–The steam frigate Brooklyn and another vessel at Norfolk are ordered to be in readiness for immediate departure to Charleston. The secession leaders discovered the intention to start these vessels, and notified their sympathizers at Norfolk to have minute-men ready to seize them if they attempted to go to sea. The Administration is on the watch to prevent it.–Commercial Advertiser.
A letter received in Washington from Alabama, states the secession sentiment to be utterly uncontrollable; and says that, in the event of the firing of a single gun in opposition to disunion, “Mr Lincoln’s life will not be worth a week’s purchase.”–Boston Courier.
–Captain Charles Stone, upon the recommendation of General Scott., is appointed to organize the militia of the District of Columbia. Captain Stone graduated at West Point at the head of his class, went into the Ordnance Corps, was a lieutenant in command of a battery at the siege of Vera Cruz; was brevetted for gallant conduct at Molina del Rey, and served on the entire line of operations from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, directly under the eye of General Scott, who expresses the highest confidence in his genius for command.–Tribune.
–Intelligence is received in Washington that Fort Sumter is besieged; that all Major Anderson’s communications are cut off; that Fort Moultrie has been completely repaired and the guns remounted; and that every thing is in readiness to open a fire on Major Anderson. New batteries are being erected around him by the secessionists.–N. Y. Times.
–In New York city an assembly of the people in the City Hall Park fire 100 guns in honor of Major Anderson.
–Five thousand citizens of Baltimore have signed a letter addressed to Governor Hicks, of Maryland, approving his course in refusing to convene the Legislature of that State. The list is headed by John P. Kennedy, Mr. Fillmore’s Secretary of the Navy, and comprises the names of nine-tenths of the business men of the city. Calls for public meetings to sustain the Governor are now being issued all over the State.–Baltimore American.
–Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, dispatched troops to seize upon Fort Macon, at Beaufort, the forts at Wilmington, and the United States arsenal at Fayetteville.–Times, Jan. 3.