The Daily Dispatch: December 19, 1863., [Electronic resource]

The Navigation of the Mississippi by the Yankees appears to be very similar to the navigation of the river Jordan, which in the popular mind is supposed to be a hard road to travel. Memphis papers, of the 1st, say that the steamer Mill Boy had been sunk on the White River, and guerillas have made their appearance at Island 65, and give the following account of the work done by Taylor's batteries:

‘ From passengers who arrived on the steamer Nebraska, from New Orleans, we learn the following particulars concerning matters on the river.--It appears that Dick Taylor, with a force estimated at thirteen hundred, has been operating near the mouth of Red river. His object appears to be to destroy boats engaged in navigating the Mississippi.

’ A small battery was recently placed on the west bank of the river at Waterproof, a few miles above Natchez. The steamer Welcome was fired into by this battery, and several large holes made in her.--Although several shots struck her, yet we learn that no one was injured. Several head of cattle were killed. Subsequently a battery was placed in position on the west bank of the river, a short distance below the mouth of Red river. The steamer Emerald in passing down received several shots, but we did not learn that much damage was done. The small gunboat, No. 3, which passed about the same time, received two or three shots, and had two or three wounded. --The next day as the steamer Black Hawk was approaching the point on her way from New Orleans in Vicksburg, she was saluted by a terrible fire of shot and shell.

One shot blew off a part of the pilot house and took off the leg of Sam Falton, her pilot. A second shot killed a colored man, taking his head completely off. A shell entered the texas, setting it on fire. By the presence of mind of the mate the boat was headed to a bar almost in front of the enemy's battery, and the passengers were landed. The fiends on shore fired a charge of grape and canister.

A gunboat very opportunely arrived, and changed the face of affairs by compelling the rebels to take to their heels and escape the best way they could. The flames on the Black Hawk were extinguished after the pilot house and the texas was wholly consumed. A staging was afterwards erected, and a wheel extemporized, in which condition she was taken to New Orleans for repairs.

Those who have been on board of her say that she was perfectly riddled with shot, and it is wonderful that no more were injured. Although the rebels have been driven from the bank of the river, transports in that vicinity are convoyed by gunboats.