March 5.
An order, dated at Jackson, Tenn., was issued by Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, of the confederate army, assuming command of the rebel army of the Mississippi. The order declares that the Northern “invaders” must be “made to atone” for the reverses experienced by Southern arms, and terminates by calling the rebel cause as “just and sacred” as any that ever animated a nation.--(Doc. 77.)
In the Confederate Congress, Mr. Smith offered a resolution that the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads be instructed to inquire into the expediency of reporting a bill to prevent the appointment, as postmasters, of persons between eighteen and forty-five years of age, where the compensation is under seventy-five dollars per annum; but such appointment shall be made with reference to those persons who, by bodily infirmity, age, or sickness, are exempt from military duty. The object of the mover of the bill was mainly set forth in the bill as it read. He wished to cut off from the benefit of the exemption law many persons, able-bodied and active young men, who sought these offices, some of which paid but ten dollars a year, only for the purpose of escaping military duty. In these offices, where so little exertion was required, persons could be placed who were unfit for the field, or, if necessary, some of the noble women of our country could be looked to to perform these duties.--Richmond Examiner, March 7.
This day the United States steamer Water Witch captured, off St. Andrew's Bay, west coast of Florida, the rebel schooner William Mallory, of Mobile, from Havana February twenty-eighth, and bound wherever she could make a port. She is a schooner of one hundred and eight tons burden, and is a remarkably fast sailer, having been chased five hours and fired at several times before she would heave to.--National Intelligencer, March 20.
A proclamation was issued by F. W. Pickens, rebel Governor of South-Carolina, calling for five volunteer regiments, to serve during the war, in response to a requisition for that number made upon the State by the President of the Confederate States. He urges upon the people the necessity of the call, in consequence of reverses to the Southern arms, and threatens to meet the demand by conscription, if the regiments are not formed by volunteers within fifteen days.--(Doc. 78.)
The public mind of the entire South is fast recovering from its causeless panic occasioned by [50] the unfortunate affairs at Roanoke Island and Fort Donelson. Considerate men see that much ultimate good may come of them by inuring us to defeats that must often occur in a war with a power possessed of superior numbers and superior resources of all kinds, by curing us of that rashness which our continued successes had begotten, and, most of all, by stimulating enlistments, and thus increasing the number and efficiency of our armies. It is now almost certain that by the last of April we shall have a larger disposable force in the field than that of our enemies; for they must retain two hundred thousand men in Maryland to guard and retain that State and the city of Washington, one hundred thousand in Kentucky and Missouri to hold those States, some twenty thousand in their various forts, and probably eighty thousand in their fleets. Thus their stationary force being four hundred thousand, even if their armies number seven hundred thousand, they will have a disposable force of only three hundred thousand with which to invade our interior; and, in long incursions, this will be diminished at least one third by the forces detailed to keep up communication with their base of operations. Besides, by deferring their invasion of the South until the warm season, they will soon decimate their ranks by the malarious diseases of our climate. Heretofore we have had to fight against superior numbers, but so soon as they quit their vessels, march into the country and meet us in the open field, we shall out-number them, if we please, in every conflict. They cannot probably hold Nashville longer than the rainy season keeps the Cumberland River flooded. We know not how large an army they have there, but believe it cannot be very large. Should we be mistaken, and they attempt to hold it permanently, we ought, in a few weeks, to make prisoners of their whole army. Their present occupation of that city, of Fort Donelson, and of Clarksville so divide their land and naval forces as to disable them from attacking and taking Columbus, and proceeding down the Mississippi to Memphis and the cotton region. If, with their whole land and naval force, and their eager appetite for cotton, they durst not attempt to descend that river, they will surely not now venture to do so with a crippled and divided navy and army. It may yet turn out that the fall of Fort Donelson and of Nashville will be a great gain to us, and a great misfortune to them. The whole country, from the Ohio to Nashville, is inhabited by brave men and zealous secessionists. They cannot make that city a base of operations from which to invade the cotton States, for in a few weeks, probably days, the Cumberland River will become unnavigable for the smallest gunboats, and they would be cut off from their Northern supplies and resources. If they attempt it, even with a force of a hundred thousand men, we should at once surround them with a force of a hundred and fifty thousand, and capture their whole army. This would end the war; and we should not be surprised that it should end somewhat in this way. The North, under a weight of debt and want of cotton, is become desperate, and will rashly quit its woven walls ere long and march far into our interior. Then we will make prisoners of their armies, and gloriously and triumphantly wind up the war. Let faint-hearted people recollect that we never yet met them with equal numbers, in the open field, without defeating them; and that under the levy en masse which is going on in the South, if they invade us by land after the first of April, we will meet them with superior numbers. Our bad roads will prevent their invading us sooner.--Richmond Dispatch, March 5.
Bunker Hill, Va., was occupied by the National forces.--Reverdy Johnson was to-day elected United States Senator by the Maryland Legislature for six years from March, 1863.
A reconnoitring party of the Sixty-third regiment of Pennsylvania, Heintzelman's division, was ambushed this morning beyond the Occoquan, Va., two or three miles in advance of the Union pickets, and received the fire of a party of concealed rebels, who instantly fled through the woods. Capt. Chapman and Lieut. Lyle were killed, and two privates were wounded, one of them mortally.
The National pickets at Columbus, Ky., were this day driven in by the rebel cavalry, who fled upon being shelled by the gunboats.
An order was issued, dated at Jackson, Tennessee, by Major-Gen. Bragg, of the confederate army, designating different rendezvous for troops coming within his division, assuming authority of the railroads in the limits of his command, and declaring martial law in the city of Memphis, Tennessee. All prisoners of war at Memphis were ordered to be transferred to Mobile and thence to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for confinement.
