April 4.
To-day an attempt was made by the National forces at Washington, N. C., to capture the rebel battery at Rodman's Point, commanding the Pamlico River, opposite Washington. A force of two hundred infantry, under the command of General Potter, embarked on board the gunboat Ceres, Captain McDermot, but she got aground a short distance from the rebel battery, when the troops were unable to land. The rebels immediately opened fire upon her, killing and wounding five men, when the Union party were obliged to retire.
In retaliation for firing into and disabling the gunboat St. Clair, the gunboat Lexington, under the command of Lieutenant Leroy Fitch, visited the town of Palmyra, Tenn., and after giving the inhabitants time to leave, burned it to the ground.--General George W. Williamson and a Mrs. Atwood were arrested at New York.--The Supreme Court of New York, at Rochester, decided that United States legal tender notes were constitutional as to debts contracted before the passage of the law making such notes a legal tender. All of the judges concurred in the decision.
The National steamer Sylvan Shore, which left Beaufort for Washington, N. C., this morning, when a few miles below the latter place was fired on by a rebel battery, which compelled her to return to Beaufort, with several of her crew killed and wounded.
