e Shipping Point battery on the Potomac, says there are six guns in position, all apparently heavy ordnance.
The river there is about one mile wide.
Intelligent officers say that the statement that there are six miles of batteries below Shipping Point is all nonsense.
Vessels might be annoyed by batteries from the shore for a mile below there, as far as Evansport; but below that point the Virginia shore recedes from the channel, and the river widens so that batteries would be useless if pthe firing of the pickets of the Seventy-ninth N. Y. Regiment, between Falls Church and Lewinsville; but there was no noteworthy result.
The latest from the lower Potomac. Washington, Oct. 16.
--The steamer Mount Vernon reached Shipping Point just before daybreak this morning, and unmolestedly passed the rebel batteries; but the steamer Pawnee, following a short time thereafter, was fired on, between twenty and thirty shot being thrown towards her. The Pawnee, according to orders,
ith lumber for the Quartermaster's Department.
The Wyandank and Alger have left the yard with stores.
The Mount Vernon went down last evening, but Captain Mitchell deemed it prudent to return to Indian Head without passing the batteries.
The Harriet Lane left the yard this morning at seven o'clock.
The new battery at Timber Branch mounts four guns.
The Yankee has on board a large-sized rifled shell, which was fired from the battery at Budd's Ferry, (between Evansport and Shipping Point.) It went through a barn on the Maryland shore, and penetrated several feet into a bank of earth.
Horses, mules, hay, and oats.
About twenty-five thousand horses and three thousand mules have been received by the Quartermaster in Washington since the commencement of the war. On Wednesday there were on hand twelve hundred wagons and one hundred and thirty-three ambulances, a portion of these being in use and the rest ready for immediate service.
On the same day there were ten th
inole, on her late trip from Washington to Old Point, has been published in the Philadelphia Bulletin.
The following are extracts:
U. S. Steam-Sloop Seminole,off Fortress Monroe, Oct. 16, 1861.
We arrived here this morning at 7 o'clock, having left Washington yesterday morning.
Nothing very remarkable occurred on the way down to Quantico creek.
At that point the steamer Pocahontas, which was some miles ahead of us, threw three or four shells into the bushes at Evansport, or Shipping Point, Va. The fire was not returned, and she proceeded on her way.
As we neared the Point, at 10½ A. M., our decks were cleared for action, all hands at quarters, hatches closed and everything ready.
At 10.45 they opened on us, with rifled shot and shell, from three batteries, two on the bank and one about 400 yards inland, at Evansport.
These shot fell twenty rods short.
The Seminole returned the fire briskly, and with effect, from her pivot gun and two medium 32-pounders.
We kept on
arters late at night.
The result of his observations will have much influence in guiding the movements of that portion of our army.
Great activity prevails throughout the whole division.
Many of the regiments have attained marked proficiency in drill.
The intelligence that Gen. McClellan has assumed entire control of the Union army of the Potomac was received with great enthusiasm.
The rebels still continue active.
It is believed that they have thirty or forty thousand men near Shipping Point within immediate call.
The indications are that they would rest satisfied with an effectual blockade of the Potomac, and a successful resistance to any advance of our troops upon their position.
They are erecting new batteries at points below the mouth of Quantico creek, the batteries already erected being insufficient to cover the river.
Every night some craft succeeds in running the blockade.
Measures have been taken by Gen. Hooker to protect the loyal people of that portio
he rebel authorities that there was little hope of accomplishing anything like a recognition from either of these Governments.
It was on the receipt of this intelligence that Davis dispatched Slidell and Mason, with extraordinary powers, to make treaties, &c., in the hope that their sinking fortunes might be saved.
Affairs on the Lower Potomac.
Gen. Sickles, accompanied by one of the special army correspondents of the has made several balloon ascensions in Mary land, opposite Shipping Point and Aquia Creek, resulting in valuable discoveries as to the positions and strength of the rebels.
A history of these balloon reconnaissances will be furnished when the publication will not be of injury to the service.
An arrival from the flotilia brings the report that the schr. Maryland was fired at yesterday from the Virginia shore, while becalmed and anchored off Pig Point, and was set on fire.
Seizure of a British steamer.
