Still later.
We received yesterday New York papers of Thursday, and
Baltimore papers of Friday last, which give later reports of war movements as reported at the
North.
The latest accounts from
Gen. Banks' column, through the
Northern Associated Press, are dated
Montgomery county, Maryland, Sept. 2d. The letter alleges that there are 7,000 Confederate troops at
Leesburg; that the
Confederates are throwing up entrenchments at the junction of the
Little Falls road with the
Alexandria turnpike, and that above
Leesburg there are no large bodies of Southern troops, though their pickets line the river shore and guard the ford and ferry.
An ‘"eye witness"’ (Federal) states that the affair at Conrad's Ferry, a week previous to the 2d, was as follows:
‘
A party of Union scouts crossed the river, took two prisoners in arms, and four horses.
Reaching the river, on their return, they succeeded in getting over two horses, when they were attacked and compelled to let the prisoners go. The next day a battery appeared opposite our entrenchments, and commenced shelling us. No battery being there at the time our men responded with muskets and rifles.
On the arrival of a battery the
Confederates soon beat a retreat.
Three days subsequent to the above exchange of courtesies a large camp of the Secessionists was discovered to be within range of our rifle batteries, and near
Leesburg.
An active bombardment soon caused the
Confederates to leave their quarters for a safer position a mile at least farther from the river.
Our artillerists say they threw shells from their rifled guns over and beyond the town of
Leesburg.
’
The correspondent goes on to say:
‘
Information given by negroes induced a search yesterday south of
Poolesville for arms, supposed to be intended for
Maryland volunteers in the
Confederate cause.
The search was successful.
Some twelve or fifteen complete sets of cavalry equipments were discovered and retained by our scouts.
Residents of the neighborhood assert, however, that the equipments belonged to a company of Home Guard cavalry, which was raised last winter to guard against the rising of the negroes; that the company was outfitted by the
State, but owing to the distance from the place of assembling at which many of the members lived, the company was disbanded before
Gen. Patterson took command of the Department.
The
Captain and some of the other officers are now in
Virginia.
The company was named the
Poolesville Light Dragoons. Two men, supposed to be active Secessionists, were captured at the same time by scouts from the 29th Pennsylvania regiment.
Colonel Murphy. Two complete sets of cavalry equipments and the same number of magnificent horses were taken by the same party.
’
Poolesville, Sept. 2.--Intelligence from the
Virginia shore is to the effect that from opposite the
White House Ford, near the mouth of the
Seneca river down to
Arlington Heights, the
Confederates have heavy pickets, and are daily expecting reinforcements to enable them to extend them to Conrad's Ferry.
There are at least six hundred to seven hundred now along the line.
On Friday, one thousand Mississipians, as a guard, reached the vicinity of Fairfax Court-House, with sixty pieces of artillery.
The force opposite
Washington is estimated by the
Confederates at one hundred and twenty-five thousand, with heavy reinforcements daily arriving.
They say an attack is to be made on
Washington the present week.
Simultaneously with the attack on
Washington demonstrations are to be made (according to the same authority) below, near the mouth of the
Occoquan, and above, and at
Edwards',
Nolan's, or the
White House Ferry.
Our
North Carolina friends will read the following Federal assertions with surprise:
‘
Washington, Sept. 5.--Respectable gentlemen who have arrived here from
North Carolina, by a circuitous route, say that the
Union prospects in that State are of the most encouraging character.
The
acting Governor is a reliable Union man. Secret leagues of loyal citizens exist in every county, which are rapidly increasing in strength, and already number one-half of the voting population of the
State.
A provisional State Government will be put in operation in a few months.
Two full brigades of loyal men have been enrolled for the
Union cause.
The leagues made extended arrangements for electing a member of Congress from every district, and four were known to have been elected on the 21st of August. The latest news is that the entire eight are elected, each having received a large vote.
They are among the best men in the
State, and will insist upon a vigorous prosecution of the war. Their certificates of election will bear the signature of the
Governor and the broad seal of the
State.
Since the engagement at Hatteras Inlet and the capture of the forts there, the
North Carolina troops have been withdrawn from
Virginia.
Many of the troops are dissatisfied with the war, and those who entered the service for a short term refuse to continue in the
Confederate employment.
’
Upon this extraordinary news the Baltimore Exchange remarks:
‘
When it is remembered that
Mr. Charles H. Foster, a New Englander, who edited a paper for a short time in
North Carolina, but who left the
State many years ago, and is now in
Washington claiming to have been elected a member of Congress at some election that nobody else ever heard of, it is easy to surmise the purpose of circulating the above.
’
There need be no astonishment at the assertions of a Yankee whose own wife has denounced him through the newspapers, and declared her purpose of procuring a divorce from such an ingrate.
A Federal dispatch from
Hannibal, Mo., Sept. 5, says:
‘
Corporal Dix, of the 3d Ohio Regiment, while out scouting with five men at
Kirksville, last week, was surrounded in a farm-house while at dinner, by a party of twenty-five Secessionists, who demanded a surrender.
He refused, and the Secessionists made an attack, when a severe fight ensued, but the Federalists maintained their position in the house, driving their assailants from the ground with a loss of seven killed and four wounded.
Corporal Dix was killed, but none of the other of the Federalists were hurt.
