Our own correspondence.
Affairs in Portsmouth — the Congressional Nominating meeting — Bayonets at the door — the tyrannical Rule in the city, &c., &c. Portsmouth, Va., Dec. 17, 1863
I you days since, giving you such us had then some to hand.
I continue the second, that your readers may four a little of what is going on in this and our sister .
To-day we are jubilant over the result of the recent battle, as we gather its from Northern journals.
The case is too desperate even for there to put a good from no it, and with such evidence we know that an awful, overwhelming disaster has overtaken them.
The Herald, characterizes the result as a decided repulse, and says that the finest and best equipped army the world ever saw has been defeated by half the number of "fifty, suchless, half-starved rebels." The officers in command are exonerated for this failure, but the Secretary of War gain it unsparingly.
The Herald thinks Gen Lee would have selected the name taken by Burnside, if allowed a word in the matter, and that the latter has played right into the rebel Commands in Chief." It also admits the campaign in Virginia a nature for the winter.
The papers estimate their less at 10,000--about half, we think.
A gentleman just in from the North represents the feeling as very intense there, and says that the discussions over the defect are very angry and excited; one side urging the raising of more troops, and the other opposing it upon the grounds that the Government and its Generals are all feel, and that they are tired of adding the "rebels" the shoes, clothes, provisions, &c., Rumors, in force are on the streets, but nothing reliable.
The New York Herald account for the failure of an attempt of the Yankees to cross Block water by saying that the river rose very suddenly!
Confederate gone rose much more suddenly, and its reports, from good sources, be true, many Yankees fell to arise no more.
To-day the tory "mass meeting" met in Oxford Hall, in this city, to dominate a candidate for the Federal Congress.
A Yankee soldier, with fixed bayonet, guarded the door, and a Yankee band discoursed Yankee Doodle and Hall Columbia inside Gen. John B. McCland, an individual known as the "tooth pick man," from his borrowing a gentleman's tooth pick at a public table, was nominated.
A little tory,--a conceited little tory, a contemptible little tory,--John O'Lawrence by name, and former Mayor of this city, asked for the nomination for three hours last night; but, after the most infamous acknowledgments and devilish declarations, his tory friends rudely laid him on the shelf, Leopold Catiline Cowper was disposed of in the same manner.
The next thing is to vote, and those failing to exercise this right of a freeman, will, according to Dix, he made to suffer "all the pains and penalties of disloyalty." Such is the "proclamation" of Gen. Dly, a paper noted for being the coolest specimen of absurd lying extant.
As a general thing, to be a Yankee is to be a liar.
The Administration at Washington have lied so much that its own people would be astonished were it to tell the truth, even through mistake; its Generals lie in obedience to orders and in "accordance with or stablished usage;" and Dix, in asserting his belief that a majority of the legal voters of this district are loyal to the United States authority, gives evidence that he is not behind the best of them in deliberate, premeditated, unblushing falsifying N a majority are loyal, why threaten, a minority with "pains and penalties" for not voting?
The indignation of the people of Norfolk was considerably excited the other day by seeing a negro selling sentinel in front of the Atlantic Hotel.
The feeling, however, was checked by an order for the arrest of the offender and the soldier who placed him in such a position.
The dead bodies of some eight or ten officers were brought down on the Petersburg road a few days since.
Report says they were a few of those killed in the recent fight near Zuni.
In my last I remained that we had not a Butter to role over us. It is true; but we have a tyrant or tyrants, notwithstanding.
In our Military Governor we have a man whose manners would indicate him to be of the "blood royal." He assumes "princely" airs; is sometimes condescending, but generally haughty even to roughness to his inferiors. Ladies are occasionally ordered to leave his presence, and a favor is granted when his humble subjects behave themselves.
He would be a gentleman if he knew how. Such is Brigadier-General Vicle. One Capt Asron Secley, of the 19th Wisconsin is an important individual on his staff.
He is a dirty little counter-jumping despot, as cowardly as he is tyrannical, and perhaps, a little more so. The Provost Judge, Col. Sanders, of the 19th Wisconsin, has but one feet for deciding all questions, civil or military,--"Are you loyal to the United States?" A negative answer subjects either plaintiff or defendant to the grossest injustice; deprives him of his property or sends him to a dungeon.
The Provost of this city is a negroid, and the emancipation proclamation is now — and has been — in full force.
Negroes receive papers to leave their owners always upon application; and a dispute between black and white has but one result, the condemnation of the latter.
Merchants and business men have until the 25th to repent of their sine and return to the fold of Abe Lincoln.
Should they fail to avail themselves of the proffered mercy, their places of business will be closed, and the keys passed over to General Vicle.
A general closing is anticipated.
Many persons are anxious to get away from here, but it is impossible — no passes are granted to males, save upon taking the cath — and to leave secretly is out of the question; the pickets are too thickly posted.
The destruction of private property in the suburbs goes on briskly; it is a feast to negroes and toiles.
December 18th.--The World in tremendous on the Administration and Gen. Helleck to day, and thinks that the army will never be at near Richmond as when under McClellan.
The Herald is also very severe.
The Federal loss is now estimated at 20,000; the World says 20,000 cripples have been made.
More troops arrived to day, and will go forth with to Suffolk.
They are being constantly sent forward, and a heavy force must be concentrating near Black water.
The weather to-day is excessively cold, and the poor are suffering greatly.
Relief there is none. S.
