The Daily Dispatch: January 11, 1864., [Electronic resource]

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Affairs in Norfolk.

--The Norfolk (Va.) Old Dominion says that the "1st U. S. colored cavalry" is nearly enlisted in that city. The officers are taken from the 3d New York cavalry. There are about 160 prisoners in Fort Norfolk, embracing merchants, farmers, soldiers, citizens, women, and negroes. The "O. D." says it has leaked out the exact number of rebels now in the field is 190,000. Butler has appeared in a new character — that of founder of a Magdalene Asylum on Craney Island. The paper says:

‘ We are informed that Gen. Butler is contemplating, if he has not already accomplished, a grand reformatory, industrial, and charitable enterprise, whereby the "social evils," which are so numerous in these two cities, may be transformed into social blessings. It is said that the number of fallen women now in Norfolk and Portsmouth, who make a living by their shame, is not less than twenty-three hundred; This appears almost incredible; but the effect of war, it must be remembered, is "horribly demoralizing." Be that as it may, however, it is now reported that Gen. Butler intends transporting all these unhappy women to Craney Island, where they will be furnished with sewing to do for the soldiers in this department, and enabled to earn a livelihood in a reputable and honest fashion.

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