Additional from the North.
We have received Northern papers of the 16th through the courtesy of the officers of the
Exchange Bureau, and make the following summary of intelligence therefrom:
Meade at Washington — Lincoln's Congratulator by order.
In Washington information has been received that
Gen. Lee is extending his "already formidable" works on the
Rapidan.
The railroad is now used by
Meade as far as Warrenton Junction.--
Gen. Meade and his
Adjutant-General were in
Washington on the 15th inst. A dispatch from the army, dated the 14th, says:
‘
A reconnaissance was made by the enemy yesterday in the vicinity of
Stevensburg, which is occupied by
Kilpatrick's cavalry.
Not more than half a dozen shells were thrown on either side, and on the advance of our cavalry the enemy retired.
No one was injured on our side.
As the rebels advanced from the direction of
Pony Mountain, my informant, a
Lieutenant-Colonel, who was present, believed the report that
Kilpatrick has taken
Pony Mountain incorrect.
’
The railroad will be repaired and in running order to
Culpeper on the 15th inst. The bridge to be placed across the river at Rappahannock Station is completed, and will be erected to-day or tomorrow.
The railroad is in order to a point three miles west of Bealton, to which place trains run. The weather for two days past has been delightfully pleasant, and the roads are still in excellent condition.
The following is the dispatch sent by
Lincoln to
General Meade, and published to the army on the 10th instant:
I have seen your dispatches about operations on the
Rappahannock on Saturday, and I wish to say "Well done."
A Lincoln.
The barbarous habit of picket shooting has been revived by the rebels, and our men find it necessary to keep well under cover unless they are anxious to be made targets of. The enemy still present a strong front on the
South bank of the
Rapidan, and the river being very low makes guarding it a task of trying difficulty.
Intercepted Correspondence — effect of the withdrawal of Mr. Mason from London — the emigration from Ireland to. The United States.--the feeling in France towards the Confederacy.
The Northern papers publish the following letter from
Mr. Ed. de Leon to
Secretary Benjamin.
It was captured on the
Ella and
Annie, a blockade running steamer; which was intercepted on her way from
Nassau to
Wilmington.
They say that there are a great many more letters, which have been sent to
Washington, and which will be published as soon as
Lincoln is through with them:
"Your dispatch No. 3, 15th August last, was delivered to me by
Dr. Charles Girard, on the 16th instant, and in conformity with the instructions therein contained I write you, via
Bermuda, by the first post, and shall continue my communications by each successive steamer for that port.
Since your last dispatch was written you have doubtless received my Nos. 8 and 9, and it is scarcely necessary for me to observe that, had the views and intentions of the Administration been previously confided to me, the strength of my language, on one measure of policy since adopted, would have been greatly modified, however unchanged my private opinion might have remained.
The withdrawal of
Mr. Mason from
London has had Southern question, and awakening the public in
England from their dream of continued non-intervention.
From all sources of information in my power, and from the expressed views of intelligent English friends, I am led to believe that the public feeling in
England finds true expression in the editorials from the
Times of 25th and 27th, which are herewith enclosed.
The greatest recoil of the measure has been against
Lord John Russell, personally.
His speech, apologetic and vindicatory of his own course, is the reply to your challenge, and it proves that he will persist in his policy to the bitter end, and is even ready to overstep the law in order to afford offence to the
Washington Government.
The delivery of this speech is too recent to permit me to inform you of English sentiment in regard to it.
The commentary of the
Times will show that even that obsequious echo of the Ministry does not accept and reiterate Lord Russell's views without a protest, and should he venture to carry into execution the threats he has made of violating the law and asking a bill of indemnity from Parliament, the experiment may cost him his place; the sympathy of the
British people for us is growing stronger every day, and in the same ratio so their antipathy for the
Yankees.
To foster and increase these favorable dispositions.
I have caused various publications to be made in
England, on the topics of Cotton, Slavery, the Oath of Allegiance, Federal Fabrications, and kept up a running fire through the
English press.
Some of these publications shall be sent you by the first opportunity which presents for sending packages.
