The Daily Dispatch: October 3, 1864., [Electronic resource]

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We are indebted to Sergeant William S. White, a gallant member of the third company of Richmond Howitzers, for a copy of the New York Herald of the 27th. There is hardly a word in the Herald about the recent movement of Grant's army. A Washington dispatch says that arrangements are "in process of execution which insure the early capture of Richmond." In the same telegram it is announced that the next news from Sheridan will bring the intelligence of the capture of Early's army; but, unfortunately for the truth of this statement, the "next news" they got in Washington was the fact that Sheridan was retreating down the Valley with Early after him. The following in.

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Stanton's official Dispatch:
War Department,
Washington, district of Columbia,
September 26--10:30 A. M.

Dispatches from General Sheridan up to eleven o'clock on Saturday night, dated six miles south of New Market, have been received.

He had driven the enemy from Mount Jackson without being able to bring on an engagement. The enemy were moving rapidly, and he had no cavalry present to hold them.

General Torbert had attacked Wickham's force at Luray and captured a number of prisoners.

General Sheridan found rebel hospitals in all the towns from Winchester to New Market, and was eighty miles from Martinsburg.

Twenty pieces of artillery were captured at Fisher's Hill, together with eleven hundred prisoners, a large amount of ammunition, caissons, limbers, &c., and a large quantity of entrenching tools, small arms, and debris. No list of the captured materiel has yet been received.

The small towns through the Valley have a great many of the rebel wounded.

General Stevenson reports the arrival at Harper's Ferry of a train of our wounded, twenty captured guns and eighty additional captured officers.

Breckinridge has gone to take command of the rebel Department of the Southwest.

Dispatches received this morning from General Sherman's command state that Hood appears to be moving towards the Alabama line.

A strong force of rebel raiders were reported to be operating against Sherman's communications, and had captured Athens, Alabama.

Vigorous exertions were being made to overtake and destroy this force.

Jeff. Davis is reported to be at Macon.

Reports have also been received from Major-General Canby. General Steele had been strongly reinforced, and had taken the offensive.

Dispatches from General Grant, dated at 10 o'clock last night, report no military operations.

The above comprises the substance of military information proper for publication received to the present date by this department.

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Yankee reports of operations in the Valley — Averill relieved from duty.

We find in the Herald several dispatches from the Valley, which, however, do not contain as late intelligence as has already been received from Confederate sources from that quarter. A telegram from Sheridan's headquarters, dated the 24th, speaking of the capture of Fisher's Hill, says:

‘ At Fisher's Hill he rested his right upon the Massanutton mountain, and his left upon North mountain, having his front, about three miles in length, covered by strong natural and artificial defences.--His right, which was about one mile in advance of his left, was considered almost impregnable.

’ On the 21st, an important position in front of the enemy's centre was gained by Wright's corps. On the 22d, the main attack was begun by a strong demonstration by Emory's troops on the enemy's right. About noon, or a little later, Ricketts's division of the Sixth corps advanced and secured some important heights in front of the centre, while Averill's division of cavalry attacked and drove the enemy at a gallop from his advanced position on his left one mile back into his main works and held him there, while Crook's corps, which had been concealed during the day, was transferred in the rear of Averill's division to the enemy's extreme left. At five in the afternoon, Crook and Averill stormed and carried the works of the enemy, the cavalry leaping the barriers erected by the enemy, capturing two battle flags, four guns and over one hundred prisoners.--While Crook swept towards the enemy's centre, the Sixth corps attacked, followed by the Nineteenth, while Averill swept along the base of the North mountain outward seven miles, captured one hundred and seventy-five cavalry horses, four caissons, fourteen wagons, eight ambulances and a number of fugitives.

The enemy, having probably learned of the movement upon his right and rear, had commenced leaving this position some two hours before our attack. His departure was so hastened that he was compelled to leave sixteen guns and over a thousand prisoners in our hands.

Yesterday morning the pursuit of the enemy was promptly continued by our cavalry, and he was found in position at Mount Jackson, twenty-five miles south of Fisher's Hill, where he seems disposed to offer a stubborn resistance to our further advance. Yesterday morning Early's rear was overtaken near Hawkins's bridge by General Averill, with a cavalry division and the brigade of General Devins, and driven to the town of Mount Jackson, where his entire force was found in possession.

