From camp Wigfall.
[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.]
Camp Wigfall, Prince William Co., June 22.
Last night the camp was aroused about the witching hour by the report of a pistol from our picket guard, quickly followed by a rattling fire of musketry.
The tremulous drumbeats of the inspiriting long roll soon called the companies to the parade ground, where, after waiting in vain for some little time for intelligence from the pickets or the Yankees, Capt.Cleary's company of light infantry, volunteers from the city of Washington, now attached to this command, was ordered to advance as skirmishers, and, dashing into the woods, scoured the country for miles without finding any trace of the enemy.
It seems one of the pickets challenged two men, one carrying a musket, who advanced upon him through the gloom of the woods, and upon their refusal to halt fired upon them, when they immediately fled and were fired upon by the main guard as they passed — Owing to the obscurity of the night they escaped unhurt.
It is thought they were two Federal prisoners who made their escape a short time since from Leesburg, and are believed to be on their way to Alexandria.
Our men were somewhat disappointed in their hopes of a brush with the Yankees, but say they will ‘ "bide their time,"’ and pay the enemy off with compound interest.
The rattle of musketry, cries of ‘"fall in,"’ and pealing roll of the drum, stir up a man's blood very rapidly to the fighting point, and render an affair of the sort a quite pleasurable excitement.
I would advise, from experience, all who may be on outposts to adopt the following plan for being speedily prepared at a call to arms in the night: Lie down with the clothes on, the shoes on the right side of the pallet, the hat just at the head, and the musket and accoutrements on the left side.
Thus prepared, a soldier can, at the slightest alarm, and with the least possible delay, spring from the arms of Morpheus into the proper attitude of a son of Mars.
It appears that the Yankees in the affair at Vienna had a cannon mounted on a car as a swivel, to turn in all directions on a pivot; but this, like all their improved arms, availed them not. God was with us and we slew the invaders by scores.
This morning early, two Federal regulars were captured by a detachment of a Mississippi regiment within a few miles of here, and the vigilance of our troops is at times rewarded by occasional glimpses at most suspicious and toryish looking men. A judicious application of hemp would prove a powerful astringent upon old Abe's means of information as to our movements.
I have not noticed, in your sheet mention of the fact, that a few days since one of our brave soldiers brought into Camp Pickens a Sergeant and Corporal of a Connecticut regiment, whom he had arrested, tied, deprived of their arms (fine rifles, revolvers and bowie-knives,) and brought to headquarters all by himself.
Connecticut gives each of her soldiers $10 per month in addition to the Federal $11; but even this bounty cannot procure men able to stand.
Cos. 