After the disposal of the
Roebuck motion, the rapid increase of Federal recruitment in
Ireland attracted much attention, and I deemed it advisably to visit that country to see if anything could be done to check it. During three weeks residence, chiefly in
Dublin, with a visit to
Belfast, in the north of
Ireland, I succeeded in unmasking and exposing the enemy's battery, and enlisted the aid of some powerful auxiliaries in the press and pulpit to stop this cruel and cowardly crumping of recruits under pretext of employment on Northern railways.
Many knew the real nature of the services required of them, but many more were entrapped by promise of high wages, their contract containing a clause that they would take the preliminary "oath of renunciation" on their arrival in
America.
This at once would make them subject to the draft.
Another drag put upon them was the exhortation to the women to accompany their husbands, as the promised wages were so high, so that the
Yankees now get a good deal of dross with their good metal.
The number of actual recruits thus obtained from
Ireland, for the past year, up to August, cannot have exceeded twenty thousand able-bodied men, but has probably reached that figure.
When the harvest time is over the
Yankees hope to make a grand haul, but we hope their nets will not hold.
The men of intelligence who see the drain thus made of the very bone and sinew of the country, resist it from policy and patriotism.
The priests, who are generally conscientious and earnest men, and who live on voluntary contributions of their parishioners, are bent on arresting the exodus.
The only party favorable to the
Yankees is the silly and mischievous clique of demagogues who style themselves "Young Irelanders," of whom
General Meagher used to be one of the shining lights, and these men make themselves busy in selling their countrymen for the
Yankee shambles.
No step has been or will be taken by the
British Government to stop this wholesale deportation, for two reasons.
First, from the difficulty of proof of actual enlistment; and second, because of the unwillingness of Lord Russell to wound the susceptibilities of
Mr. Seward, of whose conduct he has "no complaint to make."
The priests, the press, and the public opinion, may supply the shortcomings of the
Government in this respect.
At least the attempt is making and shall continue to be made.
Having called, of course, as a private individual on the
Lord Lieutenant, the
Earl of
Carlisle, an old acquaintance, I was most courteously and kindly received, and had a long conversation with him on this and kindred topics.
Subsequently I dined with him, when we again discussed the whole matter.
He admitted the existence of the evil of emigration and the powerlessness of Government in the matter.
Here, in
France, I see no change either in the attitude of the
Government or in the popular sentiment.
In fact, until the arrival of the
Florida at
Brest, allusions to the
Confederacy (except those supplied by our friends in the press) were becoming very rare.
The Polish question and the
Mexican entirely obscured ours, in which Frenchmen have really felt but little interest.
The sympathy at first felt for the
Federals has been forfeited by their brutality and insolence; a kind of vague admiration for the heroism of our people has succeeded, but not lively enough to prompt any action nor give us any reasonable hopes of it.
The arrival of the
Florida, and the questions which arose, excited an interest, but that, too, has now died away, and even the arrival of the
Federal vessel, the
Kearsarge, and her admission into the same docks, have not revived it. Her visit has been important, however, in settling some vexed questions, as the inclosed extracts from the
Moniteur, France and Pays will show.
The extract from the latter print, which is now the organ of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, threw a wet blanket over our too sanguine friends, who predicted French intervention on the acknowledgment of our belligerent rights by French on water as on land.
The Emperor is now at
Biarritz, where every year all the world are admitted informally to the reunions of the
Emperor, and French royalty goes
en dishabille. Mr. Sildell's family have passed the winter there, and he himself for the last month has been there.
The
Court next week will be transferred to Compeigne, where none can go except by invitation.
Here the
Emperor will receive the
Mexican deputation, after their visit to Prince Maximilian, near
Trieste, and some people hope he may say something hearing on our question.
I entertain no such hope.
The withdrawal of
Mr. Mason from
London makes the
Emperor more than ever master of the situation, the only rivalry he feared being thus withdrawn.
He can amuse us with
Mexican alliances, in lien of more practical intervention, in the belief that we shall continue to be very grateful for very small favors.
Neither the British Parliament nor the
French Chambers will meet till February next, and until then the game is entirely in his own hands, Earl Russell's speech having relieved his mind of any change in
England's inactivity.
