the rear, and being among friends, the rebels can get their supplies now direct from Warrenton.

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Southern Item.—The Richmond Dispatch, in a bitter and sarcastic editorial, condemns the defensive policy of the Confederate government, and calls for the raising of half a million men to invade the North.

Richmond papers of the 26^th ult. contain highly colored accounts of the rebel success (?) on the Rappahannock . . . In the House of Representatives, Mr. Foster offered a series of resolutions favoring an aggressive war, also favoring “a proclamation to the inhabitants of the Northwestern States, offering to guarantee free navigation of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to their mouths if they will desist from the further prosecution of the war.”

THURSDAY
SEPTEMBER 4, 1862
THE FARMERS’ CABINET (NH)

Transportation of
McClellan’s Army.

We can hardly wonder at the number of vessels taken by government for transports, when we consider the size of the Army of the Potomac, which is thus spoken of by a correspondent of the New York Evening Post:

“Few persons have an adequate idea of the Herculean task of moving an army like that of the Potomac, with all their baggage wagons and the thousand and one things which necessarily go to make up even the meagre comforts of officers  and men and animals in the field. In round numbers the animals alone of this army were some 27,000; consider that schooners used mostly as animal transports, carry but fifty to sixty horses or mules, without their wagons, &c., while others must take wagons, ambulances and tents, and of these from fifteen to twenty each; and then add to this the hundred of vessels necessary to move forage for animals, subsistence for troops, ammunition and ordnance stores, and transports carrying from five hundred to fifteen hundred men each, and before all are under way the aggregate is not far from one thousand vessels all sorts and sizes, from the canal boat to the splendid first-class steamer.”

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Indifference to Danger
During Battle.

A soldier, who was in all of the late battles before Richmond, remarks, that “it is astonishing how indifferent to danger a man becomes in action after being in it a short time. While supporting the battery some of our men laid down on the ground and slept soundly, utterly regardless of the shells that were bursting around them. If I had not seen this I certainly never would have believed it.”

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Editors and printers of newspapers are exempt from military service in the South. The rebel conscription act expressly excuses tem. In the North there is no exemption for this class, and should be none. It is estimated that there are now 10,000 printers in the Union army, or enough for three brigades.

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Letter from the N. H. Third.

Hilton Head, S. C., Aug. 22, 1862.

Again I am called upon to write you a disaster to the Third N. H. regiment, which will send sorrow to numerous households in and about the city of Manchester. Company H, enlisted at Manchester by Capt. Robert C. Dow over a year ago, and known as the Amoskeag Rifles, having been on picket duty on Pinckney Island during the few weeks past, was completely surprised and captured yesterday morning, the 21st, by three of four companies of rebels. Lieut. J. C. Wiggin, formerly a trader in Sandwich, N. H., and lately promoted from 1st Sergeant of Co. G, was in command of the Co. and was killed, but evidently made a desperate effort to resist, judging from his wounds. Dr. B. F. Eaton, of our regiment, informs me that Capt. Emmons, Co. G, on going to the island, found the dead most shockingly mangled. Lt. Wiggin received a bayonet wound, a sword cut near the knee, a buck-shot wound, nine bullet wounds, and a blow on the nose—13 n all. Rumor says the surprise was so skillfully made, the rebels even entered a portion of the quarters before the whole of the company was awakened.

A rebel while leading Corporal Dow away was shot by his own party, and Dow escaped by secreting himself in the bushes. Sergeant Kelsea and six men also effected their escape.

It is said that the rebels took the uniforms of the pickets to wear to the quarters of the company and it is plain to be seen that the success of the enemy was more on account of this shrewd management than from any neglect of duty by our men.

The number of the company was 57. Four were killed, 2 wounded, 35 taken prisoners, and the remainder escaped.

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Some shrewd individual in Philadelphia took advantage of the turbid state of the public mind in reference to drafting, and advertised to let them into the secret of escaping conscription, for a small consideration. As might be supposed, he was flooded with applicants, with the required number of postage stamps, for which he returned a slip of paper, on which was written the word, “Enlist!”

