Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.
Affairs at Portsmouth.
Portsmouth, Va., Feb. 22, 1861.
This is a great day with the people here.
Nearly all business is suspended and there is a general turnout to witness the splendid military parade.
The Stars and Stripes are floating from the public buildings, and it is almost impossible for one to realize that our once glorious Union is numbered with the things that were before the flood.
Portsmouth has suffered and is suffering immensely by the present distracted state of the country.
Hundreds of honest men whose daily bread came from their daily toll are out of employment, as but little is doing in the Navy-Yard.
If ‘"Old Abe"’ were to pass through this region, every man, woman and child could assure him of his mistake, and teach him that everybody is ‘"hurt."’
The Ocean House, at which I am stopping, is an immense building, and is worthy of the very generous patronage with which it has been favored. 