General Averill was relieved from duty with his division this morning, and granted a leave of absence for twenty days. This order has caused a universal feeling of amazement in this army, and it is generally thought that some question of rank between General Averill and General Torbert is involved, the former being the ranking officer, but the latter chief of cavalry of this military division. Averill's division officers and men exhibited their devotion to him by the most marked demonstrations. The officers, who seemed to love him as an elder brother, shed tears at his departure, and as the General rode along the lines for the last time the men greeted him with the most enthusiastic cheers and many expressions of affection.

General Averill called the officers together and addressed them, enjoining upon them to continue as energetic and attentive in the future as they had been in the past, and to yield the same obedience to his successor as they had to him. There is a prospect of an engagement in front.

Colonel Patten, commanding a brigade in Breckinridge's corps, died yesterday. He was mortally wounded in the fight of Monday, and was carried to Mr. Williams's house, in this town, from which he will be buried some time to-day. General Early sent a flag of truce to General Sheridan to inquire respecting him.

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The entry of General Price into Missouri--Federal Estimates of his force.

Much excitement exists in Missouri in consequence of the intelligence that General Price has entered that State with thirty thousand Confederate troops. A force of five thousand Confederate cavalry occupied Fredericktown, Missouri, on the 24th. A Telegram from St. Louis, date the 25th, says:

‘ St. Louis, September 25.--Joe Shelby's rebel cavalry are said to be four or five thousand strong, and occupied Fredericktown, twenty miles east of Pilot Knob, yesterday. Shelby's designs are not yet developed.

’ General Ewing, commandant of the district of St. Louis, took a brigade of A. J. Smith's troops down last night, and otherwise prepared to meet the enemy. Pilot Knob is well fortified and garrisoned. Cape Girardeau, on the river, can stand a sledge; and the only damage the rebels can do is temporarily to cut the Iron Mountain railroad.

When Price crossed the Arkansas river some days since, at least a part of his forces moved towards Batesville, evidently with the design of joining Shelby in Northeastern Arkansas, and with their combined commands invade Missouri from the southeast. The force at Fredericktown is doubtless the advance of this column, which is estimated to be ten or twelve thousand strong. General Mower, with part of the Sixteenth corps, left Brownsville, on the Duvall's Bluff and Little Rock railroad, a few days since, going north; and Shelby will soon have to look sharply after his rear. The situation will probably develop itself in a very few days.

St. Louis, September 25, 1864. --It is now said that Price has entered Missouri with forces estimated at thirty thousand strong. His plan is supposed to be to march to the central portion of the State with three columns, and, capturing all the important points, hold the country. It is expected that Kirby Smith will join him with from ten thousand to twelve thousand men.

The Arkansas guerrillas are also concentrating to aid in the movement of the column now in the southeast, doubtless under Shelby, who has some six or eight thousand men.

Reports are circulating to-night that part of the force which occupied Fredericktown yesterday captured Cape Girardeau to-day; but they are very doubtful. The enemy may be demonstrating in that direction, but the post is too strong to be taken by cavalry.

Military preparations here are very active, and troops are already moving southward.

The blacksmiths' shops have been busy all day shoeing cavalry horses. Ordnance and ammunition are being sent to different points. Everything is being put into fine condition for immediate active service.

Brigadier-General Pike has called out all the enrolled militia. General Rosecrans will issue an appeal to-morrow calling the people to arms. Major-General Blair arrived here to-day.

The trains are still running on the Iron Mountain railroad, which, so far as is known, has not yet been molested.

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The Presidential question — Reverdy Johnson out for M'Clellan.

