The War News.
Yesterday morning, at 11 o'clock, all the
Yankee forces on the north side had a general muster. --They were drawn up in line two deep in sight of our men and were put through the manual.
This parade was what is known as the "muster for pay"--a term all soldiers will understand.
With the exception of this show, nothing of interest took place on the lines during the day.
The Yankee army on this side —
Butler's Army of the James--consists of two corps, the Tenth and Eighteenth.
Besides these,
Butler has a division at work at
Dutch gap.
The Dutch Gap canal.
A copy of
Harpers' Weekly for November the 5th is before us. It contains, as usual, a number of flaming illustrations of war scenes, the most interesting of which, to us, is a picture of
Dutch Gap canal.
Some editorial remarks upon the picture state that the canal is nearly completed; but on this point there is a discrepancy between the editor and his artist.
The picture represents an immance cut, as wide as Main street, two-thirds through the gap and down to about five feet above high-water mark If the picture be at all accurate, the canal, so far from being nearly complete, has not yet been begun.
Only after the high narrow ridge isthmus known as
Dutch gap shall have been cut through level with the river, can the work on the canal proper be commenced.
In the illustration, several hundred Yankees, with mules and carts, picks and shovels, are working away at the gap with a will, while their labors are enlivened by Confederate shells, no less than three of which were bursting among and above them at the moment the scene was sketched.
If this picture is to be relied upon,
Butler has yet many a weary month's work on his
Dutch Gap canal.
The following dispatch was received at the War Department yesterday morning:
"Headquarters army of Northern Virginia,
"October 31, 1864.
"
General Mahone line last night near
Petersburg, and swept it for half a mile, capturing two hundred and thirty officers and men without the lost of a man.
"The total number of prisoners captured on the 27th below
Petersburg, according to
General Hill's report, was seven hundred.
It is reported by persons who came over from
Petersburg last evening that most of the prisoners taken at this swoop say they are
McClellan men; and as it is clear the Lincolnites do not intend to allow them to vote, they desired nothing more than an opportunity to surrender themselves.
The prisoners also declare that a greater degree of disaffection now exists in the
Yankee army than at any previous period of the war. This statement finds some confirmation in the bearing of the
Yankee troops during the battle of last Thursday.
We are assured by officers who were on the field that they never saw the
Yankees behave with so little spirit.
After
Mahone had swept the
Yankee picket line, as stated in the above dispatch, the enemy sent out reinforcements to their pickets, whom they supposed to be still at their posts; but on finding them missing, opened upon us a tremendous artillery fire, which, however, resulted, as usual, in little damage to our men.
The battle of Thursday on the south side.
There is no doubt that
Grant, on Thursday last, made a serious and determined effort to reach the Southside railroad and establish his left there.
He has on the south side three army corps--the Second, Fifth and Ninth.
Of these corps, more than half of the troops were carried into the battle.
Citizens of
Dinwiddie, who have since come into our lines, say they saw six divisions of infantry, besides
Gregg's cavalry, advance to the attack in the morning.
The negroes were pushed forward, as usual but did not stand up to the work.
They soon broke, and left the hottest of the fray to their white brothers-in-arms.
It is a low estimate to put the enemy's lose in this battle, on this part of the field, at twenty-five hundred.
It appears from
General Lee's dispatch, above quoted, that
Grant lost seven hundred prisoners; he left on the field over three hundred dead, and his wounded cannot have bean less than fifteen hundred, which would be only at the rate of five wounded for one killed.
The letters of our correspondent, in another column, give the particulars of the battle, including the handsome dash of
Major-General Mahone, Sunday night.
Grant was present, and had his headquarters under an oak tree about a mile beyond Burgess's mill.
With him were
Meade,
Hancock and
Warren.
It is not likely that this butcher would have retired from the ground without having shed a goodly quantity of Yankee blood.
At one point, where
General Butler's command fought them, fifty-three graves were found.
One of the
Yankee prisoners reports that a shell exploded under
Hancock's horse, killing it and throwing the rider into some undergrowth near by.
Twenty-eight citizens of Prince George and the counties adjacent, who were taken prisoners some time since by the
Yankees and imprisoned at
City Point, were released on Tuesday last and sent beyond their lines.
They were sent out under guard for a distance of thirty miles or more below
City Point, and turned loose with the admonition that they would at any time render themselves liable to arrest should they show themselves.
Among them were
Mr. William Peebles, of
Dinwiddie county, who reached
Petersburg on Saturday evening, and
Mr. Travis Taylor, the representative from
Surry county.
With a large number of others, they have been confined on the floating prison at
City Point — a close, unhealthy, decayed old boat.
One small
cooking stove was allowed them, on which to bake their bread and fry their meat, and each man acted as his own cook.
From the Valley.
It was reported yesterday, without any foundation, that
General Early had a fight and been beaten in the
Valley.
There was no truth in the report.
There has been no fight in the
Valley since last Tuesday, when
General Lomax repulsed two heavy assaults of the enemy.
Ninety prisoners, captured by
General Lomax on that day, arrived in the city last evening.
There is a rumor, that has the color of probability, that
General Hood is making a dash for
Nashville.
If this be true, it will put a new aspect upon the
Georgia campaign.
A gentleman who came out of
Atlantis on the 20th reports two thousand sick Yankee soldiers and about six thousand effective ones in that city.
The garrison is studying the means of escape from
Atlanta.
Our cavalry surround the city, and a portion of them sleep in houses in the suburbs every night.