’
Under the same date we have the following from
Quincy, Ill.:
‘
Gen. Pope left here last evening to take the field in
Missouri.
The Confederates have torn up the railroad track and cut down the telegraph poles between
Hunnewell and Shellena, on the North Missouri Railroad.
Martin Green was between these places yesterday, with a force of two thousand well armed men, and had two pieces of artillery.
Gen. Hurlburt is reported to be west of Shellena, with twelve to fifteen hundred
Illinois troops.
’
Fortress Monroe, Sept. 4.--A flag of truce this morning conveyed to
Craney Island a number of ladies wishing to go South.
A flag of truce from
Norfolk also brought down the baggage of the released seamen who arrived yesterday.
They report that the
North Carolina Confederates are terribly exasperated on account of our recent victorious demonstration on their coast.
The floating battery said to have been towed from
Norfolk down to
Sewell's Point exists only in imagination.
The
United States gun-boat
Wyandotte Commander Baldwin, arrived at New York
on Wednesday, from
Fort Pickens, which port she left on the 23d of August, touching at
Key West, and leaving that port on the 29th.
Left at
Fort Pickens United States ship
Colorado,
Flag Officer Mervin.
Left at Key
West United States ships
Santee,
Captain Eagle; Keystone State,
Capt. Scott;
Crusader,
Captain Craven--all well.
Commander Baldwin reports the health or the troops at
Fort Pickens good.
The Secession troops have had a general stampede; large numbers of them had deserted and gone home.
We learn from
Philadelphia that
Major Mordecai, late in command of the Watervliet Arsenal, publishes a card denying any complicity in furnishing the
Confederates with drawings of a machine for expanding rifle bullets, as charged.
He acknowledges having allowed
Abraham Snyder, the inventor of the machine, to have copies made, but shows by letter, dated in January last, that he communicated to
Col. Craig, of the Ordnance Department, saying that it was not too late to retract the permission if he thought necessary.
Major Mordecai since his resignation has been residing in
Philadelphia, supported by a daughter who is a school teacher.
In the Washington Star of Thursday evening we find the following:
‘
Fairfax County, Va., Sept. 5. --From information, of the correctness of which there can be no question, I can inform you that at present there are no disunion troops at
Vienna; a picket guard only being kept there.
Immediately around
Flint Hill — half way between
Falls Church and Fairfax Court-House — there are the remains of four South Carolina regiments--
Kershaw's,
Cash's,
Bacon's and
Williams'--reduced to about half their original number by the contingencies of their service, principally through sickness.
Each of these regiments was originally 900 strong.
The camp measles has raged long and terrifically in these regiments, as throughout the rest of
Beauregard's army.
As soon as a man is taken down with it now, he is sent off to some hospital in the interior.
Recently the South Carolina regiments received from their State a supply of new clothing and shoes, of which they were in great need.
At present they have a sufficiency of provisions — fresh beef, bacon and flour.
Much uncertainty exists among them with reference to their military movements, it being whispered around that the idea of really striking at
Washington has been abandoned by their leaders because success would be but problematical, at best.
’
The Fort Hatteras prisoners.
The New York Express, of the 4th instant, says:
‘
The prisoners from Fort Hatteras were taken off the
Minnesota at half past 10 o'clock this morning and conveyed to
Governor's Island by the small tug-boats furnished by
Col. Tompkins,
United States Quartermaster.
The
Minnesota swung round with the tide and headed up stream, just as she commenced to discharge the prisoners on the tug-boats, and, as they were on her port side, the numerous spectators who were watching the proceedings from the
Battery and the piers for a considerable distance up the
North River, experienced some disappointment.
The prisoners will be furnished with temporary quarters only on
Governor's Island.
The order to imprison them in the hull of the frigate
Brandywine has been recalled, and
Fort Wood, on Bedloe's Island, is being fitted up for their reception, and in anticipation the
Government will order them there.
The fort will accommodate about three hundred and fifty, and tents adjacent to it will be erected for the accommodation of the remainder.
No communication has been allowed with the prisoners, but it is understood from officers of the frigate that over five hundred of the subalterns and private soldiers have decided that under no circumstances would they again resume service against the United States Government.
A dispatch was sent to
Washington, asking if such of the prisoners as manifested this loyal disposition might be liberated on taking the oath of allegiance; the answer was in the negative, and orders were issued to keep the whole party close prisoners.
’
A Philadelphia paper of the 5th inst. says:
‘
Yesterday afternoon,
E. S. Perkins,
chief armorer of the arsenal at
Bridesburg, and
Robert Bolton, concerned in the manufacture of patent primers, at
Frankford, were arrested on the charge of furnishing arms and munitions of war, in the month of April, to persons then engaged in open rebellion against the
United States.
The arrest of the accused grew out of an intercepted correspondence between
Perkins and
Bolton and
A. Hitchcock, by which, it seems, that
Hitchcock, who was an agent for the authorities of several of the
Southern States then on the point of seceding, was desirous of obtaining from
Perkins and
Bolton cannon primers for use in the expected war. The primers were made to order, and, it is presumed, forwarded to their destination.
At the residence of
Perkins was found a number of letters, some of which were from
Hitchcock to
Perkins in regard to primers then being manufactured.
’
