September 10.–President Lincoln, Secretary Cameron, Governor Curtin and suite visited the Pennsylvania regiments to-day. The President introduced the Governor and Mrs. Curtin, Secretary Cameron and General McClellan, who were received with enthusiastic cheering. A hand-shaking then took place, General McClellan cordially greeting officers and men. Each man had something cheering to say to the General. One man said, “General, we are anxious to wipe out Bull Run; hope you will allow us to do it soon?” “Very soon, if the enemy does not run,” was the prompt response.
At last Captain Barker, of the Chicago cavalry corps, composing the escort, appealed to the troops not to crowd the General too hard, or shake his hand too much, as before he slept he had a long way to travel, and much writing to do with the hand they were shaking. He promised if they would fall back the General would say a few words to them. They instantly complied, when the General, removing his hat, spoke as follows:–
Soldiers: We have had our last retreat. We have seen our last defeat. You stand by me, and I will stand by you, and henceforth victory will crown our efforts.
– The Eighth regiment of Maine Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Leo Strickland of Livermore, passed through Boston, Mass., on their way to the seat of war. The regiment musters about eight hundred men, recruited from all parts of Maine. They are uniformed in the regular army uniform, a dark blue coat, light blue pantaloons, and a black felt hat. They marched in excellent order, although they have had but little opportunity to drill, as yet. They were without arms, but will receive them at the camp. – Boston Advertiser, September 11.
– The gunboats Conestoga and Lexington left Cairo and reconnoitred down the Mississippi River to-day. They encountered a battery of sixteen guns at Lucas Bend, on the Missouri shore, and two rebel gunboats. They silenced the rebel batteries and disabled the rebel gunboat Yankee, and would have captured her had she not been supported near Columbus. One of the Conestoga’s men was slightly injured. The loss of the rebels is not known.
Twenty national scouts were to-day driven into Col. Oglesby’s camp by two hundred rebels. There are no less than fifteen thousand rebels in camp at Columbus, and they were largely reinforced yesterday. – N. Y. World, September 12.
–At Philadelphia, Pa., William H. Winder, a brother of John H. Winder of the rebel army, was arrested, and all his correspondence and effects seized. Some of the correspondence reveals the way of thinking in the South, prior to Mr. Lincoln’s election, showing conclusively a foregone intention to disrupt the Union. Others detail fragments of conversation to which James Buchanan was a party, and exhibit a general baseness of sentiment in the presence of that functionary which might, at this time, be construed into treason. Winder was the Philadelphia correspondent of the New York Daily News, as copies of his letters were found pasted carefully in blanks, with notes and interpolations. – Philadelphia Press, September 12.
One hundred and Fifty-six of the Union prisoners, selected chiefly from among the members of the New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan regiments, were sent from Richmond, Va, to Castle Pinckney, in Charleston harbor. Among them were Colonel Wilcox, of the Michigan First; Colonel Corcoran, of the New York Sixty-ninth; Lieut.-Colonel Neff, of the Second Kentucky; Major John W. Poster, of the Thirty-eighth New York; Rev. G. W. Dodge, Chaplain of the Eleventh New York; Rev. II. Eddy, Chaplain Second Connecticut; Surgeons Griswold, of the Thirty-eighth New York; Grey, United States Army; Stone, United States Army; Connelly, Second New York; Harris, Second Rhode Island; Captains Downey, Eleventh New York; Fish, Third New York; Farish, Seventy-ninth New York; Drew, Second Vermont; Shurtleff, Seventh Ohio; L. Gordon, Eleventh Massachusetts; Whitington and Jenkins, New York Twenty-fifth; Lieutenants Fay, New York Twenty-fifth ; Hamblin, son of the actor of that name, Thirty-eighth New York; Underhill, Eleventh New York; Worcester, Seventy-first New York; Dempsey, Second New York; Wilcox, Seventh Ohio; Gordon, Second Dragoons United States Army; Caleff, Eleventh Massachusetts; Connelly, Sixty-ninth New York. Captain Ricketts, United States Army, was to have accompanied the party, but is not sufficiently recovered from his wounds to undertake the journey. Included in the number stated above are a number of officers, several of whom are recovering from the effects of the wounds received at the battle of Stone Bridge. The prisoners were marched from the tobacco factories in which they had been confined, to the depot of the Petersburg Railroad, in double files, guarded, by a detachment of fifty men from the Jeff. Davis Louisiana Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant C. W. Brocket, of the rebel army, who are to accompany them all the distance to Charleston. Twenty-five men of the detachment detailed from the Hadison (La.) Infantry, marched ahead of the prisoners, the rear being brought up by twenty-five men of the Natchez (Miss.) Rifles. The party embarked in three cars specially provided for their accommodation, each car being guarded by fifteen Southern soldiers, very fully armed. –Richmond Examiner, Sept. 11.
–A Battle took place about three o’clock this afternoon, near Summersville, Va. General Rosecrans, after making a reconnoissance, found General Floyd’s army–five thousand strong, with sixteen field-pieces–intrenched in a powerful position, on the top of a mountain at Carnifex Ferry, on the west side of Gauley River. The rear and extreme of both flanks were inacessible. The front was masked with heavy forests and a close jungle. Colonel Lytle’s Ohio Tenth regiment of Gen. Benham’s brigade was in advance, and drove a strong detachment of the enemy out of camp this side of the position, the site of which was unknown. Shortly afterward his scouts, consisting of four companies, suddenly discovered themselves in the face of a parapet battery, and a long line of palisades for riflemen, when the battle opened fiercely. The remainder of the Tenth and Thirteenth Ohio were brought into action successively by General Benham, and the Twelfth afterward by Captain Hartsuff, whose object was an armed reconnoissance. The enemy played upon the National forces terrifically, with musketry, rifles, canister and shell, causing some casualties. Colonel Lytle led several companies of Irish to charge the battery, when he was brought down by a shot in the leg. Colonel Smith’s Thirteenth Ohio engaged the rebels on the left, and Colonel Lowe’s Twelfth Ohio directly in the front. Lowe fell dead at the head of his regiment early in the hottest fire, by a ball in the forehead. McMullen’s howitzer battery and Snyder’s two field-pieces meantime were got into the best position possible under the circumstances, and soon silenced two of the rebel guns. The fire slackened at intervals but grew more furious as night approached, when the German brigade was led gallantly into the action by Colonel McCook, under the direction of Adjutant-General Hartsuff, but who, after a furious fight of three hours, ordered the recall of the troops, and the men lay on their arms within a short distance of the enemy all night. The rebel General Floyd fled during the night, and sunk the boats in the river, and destroyed the temporary bridge which he made when he first occupied the position. The turbulence and depth of the river and the exhaustion of the troops made it impossible to follow him. He left his camp equipage, wagons, horses, large quantities of ammunition, and fifty head of cattle. The National troops lost fifteen killed and about seventy wounded, generally flesh wounds. Captain McGroarty, of Cincinnati; Captain McMullen and Lieutenant Snyder, of Ohio, were wounded, but not dangerously. Twenty-five of Colonel Tyler’s men who were taken by Floyd at Cross Lane, were recaptured, and Floyd’s personal baggage, with that of his officers, was taken by General Benham’s brigade, which suffered most. It was commanded by him in person, and Colonel McCook led his brigade. General Rosecrans and General Benham, Colonel McCook, Colonel Lytle, Colonel Lowe, Captain Hartsuff, Captain Snyder, Captain McCullen Burke, of the Tenth Ohio, and the other officers displayed conspicuous personal gallantry. The troops were exclusively from Ohio.–(Doc. 21.)