I sincerely hope that the intention of the
Emperor may be more practical, but I can only judge by the lights before me.
The
Johnson's Island plot has loomed up into a conspiracy of gigantic dimensions.
Major General Dix, who was ordered to
Buffalo, N. Y., arrived there on the night of the 15th inst. A large force of infantry and two batteries of artillery were sent to
Johnson's Island on Thursday, and eight hundred men of the 12th Ohio cavalry left
Cleveland on Friday for the same place.
A report obtains in
Buffalo that a tunnel had been discovered from the prisoners' quarters on the
Island to some woods several hundred feet distant, and about six hundred muskets found concealed in it. The plot is said to have been to seize the
United States steamer
Michigan and two of the
New York Central propellers, and make a raid upon the shipping.
Additional information shows their design to turn and lay waste the cities of
Buffalo,
Cleveland,
Detroit, and every other town from
Ogdensburg to
Chicago, and to obliterate entirely the commerce of
Lake Erie.
Vallandigham,
James Clay, and
Marshal Kane, are said to have been the "arch-conspirators." Reports from
Sandusky say that everything is quiet in that vicinity, and that all the preparations are made to guard against danger.
There were no indications on the part of the rebel prisoners at
Johnson's Island of an intention to escape.
The Washington
Star says that
Hon. Preston King was dispatched to
Montreal on the 14th, to confer with the
Canadian authorities-relative to the alleged plot. --The Detroit
Free Press gives the following frightened exposure of the plot:
‘
The scheme is worthy the ingenuity and audacity of the rebel leaders, and if it is not fully successful it will be in consequence of the vigilance of the officers of the
Government, assisted by the detectives whom they have employed in ferreting out and bringing it to light.
The scheme comprehends no less than the seizure of
Detroit and its occupation during the winter, and the organization of a rebel army to take the field in the spring as an active invading force against
Michigan,
Ohio, and
Indiana.
The public may feel a very natural curiosity to know how this is to be done.
’
It is estimated that there are in the neighboring provinces of
Canada not less than one hundred thousand able-bodied men; refugees from the
Southern States and deserters from the
Union armies, who are well drilled and may in a short time be organized into an army of thoroughly disciplined soldiers.
It is known that they are already pinched with want, and it is calculated that as the season advances they will be driven by destitution to any desperate adventure that promises relief from starvation and exposure.
These men are relied upon to furnish the material for the enterprise.
Detroit is selected as the field of operations from its nearness to the
Canadian frontier, and hence its facility of communication not only for procuring men and supplies, but also doubtless as affording a tolerably safe means of escape to the leaders of the movement in case of disaster.
A necessary part of the scheme is a naval force.
How is this to be procured?
will be asked.
If our information is correct it is already at hand.
Every one will call to mind the frequent mention in the telegraphic dispatches of the escape of blockade runners from the port of
Wilmington, and their arrival at
Halifax.
These vessels, most of them, are compactly built, swift, light draught streamers.
Besides the supplies of cotton and other articles of commerce taken from the rebel ports, they carry regular commissions as part of the
Confederate heavy, and such armament as is suited to their tonnage and capacity.
The fact of their coming from a Confederate port bearing those commissions, will relieve them from the objections urged against British-built vessels, like the
Alabama and others, which have never touched at a port under rebel jurisdiction.
These vessels, after having procured what supplies they could at
Halifax without violating the neutrality laws, are to start ostensibly on a cruise, but will make their way directly up the
St. Lawrence, through
Lake Ontario, the
Walland canal, and
Lake Erie, and taking position in the river opposite
Detroit, demand its unconditional surrender.
This plot is entirely consistent with the lately discovered conspiracy in
Cincinnati to seize the steamer
Michigan and release the prisoners confined on
Johnson's Island, in
Sandusky bay, and that conspiracy was doubtless a part, though by no means a necessary part, of it. The plot is a novel one, but it must be confessed not more rash than many warlike enterprises that meet with success.
The defenceless condition of our take coast and towns not only suggests but invites some such enterprise, and
Detroit, from its location, seems best adapted for its execution.