Very important information, under date of Nov
own, Adams county, and Hanover, York county, Pa., as deserters from General Banks's column, and conveyed to Baltimore over the Northern. Central Railroad, where they were remanded to the proper officers.
Running the blockade of the Potomac.
A letter dated Washington, December 1st, published in the Baltimore Sun, says:
The steamer Reliance came up to the Navy-Yard late this afternoon.
Acting Master Haunum reports that at half-past 7 this morning all the rebel batteries at Shipping Point opened fire on a wood-laden schooner.
About forty rounds were fired, but only one took effect, cutting away the jib halyards, which brought the jib down by the run. The wind was fair at the time, but the tide being on the ebb was against the schooner.
The disaster to the jib did not prevent her from continuing on her course.
She passed the batteries without further damage, and has arrived safely at Washington.
The batteries on the Maryland shore replied to those of the rebels, and a
eds of our men covered the hills on the Maryland side, from which the whole action could be seen.
While the vessels were firing into the woods, our guns at Budd's Ferry sent a few shells across.
The rebel batteries directly opposite, at Shipping Point, returned the fire.
Several of their shells exploded on this side without doing any damage, and one of ours burst right in their upper battery.
The rebels ran in every direction.
In the meantime I had descended in the balloon and embar rendered the scene exceedingly beautiful.
In the evening a light breeze came up, and to-night a number of small vessels, mostly oyster boats, are passing up the river.
It is now a quarter to nine o'clock, and the rebel batteries at Shipping Point have just opened on two of the larger ones — the Oriental and the Shining Light, Captain Walker--Which the rebels can easily distinguish by reason of the clearness of the night and the brightness of the moon.
Both batteries are keeping up a
he report the guns, but the flashes from the mussiest were very vivid and incessant.
We saw several of the shelled burst in the air, some over on the Maryland shore, and others apparently over the river on the other side of Stump Neck.
The sky was overcast with cloud, but the glare of the moon shown sufficiently through them to render objects visible at a considerable distance.
The Reliance repassed the batteries without being fired at.
At about 14 this afternoon the batteries at Shipping Point and Cockit Point again opened fire, this time on the Maryland shore,
keeping up an incessant roar, and causing the steamer Stepping Stones to tremble with the concussion.
Their shells burst high in the air over the land or on the river, and one shell from Cock pit Point exploded into the entrance to Mattawoman, creek.
Reconnaissance near Columbus — movements of Union troops.
The gun-boats Essex, St Louis, and Tyler made a reconnaissance down the river today.
They approac
ay.
He reports that the Pensacola was not hit by any of the shot or shell from the rebel batteries, and did not fire a gun. After having passed Cockpit Point, two shots were fired at her, but they fell in the wake of the sloop.--A breast of Shipping Point and Evansport, 30 shots were fired by the rebels, principally shells from 32-pounders.
They passed from 30 to 60 feet above the surface of the water, and flew in almost every direction, without hitting the Pensacola — she making 11 knots an to spare between the keel of the sloop and the mud.
The Pusey left the Pensacola at the mouth of the Potomac, at 8½ o'clock, A. M., and returned last night.
In passing the batteries on the upward trip the only shot fired at her was from Shipping Point.
In connection with the above subject, the Fredericksburg Herald of the 17th inst., says:
The firing was of course pretty much at random, but the gunner of one of our rifle guns at Evansport says he believes he missed her the first
d there.
He went out to the house of Widow Taylor, who is his aunt.
He says he told his aunt's folks that some of our pickets were posted at his gate.
Widow Taylor has at least one son in the rebel army.
A squadron of Stewart's rebel cavalry had been at her house about a week ago, and had taken forty-three head of cattle from people residing in that neighborhood.
Activity of rebel batteries on the Lower Potomac.
Sunday being the rebels' fancy day for firing, the batteries at Shipping Point opened on the Maryland shore after breakfast.
A number of shells were thrown across, one of them bursting over the land, while others did not appear to explode.
One of the shells exploded immediately on leaving the gun, the boiling up of the water close in to the Virginia shore indicating where the fragments fell.
After wasting a great deal of powder the rebels ceased firing, thus concluding the morning service.
In the afternoon they opened fire again, the shells bursting as in the m
