August 16.
An enthusiastic war meeting was this day held at Lake Mahopac, N. Y.--The One Hundred and Twenty-second regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers arrived at Washington, D. C.--Colonels Corcoran and Wilcox, Lieutenant-Col. Brown, and Major Rogers, reached Fortress Monroe, having been exchanged at Richmond, Va. Great joy was manifested at the release of Col. Corcoran and his fellow-soldiers.
The United States gunboat Pocahontas, one of the blockading squadron off Charleston, proceeded up the Black River, S. C., on a reconnoitring expedition, and in search of a rebel steamer reported to be in the river. When about twenty-five miles up, it was discovered that the rebels had sunk the vessel. In returning, the Pocahontas was fired into by bands of rebel guerrillas all along the banks of the river for a distance of twenty miles, but she sustained no injury, and but one person was wounded.
Hopkinsville, Ky., was this day captured by a force of rebel guerrilla cavalry, under the command of Colonel A. R. Johnson. A quantity of ammunition and a number of rifles fell into their hands. Colonel Johnson issued a notice to the inhabitants of the town and its vicinity, informing them that he occupied the town and had taken the arms, etc., as a confederate soldier; and that if any Southern man or his property should be molested on account of his visit, he would retaliate on the Union men of the place.
A company of rebel cavalry dashed across the Rapidan River, Va., near Crooked Run, and captured Lieutenant Black, and five men of the Union army encamped in the vicinity.
An expedition consisting of the Union gunboats Benton, Mound City and General Bragg, under command of Captain Phelps; the rams Switzerland, Monarch, Lioness and Sampson, under command of Colonel Ellet, and transports Rockett and McDowell, with the Fifty-seventh Ohio, the Thirty-third Indiana, fifty cavalrymen, and two pieces of artillery on board, under command of Colonel Wood of the Fifty-seventh Ohio, left Helena, Arkansas, this day and proceeded down the Mississippi. On the eighteenth, when near the mouth of the Yazoo River, at Millikins's Bend, they captured the rebel steamer Fairplay, laden with an entire equipment of arms, accoutrements and ammunition for an army of six-thousand men. At Haines's Bluff they captured four pieces of artillery, and a large quantity of ammunition. At Richmond, La., they destroyed the railway depot, together with its contents, a large quantity of sugar, commissary stores, ammunition, etc., and engaged a force of rebels whom they put to flight. On the twenty-fifth instant the expedition returned to Helena, without losing a man.--(Doc. 183.)
The Richmond (Va.) Examiner of this date, speaking editorially of the approaching session of the rebel Congress, among other things, said: “It will be for Congress to repair, as it best can, the mischief done the public service by a weak and impracticable executive; to look at the reduction of our forces in the field; the decay of military discipline; the demoralization of our armies, and the jeopardy to which our cause has been put by a long course of trifling conduct, childish [61] pride of opinion, unworthy obstinacy, official obtuseness, conceit, defiance of public opinion, imperiousness and despotic affectation on the part of those intrusted with the execution of the war.”
The evacuation of Harrison's Landing, on the James River, Va., by the army of the Potomac, which commenced on the eleventh instant, was this day completed.--(Doc. 184.)
A fight took place near Lone Jack, Mo., between a force of about eight hundred Missouri State militia, under the command of Major Foster, and a body of rebel guerrillas under Colonel Coffee, numbering between three and four thousand men, resulting, after an engagement of four hours, in the defeat of the Nationals with a loss of sixty men killed and one hundred wounded and missing. The rebel loss was one hundred and ten killed and wounded.--(Doc. 185.)
