The War News.
The quiet which succeeded the battles of the 37th of October remains unbroken on the lines below
Richmond.
There is no war of pickets, no cannonading and no mortar practice.
The boast of the
Yankee adjutant of the First division of the Second corps, made ten days ago, that very soon his troops would disturb the equanimity of our lines with their mortars, has not been made good.
It is considered as a matter of course that the enemy have mortar batteries at
Fort Harrison, but they have never yet been unmasked, and upon the only occasion on which we bombarded them they replied to our mortar fire only with their small rifle guns.
It was at one time believed they were planting mortar batteries behind a skirt of pines three hundred yards in our front and about the same distance north of
Fort Harrison, but they were subsequently ascertained to be creating only a slight breastwork at that point.
Our batteries continue, with only brief intervals, to shell, day and night, that unfortunate portion of the
Yankee army whose fate it is to labor on Butler's Dutch Gap canal.
It is difficult to get any trustworthy information as to the progress this work has made towards completion.
The
Yankees say it will be done by
Christmas; but it should be borne in mind these same Yankees have foretold sundry things during the war which have not come to pass.
There was nothing going on at
Petersburg yesterday.
The hostile pickets having, for the time, ceased to fire upon one another, were busily engaged talking politics and discussing the election news.
The Yankee pickets insist that
Lincoln has carried every State.
Whatever may be the facts about the election, it is probable that in what they state they are actuated rather by a desire to make themselves disagreeable than to promulgate the truth.
The firing about seven o'clock on Wednesday evening, on the Jerusalem plankroad, to which we alluded yesterday, was brought on by an unimportant movement by a small body of our troops.
It was thought expedient to shift the position of these troops, and the
Yankees perceiving the movement, opened upon them with musketry, cannon and mortars.
Our guns replied, and the firing was kept up for half an hour.
There were no casualties on our side.
From the Valley.
Passengers by last night's train bring the intelligence that
Sheridan's force has been considerably diminished by the sending off of troops in the direction of
Washington city.
Some of his cavalry have likewise disappeared.
Mosby is reported to have made a descent on another wagon train, on the road from
Martinsburg to
Winchester, burned a number of wagons and carried off safely some horses and mules.
The train was guarded by a detachment of infantry and one company of cavalry.
The Yankee depredations in the
Luray Valley were very severe, an immense quantity of grain having been destroyed; but there is now no Yankee force in that vicinity.
There has been no news received from
Georgia for several days.
Sherman is in a troubled state, judging from his erratic movements, and does not know whether to go backward towards
Atlanta, push forward towards
Tennessee, or He still and await
Hood's action, Something will shortly be done, or both armies will be compelled to go into winter quarters.