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The Mirror says the chances of getting killed in the army are comparatively small, if the experience of Manchester is a test. Out of 672 whose families have been aided by that city, only 7 have been killed outright or died of wounds received in battle, and 11 died of disease—being a loss of one out of every 89, or about one to a company.⁵

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There is an urgent call for lint and bandages. Surgeon General Hammond, in an appeal to the loyal women and children of the Union says: The supply of lint in the market is nearly exhausted. The brave men wounded in the defense of our country will soon be in want of it. I appeal to you to come to our aid in supplying us with this necessary article. There is scarcely a woman who cannot scrape lint, and there is no way in which their assistance can be more usefully given than in furnishing us the means to dress the wounds of those who fall in defense of their rights and their homes. Contributions will be received in Boston by Surgeon McLaren, U.S. Army, or by any other medical officer of the army.

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The quotas of the several towns in this County to meet the calls of the President for three years and for nine months men, is as follows:

FRIDAY
SEPTEMBER 5, 1862
THE CALEDONIAN (VT)

Another Fight on Saturday.
gen. pope driven back to centreville.

The enemy was heavily reinforced on Saturday, and attacked Gen. Pope’s army before the arrival of Gens Franklin and Sumner. The attack was boldly met and a  severe battle followed. The advantage on the whole was with the enemy, and Gen. Pope fell back to Centreville, with his whole army in good order. He has now been joined at Centreville by Franklin, and Sumner was on the march to him Saturday night. He occupies the strongest position in the vicinity of Washington, and is expected promptly to renew the contest and repeat the success of Friday. Every effort should be used to hasten the forwarding of the new troops.

some particulars of the fight.

The Washington Evening Star of Saturday, in speaking of the battle, says:

“The battle was continued in the army corps of Gens Heintzelman, McDowell and Sigel on our side, against a rebel force believed to number from 50,000 to 60,000 strong. That is, against the army corps of Jackson and we presume a portion of the rest of Lee’s army that had succeeded in making its way down from White Plains through Thoroughfare Gap. The location of the battle of the day was in the vicinity f Haymarket, and from Haymarket off in the direction of Sudley Church, or in other words, but a few miles Northward of the never-to-be-forgotten battle of Bull Run. Heintzelman’s corps, if we are correctly informed, came up with the enemy’s rear at about 10a.m., 7 miles from Centreville, which point he left at daybreak. He found Stonewall Jackson fighting with McDowell or Sigel, or both, on the right, in the direction of Haymarket. This position they took by going North from Gainesville to command the entrance to and exit from Thoroughfare Gap. Our own informant, who left Centreville at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, a cool and clear-headed man, says that up to that hour the impression prevailed there that nothing had definitely resulted from the day’s fighting, which though continuous had not been a very bloody battle.

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Mileage of
Congressmen and Soldiers.

The mileage of Congressmen, compared with that of soldiers, presents a contrast that places the former in its true light before the people. A member of Congress is paid 40 cents a mile for going to Washington, and 40 cents for every mile which lies between himself and his home—80 cents in all. The table of mileage of Congressmen, published in the Statesman of the 2nd of August, puts down G. K. Shiel, of Oregon, as travelling 6,662 miles, which amounts to $5,329.60. As Congressmen voted themselves mileage for the extra session, in the summer of 1861, and as the law allows two mileages for each term of a representative, Mr. Shiel will receive for mileage during this Congress, exclusive of $3,000—the compensation for service--$15,988.80, while his real outgoes for travel, even if he returned to Oregon once for each mileage drawn, would not exceed $2,000. It is the custom of the Pacific shore members to remain on this side the United States through their two years’ service—thus saving, if they be frugal men, very considerable estates out of their mileage.

