Southern War news.
From our mails of yesterday evening we gather the following:
From Floyd's command.
The correspondent of the Lynchburg Republican writes from Meadow Bluff, under date of the 19th, as follows:‘ On Monday night our gallant little army fell back from the top of Big Sewell to this place — Meadow Bluff. The order to march was given at eight o'clock, and by ten our tents were stricken baggage packed, teams hitched, and the long train of men, wagons, and horses in motion. About half an hour after starting the rain commenced pouring down in torrents, and continued nearly all night. But few of us had the luxury even of overcoats, and fewer still of water-proof ones; the consequence was, that nearly the whole of us got thoroughly drenched. The roads, too, soon became terrible, and rendered the march a most disagreeable one.--But our men bore it with great cheerfulness, and we could hear them cracking their jokes along the road with as much gaiety as it seated around the cheerful fire of a comfortable home. Indeed, camp life is one of the most interesting and profitable schools of instruction in the world.
I am glad to see that the Confederate Congress has passed a law giving regular rations of liquor to our volunteers. Temperance apostles may say what they please, but a gill of liquor per day to a soldier is a better preventive and cure of disease than all the apothecary shops and doctors in Christendom. A man drenched with rain and chilled with cold, without fire to warm or dry him, is almost obliged to be sick unless he has some stimulant to stir his blood and make it bound freshly through his veins. It is a curious fact that not one drop of liquor has been in our camp since we left Lewisburg, nearly two months ago. Not even the officers have it. This is no compliment to our temperance propensities, but the result of circumstances which we cannot control. There is not a drop of liquor at public or private house between Lewisburg and Ganley river. Their supplies have heretofore come from Ohio, and that channel of trade is now entirely cut off.
We reached Meadow Bluff safely about 10 o'clock on the morning of the 18th, and, pitching our tents, proceeded at once to prepare for a warm reception of the enemy.--Gen. Floyd is unremitting in his attention to the affairs of his army. He does a vast deal of the labor himself, and leaves as little to his subordinates as possible. He inspects everything, and never leaves for a moment his lines even on the march.
’
Skirmishing near Columbus.
We learn, says the Memphis Avalanche, through an officer who arrived from Columbus yesterday, that a portion of Capt. Logwood's company, while scouting near Elliott's Mills, some thirteen miles from Columbus, succeeded in surrounding a party of Federals who were cooking their meal in a field. Shots were interchanged, when the enemy set up a shout, as if calling for their comrades, who were supposed to be only a short distance off in considerable force, and the dragoons were ordered not to pursue the flying foe, much to their dissatisfaction. The loss of the Federals was six killed, besides a number of guns, etc., which they forgot in the hurry of departure. The loss on our side was two horses killed and one severely wounded. Not one of the boys received a scratch.
Patrotism and pantaloons.
Subjoined is the story of a lady who could not reconcile herself, in the midst of the excitement of the war, to the passive patriotism of making shirts for the soldiers; but, donning a shirt and pantaloons herself, she deemed it much more honorable to fight. Her impulses were noble, though, perhaps, mal apropos.--The account is taken from the Lynchburg Republican, of yesterday:‘ On the cars of the Tennessee company, which arrived here on Tuesday evening among many other officers, was one whose gay and dashing appearance attracted universal attention, and led to the firm belief on the part of all that he was one of the chief dignitaries of the military world. Decked out in all the ‘"pomp, and pride, and circumstance of glorious war,"’ and with an air that seemed to say, ‘"I am the master of the great Wellington and Bonaparte,"’ he trod the streets the observed of all observers, when, in an evil hour, it became noised about that the gallant officer was sailing under false colors — in other words, that he who had become the envy of all the men, and the admiration of all the women, was herself a woman, dressed up in the habiliments of the sterner sex. Our police, ever on the alert of suspicious characters, and knowing of no good reason why the gay one should have donned the ‘"pants"’ instead of the gown, quickly arrested her, and carried her before Anderman Saunders, who, after a tedious examination, being unable to find out much either favorable or unfavorable to the suspected party, determined to send her to Richmond for the Secretary of War to examine. She gave her name as Mrs. Mary Ann Keith, of Memphis, Tonnessee, but registered at the Piedmont House as Lieut. Buford. Said she had been married twice, her first husband having been a member of Sherman's famous battery; her second was in the Southern army, but she stated that she was separated from him for some reason she did not make known. She declared she was all right on the Southern question, and scouted the idea of being a spy. She said her reason for dressing in soldier clothes was, that she had determined to fight the battles of her country, and thought such diguise more likely to enable her to accomplish her object. She may be all sound as far as we know to the contrary, but a proper regard for our safety requires that all such characters should be strictly examined wherever they are found in the South. The prisoner was sent to Richmond yesterday morning.
’
Intelligence from Texas.
The people of Texas are fully alive to the cotton loan. Very many are subscribing their whole crop. The subscription in the State will amount to more than 200,000 bales.The State of Texas has now about 20,000 men in the service, and accepted. She has as many more ready to go, and still another twenty thousand for home defence. General Sibley called for two regiments, and accepted 3,300 men, after which he was obliged to refuse many who still wanted to be mustered into his brigade.
Terry's Regiment of Rangers, for Virginia service, will soon be on the road. Fully 2,000 men have offered for it, out of which the regiment has been picked. It will be the pride of the army. Everyman is game to the back-bone, and armed to the teeth.
There is some complaint in Central Texas of the cotton worm. The complaint is not general. Good judges estimate the crop at very near that of 1860. Sugar-cane promises a good yield. The corn and wheat crops have been immense.
