April 19.
The battle of Camden, North-Carolina, was fought this day. Day before yesterday Gen. Reno left Newbern and proceeded to Roanoke Island, from which place he took about two thousand men and proceeded to Elizabeth City, where a strong rebel force was reported to be intrenching themselves. To-day, an advance was made upon the rebels, who opened fire with their artillery as soon as the Union troops made their appearance. The troops immediately formed in line of battle, and charged on the enemy, who ran at the first fire. The Nationals then immediately took possession of the town, and after remaining there for a few hours, retired to the main army. The force was about two thousand men, under Gen. Reno, and three boat-howitzers, under Col. Howard. The force of the rebels consisted of a Georgia regiment, numbering eleven hundred men, a portion of Wise's Legion, and two batteries of artillery. The enemy was totally routed, with a loss of about sixty men. The National loss was about twelve killed and forty-eight wounded. Col. Hawkins, of the New York Zouaves, received a slight flesh-wound in the arm. The adjutant of Col. Hawkins's regiment was killed.--(Doc. 134.)
General Banks at Newmarket, Va., sent the following to the War Department:
To-day I have been to the bridges on the south fork of the Shenandoah, in the Massanutton valley, with a force of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, to protect the two important bridges that cross the river. We were within sight of Luray, at the south bridge. A sharp skirmish occurred with the rebels, in which they lost several men taken prisoners. Their object was the destruction of the bridges. One of the prisoners left the camp on the bank of the Rappahannock Tuesday morning. There were no fortifications there up to that time. Other reports indicate a stronger force at Gordonsville and a contest there, the whole resulting in a belief that they are concentrating at Yorktown. I believe Jackson left this valley yesterday. He is reported to have left Harrisonburgh yesterday for Gordonsville by the mountain road. He encamped last night at McGaugeytown, eleven miles from Harrisonburgh.
The anniversary of the attack upon and massacre of Massachusetts troops in Baltimore was noticed in Boston by a grand Promenade Concert given in Music Hall in the evening, for the benefit of the soldiers. [94] In Worcester, the day was noticed as a commemoration of the marching of the Minute Men for Lexington on the nineteenth of April, 1775, under command of Capts. Bigelow and Flagg, of the passing of the Worcester Light Infantry through Baltimore on the nineteenth of April, 1861, and also of the dedication of the Bigelow Monument. The Tatnuck “Fremont” Guards, and other volunteers, paraded as the Minute Men of 1775, and the McClellan Guards and Highland Cadets as the Minute Men of 1862. At Baltimore, the anniversary was also commemorated in an appropriate manner by the loyal citizens of that place.--Boston Traveller.
The rebel schooner Wave was captured this day, by the pilot-boat G. W. Blunt, off the coast of South-Carolina.--New York Tribune, May 6.
The “Independent battalion Enfants Perdus, N. Y. S. V.,” under the command of Col. Felix Confort, left New York for the seat of war. Previous to their departure, a handsome national standard of silk, regulation size, was presented, in an eloquent speech, by the Rev. Samuel Osgood, on behalf of the daughter of Gen. Tyler.--New York Tribune, April 21.
A party of rebels concealed on Edisto Island, having fired upon a national party, sent out from the United States steamer Crusader, to assist the Government agent in raising cotton, Lieut. Rhind of the steamer planned an expedition to capture the rebels. Late last night the expedition, composed of sixty men from the Third New Hampshire and Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania regiments, landed and marching through the swamps, this morning discovered the enemy, who fled on receiving the fire of a platoon of the Pennsylvanians. At daylight a force of rebel mounted riflemen made their appearance, and opened fire; but after a skirmish of twenty minutes they retreated. Their loss was unknown. The Nationals had three wounded.--(Doc. 144.)
The Petersburgh Express, Va., of this date, has the following: “ Another requisition, we understand, has just been made on the slaveholders of Prince George and Surry Counties, for one half the negroes between the ages of sixteen and fifty years, to go to Williamsburgh to work on the fortifications in that vicinity. Not knowing the exigencies of the public service, we presume the demand is all right; but we have serious apprehensions that these fertile counties will contribute but a very small quota of the staff of life for the support of the country another year. The abstraction of so great an amount of labor could not have occurred at a more critical moment.”
The advanced guard of Gen. Banks's army occupied this morning the village of Sparta, eight miles in front of New Market, Va. For the firs time in their retreat the rebels burned the small bridges on the road, obstructing by the smallest possible means the pursuit of the National troops. Some dozen or more bridges were thus destroyed, but immediately reconstructed.--Gen. Banks's Despatch.
The United States gunboat Huron captured, off Charleston, the schooner Glide, of Charleston, while attempting to run the blockade. She was bound to Nassau, and was loaded with one thousand bales of cotton and five tierces of rice. Her papers and log-book were thrown overboard during the chase.
Major-Gen. David Hunter, U. S. A., commanding the Department of the South, this day issued the following proclamation:
It having been proven to the entire satisfaction of the General Commanding the Department of the South that the bearer, named William Jenkins, heretofore held in involuntary servitude, has been directly employed to aid and assist those in rebellion against the United States of America. Now be it known to all that, agreeably to the laws, I declare the said person free, and forever absolved from all claims to his services. Both he and his wife and his children have full right to go North, South, East, or West, as they may decide.--Baltimore American.
The city council of Fredericksburgh, Va., waited upon Gen. Augur, of the National forces, stating that the confederate forces had evacuated that place, etc., that no resistance would be made to its occupation by the National troops.