A dispatch from
Washington says:
‘
It is understood here from
Canada that
Vallandigham,
Hemy Clay's beautiful son James, and that pardoned villain,
Marshal Kane, had fully arranged for passing through the
Walland canal an armed steamer whose mission was:
’
First--To open the prison doors for captive rebels at
Sandusky bay. Second--To arm and equip these veterans, over two thousand in number.-- Third--To seize as many propellers on
Lake Erie as were needed, and arm and man them.-- Fourth--To make
Buffalo a heap of ashes, and her vessels in port charred skeletons.
Fifth--To burn
Cleveland.
Sixth--To wipe out the commerce of
Lake Erie. Seventh--To consume
Detroit, and in effect to destroy the commerce and cities of the
Lakes, from
Ogdensburg to
Chicago, almost at a blow.
Lord Lyons got out of bed after midnight to communicate the news to
Mr. Seward, and afterward the
Secretary of War was got up and got to the wires of the military telegraph.
We hear from the
West to-night that, by telegraph received at
Buffalo on Thursday morning, the sloop of-war
Michigan was ordered off the mouth of the
Walland Canal, with the approval of Lord Lyons, to smash that Secesh steam if she came through.
A telegram from
Toronto, Canada, dated the 14th, says:
‘
The
Advertiser, a secession newspaper, to-day admits the failure of the rebel plot, and, says that the Confederate Government, in fitting out the steamer R. E
Lee, from
Wilmington to
Halifax, with a cargo, was to furnish the necessary funds.
Thirty-six officers and three hundred men were to come over in small parties and meet at a general rendezvous.
It was their intention to surprise the
Federal garrison on
Johnson's Island, liberate the prisoners there, and convey them into
Canada.--They did not intend to violate British neutrality, but only to rescue two thousand men from such wretched quarters, designed to kill them by slow degrees.
’
Yankee version of the French action about the Confederate rams.
A telegram from
Washington, dated the 15th inst., says:
‘
The authorization which was granted by the
French Government to
Mr. Annan for building and arming ships-of-war at Nantz and
Bordeaux was obtained by him on the false pretences that they were to be sold to the
Chinese Government, and to be used in the waters of
China.
’
It was not known nor suspected that these vessels were designed for the rebels of the
United States.
Information of that design was obtained by this Government only a short time ago, and the
French Government promptly revoked the authorization when that information was laid before the
Emperor.
Justice to
France requires that this statement should be made to correct misapprehension on a subject in regard to which
France has acted with good faith towards the
United States.
A correspondent of the Baltimore
American writes from
Charleston as late as the 3d inst. There is nothing new in his letter.
He says:
‘
Since Sunday afternoon no flag has been displayed from the fort.
On that morning it was shot away, but was replaced by a daring rebel, who, after rehoisting it, waved his cap in defiance and escaped to his hiding place.
In the afternoon it was again shot away, and another attempt was made to rehoist it. A shell, however, exploded over it, and when the smoke cleared off nothing was to be seen of the flag, staff, or the man engaged in the attempt.
Since then the fort has been flagless, but the rebels still show their presence by the regular discharge of a morning and evening gun from the ruins.
It is presumed our fire will be kept up until nothing but a mass of sand and dirt remaing within which it will be impossible for either party to find refuge.
The inert resistance of the vast mass of rubbish composing the gorge wall is very great, and to strengthen this the rebels have formed an immense traverse of sand bags.
A great amount of labor must have been expended by them on this work, as the traverse is estimated to be twenty feet thick and from twenty to thirty feet high.
Through both these obstructions
Gen. Gillmore has to bore before he can effectively reach that part of the fort which is still tenable.
Though slow, the work is sure to be accomplished.
Already we can see changes in the aspect of the front against which our fire is directed, the wall of which is being perceptibly lowered and the sand barrier demolished, and not many days can elapse before the interior wall will he opened to a "fire in the rear," and the last rebel driven perforce from the stronghold they have so tenaciously held.
’
Condition of the prisoners at Richmond whom the United States Refuse to Exchange.
The condition of the prisoners of war at
Richmond is exciting a general lamentation at the
North.
The stories told by returned prisoners are startling.
