April 9, 1863, The New York Herald
The government is not officially informed of any events occurring at Charleston; but that an attack most decisive in its results is imminent, it would be idle to deny. The feeling among both officers and men comprising the expedition is hopeful, and argues success. It is said that the city of Charleston is prepared for the worst, and that the women and children have already been removed.
The Richmond papers of Tuesday contain Charleston despatches of the 5th instant stating that important military movements are taking place there, which are not permitted to be made public. The Sentinel, of Richmond, on the 7th instant says that eight monitors and iron-clads were then off the bar at Charleston, and that some significant telegrams from there indicate that the long expected collision has actually occurred, and that the storm has burst upon Charleston at last.
The distress and want of food and army supplies at Richmond is seriously embarrassing to the rebels. A rebel cavalryman, who deserted from the rebel army on the Blackwater and came into Norfolk yesterday, says the Confederates are making arrangements to remove their capital from Richmond to Chattanooga, and that the scarcity of provisions and forage is the principal cause.
Our news from the Southwest is interesting. The rebels are building batteries on the Yazoo Pass, three miles from Greenwood. The ram Switzerland has been repaired of the injuries she received in passing the rebel batteries at Vicksburg, and has been sent up the Red river. The rebels are constructing a fleet of cotton-protected gunboats at Shreveport. An expedition of gunboats went up the Yazoo on the 1st inst. Twenty-two hundred bales of government cotton arrived at Cairo on Tuesday.
General Curtis’ despatches state that Hicks’ band of rebel guerillas has been destroyed in Jackson county, Mo., by Major Ransom, of the Sixth Kansas regiment.
By the arrival of the steamers Crescent and Columbia, from New Orleans, at this port yesterday, we have a most interesting budget of news from our correspondents, which we lay before our readers today. Probably the most important item in the intelligence is the capture of the United States steamer Diana by the rebels, in the Atchafalaya river, near Pattersonville, on the 28th ultimo. Her commander, Acting Master Peterson, was shot dead, and six of the crew were killed. Some twenty-five soldiers of the Twelfth Connecticut and One Hundred and Sixtieth New York, were also killed and wounded in the action. The remainder of those on board, numbering one hundred and seventy, were taken prisoners by the enemy.