February 5.
Captain Wm. K. Ranney, of the Fortieth regiment of Missouri militia, while on a scouting expedition on Bear Creek, Johnson Co., Mo., encountered a party of rebel guerrillas. “On seeing them he put spurs to his horse and commanded his men to follow, which they did with a will, and coming up with the enemy, routed them on the double-quick, the fleeing rebels leaving seven dead on the field. Pursuing the rebels about seven miles, night came on, and the weather being extremely cold, he gave up the chase. Captain Ranney and all of his men escaped unharmed.” --Lieutenant-Colonel Brown's Report.
The British Parliament was opened and the Queen's speech was read, in which she said: “Her Majesty's relations with foreign Powers continue to be friendly and satisfactory. Her Majesty has abstained from taking any step with a view to induce a cessation of the conflict between the contending parties in the North-American States, because it has not yet seemed to Her Majesty that any such overtures could be attended with a probability of success. Her Majesty has viewed with the deepest concern the desolating warfare which still rages in those regions; and she has witnessed with heartfelt grief the severe distress and suffering which that war has inflicted upon a large class of Her Majesty's subjects, but which have been borne by them with noble fortitude and with exemplary resignation. It is some consolation to be led to hope that this suffering and this distress are rather diminishing than increasing, and that some revival of employment is beginning to take place in the manufacturing districts.”
A small detachment of National cavalry was attacked at Wigginton's Mills, near Stafford Store, Va. At the first fire, Dixon, the scout who was wounded a few days previous in a skirmish with a party of South-Carolinians, was again wounded seriously. The rebels were finally dispersed, and several of the neighboring farmers were arrested.--New York Times.
Captain Robert Maupin, of the rebel army, was captured in the vicinity of Columbia, Mo., by a party of National troops under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Russell, of the Sixty-First Missouri regiment.--Missouri Statesman.
