Progress of the War.
late and interesting news.
The following summary, compiled from late papers, will be read with interest.
The reports of the traitors who went to Fortress Monroe should and doubtless will, convince every true man that increased vigilance is necessary on the part of every one who has the good of his country at heart:
From Fortress Monroe.
The Fortress Monroe correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer, under date of May 13th, writes: Last evening, among the arrivals from Norfolk, was a master's mate and gunner from the Merrimac, formerly such a terror in this region. The master's mate's name is E. K. McLaughlin, son of the proprietor of Barnum's Hotel, in Baltimore. He was arrested in Norfolk last Saturday, when our troops took possession of the city, but afterwards released on his parole. To-day he took the oath of allegiance and is now on his way home. He was on board the Merrimac when she sunk the Cumberland, and was promoted for signal service in that action. Three weeks ago, being unwell, he was detailed from the service and sent to the Portsmouth Naval Asylum, where he was at the time of the rebel evacuation. He seems very much pleased at the prospect of reaching home and again enjoying its comforts. The gunner's name is Ball, who is native of Baltimore, where he has a widowed mother residing. At the breaking out of the rebellion he had just been discharged from the naval service of the United States, after a service of five years. He immediately shipped on board a vessel for England, and on his arrival there re-shipped on a merchantman for New Orleans. The vessel successfully ran the blockade, and her crew was discharged. He was told by the Confederates that he must enlist, either in the army or the navy. He preferred the latter. Upon the completion of the Merrimac he was detailed as one of her crew, in the capacity of gunner. In the action of that memorable Sunday, when she destroyed the Congress and Cumberland, a shot from the Cumberland entered her porthole bow pivot gun, killing two men and wounding several others. After that no one volunteered to take charge of the gun, for fear of a similar disaster. He did so, and has since had charge of it. Commodore Tatnall was very imbecile and childish, and so feeble that he had to be assisted up and down stairs. The crew had no confidence in him, but were proud of Captain Buchanan. When the rebels found that the tugboat J. B. White had deserted and come down to the Point, they at once concluded that their plans were given in detail to our officers here. Capt. Byers is worthy of great praise and many thanks for the important news which he brought. It is well known here that, owing to his information, the important movements lately made took place. --The rebels had lightened the Merrimac with the intention of running her up the James river to Richmond. But finding their plans betrayed, they determined to come down into the Roads and cover their retreat, which was then going on at Norfolk and Craney Island. When our fleet shelled Sewell's Point, there were only two companies stationed there to keep up appearance. The Merrimac, according to arrangement, came down, not to fight, but to cover the retreat, which was then going on. The officers knew that the Galena, Aristook and Port Royal had gone up the James river there — for their project in that direction was decidedly impolitic. On Saturday night a consultation took place on board the Merrimac. The conference ended with the determination to blow her up and destroy one of the rebellion's greatest hopes. So great was the hurry of the debarkation that nothing but the officers' and men's effects were removed. They did not even spike the guns, as was their intention. They took off the locks, and adjusting the slow match, left their idol to her inglorious fate. The gunner had with him all the locks of the bow pivot gun, and also a sword belonging to one of the officers of the vessel, who had given it to him for the purpose of stationing pickets with, instead of which he left for Norfolk, and taking the oath of allegiance, is now on his way North. A gentleman with strong proclivities for trophies offered the gunner five dollars for the pivot lock, which was accepted after much hesitation. Being of a suspicious nature, I conclude, from present appearances, that the ‘"pieces of the wreck of the Merrimac" ’ will soon be even more plentiful than ‘"anes cut from the tomb of Washington."’The Finale of the Merrimac.
