Through the courtesy of the officers of the
Exchange Bureau, we are placed in possession of New York files of the 10th and previous dates.
We give such a summary of their news as our space will allow:
Kilpatrick's raid — its Results — the death of Dahlgren.
The papers have very few details of the "miserable raid," as the
Herald calls it, on
Richmond.--The correspondent of the New York
Tribune telegraphs from
Washington the following brief particulars of
Kilpatrick's share in it:
On Monday he reached the
Virginia Central road and tore up the track in four places, destroying whatever property could be rendered useless.
At Frederick's Hall, on the
Central road, they came upon a Court Martial, peacefully holding its session, and captured a Colonel, and five
Captains and two
Lieutenants.
General Lee had passed over the railroad on the way to his army but about an hour before our men reached it. Leaving Frederick's Hall on Monday, they pushed on to
Richmond a detachment of five hundred men under
Colonel,
Dahlgren, while
General Kilpatrick with the main body moved upon
Ashland, both parties scouting the country thoroughly and doing all possible damage.
Col. Dahlgren was to move down to the right of
Richmond, destroying the
James River Canal, and then taking the river road, was to cross opposite and enter the city from the south side, and attempt the deliverance of the prisoners on
Belle Island.
Gen. Kilpatrick, with his main body, was to attack the city by the
Brook Turnpike simultaneously.
It was hoped to reach the city on Monday night, or early on the following morning, when a surprise could be effected.
Col. Dahlgren had taken a negro to pilot him to
Richmond.
His detachment had rapidly moved across the country, destroying farms and forage, when
Dahlgren discovered that the negro had betrayed him, and led him towards
Goochland instead of to
Richmond.
On Tuesday morning he found himself miles in an opposite direction.
The negro was promptly hung, and exasperated by this treachery the men burned the barns and out-buildings of
James A. Seddon, the rebel
Secretary of War.
Retracing his steps,
Col. Dahlgren marched down the river road, destroying the
Dover flour mills, several private flouring establishments and saw mills.
His force also did considerable damage to the
James river canal boats, and damaging one or two locks.
They did not reach the immediate vicinity of
Richmond till the afternoon, when everybody was on the alert,
Kilpatrick having already made his attack.
One party attempted to cross the river, but were repulsed.
A very sharp fight ensued, and our force were compelled to fall back.
In attempting to cut their way out
Major Cook, of the 2d New York, with about one hundred and fifty men, got separated from the rest.
The other detachments succeeded in rejoining
Gen Kilpatrick, but nothing has been heard of this one.
Strong hopes are entertained that, with his usual determination, he has cut his way through with at least a part of his hundred and fifty men.
Gen. Kilpatrick had advanced down the
Brook pike from
Ashland, having torn up the rails at that point, destroying the telegraph line, etc. At one station the operator succeeded in sending a dispatch to
Richmond announcing that the
Yankees were coming.
Our troops reached the outer fortification early on Tuesday morning. Riding rapidly forward the outer line of works was entered, and the rebels, being surrounded, threw down their arms — many of them surrendering, and others taking to their heels.
A fight ensued for the next line, but the batteries were too much for them, and so with his battery
Gen. Kilpatrick opened upon the city.
Acting the wiser part, however,
Gen. K., hearing the shrill whistle of the locomotive, which told o the bringing up of reinforcements from
Gen. Pickett's brigade at
Dutton's bridge and vicinity, he reluctantly gave the order to move towards
Mechanicsville.
On
Monday Gen Butler received orders to send over a force to meet
Gen. Kilpatrick and assist him if necessary.
This force was sent and the two returned to
Williamsburg.
The force picked up on their way one of the escaped prisoners,
a Col. Watson or
Watkins, of
Ohio.
Over 500 prisoners were taken; but from the nature of the expedition it was impossible to bring them in. The casualties have not yet been ascertained.
Col. Dahlgren,
Major Cook, and
Lieut. Colonel Litchfield, with about 150 men, are missing.
The latter officer is known to have been wounded.
The following telegram from
Yorktown, dated the 8th inst., tells the fate of
Dahlgren and his party:
‘
The gunboat
Morse,
Lieut. Commander Bacock, left here Sunday, 6th inst., at noon, to afford relief to
Col. Dahlgren's party.
On Monday, 7th instant, at 7 A. M., near
West Point, the
Morse picked up five men who had been attracted by her signal guns, and were guided to the river by friendly negroes, who provided them with a boat.
Four of these were
Col. Dahlgren's white soldiers and one was his colored servant.
They represent that
Col. Dahlgren's party were surrounded by cavalry and infantry, that
Dahlgren was killed, and that they saw more than one- half of his men afterward give themselves up as prisoners.