Let us now look upon the other side. A discharged soldier is allowed four and a half (4½) cents a mile for his travel—say from Washington to Oregon--$299.79, computed upon the distance alleged in the mileage bill to be travelled by Mr. Shiel—and 50 cents for subsistence for every twenty miles travelled. The subsistence money of a soldier from Washington to Oregon would therefore amount to $166.51, which, added to his mileage, amounts to $466.30. A soldier, however, would not probably be paid upon the distance alleged to be travelled by an Oregon Congressman, but let that pass. The pay of a Congressman (one way, 40 cents a mile), from Washington to Oregon, is $2,664.80—leaving an excess above the sum received by a discharged and perhaps crippled soldier of $2,198.50.

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The Extent of the Change.

Crossing yesterday the threshold of a palatial jewelry store in Chestnut street, we observed at the counter a man accompanied by an overdressed female, paying for a $1,000 set of diamonds he had then purchased. The buyer of the glittering trinkets, less than a yea ago, had as little prospect of owning a $1,000 set of diamonds as of inheriting the fee simple of Golconda.⁶ The gems were duly disposed upon the person of his companion, and, consigning the empty casket to his pocket, the parties walked out. “How is trade?” we asked the proprietor, as he led us back into the store, beaming with smiles. “Trade,” said he, “with us was never better, rarely as good.” We marveled. He called our attention to his long row of show cases, in which the stock was manifestly meager, and from which very many costly gems that we had known by sight had now disappeared. “A year ago,” said the dealer in jewels, “our stock was so large that we trembled to look at it. We had sets of diamonds, pearls, opals, rubies and emeralds costing us large sums, whose sale we looked upon as hopeless until national order was restored. Now they are nearly all gone. We have sold nearly six sets to-day, and $1,000 was the lowest priced of them all.” “And the buyers?” “he buyers are all or nearly all new faces. Our old customers we scarcely ever see, except they come for some trifling purchase, or bring their watches to be put in order. So far from buying from us, they often come with requests for the purchase back of gems bought from us years before.” “Who are your present best customers?” we asked. “Just such persons as those you passed on entering the door. Army speculators and contractors are now spending the money. I comes easily; it departs upon wings equally rapid. In good times we have many customers who spent at a time as little as $3, $5 or $10. We rarely sell a customer now less than a $50 diamond or set of jewelry.”—Philadelphia North American.

SATURDAY
SEPTEMBER 6, 1862
THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN (MA)

Progress of the War.

We are again defending Washington behind its fortifications. The rebel armies hold their old line in Virginia, and the difference in the military situation between the present and the past is that larger armies have been massed on both sides, and that the rebels have assumed the offensive and put us on our defense. We think matters are now at their worst; that the rebels cannot take Washington; that they cannot cross the Potomac; and that our new levies hastening to the seat of war will soon turn the tide and drive back the insolent foe. It must be conceded that the rebels have fought with the utmost bravery and have been handled with the highest military skill. They have been resisted in a series of the hardest battles of the war by gallant troops, over the whole distance between the banks of the Rapidan and Washington, but they have daily outflanked us and captured and fed upon our supplies, and have continued this up to the very fortifications in front of Washington, behind which the weary and decimated army of Virginia has now retreated for safety. The rebels are now pushing on to the Potomac, full of courage and confidence. Barefoot and bleeding, having eaten up the resources of Virginia, there is only starvation and death for them behind, and they have already learned that success obtains bountiful supplies, so that their weakness and want become their real strength, and they fight with the desperation of men whose very existence depends upon victory. The Potomac will be stoutly defended by our troops, but if the rebels have determined to come into Maryland, they will leave half their army dead on the river before they will relinquish their purpose. And if they should succeed, it is much more likely they will keep up their grand flanking process and push on to Baltimore and Philadelphia, than that they will stop to attack Washington, unless they see that the capital can be easily taken. Their position, it is true, involves great perils, and if beaten now they will be utterly destroyed. But it also offers the highest inducements to success, for if they can capture our supplies and live upon their plunder they need care little about their connection with Richmond, and if they can penetrate into Maryland and invade the free states, the prestige and power they will thus obtain will more than compensate for the obvious perils of the undertaking. Where shall be the limit of these new and unexpected triumphs of the rebellion we cannot foresee, but there is to be a limit, and there is to be a turn in the tide, and the new legions we are now enrolling shall avenge these insults and drive back the enemy before the snow falls. If a million men cannot do it, two millions can and will. The policy of advance and invasion has been adopted by the rebels all along the line. Leaving their positions at the South and West unprotected, they are finding their way in small bodies across our lines, outflanking our armies and penetrating into Tennessee and Kentucky, and threatening the central the central and western states with devastation. Cincinnati is putting itself on the defensive, and is really in danger. Our armies in the Southwest are reported as gaining recent successes, but none of them decisive or of great importance. Gen. Buell’s army is moving into eastern Tennessee, and will doubtless succeed in occupying whatever position he chooses there, but by that time the rebel armies will be in Kentucky, if not in Ohio. Thus we stand. The new rebel tactics, bold and reckless as they are, give them decided advantages at the outset, and we may expect that they will obtain still more important victories. They will put the North on the defensive for a time, but they do not know what that involves as a certain consequence. If we have got to defend our own homes against the rebellion, the whole North will arm and march to the conflict, and there will be no further pause in the great struggle till the rebellion is utterly exterminated, even if the South is depopulated in the process. It needed, perhaps, this defiant and desperate policy of the rebels to bring the whole people into the war and to make it quick and terrible.