The armament of the Merrimac consisted of twelve guns--two 7-inch rifle pivot guns fore and aft, each working out of three portholes; four 9-inch smooth-bore guns, Dahlgren pattern; four 6-inch rifle guns, and two boat howitzers, 12-pounders, both on the upper deck, fore and aft, to repel boarders. Commodore Tatnall made a speech to the crew, who had been mustered on deck, after a boat from Norfolk had reached the vessel, bringing the news of the occupation of the city by our forces. The substance of his speech as related to me by the gunner, was this: ‘"Boys, Norfolk has been taken by the Yankees, and our supplies are cut off. Although the vessel has been lightened, the pilot says he cannot get her up the James river, as we had intended to do; therefore, we have concluded to blow her up. You can make your escape in the best way possible. "’ Tatnall was carried away from the Merrimac on a litter, he was so feeble. The Merrimac's crew numbered three hundred and sixty men. At the time of here explosion her magazines, fore and aft, were full of ammunition. Seventy of the crew have taken the oath of allegiance in Norfolk. They had received but fifty dollars for their services in the Confederate navy--the money was Confederate shinplasters.Prisoners from Richmond.
From a conversation held with some of the released Federal prisoners from Richmond, I have learned the following particulars in regard to the brutal and cruel treatment which our brave men are receiving at the hands of the Confederate authorities. In a room 60 feet by 40, on the ground floor of a flour warehouse in Richmond, between 50 and 60 Union officers are confined. Thirty feet is cut off from the length of the room for a guard- house. There are only two small windows for the purposes of ventilation.--Above, on the second and third stories, are stowed away 1,000 prisoners, taken in the different engagements. The refuse pipe of the upper rooms runs through the lower room in which are our officers. Because of the miserable accommodations furnished by the rebels this room is daily overflowed by the accumulated filth of the upper stories, the pipe being inadequate to convey it away. The stench and suffocation which is thus caused is described to me as almost intolerable. Our men are poorly supplied with food and other necessaries, and declare that they had rather die than be kept in such suffering and misery. It is only since last March that they have been provided with beds. These were brought from the Confederate hospitals, and have been used for the Bull Run wounded and sick, and were reeking with filth and sickening stench. Colonels Wilcox and Corcoran are enjoying as good health as their accommodations will admit of. They desire that it shall be known in the North that they have been very kindly treated by Captain Shiver, of Columbia, S. C., and his officers, Captain Casking. Captain Wells, Captain Poag, and Col. Davis. The other rebel officers have exercised the greatest brutality to our suffering patriots. Lieut. Emax, from Bellville, Md., is the most wicked and dastardly in his conduct toward the prisoners, bucking and gagging them for the most trivial offences. Such a fiend and brute is he that his Southern admirers call him ‘"Bowie-knife."’ If he ever falls into our hands he should be made to take the oath of allegiance! Richmond in overflowing with the rebel wounded. Sheds and railroad depots are occupied as hospitals. Colonels Wilcox and Corcoran ask no favors of the rebels, but patiently await their release by our Government, which ought to be soon effected. If Richmond is evacuated the rebels intend removing their prisoners further South. It is very aggravating to the friends of these heroes to think that, while our Government extends every courtesy and kindness, the rebels heap such abuse and indignation upon the Union prisoners. Alas! for Southern chivalry.Important from Washington.
