From Portsmouth.
[Special Correspondence of the Dispatch.]
Portsmouth, April 24, 1861.
I am endeavoring to keep you posted in regard to matters with us. If what I may write is acceptable to you, and shall furnish some satisfactory information, I shall be willing to make these contributions to your columns.
Let me say that many merely incidental matters I am compelled to omit, as almost innumerable duties press upon me. I have to write such articles amid urgent calls and distressing circumstances.
Yesterday was comparatively a quiet day with us. It was to a great many somewhat a gala day. There has been a constant rush to the beautiful Hospital grounds, but yesterday the attraction seemed to be greater than ever.
The beautiful weather favored the turnout, and by five o'clock in the afternoon there must have been over five thousand persons gathered there, a large proportion of whom were the beautiful women of Portsmouth and Norfolk.
The Georgians said they had felt they could do some fighting; now, with such a display of female loveliness, they were inspired to meet the world in arms.
The batteries are being pushed forward with amazing diligence.
It is gratifying to contemplate the fact that here on the spot of our own citizens, we have the men who know how to carry on these preparations with faultless skill.
Well may we say of these noble men, they are the "bone and sinew" of the land.
I presume the battery at Seawell's Point is all prepared for action.
Five guns of heavy calibre, all mounted, were sent down there yesterday.
They were recovered from the Merrimac, the steamer which was sunken at the Navy-Yard.
A vessel coming up must near that battery within three quarters of a mile, and keep within that range for several miles.
Last night we sent to your city ten powerful guns, already mounted on carriages, which were recovered from the battery of the Germantown.
I suppose that by this hour you are rejoicing over their arrival.
If they are ever used, being in the hands of your brave boys, we shall expect to hear a good report. Emuh.