Reverdy Johnson has written a letter in favor of McClellan for the Presidency. His expressed opinions of Lincoln must be very refreshing to that gentleman. In his letter he says:

‘ In the early days of Mr. Lincoln's administration I lost almost all hope of a successful termination of the rebellion whilst he was at the head of the government,

and this, the merest hope, is now wholly extinguished. His infirmity of purpose; his unsteadiness in any policy; his ones expressed dislike to radicalism; his subsequent adoption of its worst features; his ignorant and mischievous interference with our military campaigns; disappointment, often against advice, of high military officers of notorious incompetency; his frequent and nearly fatal change of commanders; his abandonment of the before uniform practice of his predecessors of Cabinet consultations; his permission of dishonorable dissensions among its members, displaying itself constantly to his knowledge, before others, and often, as it is known, in his presence, in personal abuse of each other; his obstinate and reckless disregard of the wishes of his political friends, communicated to him on one occasion in the solemn form of a committee, representing, as he was aware, nine-tenths, if not every friend he had in Congress, and again, and recently, expressed in terms not to be mistaken, in one of the resolutions of the convention, which nominated him for re-election; his permitting military interference with elections, virtually subjecting the ballot to the control of the bayonet; his justifying arrests without specifications of charges, though over and over again demanded, and long-continued imprisonment, and, after release, without trial of explanation; his tolerating trial, by military commission, of offences made cognizable exclusively, by acts of Congress passed since the rebellion, by the civil courts, and the virtual confiscation of private property, without even a resort to any mode of trial, and other matters of like illegality and outrage, too many to detail in a letter, while they demonstrate his utter unfitness for the Presidency, give no promise of a successful result of the contest while he is commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and intrusted by the power he wields with the shaping of our peace and war policy. This must be arrested, or, in my opinion, the country will be mined.

This fatal career can be, and would be, stopped by the election of almost any loyal man in his stead, and the result is certain if General McClellan becomes the successor. His perfect devotion to the Union and his expressed determination to make its restoration the "one condition of peace"--the purity of his character, his demonstrated ability, and his military attainments — furnish guarantees that in his hands the executive power will not be abused, but be directed, in strict subordination to the constitution, to the sole end of restoring the Union, which is our inheritance, and causing it again to shed its blessings over a now sorely-troubled and bleeding nation.

Wild, insane and reckless partisans may assail him with every opprobrious epithet — men who have tasted of that insane root, the obtaining of high office at home or abroad, may tell us, to the disgust of all patriotic men, that "it is not too much to say, 'that it would be far better that Robert E. Lee should enter Washington at the head of his army, as its conqueror, than that George B. McClellan should enter it as President'" A ludicrously inconsistent and even illogical premier, the half of whose official papers and speeches answer the other half, may threaten treachery on the part of the Administration, on the happening of Mr. Lincoln's defeat in November, by declaring himself unable in that contingency to "vouch for the safety of the country against the rebels during the interval which must elapse before the new administration can constitutionally come into power, " and the canvass may be continued as, with some honorable exceptions, it has begun, by the billingsgate abuse and calumnious charges against our candidates and their friends; yet, from all these causes we have nothing to fear. Success is in our hands if we are true to duty. Under the protection of Divine Providence we can achieve for our country a victory greater in its results than any present military success. We can elect McClellan and Pendleton in spite of office-holders, contractors, and administrative influence and power; and that done, in a short time thereafter State after State will be found returning to allegiance, until, at a date not remote, the Union will be restored, fraternal affections revived, and peace and plenty and happiness and national character and power be substituted for division, hatred, war, destitution, wretchedness, national dishonor and comparative weakness.

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Rabid spirit of the Yankee press on the Presidential question.

The Herald has a long article upon the bitter spirit existing at the North upon the subject of the Presidential election and the fierceness of the denunciations of the party press. We copy a portion of the editorial:

‘ The manner in which the rival claims of Mr. Lincoln and General McClellan are being pressed is a disgrace to the enlightenment of our country and a source of serious peril to the public peace. The Lincoln papers assail the character of General McClellan with every epithet of obloquy. He is denounced as a "gunboat general," "coward," "traitor," &c., while all the many thousand loyal and gallant men who support him come in for a liberal sprinkling of the same abolition dirty water. The McClellan papers are not behind in the same unwholesome and disgraceful activity. Not content with challenging the personal honesty of our national chief magistrate, they have of late, both through their daily and weekly organs, put forth insinuations to the discredit of Mr. Lincoln's wife, charging her, in one instance, with accepting bribes, and in another with some paltry peculation in a crockery bill.

