November 13, 1863, The New York Herald
The Richmond papers of Wednesday have telegrams from Charleston to the day previous. Slow firing had been going on all day at Sumter. The two Monitors was then in action firing about thirty shots. Altogether, during the day, sixty rifle shots and twenty-five shells were fired, only seven of which missed. The Richmond Examiner admits the defeat of the rebels on the Rappahannock, in which Hokes’ and Hays’ brigades were captured.
There is no important change in the Army of the Potomac. Our troops occupy the old battle field of Cedar Mountain. Immense trains of supplies from Alexandria are going to the front. The railroad is being pushed rapidly ahead, and will be opened to the Rapidan by Monday night. Yesterday afternoon the rebel guerillas attacked the camps occupied by the workmen at Nokesville, two and a half miles east of Catlett’s Station, burnt some of the shanties and carried off the contents of the others. A force of our troops were guarding a culvert not more than a quarter of a mile distant at the time. The rebels are strongly posted on the Rapidan.
Some further developments with regard to the plot hatched in Canada to free the rebel prisoners on Johnson’s Island, in Lake Erie, have been made, which show that it wears a serious aspect. It appears that the Governor General of Canada has given notice through Lord Lyons to the Secretary of State of rebel plots hatched in the British provinces to deliver the prisoners on Johnson’s Island, in Lake Erie, and burn Buffalo and Ogdensburg. Adequate measures to defeat the enterprises have been promptly adopted.
Mr. Stanton apprised the Mayor of Buffalo by telegraph yesterday of the details of the plot, and put him on his guard to protect the city against the approach of any steamboats or vessels with an unusual number of persons on board.
In the late disastrous affair at Rodgersville, Tenn., the troops of General Burnside were completely overwhelmed by superior numbers. Five hundred men, four guns and thirty-six wagons fell into the hands of the enemy.
A despatch from Cairo says — on the faith of a report from Eastport, Miss. — that General Lee now commands at Chattanooga; that General Bragg has been sent to Mobile, and that General Longstreet is in command in Virginia.
By the arrival of the Bohemian at Father Point yesterday, we have three days later news from Europe. Some excitement existed in England in consequence of a rumor that the rebel rams would be taken out of the Mersey by force. Orders were at once sent to Plymouth to send a war vessel round to Liverpool. The iron-plated frigate Prince Consort, and a gunboat, proceeded to the Mersey, the latter lying opposite Mr. Laird yard ready to start at a moment’s notice. Advices from the West Indies report the rebel privateer Georgia off Falmouth, Jamaica, on the 13th ult. She was said to have captured a steamer the same evening. The London Morning Star states that the Emperor Napoleon has informed Mr. Dayton that the authority for the construction of the rebel iron-clads in French ports had been withdrawn. This accords with the statement of Mr. Seward the other day which appeared in these columns.