The Philadelphia Press's Washington correspondent, under date of May 16, writes: Mr. Clarke, from the special committee of the Senate to which were referred all the bills, memorials, etc., before the Senate, on the subject of conflicting the property and freeing the slaves of rebels, made their report to-day, having agreed on the bill this morning. It is quire long. The first section provides that every person who shall hereafter commit the crime of treason against the United States, and shall be found guilty thereof, shall suffer death, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free; or he shall be imprisoned for not less than five years, and fined not less than ten thousand dollars, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free. The fine shall be levied and collected on any or all of the property, real and personal, excluding slaves, of which the person was the owner at the time of committing treason, any sale or conveyance to the contrary notwithstanding. The second section forfeits all the personal and real property and slaves or any one who gives aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States in any rebellious and insurrection. The third section provides that every person guilty of either at the success against the United States shall be forever incapable and disqualified to hold any office under the United States; the section immediately following providing that this day shall in no way be construed to either the protection of conviction of any one guilty of treason against the United States prior to the passage of this act. The fifth section provides that, to insure the more speedy termination of the rebellion, and the apprehends on, conviction, and punishment of the prisons engaged in it, the President is authorized, by the sheriffs of the respective district, or such commissioners and other officers as he may appointed for that purpose, to seize and requester the property, real and personal, of every kind including choses in action, of such persons as shall have been actively and notoriously engaged in this rebellion, and especially of persons hereafter acting as officers of the army and navy of the rebels, now or hereafter in arms against the Government of the United States; persons acting as President or Vice President, member of Congress, head of departments, civil officer, judge, foreign minister or commissioner of the so-called Confederate States; persons hereafter acting as in officer, whether civil, military, or naval, of any State or Territory, who, by the Constitution of the so-called Confederate States, is required to take an oath to support that Constitution; persons who, having held an officer of honor, trust, or profit, under the United States, shall hereafter take up arms against the United States; persons owning property in the loyal States, or Territories of the loyal portion of the disloyal States, shall hereafter assist or give aid and comfort to the present rebellion, and to hold and possess such property for the United States to secure the appearance of the offender to take his trial and abide such punishment as shall be assigned against him. No slave shall be seized under this act, but the United States shall have a lien on all the slaves of the persons here described, to answer such order as may be made in regard to them for their liberation, and no sale thereof shall be of any force or effect after the commission of and offence. The sixth section enacts that the property so seized and sequestered shall be held, possessed, occupied, or rented by the Officers aforesaid, until the owners thereof can be proceeded against by legal prosecution; and if convicted, the property can be forfeited. All perishable property to be immediately a in by the commissioners, in the same manner as goods are sold in a State under execution, the proceeds of the same to be paid over to the United States; and if the owner of said property shall be discharged by the court, he proceeds of the property, if it shall have been sold, shall be returned to said owner. The seventh section provides that, if any person flee so that he cannot be brought to trial, an order shall be made requiring him to attend, upon pain of forfeiture of all his property and the freeing of his slaves, and his legal representatives are debarred from making any claim for them; and the eighth section enacts that the President, if he shall deem it necessary that any personal property seized by the army or navy, and belonging to a person who shall, after the passage of the act, have engaged in the rebellion, or given aid and comfort thereto, should be confiscated, may cause proceedings in term to be instituted, as in admiralty; and having property shall be found to have belonged to a person engaged in the rebellion, or who has given aid and comfort thereto, the sums shall be forfeited, and become the property of the United States. The ninth section enacts that if, in the suppression of the rebellion, the President issues a proclamation commanding all persons to lay down their arms, and if any person is found in the insurrectionary district with arms in their hands within thirty days afterwards, all of his slaves shall be forever free. The tenth section prohibits the rendition of slaves to any owner, unless he has always been loyal, and in no case shall any military or naval officer decide the validity of such claim, on pain of dismissal. The eleventh section authorizes the President to employ as many persons of African descent as he may deem proper to aid it suppressing the rebellion, and he may organize and use them as he may deem best; and the twelfth section provides for transportations and colonization of such persons of the African race as may be made free by this act, while the thirteenth section authorizes a proclamation of pardon or amnesty at any time to any person engaged in the existing rebellion, on such conditions as he may propose. The fourteenth section gives the United States courts power to make all necessary orders under this act.The Creek Indians.
We copy the following from the Fort Smith (Ark.) Bulletin, of a recent date: It was reported some time since that the Creek Indians had held a secret meeting in their nation and appointed a delegation to proceed to Washington city, for the purpose of representing to the Lincoln Administration that the Creeks were anxious to be once more on good terms with the United States Government; that they had been grossly deceived and misled by the Confederates, and induced to take up arms and fight against the friends of the Union; and that they regretted this, and hoped that they would be forgiven, and if forgiven, they would promise to bring forth fruit meet for repentance. In conformity with the request of some of the leading men of the nation, we pronounce the report without the slightest foundation in truth. --They say that the Creeks have taken their position, believing it to be just and right, and they are determined to maintain it in spite of any and all opposition. They intend to remain as true to the Southern Confederacy as the needle to the pole.Affairs in New Orleans.