’ Unless these abominable practices of the partisan press are checked in time, we shall most assuredly have scenes of violence before the ides of next November. This is a revolutionary period, and the minds of men are inflamed by unwonted passions. As to the attacks upon Mrs. Lincoln, they only injure, and that seriously, the side from which they emanate. She has outlived and lived down, by her modest courtesy and gentleness, the slanders with which secession sympathizers at Washington assailed her on her advent to the White House. "Let us fight it out as men," says General Sherman in his recent pithy and characteristic letter to General Hood; and so will say all decent citizens in reference to these attacks upon the matron and wife, who is, by national comity, the first lady of our land. We feel confident that General McClellan must disapprove this style of warfare in his behalf, and however reluctant he may be to interfere in such matters, would suggest to him the propriety of giving his partisans a hint to improve their manners.

As to the attacks upon General McClellan, made by the Lincoln organs, they are foul and disgraceful beyond any parallel in partisan warfare. Is it really the wish of the Lincoln papers to persuade the American people and the world at large that every citizen who supports, General McClellan's claims to the Presidency is at heart a traitor, desiring the disruption of our Union and the success of the Jeff. Davis conspiracy ? Or how long do the chief organs of this Lincoln faction believe that they can with impunity pursue the work of vilifying General McClellan as a "coward," "poltroon," "traitor," and so forth, in a city which will, beyond any peradventure, cast from sixty to eighty thousand votes in his favor at the next election ?

In the present inflamed and revolutionary condition of the public mind, any spark may serve to kindle a conflagration that will not be extinguished without bloodshed. There will, we fear, be attacks upon the offices of the newspapers engaged in these scurrilous outpourings, and we shall have the misfortune to see the editor of one Lincoln organ suspended on a lamp-post at his own corner, while the editor of another Lincoln organ keeps him company on the lamp-post opposite. Every act of violence thus committed in the democratic metropolis will be retaliated in some one or other of those rural districts in which the Lincoln men are strong, and, as the upshot of the whole scandalous quarrel, the loyal States will be plunged into riot, anarchy and indiscriminate lynching. These consequences we regard as inevitable unless greater moderation of tone be immediately evinced by the partisan writers of the Lincoln and McClellan press.

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A Democratic meeting broken up by Lincoln's soldiers.

The Cincinnati Gazette, an abolition sheet, describes how a Democratic meeting was broken up by some soldiers on the 24th. It says:

‘ The place selected for holding the meeting was near where a McClellan pole had been raised a few days before. About eight o'clock in the evening the meeting was organized by calling James G. Arnold, Esq., to the chair, and appointing James Gray secretary. Robert Richardson, Esq., first addressed the meeting. He spoke very briefly, and retired after introducing Hon. George E. Pugh to the crowd. Mr. Pugh was evidently in a very bad humor — or, we might suggest, something else — judging from the company who escorted him to the meeting. He started out by declaring that our victories were mere telegraphic lies, used to keep spirit and courage up among the Abolitionists. He stated that Kentucky was ruled by a tyrannical hand, and indulged in very insulting and sneering remarks about the soldiers, spoke of "Beast Butler" and "Brute Burbridge," and used many other ungentlemanly and vulgar epithets. There were quite a number of soldiers of the invalid corps, from the Main street United States General Hospital, present, and when they heard such officers as Generals Butler and Burbridge vilified, were, of course, quite indignant. A soldier from Sherman's army, who had received a terrible wound in the face from a rebel bullet, shouted out, when he heard Mr. Pugh characterize the rebels as Southern brethren, "I have been there; they put a bullet through my jaw, and I don't consider them 'brethren,' but I consider you a traitor."

’ Mr. Pugh retorted in a very vulgar style, and soon the soldiers became very much exasperated, and, but for the counsels of a number of Union citizens, would probably have attempted to inflict personal violence upon the speaker. At this point in the meeting, the shouts of the soldiers and a few Union men, who were present, for Lincoln and Johnson, were so loud and continued that Mr. Pugh found it impossible to make himself heard, and retired from the stand. The crowd began to disperse, when some of the soldiers fore down the speakers' stand, and, placing the boards around the McClellan pole, set fire to them. The pole did not burn very fast, and was finally chapped down with axes.

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Forrest's victories in the Southwest.

A telegram from Louisville, dated the 25th, gives the following intelligence from General Forrest's movements in the Southwest;

On Friday, part of Forrest's forces, about four thousand strong, crossed the Tennessee river at Bate's landing, in Perry county, Tennessee, His

whole force is estimated to be eight thousand men, with ten guns.

