March 12, 1863, The New York Herald
General Hooker had a long conference in Washington yesterday with the President, Gen. Halleck, Mr. Stanton and the Committee on the Conduct of the War, and returned to the Rappahannock last night. A reconnoitering party sent out a few days ago, consisting of a detachment of the First Maine cavalry, to scour the neck of land between the Rappahannock and Mattapony rivers, returned on Sunday to Falmouth and made a good report of itself, to the effect that all the court houses on the neck, and all the ferries on the Rappahannock for eighty miles below our lines, were visited, and that another smuggling nest was broken up and the smugglers captured, together with several rebel officers. a valuable lot of medical stores, contraband goods, such as boots, shoes, caps and blankets, and a number of horses and mules, were taken. Several boats engaged in carrying goods across the Rappahannock were destroyed, and a large warehouse filled with wheat and corn, ready for transportation, was burned. This is doing very well in that infested region.
It is said that before many days elapse the President will issue a call for more troops. The rumors that Major General Butler had been appointed Provost Marshal of the eastern district are not true.
The news from the Southwest today is important. It was believed in Memphis yesterday that an engagement at Port Hudson was progressing. A report reached Cincinnati from Jackson, Tennessee, that a portion of General Sullivan’s division, composed of two hundred men and two pieces of artillery, had been surrounded by the rebels and captured.
A movement took place on Monday afternoon at Rutherford creek, one of the tributaries of the Duck river, Tennessee, which may eventuate before many days in a serious battle between the Union troops and Van Dorn’s large rebel force of some 18,000 men, now on the line of the Duck river. General Granger, sent forward by General Rosecrans, arrived at the creek on that evening, and his advance guard immediately commenced skirmishing with the enemy, capturing several of them, who report that Colonel Coburn and two thousand of his men – who, it will be remembered, were captured by Van Dorn at Thompson’s Station on the 7th inst. – had made their escape. A battle in the vicinity of Nashville may therefore be contemplated before long.
The Richmond Examiner of Monday says that the latest accounts from Fort McAllister report that the Union fleet had again retired, after a terrific bombardment. It says that the fire of three iron-clads and three mortar boats was concentrated on the fort at the same time, and shell and solid shot literally rained on the garrison. The fire commenced about nine A.M., and continued up to a late hour in the evening and through the night.
This is the enemy’s fourth attack on Fort McAllister, and he has failed, strange to say: and, as unequal as the contest was, it states that the fort sustained but little damage, and the rebel loss is said to have been but two wounded and nine killed.
The Examiner regards the “Yankee” gunboats and mortars as a humbug, and adds that so accustomed have become the people of Vicksburg to them, and so little is the fear manifested at their shelling, […..] when the fire commences the people go out to witness it as a kind of amusement.”
A rather dangerous kind of amusement, we should think.
We give today an interesting history of a new arm introduced into the United States service to meet the exigencies of the times on the Western rivers – namely; the Mississippi Marine Brigade. The object of this organization is to operate against the rebel guerillas on the river banks. The force consists of infantry, cavalry and artillery, and all are provided with quarters on a fleet of steamboats. They will act in conjunction with the rams, and will be landed at those points where rebel batteries or ambuscades may be discovered, to clear them out. The brigade is under the command of General Ellet.
The rumors prevailing in Havana on the departure of the Roanoke of the probable destruction of the rebel privateer Florida, notice in yesterday’s issue, had no foundation except the statement made by the captain of the schooner Ocean Herald, that he had seen the wreck of a steamer on Abaco; and as the steamer Florida had not been heard from in Havana since she was pursued by the Sonoma, during a gale off Abaco, it was surmised that the wreck might possibly be that of the rebel rover. That the Florida was not wrecked at the time supposed is evident from the fact of her having captured and burned the ship Jacob Bell two weeks after she was chased by the Sonoma.
By the steamships Kangaroo and City of Baltimore, we have interesting news from Europe to the 26th ult. The question of the American war continues an exciting topic. In the House of Lords Earl Russell alluded to the question of the recognition of the Southern confederacy, and requested Lord Stratheden to postpone until the 2d inst. a motion which he had given notice of for the production of copies of all despatches from Mr. Mason to her Majesty’s government on the claim of the Southern confederacy to be acknowledged as an independent Power by Great Britain, to which request Lord Stratheden acceded. Lord Palmerston, in the House of Commons, in reply to a question as to whether there was any correspondence between her Majesty government and the Emperor of the French relative to the offer of mediation between the federal and Confederate States, and if so, whether there was any objection to lay it on the table of the House; and also, if the government was aware that any replies on the subject had been received by the Emperor of the French from the federal government, answered that the only official document on the subject was a despatch from Lord Russell on the 13th of November to Lord Cowley in a reply to a verbal communication from the French Ambassador. The document was already on the table of the House. With regard to any reply that might have been received by the Emperor of the French, that would be a matter between the American government and the French Minister at Washington, and he did not see how he could answer the question.