A member of Scott's Louisiana Cavalry, who visited New Orleans in disguise several days after the occupation of the city by the Yankees, writes an interesting series of ‘"notes" ’ to the Mobile Advertiser, from which we extract the following: ‘ The Brooklyn, Onelda, (sloops of war and the gunboat Winona, and others, had raced up the river some days before I reached the city. The armament of these gunboats consists of four twelve- pound howitzers on the sides, one eleven-inch rifled cannon, amidships, and a rifled Parrott gun on the bow. Captain Poor, (a Virginian,) commander the Onelda, had been killed during the engagement at the forts; the Brooklyn lost ninety, and the Hartford seventy men, while the four hundred who want down in the Pensacola and the three gunboats that were lost would swell the number to about five hundred. The number of troops in the city would reach five thousand, consisting in part of the Fourth Wisconsin, Twelfth Counselor Twenty-sixth, Thirtieth and Thirty-first Massachusetts, Bridge's battery, and a company of dragoons. Picayune Butler was holding the St. Charles as headquarters, either entrance of which was protected by a guard and two brass pieces.--Few soldiers are to be seen in the city, and they only exercise on the thoroughfares. Two officers were seen to go out driving on the shell road; nothing has been heard of them; it has been suggested, however, that probably they missed their way, and instead of resenting the lake, brought up at the graveyard; the roads are very similar, and it is possible they mistook the one for the other. It was pleasant to see the manly bearing of the citizens; they held themselves entirely aloof from the enemy, and treat them with a silent contempt which is quite refreshing. I was much surprised in the appearance of the Yankee soldiers; I had expected to see them laughing and rejoicing; instead of which I found them a very sad and dejected looking set of men, and don't remember seeing a smile on the countenance of one. They seem to have no spirit, and to be fearing death of disease all the time. There is force enough this day in New Orleans to whip those fellows out were it not for their gunboats. In coming from the city I was asked If I had any arms; on my answering No, I passed out again without trouble. Before I left, arrangements had been made to resume the trains on the Opelousas road for the conveying of provisions; also, to send boats up the Red River for cattle, and for which Butler had pledged them protection. ’Suspicious of the Hunters of Kentucky.
A dispatch from Washington says: ‘ The condition of affairs in Kentucky was the subject of a special Cabinet consultation to-day. General Boyle is here, at the special request of the Military Board of the State, to urge the immediate adoption of measures to protect Union men from the depredations of the bands of rebel marauders which infest the State. It is represented that the exercises of military authority is indispensable to dear with hundreds of returned rebels and rebel sympathizers who are, in various parts of the State, intimidating and oppressing Union men.--Fears are entertained that serious trouble will result from the combination of disloyalties there with a view of influencing the August elections. The State Military Board make a strong appeal for assistance. Numerous instances are cited of recruits for the rebel armies being openly raised, organized, enlisted and marched off. The insolence of thorough sympathizers is said to be intolerable. It is urged that it would be economical to stacked a sufficient military power in Kentucky now, and repress these rebel organizations in their commencement, instead of waiting for them to mature and be compelled to fight them. ’From Washington.
Washington May 14.
--[Cor. N. Y. Herald]--The breakdown of the Arnold Lovejoy bill a the cause of emulation with all the border State Unionists; but other southern to aid the South are in the abolition budget Fears being to be expressed that General Railroad may have to page an unequal contest at Corinth, and that General Muthsllian to fight a desperate battle at Richmond.
Yet the eradicate that the war is at an end. At one moment they are depressed by fourth, and at another wild with Arkansas to property in States which have not yet been received.
It was not front principle, but polish, that many radical Republicans to Mr. 