Colonels Campbell and Jarrison, at Athens, Georgia, were attacked by a large force of rebels, and, after a severe fight of two home' duration, were forced to surrender. Several buildings, including the depot, were set on fire. Forrest in person was in Athens at two o'clock yesterday afternoon.

A detachment of three hundred men, sent from Decatur to reinforce the garrison of Athens, are reported to have been captured after an obstinate engagement.

Several prisoners, captured by Colonel Prossor near Athens, report that they crossed at Florence; that Forrest told them he would have force enough to destroy both railroads and stay in Tennessee as long as he pleased.

The rebel force has destroyed several miles of the Tennessee and Alabama railroad between Decatur and Athens. There is no communication with Pulaski, Tennessee.

An escaped prisoner reports that the rebel Samuel Wheeler was at Courtland, Alabama, yesterday morning. The rebels were under three commanders-- Forrest, Roddy and Biffies.

Wheeler's force was reported to have gone South to join Hood in Georgia, and it is Forrest's intention to capture Pulaski, Franklin, Shelbyville, and all the intermediate blockhouses on the road.

At last accounts, the rebels were moving on Pulaski, No demonstration had been made on the Chattanooga railroad.

A telegram from Pulaski reports that heavy firing was heard in the direction of Sulphur Branch, and that the rebel forces were operating against Elk River bridge.

All accounts agree that a large force is marching upon our defences on this line, and proper measures have been taken to repel the rebels.

General Rousseau takes the field to-day in person, and it is hoped that the rebels will be forced to recross the river before be gets through with them.

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Washington rumors.

A dispatch from Washington gives the following list of rumors which were prevailing in that city:

‘ There has been to-day an avalanche of rumors without foundation. Among these were the capture of Mobile by Farragut, a serious disaster to Grant's army, and another victory, including the capture of Early himself, by Sheridan. The facts are that there is no information here leading to a belief that Mobile has been captured. Although preparations for that purpose are in progress, they were not, at last accounts, quite completed, Grant's army has sustained no disaster whatever, and is not likely to meet with any. It is stronger and in better spirits and condition than ever, and only waiting the moment for the order to be given to strike the final blow at the rebel capital. Nothing has been received from Sheridan beyond what was mentioned in the Secretary of War's dispatch of this morning. The next advices from that quarter are expected to contain intelligence of the capture of the remnant of Early's army and the victorious progress of Sheridan towards Lynchburg. The reinforcements going to him afford ample protection for all supplies required, and will enable him to defeat any Army Lee can send to oppose him.

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The New York gold Market — fall in gold.

Some speculators in Wall street got very rich on Monday last. They started a report that Farragut had captured Mobile, and by that means "beared" gold down in a few minutes after the meeting of the stock board. The Herald says:

‘ The gold market labored under great excitement yesterday, and the panic of Saturday was intensified. The price opened at 192, but rapidly declined to 185@186, partly under the rumor of the surrender of Mobile. After rapid fluctuations, it rose to 199, but at five o'clock had relapsed to 193. The stock market was also greatly excited and lower, with a feeling of panic in the morning, which partially subsided in the afternoon. Produce and merchandise of all descriptions declined heavily in sympathy with gold.

’ The continued violent fluctuation in gold has begotten quite a panic in the merchandise markets, and immense losses will ensue, except in the event of a speedy recovery of gold. In some articles which were bought largely some time since on speculation, such as coffee, &c., the prevailing quotations indicate losses to the extent of hundreds of thousands of dollars. On the one item of losses we are told that some of the leading speculators, if compelled to sell now, would sink nearly or quite $800,000 to $1,000,000.

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Postmaster-General Blair's Retirement.

Montgomery Blair, in a letter to an afternoon Washington paper, says: ‘"My offers to resign were not made because the principles adopted at Baltimore were objectionable to me; but, on the contray, they were made in good faith, with a view to allay animosities among the friends of those principles, and in order to secure their triumph."’ Mr. Blair will, by request of the President, continue in office until his successor qualifies. Nothing has yet been heard from Mr. Dennison, who is canvassing in Ohio at points where there is no telegraphic connection. No doubt is entertained that he will accept the office.