One who arrived at
Annapolis from
Belle Isle said the ration there was a piece of dry bread and a piece of meat about "as big as the head of a pin." This alarming intelligence was immediately telegraphed to the
Baltimore papers.
The
American publishes the following list of articles sent from
Baltimore for the relief of prisoners $2,000 in
Virginia money.
To Libby prison, 526 bbls flour, 13 bbls. mess beet, 12 bbls. mess pork, 1 bbl,
corn meal, and I sack of sail, and the same amount to
Belle Isle.
The "loyal citizens" of
Baltimore have contributed $272. The Federal authorities at
Baltimore have received satisfactory letters that the articles sent are faithfully distributed.
A
Connecticut Chaplain named
Trumbull, who left the Libby on the 11th inst., contributes the following to the narrative of grievances:
‘
The rations of meat to the officers in Libby prison had been stopped for two days, and was not likely to be resumed.
The only ration served out to them was a small wedge of dry corn bread, weighing less than a half pound. This they were expected to subsist on for twenty-four hours. The officer in change confessed that the prisoners on
Belle Isle were starving, and that he had not, and could not, procure food for them.
For twenty-four hours not the slightest articles in the way of food had been given to them, and up to noon on the second day they had received nothing.
’
The New York
Times takes the following blood and thunder view of this matter:
‘
These noble defenders of the
Union must not be left longer to their agonies.
It will be a crime before humanity and high Heaven for our Government to allow this thing to go on. At any cost, at any sacrifice, it must be ended.
We cannot reason these demons into any just exchange and it is useless again to attempt it. To undertake to frighten them into it by similar barbarities upon their prisoner impossible, for it would but make us devils also.
We have no way but to yield.
Give them their demands.
Concede anything, everything, no matter what, if it will only ransom these heroes from the gripe of their tormentors while life yet flickers.
We can afford it. The world will take account of the contrast in the spirit of the two parties to this war, and it will ensure vastly to the moral power of the national cause.
Every soldier in the field will also take account of it, and his nerves will be strange to a yet keener vigor for a just retribution upon these enemies of himself and his country.
We adjure the
Government to deliver those thirteen thousand
Richmond prisoners.
In the name of their gallant deeds for their country's flag — in the name of the mothers and wives, and sisters and children, whose hearts are wrung with the tidings of their sufferings — in the name of the sensibilities of every loyal man in the
Republic — in the name of civilization — in the name of humanity — in the name of God--we demand that these victims of Confederate fiendishness shall be rescued, at whatever cost."
’
Miscellaneous.
Major General Schenck, in
Baltimore, has issued an order prohibiting any one visiting the
Confederate prisoners in hospitals there.
Brig.-Gen. Lockwood reports from
Drummondtown, Va., on the 15th, his coast guard the day before captured a small party of Confederate raiders on the
Chesapeake shore, and that on the same day one of his coasting vessels fell in with and captured
Capt. John T. Beall himself, three commissioned officers, and six men. He thinks this will put an end to the depredations in that department.
The Yankee Government intends to recruit eleven regiments of negro troops in
Maryland.
Lincoln commenced the preparation of his Message to Congress on Saturday.
He did not see many visitors, but managed to spare time for a lengthy interview with
Governor Curtin, of
Pennsylvania.
All the contraband in
Washington, dependent on the
Government for support, are to be quartered South of the
Potomac.
They have become a nuisance.
Senator Congress, of
California, has presented
Lincoln with an "elegant, gold headed hickory cane, formerly owned by the late
Senator Broderick.
The Washington Government has determined to close the port of
Wilmington, N. C., at any expense, and such swift steamers as can be spared are being sent to that point.
Major Myers, chief of the. U. S. Signal Corps, has been relieved and exiled to
Memphis, Tenn.
Richard Liddell,
Lemuel C. Mathews, and
Henry J. Cooper, arraigned in
Baltimore for having Confederate scrip in their possession, were discharged upon showing that
the whole of it was counterfeit.
Lt. Budd recently drew $28,318 as his individua share of the capture of three blockade-running ships — the
Memphis, Britannia, and Victory.
A profitable business.
General Foster, who succeeds
General Burnside, will reach
Knoxville in a day or two.
Gen. Burnside is ill with dysemery.