A thousand bushels of salt were received in Houston on the first inst., from the Laguna Madre, near Corpus Christi. It is equal to the best Rev. Ubes salt for curing meat.
Defences of the Georgia coast.
Governor Brown, we learn from the Savannah News, has made a thorough survey of the whole Georgia coast to the Florida line, visiting all the batteries and military posts on his route. He was accompanied by a stuff of engineers. The News is informed that the works on the coast are being pushed forward energetically. The guns for the batteries are all landed and being rapidly mounted, and the magazines are abundantly stored with powder, shot, and shell. The heavy eight and ten-inch Columbiads and the forty-two pound guns purchased by Gov. Brown at the Tredegar Works in Virginia, together with the thirty-two pounders sent out by the Secretary of the Navy, are being placed in position on the batteries the whole length of the line.
The doubt of Muldraugh's Hill — the recent arrests in Kentucky.
We take the following items from the Nashville Union, of Tuesday. Several of the incidents alluded to have been briefly mentioned in the Dispatch by telegraph:‘ We learn from gentlemen who came in on yesterday evening's train, that the Lincolnites under Gen. Sherman, of Ohio, have possession of Muldraugh's hill. It is supposed Sherman has a force of about 3,500, a portion of which had reached Muldraugh's hill at last accounts. What the intention of the enemy is, is not known. It seems, General Buckner has not regarded Muldraugh's hill at a strategic point, and consequently did not invest it, as he was amply able to do.
The latest intelligence from Louisville received at Rowling Green, confirms the reported arrest of Governor Morehead. He had been removed the night of his arrest to the interior, or perhaps out of the State. Mr. William Barr, the news agent of the Southwestern Telegraph company at Louisville, had also been arrested and removed. J. H. Derrit, Esq., formerly one of the editors of the Courier, was also arrested, and it was reported that another party had been arrested.
The publication of the Louisville Courier
has been suppressed, and it is understood that Mr. W. H. Haldeman, one of the publishers, had made his escape. Colonel McKee, one of the editors, came to Tennessee a few days before the advance of the Southern troops into Kentucky. Nothing is knows of Mr. Overton, the other editor.
As far as could be learned, there was but very little enthusiam manifested in and about Louisville for the Lincoln cause.
General Buckner was receiving large accessions daily of citizens of Kentucky.
’
Another visit from the Lincoln our boats.
The Memphis Appeal, of Tuesday, learns that on Saturday last the camp at Columbus was favored with another visit from two or three of the Cairo gun-boats — the same that have recently been so attentive to us. They came within a couple of miles of Columbus, and, stopping at the head of the river above, commenced feeling for ‘"masked batteries"’ by throwing random shells. Eighteen of these missiles were thrown at intervals of about ten minutes, one of which is alleged to have struck not far from Gen. Polk's headquarters, and the others seem to have been directed toward Gen. Thompson's camp, on the Missouri shore. After exercising their batteries some three hours, without damage to any one, these boats retreated toward their rendezvous, not a single gun on our side responding to their feint.It seems to us that a couple of masked or submarine batteries, placed four or five miles above on the river, would be a sufficient remedy for the insolence of the enemy as shown in these occasional forays.
The confidence at Washington.
A correspondent of the Memphis Appeal remarks that the increasing confidence of the Government at Washington, because that city has not been attacked by Johnston and Beauregard, reminds us of the ostrich which, running its head into the sand, considers itself secure from all danger. ‘"We have seen our last defeat,"’ said the boastful McClellan, the other day, addressing the troops, and Lincoln, as he rides around his capital, from entrenchment to entrenchment, and counts the immense guns which have been placed in position for its defence, congratulates himself on the safety of the metropolis. ‘"Our castle's strength will laugh a siege to scorn,"’ says the vulgar Macbeth, who two months ago saw visions of the invading columns of the Confederates darkening the avenue. There can be no doubt that the most tremendous preparations have been made for the protection of Washington.
Why the North Prosecutes the War.
The New Orleans Bee, in an article on the war, says:‘ It has been not unplausibly conjectured that one of the principal reasons why the North is so resolved upon the continued vigorous prosecution of the war, is that her people now know by experience the inestimable value to them of the Southern trade. If they knew this before, they affected to deny it, and sought persistently to disparage our wealth and resources. Since the commencement of hostilities they have gradually lost the entire commerce of the South, and they are well aware that if, for all future time, this vast source of opulence is forfeited by them, the mercantile marts of New England and the Middle States will be hopelessly ruined. Nothing can possibly save them except the recovery of that magniticent trade which had enriched N. York, Boston and Philadephia, and created millionaires and merchant princes in those cities. It may be urged that the South can never again be induced to maintain important business relations with the North. Probably this would be the case were the South permitted quietly to accomplish the work of separation. Hence the people of the North think their only chance of getting back Southern trade — of making our country once more tributary to their growth and aggrandizement, is to conquer us, hold us as subject provinces, and compel us to resume the former channels of mercantile communication. They freely acknowledge that the war injures them terribly, but they argue that the sacrifice, immense as it is, will be more them compensated by the return of the Southern States into the Union. Moreover, they affirm that to give up the struggle would entail upon them firetrievable pecuniary disaster, and that they cannot lose more by continuing it, especially as they hold that it must prove in the end suceessful.
’
Seizure of a Nice Litter steamer.
The Mobile Tribune, of Sunday, says that a fine, new steamer, called the Planter, owned, as we learn, by the Lincoluites, who reside in some part of the Western country, was smuggled over here and secreted in the Three Mile creek. Some citizens, knowing these facts, seized her on Friday last as property belonging to our enemies.
