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[318] troops on their brilliant and hard-won victory of the fourteenth. Their courage, their patience, their endurance of fatigue, exposure and toil, cannot be too highly praised. After a tedious march, dragging their howitzers by hand through swamps and thickets, after a sleepless night passed in a drenching rain, they met the enemy in his chosen position, found him protected by strong earthworks, mounting many heavy guns, and although in open field themselves, they conquered. With such soldiers, advance is victory. The General commanding directs, with peculiar pride, that, as a well-deserved tribute to valor in this second victory of the expedition, each regiment engaged shall inscribe on its banner the memorable name, “Newbern.”

By command of Brig.-Gen. A. E. Burnside. Lewis Richmond, Assistant Adjutant-General.

And here is another, which will serve to show the quality of man that Gen. Burnside is:

headquarters Department of North-Carolina, Newbern, March 15, 1862.
special orders, No. 51.

. . . . . . . .

4. Brig.-Gen. J. G. Foster is hereby appointed Military Governor of Newbern and its suburbs, and will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

5. Brig.-Gen. J. G. Foster, Military Governor of Newbern, will direct that the churches be opened at a suitable hour to-morrow, in order that the chaplains of the different regiments may hold divine services in them. The bells will be rung as usual.

. . . . . . . .

By command of Brig.-Gen. A. E. Burnside. Lewis Richmond, Assistant Adjutant-General.

It has always been the General's practice to avoid unnecessary labor on Sunday, and he never starts on any expedition on that day when it can possibly be avoided. What a commentary is this General Order for the observance of the day, on the scurrilous stories spread by rebel leaders among the deluded people of these Southern States!

The number of the enemy in the batteries actually opposed to us has not been ascertained, but from the statements of rebel officers it could not have been less than eight regiments. It is stated at headquarters that there were two more regiments at the Newbern camp.

The value of the public property captured here is enormous, consisting of fifty-three heavy cannon and field-pieces, ammunition, quartermaster's and commissary stores, camps and camp equipage, horses, transportation, and naval stores in large quantities, cotton, etc. Probably two million dollars would not purchase the articles at first hand. But the victory is the more important from the fact that it places Beaufort and Fort Macon at our mercy, and opens up to us by railroad the direct lines of communication between the rebel army and the country which supports it. Perhaps the public North can give a shrewd guess as to our next place of destination. We can here, but we will not divulge it until the next mail, which will leave here in a few days. By that opportunity I hope to send a correct map of the field of battle, with the positions occupied by the several regiments of this victorious army.



The operations of the gunboats.

Newbern, March 16, 1862.
To return to the movements of the gunboats of the expedition, and the attacks on the rebel batteries, we will leave the point where the troops landed, and follow the Delaware, (Commodore Rowan's flagship,) which took the advance, followed by the Southfield, Hetzel, Brinka, Stars and Stripes, Louisiana, Underwriter, Commodore Perry, Picket, Vidette, and a few others whose names it is impossible for me to call to mind at the present moment. The reason of Commodore Rowan being in command was, that as soon as the news reached the fleet of the attack by the Merrimac on our vessels at Fortress Monroe, Commodore Goldsborough was so uneasy, that he immediately returned to Old Point, leaving the direction of the naval movements in the hands of the next officer in rank. Commodore Rowan consequently took charge, and he is deserving of the highest praise for the splendid manner in which every thing relating to the gunboats was conducted.

Immediately below the city of Newbern the rebels had placed an almost impassable barrier to the passage of vessels, hoping thereby to prevent the fleet from coming to the city. It was situated about six miles below Newbern, and consisted of a number of sunken vessels, placed in such a position and locked so firmly together as to make it appear a matter of the utmost impossibility to do anything with them, or to make an attempt to pass them; but Commodore Rowan was not to be deterred by anything that could be accomplished by human means only, and he made up his mind to pass the obstructions, and pass them he did. In the centre of the river is a shoal, which required no guarding, its light depth being its best protection; but on the right and left sides there is a deep channel, and these the rebels closed up, or at least tried to do so, by the following means: On the right-hand side, approaching Newbern, were sunk, in a direct line, twenty-four vessels, of different size and rig. There were two brigs, three barks, and nineteen schooners, ranging from fifty to two hundred tons. As I mentioned before, these were locked into one another, stem and stem, and, with their long masts pointing in every conceivable direction, was as effective a blockade as could be got up for the occasion. Their running and standing rigging was in almost every case perfect, and the vessels themselves appeared to be of a much better class than it is customary to use for such purposes; but probably they did not stop to consider such trifles, but laid their hands on the first they could get, to put an end to the dreaded approach of the “Yankee hordes.” On the lefthand side there were no vessels sunk, but a much


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