Col. Dahlgren's servant says that he saw the
Colonel's naked body, which has been stripped, with the ring finger cut off.
’
The New York
Times contains a long biography of
Dahlgren, from which we learn that he was twenty-two years of age, and commenced service under
Fremont.
He was a son of
Admiral Dahlgren.
Recounting his exploits, his biographer says:
‘
He took a prominent part at
Chancellorsville, and was selected to run the gauntlet of rebel rifles between
Falmouth and
Kelley's, a distance of 25 miles, to communicate with
Gen. Stoneman the morning his command reached that place, returning from the well known raid to the vicinity of
Richmond and in rear of
Lee's army.
’
When the enemy made their second move into
Maryland, in June and July, 1863,
Captain Dahlgren was still doing duty at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac.
He solicited permission to take one hundred men and pass round the enemy and cutting his line of communications by destroying the pontoon bridges across the
Potomac near
Williamsport and Falling Water — Not fully appreciating the energy of the man, his project was considered too hazardous; but, finally, he was allowed to take ten men. With this small command he destroyed the enemy's pontoons, and returned in safety to headquarters.
He then again called for and obtained one hundred men to go round the rebel army, for the purpose of destroying his trains and gaining information.
In this affair he was eminently successful.
Besides capturing a special messenger from
Jeff Davis, bearing an order for
Lee to leave
Pennsylvania, he destroyed a rebel train of 170 wagons, relieved a town of the presence of a rebel brigade of cavalry, and when finally overpowered by superior numbers and completely surrounded, he ordered his men to disperse, and subsequently nearly all came into our lines again.
A dispatch from
Washington about the safe arrival of
Kilpatrick, says:
‘
The President remarked that he finally gave his consent to
Kilpatrick to make his raid; he was willing that he should try, although all the rest pronounced the scheme impracticable.
Military men have not expected that
Gen. Kilpatrick would capture
Richmond by a
coup de main, and they are relieved of much anxiety by the information that he has "rode his raid" and is safe.
Two months ago, when this expedition was first planned, it
might have been successful; but since that time the fortifications of
Richmond have been strengthened, the garrison has been largely increased, many Union prisoners have been sent southward, and, above all, the rebels have doubtless been informed of the whole programme.
Indeed, it has not only been a favorite topic of conversation at the army balls, and the hosts of ladies now in the Army of the Potomac have discussed the chances of success and of the consequent promotion of the officers who were to compose the expedition.
’
A Washington correspondent, noticing the failure of the expedition, attributes it to three causes:
First--The premature publication of the movement and its objects in the
Republican papers of New York and
Philadelphia on Monday morning. These papers reached the army on Tuesday morning, and were doubtless read in the rebel camps across the
Rapidan before dark.
The authorities at
Richmond could have been thus notified of the advent of this Yankee host in ample time to be prepared for its coming.
Second--It was publicly known and canvassed in the army as early as Friday morning and there was not a secesh woman in or near
Culpeper who did not understand it at least forty-eight hours before the expedition started.
Third--The matter was fully canvassed in circles of the troops, and the friends of the
Confederacy could have noticed their
confreres South, through the usual channels, in time to have the expedition met at the outset with a superior force.
A Lamentation over the "miserable said" and the Losses of the Yankees generally.
The New York
Herald, of the 10th, has a jeremiad over the failure of the
Yankee plans It says:
‘
From the period of the removal of
Gen. McClellan--beginning with
Burnside's movement to Fair mouth and the disastrous
battle at Fredericksburg, and ending with the disaster at
Olustee, in Florida, and the recent miserable raid toward
Richmond — the war on this side the country has been conducted by the
President and a coterie of military advisers at
Washington city.
Under this direction disaster has followed disaster with such pitiless persistency, we have had so many and such terrible failures, that despite our glorious triumphs in the
West, the country is well nigh disgusted with the war. Under the
President and his coterie of advisers sheer imbecility prevails over the clearest common sense, and any progress toward success is not only impossible, but is finally unhoped for
Burnside, under the especial encouragement and guidance of the
President, sustained a defeat that strengthened the rebellion to as great an extent as an accession of one hundred thousand men would have done.
Hooker — also under the especial encouragement of the
President — sustained a defeat even worse than that of his predecessor.
He had it in his power to utterly annihilate the favorite army of the rebellion, and could have promenaded into the enemy's capital with one hundred thousand men; but he was beaten more shamefully than any General had been beaten before in the history of modern warfare.
Gettysburg was won is spite of the
President's arrangements made to the contrary, and
Lee was permitted by another of the
President's Generals to escape across the
Potomac with the broken and dispirited remnant of an army that had expected to end the war in our Northern cities.
