April 6, 1861; The New York Herald
Our intelligence from Pensacola dates up to the 26th ult., at which time new levies of troops were arriving, which swelled the available force to sixteen hundred men. The numerous sand batteries commanding Fort Pickens were in an advanced state towards completion. General Bragg had ordered the removal of sixty heavy guns, to be taken from Fort McRae and distributed among the new sand batteries. Five thousand stand of arms and two hundred thousand ball cartridges, for the use of the Confederate troops, arrived at Pensacola on the 26th ult. Commodore Ingraham assumed command of the Warrington Navy Yard on the date of our despatches, superseding Commodore Brent, who remains second in command. Surgeon W. A. W. Spotswood and Paymaster W. J. W. Kelly are also on duty at that port.
The steamer Fulton, at the Warrington Yard, is to be repaired as soon as the work can be prudently done; an appropriation for that purpose has already been made.
Captain Odalowski advertises for thirty laborers–we suppose to assist in placing the unmounted guns in position in the sand batteries about to be erected between Forts McRae and Pickens.
President Davis called for fifteen hundred troops from Mississippi, and more than two thousand have responded to the call. One-fourth of the volunteers that offered to serve the confederacy cannot be accepted.
The Governor of Georgia has, it is said, ordered nine military companies in that State to hold themselves in readiness to march to Pensacola.
The Confederate States government are adopting active measures to complete the Gulf Railway from Montgomery to Pensacola, to facilitate the transportation of troops to the Gulf. It will be completed in a few days.
The garrison of Fort Morgan, at Mobile Point, now under the command of Col. Wm. J. Hardee, we understand, is to be raised to a thousand men. At present we suppose there are at least seven or eight hundred already there, and we learn that they are rapidly being instructed in all the garrison duties.
Three heavy columbiads reached Atlanta, Ga., from Richmond, on the 27th ult. The lightest of the three weighted 9,475 pounds and the heaviest 16,000 pounds. A large quantity of shells and balls accompanied them. The guns will be forwarded to the forts near Savannah.
Late Mobile papers state that troops and munitions of war are constantly moving forward by every route to Pensacola. Several companies from North Alabama are expected down the present week.
The First Company of New Orleans Zouaves, Captain A. Coppens, left for Pensacola on the 28th ult., via the Pontchartrain Railroad and Mobile, one hundred strong. A late New Orleans paper, in speaking of the battalion to which this company is attached, says:
This corps of the army will be quite a feature of the service. It will be recruited in Louisiana, and many Louisianians of the best families have enlisted. The battalion is to number five hundred men, and is rapidly filling up under Major Coppens, who is charged with its organization. On Monday night the organization had so far progressed that two companies, of one hundred men each, turned out for a trot round town. The battalion will include quite a number of the veterans of the Crimean War, familiar with the drill and practice of Napoleon’s Zouaves, and by their teaching and example the recruits will soon be made proficient. They will have the uniform and equipments of the French Zouaves, and the orders are given in French. The uniforms and equipments have been contracted for, and it is expected that the battalion will receive orders to leave New Orleans very soon–probably for Pensacola. This battalion will be a considerable curiosity in the military way, and will doubtless prove very efficient. A majority of its materiel is native Louisiana Creole stock, and there are not better men.
The Memphis Avalanche publishes a telegraphic despatch, received by Mr. Coleman of that city, on the 26th, from Hernando, Mississippi, stating that six hundred troops would leave there the next day for Memphis on their way to Pensacola. The Avalanche also states that thirty young men of that city were to have left on the 26th with the Irrespressibles of Hernando, having enlisted in the company.
The New Orleans Picayune of the 24th ult. says: The government of the Confederate States at Montgomery has issued orders for the purchase of the clipper steamship Habana, of this port, now under command of Captain McConnell, in the Havana trade, to be fitted out as a war steamer. The Habana is admirably adapted as a war steamer, being staunchly built and one of the fastest steamers now afloat. We understand that she has been examined by Commodore Rousseau, who expresses himself highly satisfied with her. She will leave this port on the 7th proximo for Havana with our Commissioners to Europe, to meet the British mail steamer.
The Vicksburg Whig of the 26th ult. says: We learn that Governor Pettus has engaged transportation on the Southern Railroad for three hundred men, which are to leave Jackson for Meridian tomorrow morning en route for Pensacola.
The Pensacola Gazelle of the 20th ult. says:: Two 32-pounders have been obtained from St. Augustine, and are to be placed in battery near the port of St. Marks, for the protection of that harbor. A call is made on the planters for laborers to assist in erecting sand batteries.
STEAMER FIRED INTO.
The Savannah Republican of April 1 says: The steamer Georges Creek, Capt. Willetts, from Baltimore, in coming up the river, was brought to on Saturday night last by the battery at Fort Jackson. The Georges Creek, it appears, having, when abreast of the fort, no lights observable, was hailed, and giving no answer, two blank cartridges were fired at her; still failing to answer, two balls were fired a her, one of which passed over her bows, and the other over her stern, which immediately brought her small boat to the fort to explain her position.