The War News.
All continues quiet on the lines below
Richmond.
All day yesterday not a sound was heard except the distant shelling of
Dutch gap by our river batteries.
This shelling was heavier yesterday morning than on any previous day.
It is much to be regretted that some of our own men, prisoners in
Butler's hands, may be hurt by our own fire.
He has now at hard labor in the canal, and exposed our fire, eighty-six of the last prisoners he took from us; among whom is
Major Henley, formerly commandant of the Third Virginia battalion,
F. L. D. Butler says his treatment of these men is in retaliation for our having put a number of Yankee negro prisoners to work on
Fort Gilmer, which alleged fact he says he learns from deserters from our army.
There is no truth in the statements of these deserters; indeed, it has been long known that deserters never tell the truth; they invariably concoct some story to make themselves acceptable to the party to whom they go. The real facts about the
Yankee negroes we learn to be these: At the time of the
battle of Darbytown, there were upwards of a hundred of them imprisoned in Castle Thunder.
All the white prisoners in the castle volunteered to go to the front, and the negroes proposed that they should also be taken out and allowed to work on the fortifications, saying they would vastly prefer the out of door work to idleness in prison.
Their proposition was acceded to, and they were, for a day or two, put to digging trenches
near the city. At no time during the very short period during which they were at work were they under fire or even within range of the
Yankee guns.
This is the whole story; and that
Butler should pretend to retaliate for this, by exposing prisoners in his hands to the fire of our batteries at
Dutch gap, is but another evidence of his wanton cruelty and brutality.
The battle of last Thursday.
It will be seen in the extracts from Northern papers (published elsewhere in these columns) that the
Yankees declare their attack last Thursday on our lines, between the
Darby and Charles City roads, to have been nothing more than a reconnaissance in force to ascertain what we were doing in that quarter.
We knew, and predicted, they would attempt to put this character upon the affair.
It is quite amusing to witness the elaborate efforts of the
Herald correspondent to make it out a reconnaissance.
He, however, does not explain to our satisfaction what manner of a reconnaissance it is, when the reconnoitering party makes, between nine o'clock in the morning and four in the afternoon, five determined assaults upon one point of the enemy's lines, being each time repulsed with heavy loss.
The truth of the matter is, that the
Yankees determined to drive us from a new line of works, which we had just constructed, running from
Fort Gilmer northwardly towards the
Charles City road, and last Thursday they undertook the work, and though they strove desperately, both whites and negroes, they were defeated and driven off, "leaving," as
General Lee said in his official report, "many of their dead upon the field." If they had succeeded, it would have been "a brilliant and successful attack"; having failed, it is set down by the
Yankees as "a reconnaissance in force, the objects of which were fully accomplished."
Returned Naval men.
The following is a list of the naval officers and men who arrived day before yesterday by flag of truce.
They lay at
City Point eleven days; and had
Butler had his own way, they would not have been here yet; but
Grant took the responsibility and sent them on to
Richmond.
Butler, it is said, grumbled at this as a usurpation of authority on the part of
Grant, saying that he (the Beast) had been entrusted with the whole business of exchange, and he flattered himself that his urbanity and courtesy would eventually prevail in persuading the rebel authorities to exchange on fair and honorable terms; that is to say, swap off his dear nigger friends for Southern white men:
Commanders W. A. Webb and
J. D. Johnston;
Lieutenant Commanding P. W. Murphy;
Lieutenants W. T. Glassell,
W. L. Bradford,
J. W. Alexander,
A. D. Wharton,
C. W. Read,
A. Barbot,
G. H. Arledgo,
R. H. Gayle and —
Hasker; Acting
Masters T. L. Wrage,
R. H. Murden,
W. W. Austin and —
Hernandez;
First Lieutenant of Marines
James Thurston; First
Assistant Engineers L. C. King,
W. L. Morrill and
E. H. Browne; Second
Assistant Engineer L. C. West;
Assistant Paymaster W. B. Micon;
Midshipmen G. H. Williamson and
J. A. Peters;
R. Annan,
W. W. Austin,
F. H. Bonneau,
E. H. Brown,
John E. Billups,
Master's Mate;
T. B. Bevill,
Samuel Brockington,
W. Beall,
Thomas Butters,
A. G. Bird,
Oliver Bowen,
J. W. Carey,
G. W. Clemons,
S. D. Churn,
N. Canes,
C. W. Dolvin,
T. M. Duncan,
James M. Diggs,
Samuel DeForrest,
D. M. Eaton,
W. R. Davis,
J. M. Fleetwood,
William Fox,
Mike Folliard,
Wesley Fitzgerald,
B. Grav,
M. Gorman,
Robert Harley,
Thomas Hardin,
L. G. Hudgins,
Robert Hunt,
R. J. Hockley,
T. L. Hernandez,
Jarvis Johnson,
L. G. King,
Charles Longman,
Edward Lynch,
J. P. Murphy,
James McLeod,
J. Maes,
William Moulton,
A. Messini,
E. O. Murden,
W. T. Morrell,
J. W. Matherson,
W. McBlair,
Thomas Noland,
George Nowrey,
E. D. Newton,
J. W. O'Neil,
John Peits,
F. F. Palingnest,
Joseph Prebel,
Patrick Quinn,
G. W. Quarles,
John Robinson,
Daniel Relordon,
W. B. Reed,
Charles Smith,
Patrick Smith,
William Smith,
L. H. Schofield,
James Sylvanus,
J. H. Schinblee,
C. Schinblee,
W. R. Shed,
J. M. Sullivan,
B. C. Shel- ton,
W. W. Thomas,
James Thurston,
T. B. Travers,
Peter Vandever,
J. S. West,
Edward West,
Patrick White,
Samuel W. Wheeler,
Alexander White.
Nothing from
Petersburg except the usual shelling "round town."
From the Valley.
From the
Valley we have no news whatever.
The Barn burner is entirely quiet; seems to have subsided since his last retreat.
He came to devastate, not to fight; and having accomplished his infernal business, is wearing laurels which should blast the brain in the head it crowns.
An old bear hunter having discovered that nothing annoyed bruin so much as to be bitten behind, trained his dog to attack the animal in the rear, which so effectually occupied him that the hunter could select his position and kill him at pleasure.
Mosby works on
Sheridan's rear while
Early selects his position.
Thirty-three Yankees arrived last evening on the
Central train, being the
unprofitable portion of the spoils arising from
Mosby's raid on Duffield station.--They have no greenbacks.
Manassas gap railroad.
The
Yankees have left the Orange and Alexandria railroad and concentrated their force on the Manassas Gap railroad.
This puts an end to any probability of their approaching
Gordonsville from that direction.
The
Yankees seem to have heard the rumor that
Hood had captured
Dalton.
This we know.
Nothing further has been heard from him. We are assured, however, that he is not idle.
In
Missouri,
Price is having everything his own way. The old General said, when he started on his campaign, that he went there to maintain the Confederate Government in the
State, and on his own dear soil, or his bones should be there to whiten on the prairie.
He is treading with a determined step.
Jeff. Thompson, the wily swamp fox, is on his old trail.
He will not forget his imprisonment at
Johnson's Island and his having been placed under fire at
Charleston.
He has taken
Sedalia.
The
Yankees say he paroled or shot the militia captured there.
If the militia were Missourians,
Jeff. Thompson would not shoot them; but they were, doubtless, an accursed and thieving set, who have come into
Missouri since the war and taken quiet and unlawful possession of the homes of true Missourians, who have either been murdered or are in the
Southern army.
Missouri will doubtless be redeemed; and any Yankee will rue the day he ever set foot in a Missouri homestead.