Meade is still retained in his position by the
President, though the escape of
Lee in July proved his utter incompetency as
a commander Pope,
Burnside,
Hooker, and
Meade — this is the list of the
President's Generals.
The first three names represent a slaughter of sixty thousand men. Not one of these men gained a point that brought us any nearer to the end of the war. Every one of them added at least six months to the life of the rebellion; and the history of their campaigns is the history of what the
President has done for our cause since he took command of our armies.
In addition,
Gillmore has failed at
Charleston,
Seymour has failed in
Florida,
Butler has failed on the
Peninsula, and
Kilpatrick has nearly brought our soldiers into contempt.
After such a record as this, is it any wonder that the country has finally lost all fait in the
Administration's management of the war, and has come to the conclusion that the
President and his advisers are utterly, absolutely, and irreclaimably incompetent to conduct even the most inconsiderable military operation?
’
A statement is published of the recent raid in
Chesapeake bay.
It appears that our men caught the captain of the Iolas on a visit ashore, and a short time afterwards, when his vessel steamed up to the wharf, took possession of her. The
Titan, which steamed up after her, shared the same fate.
The statement of
Capt. Webster says:
‘
They sent a crew on board the
Iolas to burn her, but consented to desist by
Capt. Webster giving up what money he had, and also bonding for $10,000. They examined all the closets, and helped themselves to some fine articles of clothing, with all the money on board, about $1. 100, leaving
Capt. Webster only twenty cents. They then returned to the
Titan, taking three of the Iolas colored crew with them.
’
In the meantime another party had set fire to the guard house and Commissariat property on the wharf, and threw other property into the tide from the wharf.
They shot a number of fine cavalry horses and took the men off with them, as well as the crew of the
Titan — perhaps about twenty prisoners in all; and as they were casting off the lines from the wharf, our cavalry came up to the inshore end of the wharf and fired two volleys into the
Titan, but she shot ahead and was off. She is a fine iron propeller, very fast, and perhaps, valued at $35,000 to $40,000. The captain or leader of the party was named
Fitzhugh, a Virginians.
Three others were very rough character, two of them from New York, and one--their sailor captain — from
Baltimore.
Fitzhugh was a gentlemanly person, and said he regretted to have to do such things, but these were war times and must be done.
They had an engineer and crew with them and mistook the Iolas for the
C. W. Thomas.
They were much disappointed in not getting her. They paroled
Capt Webster and his crew, except the three colored men taken away.
They also paroled
Mr. Dunn, the telegraph operator.
They took the Iolas' register and papers, compasses, and many other articles.
Fitzhugh took a fancy to the Iolas' flag — nearly a new one--that was flying, and told
Webster that he would like to have it. He replied that he had sailed under the old flag for more then thirty years, and he begged
Fitzhugh not to take it.
Fitzhugh replied, laughingly, that he wanted to present it to his wife, and hauled it down and took it off with him. They were anxious for clothing and boots.
They exchanged with all their prisoners very quickly coats, hate, boots, &c., Except three or four "roughs" among them, the others behaved as well as any one could expect under the circumstances, when the cavalry arrived.
The pursuit is thus described:
The
Titan, in charge of a rebel raiding party, was discovered about four o'clock on Saturday afternoon by the
Baltimore, slowly hugging the shore in the Plankatank river; but on reaching the mouth of the Plankatank river; but on reaching the mouth of the Plankatank she increased her speed and traveled up the stream.
One of the Union gunboats, the
Tulip, was immediately dispatched after her, but she escaped, as the
Tulip, on account of the shallow water, was not able to follow her. The
Titan was taken to a place called
Freeport, where she was burned by the rebels on Monday morning, after her machinery was removed.
The goods were received at this place on Monday, and some of the captors were about to have an auction sale; but the gunboat making her appearance, the goods were hastily removed Inland.
The Grand Result of the Sherman expedition.
A telegram from
Cincinnati, dated the 9th, gives the following account of
Sherman's disastrous failure.
It is intended to quiet the
North under this unexpected disaster:
Gen. Grant, on his way East, in conversation with a distinguished
Ohio officer, expressed himself entirely satisfied with the situation of military affairs.
He spoke in the highest terms of
General Sherman's expedition, which had given the rebellion the severest blow since the capture of
Vicksburg.
Gen. Sherman has destroyed forage and provisions enough to subsist the rebel army from three to six months.
In one place
General Sherman destroyed over two millions of dollars worth of property.
In other places he destroyed immense stores.
Thousands of bushels of corn and large quantities of wheat were set on fire and consumed.
He brought in large droves of cattle, several thousand head of mules, eight thousand negroes, and over four hundred prisoners, with but trifling loss in men and materials on our side.
In addition to this, by the destruction of very important railroad lines,
Gen. Sherman has released
General McPherson's corps from doing guard duty along the
Mississippi and restored them to active service.
