The Daily Dispatch: March 6, 1865., [Electronic resource]

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We have received New York papers of the 3d instant.

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Latest from the South -- Columbia Burnt by the Federal troops.

The following is the latest official dispatch from Charleston:

Headquarters Department of the South Charleston, South Carolina, February 26, 1865.

Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant and Major-General H. W. Halleck, Chief of Staff, Washington:

An inspection of the rebel defences of Charleston shows that we have taken over four hundred and fifty pieces of ordnance, being more than double what I first reported. The lot includes eight and ten-inch columbiads, a great many thirty-two and forty two pounder rifles, some seven-inch Brook's rifles and many pieces of foreign make.

We also captured eight locomotives and a great number of passenger and platform cars, all in good condition.

Deserters report that the last of Hardee's army was to have crossed the Santee river yesterday, bound for Charlotte, North Caaolina, and it was feared that Sherman had already intercepted their march.

It is reported on similar authority that the last of Hood's army, twelve thousand strong, passed through Augusta last Sunday, the 10th, on the way to Beauregard.

Georgetown has been evacuated by the enemy, and is now in our possession.

Deserters are coming in constantly.--We have over four hundred already.

Q. A. Gillmore,
Major-General commanding.
The Herald has the following telegram:

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Off Charleston, South Carolina, February 26, 1865.

We have just received the official intelligence of the burning of Columbia, South Carolina, on the 24th instant.

After the town had been taken possession of by Slocum's corps, some of our troops were fired on from the houses and some seventeen men killed, on account of which General Sherman ordered the town to be burned, which order was carried out to the letter.

Deserters are constantly arriving in Charleston. About two hundred and seventy arrived within the last day or two, who confirm the report of the evacuation of Augusta, Georgia, and its occupation by our troops.

A letter from Charleston says:

‘ Governor Aiken, Hon. Mr. Williams and Dr. Mackey, assisted by Captain Fowler, commissary, are busily engaged in distributing supplies to the needy and destitute of the city, and are enabled by the stores left by the rebels to alleviate, in a small degree, their immediate wants. The main supply they have is rice, which is nutritious, but hardly the thing to feed a person on for any length of time. Such other articles as have fallen in their hands will be distributed equally, so far as they may go; but it is likely that the commissariat of the Government will be called upon to give food to prevent absolute starvation. Whether it is proposed to meet this additional strain remains to be seen.

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From Grants army.

A letter from Grant's army says:

‘ The truth or falsity of the reports in regard to the preparations making at Lynchburg for the anticipated falling back of Lee and his army from Richmond will be soon ascertained, as means have been taken to fully investigate the matter, and an investigating committee has been dispatched by General Sheridan for that purpose, whose report will be looked for with much interest.

’ All the sick and wounded have been sent away from the Army of the Potomac. Several hundred arrived here to-day, and were distributed among the different hospitals.

Grant has been writing letters about the end of the "rebellion," an extract from one of which is published, dated February 15th:

Everything looks to me to be very favorable for a speedy termination of the war. The people of the South are ready for it if they can get clear of their leaders. It is hard to predict what will become of them — the leaders; whether they will flee the country, or whether the people will forcibly depose them and take the matter in their own hands. One or the other will likely occur if our spring campaign is as successful as I have every hope it will be. Yours, truly, U. S. Grant.

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The failure at the Petersburg mine.

Lincoln sent to the Senate to-day a message inclosing the opinion and finding of the Court of Inquiry instituted by him in the Petersburg mine. The opinion is signed by Major-General Hancock, president of the court. After narrating the circumstances of the assault, the failure is ascribed to the following-named officers:

First. General Burnside in not obeying the orders of the commanding general in the formation of the assaulting column, in not preparing his parapet and abattis for the passage of his troops, and in not employing engineer officers to lead the columns with the working parties. Yet the court is satisfied that General Burnside believed the measures taken by him would insure success.

Second. Brigadier-General Ledlie, in failing to push forward his troops promptly, and in blocking up the avenue designed for the passage of troops ordered to follow, he being most of the time in a bomb proof ten rods in the rear of the main line, where the movement could not be witnessed.

Third. Brigadier-General Ferrero, for want of readiness for the assault, not going with his troops, but remaining in a bomb-proof.

Fourth. Colonel J. K. Bliss, of the Seventh Rhode Island, commanding a brigade, in remaining behind with one regiment, in a position where he could not see what was going on.

Fifth. Brigadier-General Wilcox, in lack of energy in carrying out General Burnside's order to push his troops forward to Cemetery Hill.

The court concludes the opinion as follows: ‘"Without intending to convey the impression that there was any disinclination on the part of the commanders of the troops to heartily co-operate in the attack on the 30th of July, the court express their opinion that explicit orders should have been given assigning one officer to the command of all the troops intended to engage in the assault when the commanding general was not present in person to witness the operations."’

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Lincoln Takes his New Office.

The select committee of the two Houses of Congress waited on President Lincoln on Thursday and informed him of his re-election. To this he responded:

Having served four years in the depths of a great and yet unended national peril, I can view this call to a second term in nowise more flattering to myself than as an expression of the public judgment that I may better finish a difficult work, in which I have labored from the first, than could any one less severely schooled to the task. In this view, and with increased reliance on that Almighty Ruler who has so graciously sustained us thus far, and with increased gratitude to the generous people for their continued confidence, I accept the renewed trust with its yet onerous and perplexing duties and responsibilities.

No response has yet been received from the Vice-President elect, who did not arrive in Washington until that night.

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Miscellaneous.

Gold was quoted at 197 5-8.

Colonel Campbell, of the Seventeenth Kentucky cavalry, crossed the Ohio river a few days ago in pursuit of a number of noted horse-stealing guerrillas, and his expedition has proved highly successful. He succeeded in gathering in fifteen or twenty at Saline Mines, Shawneetown, Grayville and Fairfield. They were tried by drum-head court-martial, found guilty and shot.

Governor Cannon, of New Jersey, died suddenly on the 1st instant.

An arrival from Beaufort, North Carolina, brings the intelligence that port is to be made a basis of supplies for General Sherman when Savannah and Charleston can no longer be used for that purpose.

The draft in New Orleans has been renewed, after four days suspension.--The people are not well pleased with the state of things, and complain of injustice, as they ask for admission into the Union and are refused, but are called upon to take up arms and defend the principle they are not made a party to.