--The Petersburg
Express has some news direct from
Suffolk.
Four days ago there were about 20,000 Yankees at
Suffolk and between there and
Norfolk.
The rumor which has prevailed here for several days, that
Suffolk was being evacuated, has no foundation in truth.
Many of the large guns mounted while
General Long street was in the vicinity have been removed, and fortifications are being thrown up at Bowers's Hill, eight miles above
Portsmouth.
This probably gave rise to the rumor.
The Yankee pickets now extend only a few miles from
Suffolk, in the direction of
Blackwater, though the cavalry are frequently passing through the country surrounding.
It says:
‘
Our informant was in
Suffolk during the siege of
General Longstreet, and represents the
Yankees as being greatly alarmed.
Had
Longstreet attacked the place on the first day of his arrival, it could have been taken with little loss on our side.
But after reinforcements arrived a determined resistance would have been made.
All the citizens arrested here have been released except
Richard Hozier, who is still held for some cause unknown.
Elisha Norfleet is still a prisoner in
Suffolk, and sick in the hospital.
The depredations have been much increased since
Longstreet's forces retired, and the whole country surrounding
Suffolk is being desolated — scores of families driven out from home without a change of clothes or a mouthful to eat.
The following is a correct list of houses burned during and since the siege of
Longstreet, viz:
Elisha Norfleet's houses on his Hand place, Pugh place, and Rawls place; John R Kilby's Retreat farm; F H
Rawls,
James B Norfleet's Lassiter farm;
Mills E
Riddick,
Mrs Gibbs,
Elisha Everett,
James E
Riddick, H L Eppea's barn and outhouses;
Richard Lawrence, George W
Riddick,
Thomas Briggs, George R
Smith,
Amos Stallings, Franklin Brothers,
Benj D Smith's Jones place,
Irajia Langston, David P
Wright,
Hardy Norfleet, A J Raby,
Mrs J W
Cherry's barn,
Daniel H
Byrd, John D
McClenny,
James R Saunders's Parker place and his mill, N E
Pruden, Nathaniel G
Norfleet, Amos R
Harrel, E J
Pruden,
Mrs Mary Pruden, Richard T Riddick's Keeling place, A W
Turner, Sr, A W
Turner, Jr,
Samuel Eley, and the barn and out-houses of
Jesse Fulghman.
And further up toward the
Blackwater the houses of
John Simons,
Joshua Simons,
Jas M
McClenny, Wm H
Gay, John R
Clements, and Walter H
Eley, have been burned.
The whole country is being ruined.
Many families robbed of everything like clothing and provisions, whose houses have not been burned.
All the records of the
Clerk's office in
Suffolk have been removed to
Fortress Monroe.
The presses and type of the
Christian Sun office have also been carried off North recently.
’