The steamer
Summary, from Lower river, brings intelligence that
General Sherman and staff lest
Vicksburg on the 28th ult. for below, designing to have an interview with
General Banks or
Admiral Porter, or both, with reference to his future movements.
The
World's New Orleans letter says it was reported that 20,000 rebels were marching through
Western Louisiana Gen. Banks had sent a large cavalry and infantry force into the
Teche country.
There was a rumor that the 2d Louisiana cavalry had been captured by the rebels.
The same correspondent says the naval attack on
Mobile was a mere demonstration against
Fort Gaines to prevent
Maury from going to help Polk Rumor said that one or two vessels had been crippled and that the fleet had put back out of range.
The
Calhoun, according to the same rumor, had been sunk.
Our troops are rapidly returning from Pass Cavalo, Texas, and going to the
Teche, where some 12,000 of our men are concentrated.
The
Herald's Hilton Head correspondent says that
Gen Gillmore had sent orders to
Florida that in future only
Jacksonville should be held by our troops, and no effort whatever should be made to occupy other towns.
The objects of this War.
In the United States Senate, on Tuesday last,
Mr. Wilson reported the following bill, (as a substitute for
Mr. Carlisle's resolutions,) which may be taken as the final declaration of the views of the Republican party:
That the objects of the war are the
subjugation of the rebels in arms to the rightful authority of the
United States and the re-establishment of such authority; that, in the prosecution of the war, the
United States may adopt whatever measures, not inconsistent with the rules of civilized warfare, as may be deemed necessary to secure the public safety now and hereafter; that any person born and residing in the
United States, whether bond or free, owes allegiance to the
United States, and this allegiance is paramount to any duty which
such person may owe to any State or individual; that the
Constitution of the United States does not recognize slaves as property, but as persons owing service or labor in certain States, under the laws thereof, and it is the right and duty of the
United States to offer such persons such inducements as are best calculated to enable them to give to their country the paramount allegiance which they owe, and that the proclamation of emancipation issued by the
President of the
United States on the 1st day of January, 1863 was a measure necessary for the common defence, sanctioned by the spirit of the
Constitution, and by the law and practice of nations, and said proclamation is hereby declared to have the force and effect of law, anything in the law or Constitution of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
Rise in gold — it Touches 69.
In
New York Tuesday gold opened at 165, reached 169 by noon, and closed at 166½ at 4 o'clock.--The New York
Herald says:
‘
The gold bill which was passed by the
United States House of Representatives on Tuesday was precisely what the
Wall street gamblers desired, and if adopted it will play directly into their hands.
The people were led to believe that a law was to be passed by Congress the practical operation of which would reduce the premium on coin; but the present bill, they are satisfied, will have a directly contrary effect, as the quotations to-day and yesterday fully prove.
Mr. Stebbins, who seems to understand the financial condition of the
Government, foresaw the effect that the adoption of the gold bill in its amended form would produce, and very properly voted against it. It is to be hoped that the Senate will exhibit a little more knowledge of Wall street operations, and refuse to sanction the bill in its present shape.
’
Miscellaneous.
The Republicans have carried
New Hampshire by a very large majority, electing Gillmore Governor.
Rev. Thomas Start King, of
San Francisco, is dead.
The dispatches from
Chattanooga represent that the
Confederates are pressing the
Federal lines there.
The
Yankees at last confess having "given up"
Tunnel Hill.
Gen. Rosecrans has issued a special order requiring all persons attending religious conventions' assemblies, synods, conferences, and other convocations held in his department, (St.
Louis,) to take the most stringent oath of allegiance, and any violation of this order will subject the assemblage to dispersion by any provost marshal.
Gen. Grant was officially presented with his commission as
Lieutenant General Tuesday, at the
White House, by the
President in a brief speech, to which
Gen. Grant as briefly replied.
He has signified his desire to remain in the field in active service, and it is now believed that he will not be retained as
General in chief in
Gen. Halleck's position.
Basil Duke, one of
Morgan's men, passed through
Philadelphia on his way to
Fort Delaware on Friday last, and was lasted at the
Continental Hotel by his friends.
The Confederate guerilla,
Capt. Richardson,
en route northward as a prisoner of war, whilst attempting to escape was shot dead at
Cave City, Ky., by
Capt. Stone, of the 37th Kentucky.
In
Tennessee the National Union Conservative (
Lincoln) ticket has been successful in
Memphis, over the Unconditional Union ticket.
Palatiah Perrit, a noted merchant and "philanthropist" of New York, is dead.
The German Republican papers have hoisted
Fremont's name for
President.
A convention is called to meet at
Cleveland, Ohio, on the 10th of May, to nominate him formally.
