November
November 1.
Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, in a letter to the Secretary of War, dated October 31, having requested that his name might “be placed on the list of Army Officers retired from active service,” a special Cabinet Council was convened, and decided that Gen. Scott's request, in view of his advanced age and infirmities, could not be refused; and his name was accordingly so placed, “without reduction in his current pay, subsistence, or allowances.” Major-General George B. McClellan was thereupon appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, to succeed Gen. Scott, and assumed the position in a general order, in which he expresses his regret “that the weight of many years, and the effect of increasing infirmities, contracted and intensified in his country's service, should just now remove from our head the great soldier of our nation.” --(Doc. 122.)
Colonel Mulligan, made prisoner by the rebels at the capture of Lexington, was exchanged.--St. Louis Democrat, Nov. 3.
The Federal prisoners at Charleston were removed from Castle Pinckney. Along the whole line of march, the streets were thronged with a motley crowd of people, juveniles, and darkies. Great eagerness was expressed to see the officers, especially Colonel Corcoran, late of the New York Sixty-ninth regiment. The privates were indeed a sorrowful-looking set, but seemed in quite good humor; and many of them carried along on their shoulders their chairs, chess boards, and other similar conveniences, which they had extemporized during their stay at Castle Pinckney.--Charleston Mercury, Nov. 2.
The Tenth regiment of Connecticut Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Charles H. Russell, passed through New York.
Lieutenant-Colonel Morse, with four hundred cavalry, surprised a rebel camp, eight hundred strong, near Renick, Randolph County, Mo., and drove out the rebels in complete rout.--(Doc. 123.)
Some scouts from the Second Kentucky regiment, under Captain Wheeler, reported to Gen. Rosecrans, the rebels in considerable force on the west side of New River, some few miles above Gauley Bridge, in Virginia. Shortly after Captain Wheeler's return, two batteries were opened upon the National troops in the vicinity of Gauley Bridge from the hills on the opposite side of the river--one directly opposite the bridge, and the other two miles lower down, at the falls of the Kanawha, opposite a large brick house in which commissary's supplies were stored. These batteries played away nearly all day, the commissary's quarters affording them a fine mark; but so bad was their firing, they did not strike the building once! In almost every instance their balls and shell fell short. The upper battery, after wasting a good deal of ammunition, succeeded in driving the Eleventh Ohio from their camp on the hillside opposite, and in sinking a flat-boat, which served the army as a ferry. This was the extent of the damage done. Not a man was killed, and the flat-boat was raised again the same evening, and made to do good service that night. It was not till the day had far advanced that the National artillery could be brought to bear upon the rebel batteries. The rifled guns were all at the various camps up New River; but when they were once placed in position, it was not long until both the rebel batteries were silenced. A train of wagons, on its way from Gauley Bridge to the encampments above, was fired upon the same day, when five or six miles up the river, by rebel infantry, and two of the Nationals were wounded. Three companies from General Benham's camp, at Hawk's Nest, [64] came to their relief, and soon drove the enemy back of the hills.--Cincinnati Gazette, Nov. 5.
An important proclamation relating to the coming election in Maryland, was issued by General Dix. It having been understood that persons formerly residing in the State, but who had recently been bearing arms against the United States Government, had returned with the intention of taking part in the election, with the purpose of carrying out treasonable designs, General Dix ordered the United States Marshal of Maryland and the Provost-Marshal of Baltimore to arrest all such persons; and he further directed the election judges throughout the State to detain all such persons who might present themselves at the polls, until they could be taken into custody by the proper authorities.--(Doc. 124.)
Since the Twentieth and Twenty-first regiments have been in camp near Griffin, Pike County, Georgia, the measles and typhoid fever have broke out among them. There are now over two hundred on the sick list and several have died. Two large buildings have been set apart as hospitals, and the sick receive the daily attentions of the benevolent ladies of Griffin.--Griffin Union, Nov. 1.
General Fremont signed, at Springfield, Mo., an agreement entered into with two commissioners, on the part of the rebel General Price, “to facilitate the future exchange of prisoners of war,” and which provides, “that all persons heretofore arrested for the mere expression of political opinions, may be released from confinement on parole; also, that in future the war be confined exclusively to the armies in the field.” --(Doc. 125.)
November 2.
The British brig Ariel arrived at Philadelphia, Pa., in charge of a prize crew. She was from Liverpool, bound to Charleston, with a cargo of salt. She was captured off Frying Pan Shoals, while trying to run the blockade of Charleston, by the gunboat Gemsbok.--Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 4.
General McClellan was presented with a sword by the city councils of Philadelphia to-day, at his residence in Washington. In responding to the presentation address General McClellan said: I ask you, sir, to give my warmest and deep thanks to the honorable body you represent for this entirely unmerited compliment. I could thank you better if I thought that I deserved it, but I do not feel that I do. Nothing that I have yet accomplished would warrant this high compliment. It is for the future to determine whether I shall realize the expectations and hopes that have been centred in me. I trust and feel that the day is not far distant when I shall return to the place dearest of all others to me, there to spend the balance of my life among the people from whom I have received this beautiful gift. The war cannot last long. It may be desperate. I ask in the future, forbearance, patience, and confidence. With these we can accomplish all; and while I know that, in the great drama which may have our hearts' blood, Pennsylvania will not play the least, I trust that, on the other hand, she will play the highest and noblest part. I again thank you, and ask you to convey to the councils my most sincere thanks for the sword. Say to them that it will be my ambition to deserve it hereafter. I know I do not now.
The Twenty-seventh Massachusetts regiment, under the command of Colonel H. C. Lee, left Springfield at two o'clock to-day for Hudson, where they took the steamer Connecticut for New York, at seven o'clock in the evening.--Springfield Republican, Nov. 4.
The British steamer Bermuda, with a cargo of eighteen hundred bales of cotton, ran the blockade from Savannah, Ga. About eight o'clock she weighed anchor, proceeded down the stream, and finding all things favorable, made a clear and triumphant exit over the bar. She cleared for Havre.--Savannah Republican, Nov. 4.
The Charleston (S. C.) Mercury, of this date, says: The trial of our privateersmen for piracy, in New York and Philadelphia, our readers have noticed, among other intelligence published. It is a subject that must stir the gall of every earnest man in the Confederate States. In the deficiency of a navy proper, these gallant men, commissioned by our Government our militia of the sea, have gone forth to punish our enemy to the extent of their ability. It has been our only naval resource, and accords with the laws and customs of nations. It is a right which the United States freely exercised in the last war against Great Britain, and within a few years peremptorily refused to waive by treaty stipulation. But now, because [65] it bears disagreeably upon their commerce, the practice is denounced by the United States, and our captured privateersmen are subjected to the ignominious treatment of common felons. Paraded in chains through the streets of Northern cities, for the gaze of the hostile rabble, they are put into the wretched dungeons of “the Tombs,” surrounded by filth and vermin. Here for long months they are kept, that confinement and anxiety may prey upon their health, and that wounded self-respect may fret their hearts in the torture of humiliation. They are now dragged forth, before the public gaze of our infuriated enemies, to be tried for their lives as the worst of criminals — enemies to the whole human race. These are the men whom we have sent forth to fight our battles, under the broad seal of our country; and this is the treatment which they have met with as prisoners, at the hands of our enemies — the