Abolition Sentiment in “Egypt.”

A correspondent of the St. Louis Republican, writing from Alton, Illinois, says”

“There is another fact, even more potent than the consolidation of individuals on the war question. I refer to the change or growth of public sentiment on the question of slavery. This work was begun by the Gulf slave states. These states are tolling the knell of American slavery. It is almost too late, now, for them to pause in their mad career and save their social system from destruction. Their stubborn resistance in Virginia more firmly gathers and centers the northern determination. The swarming of guerrillas in the border states only the more inculcates the lesson of force applied to meet force, and of fighting the devil with his own fire, even to extermination. Slavery is as well the weakness as the strength of the rebellion. In sentiment, the civilized world is against it, if not against the rebels. Wherever the northern army moves, it is annihilated. As was truly remarked in a speech of a democrat of late, who is in the service, the rebels now term every free state man an abolitionist, and when the latter goes to the war, every tendency is to make him so.”

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General News Summary.

There is a row among the English Quakers. The pretty young women will wear crinoline of a modest periphery, and flowers and ribbons are invading the precincts of their drab poke bonnets. The young men also are joining rifle clubs. What is the world coming to?

Rev. Mr. French, who has just returned here from Port Royal, where he has had the superintendence of the colored schools, reports that there are nearly fifteen thousand colored persons within our lines in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The schools are making rapid progress. Most of the pupils learn readily, and take a  deep interest in the religious exercises. Some of the slaves have come over a hundred and fifty miles to reach port Royal, travelling all night, and hiding in the woods in the daytime. They all state that the Negroes have the idea that the day of their deliverance has come. This feeling prevails everywhere among the slaves.

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The official footing up of all the appropriations made by the last Congress is $894,000,000.

¹ Never trust any eyewitness estimate of casualties in a Civil War battle. Actual losses were 1,716 killed, 8,215 wounded and 3,893 missing from Pope’s army, and 1,305 killed and 7,048 wounded for Lee’s forces in what was a stunning Confederate victory.

² See 2 September 1862. Both sides were experimenting with explosive bullets and accusing the other of barbarism. They were both right.

³ See 31 August 1862. Both sides were experimenting with explosive bullets and accusing the other of barbarism. They were both right.

⁴ It is doubtful if the Confederates would have been fooled by this trick, as it was one they had devised to stop McClellan in his advance up the Peninsula—it which instance it worked quite well.

⁵ The battles will get worse:  By war’s end, the chances of being a casualty in the Union Army would be 1 in 13, and 1 in 75 in the Union Navy. Most of the former would be on account of disease.

⁶  “the fee simple of Golconda” means owning the land of Golconda, which was the capital of a ancient kingdom in south-central India from the 14th to the early 16th century. Golconda was famed for the diamonds found nearby and cut in the city.