February 8.
The expedition sent by General Butler, with the object of making a sudden dash into Richmond, Va., and releasing the Union prisoners confined there, returned, having been unsuccessful. The following are the facts of the affair: On Saturday morning, February sixth, General Butler's forces, under command of Brigadier-General Wistar, marched from Yorktown by the way of New Kent Court-House. The cavalry arrived at half-past 2 o'clock yesterday morning at Bottom's Bridge, across the Chickahominy, ten miles from Richmond, for the purpose of making a raid into Richmond, and endeavoring, by a surprise, to liberate the prisoners there. The cavalry reached the bridge at the time appointed, marching, in sixteen hours and a half, forty-seven miles. A force of infantry followed in their rear, for the purpose of supporting them. It was expected to surprise the enemy at Bottom's Bridge, who had had for some time only a small picket there. The surprise failed, because, as the Richmond Examiner of to-day says, “a Yankee deserter gave information in Richmond of the intended movement.” The enemy had felled a large amount of timber, so as to block up and obstruct the roads and make it impossible for our cavalry to pass. After remaining at the bridge from two o'clock until twelve, General Wistar joined them with his infantry, and the whole object of the surprise having been defeated, they all returned to Williamsburgh. On his march back to New Kent Court-House, his rear was attacked by the enemy, but they were repulsed without loss. A march by the Union infantry, three regiments of whom were colored, of more than eighty miles, was. made in fifty-six hours. The cavalry marched over one hundred miles in fifty hours.
The office of the newspaper Constitution and Union, at Fairfield, Iowa, edited by David Sheward, was visited by company E, Second Iowa, to-day. The type and paper were thrown out of the windows, and subscription-books destroyed.
General Foster telegraphed from Knoxville, under date o yesterday, that an expedition sent against Thomas and his band of Indians and whites, at Quallatown, N. C., had returned completely successful. They surprised the town, killed and wounded two hundred and fifteen, took fifty prisoners, and dispersed the remainder of the gang in the mountains. The Union loss was two killed and six wounded.--General Grant's Despatch.
