The News.
The following official dispatch, announcing a very important Confederate success, was received at the War Department yesterday:
"
General Bragg reports that he attacked the enemy, yesterday, four miles in front of
Kinston, and drove him from his position.
He disputed the ground obstinately, and took up a new line three miles from his first.
"We captured three pieces of artillery and fifteen hundred prisoners.
"The number of the enemy's dead and wounded left on the field is large.
Ours comparatively small.
"The troops behaved most handsomely, and
Major-Generals Hill and
Hoke exhibited their usual zeal and energy.
Kinston is thirty miles east of
Newbern, fifteen west of
Goldsboro', and seventy five miles southeast of
Raleigh.
The force which
General Bragg attacked and whipped was
Foster's, which was pushing up to co-operate with
Terry, who is advancing on
Goldsboro' from
Wilmington.
It is thought that another fight took place on yesterday.
The Richmond and Petersburg lines.
All continues quiet in front of
Richmond and
Petersburg — so potent is mud.
The tobacco Affair.
We are informed that
Mr. Singleton had nothing to do with the two hundred thousand pounds of tobacco carried from this city to
Fredericksburg, and there burnt by the enemy.
It is said it was sold to the
Yankee Government for greenbacks, carried to
Fredericksburg for them, and deposited there at their risk, and that it was burnt by an officious Yankee commander of gunboats, who, it is presumed, was ignorant of the purchase of the article by his Government.
The exemption bill.
The following is the exemption bill finally agreed upon by the two Houses of Congress, and which now only awaits the approval of the
President to become the law. It concerns and interests a great many people:
"a bill to Diminish the Number of Exemptions and Dewills.
- The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That so much of the 'act to organize forces to serve during the war,' approved February 17, 1864, as exempts one person as overseer or agriculturist on each farm or plantation upon which there were, at specified times, fifteen able-bodied field hands between the ages of sixteen and fifty, upon certain conditions, is hereby repealed, and said persons, shall be liable to military service upon the expiration of the time for which they secured exemption by reason of having executed bonds for one year from the date thereof: Provided, That exemptions of persons over forty-five years of age may be granted under the provisions of the act aforesaid.
- "Section 2.
That no exemption or detail shall be granted by the President or Secretary of War, by virtue of said act, except of persons lawfully reported by a board of surgeons as unable to perform active service in the field; persons over the age of forty years, and of artisans, mechanics, laborers employed in the Nitre and Mining Bureau in localities where slave labor cannot, with safety, be employed, and persons of scientific skill, employed by, or working for, the Confederate or State Government, and shown by proper testimony to be such laborers, mechanics, or persons of scientific skill; and with the same exceptions, all exemptions and details heretofore granted by the President or Secretary of War, by virtue of said act, are hereby revoked.
- "Section 3.
That all skilled artisans and mechanics who are engaged in the employment of the Government of the Confederate States are hereby exempt from all military service during the time they are so employed."
