February 11, 1863, The New York Herald
There has been no movement in the Army of the Potomac since our last accounts.
A rash attempt to force the picket lines of the enemy, six miles from Yorktown, last Saturday, was made by Captain Faith, of the Fifth Pennsylvania cavalry, which resulted in his men being drawn into an ambuscade, near the “Nine Mile Ordinary,” and thirty of them being killed. He was himself mortally wounded. His second in command, Capt. Hagerston, was taken prisoner, as were the two Lieutenants – Williams and Little – who were serving as volunteers.
The account which we publish today from our correspondent on the Ogeechee river, detailing the events of the late contest between the iron-clad Montauk and the rebel battery, proves satisfactorily the invulnerability of the gunboat. She came out unscathed from a terrific fire, notwithstanding the rebel boast that she had suffered severely. She dismounted two of the guns on the battery, and although the range was short and the aim perfect, the heavy shots from the enemy failed to damage her. The battery opened on our wooden vessels at long range; but their aim was bad and they did no harm.
The pirate steamer Alabama is reported to have turned up at Kingston, Jamaica, on the 20th ult., where she landed the crew and officers of the United States steamer Hatteras, numbering over one hundred. It was reported that the Alabama had suffered severely in her fight with the Hatteras; that she had five shot in her hull, one of which – through her stern post – was a very bad one. She put into Kingston to repair damages, and expected to be ready for sea in four days. Immediately upon this news being received in Havana, the United States steamers Wachusett and Oneida sailed direct for Kingston, and the Santiago de Cuba and R.R. Cuyler, then on the south side of Cuba, were ordered at once to the same port, and the Tioga and Sonoma were also steering in the same direction. It is quite likely, then, that the Alabama is now hemmed in by a squadron of not less than six ships, which, if they are active enough in their movements, may place Captain Semmes in an awkward position.
The news from the Southwest is not very important. Our troops entered Lebanon, Tenn., on the 8th inst., and captured six hundred of the rebels, most of them belonging to Morgan’s men, including Paul Anderson and a number of field officers.
By the arrival of the North Star from New Orleans we have some important intelligence, the most striking being the details of the capture of the United States gunboat Morning Light, carrying nine guns, and the bark Velocity, with one howitzer, off Sabine Pass. The former was set on fire by the rebels upon the approach of Union vessels coming to her assistance, and she was totally destroyed. They were blockading the Pass, and the attack was made by four rebel steamers, protected by cotton bales and filled with sharpshooters, on the same plan as the attack was made on the Harriet Lane at Galveston. A raid of a similar kind was anticipated at Apalachicola on our steamers Somerset and Port Royal; but the commanders were, on the qui vive, and are not likely to be taken by surprise.
The rebels are strengthening their position at Port Hudson, and are daily receiving reinforcements.