From the South.
The following comprises the most interesting items which our latest Southern exchanges contained:
Latest from Fort Royal--more Burning of cotton.
From the Charleston Courier, of the 9th instant, we extract the following:‘ We learn from a friend that on Wednesday night a mounted detachment of the Beaufort Artillery, under their Captain, amounting to twenty-two men, passed over to the island, visited Beaufort, whose utter desolation and abandonment was relieved only by the presence of one light and the barking of a dog.--There were no signs of the enemy, either on land or on water. Our men then proceeded to the work of destruction.
The chief object of the expedition was to destroy the crops of cotton and provisions on Paris Island, which being near to the enemy was crowded by the negroes who had flocked there to escape from the control of their owners. Owing to the absence of boats, this object was but partially effected. A canoe, holding three men, passed over from the battery, and soon consigned to the flames, on Dr. Thomas Fuller's plantation, seventy bales cotton and seven hundred bushels of corn.
Returning to the battery plantation, the work was resumed, and the torch successively applied to the cotton of twelve other planters, while the contents of five bares were emptied by the negroes and consumed on the ground. Seventeen crops, amounting to nearly four hundred bales, were thus effectually removed from the fangs of the destroyer. The portions of the Island most exposed are safe. The remainder can easily be secured — perhaps is already past their reach, as two distinct parties went over on Saturday night, and a large fire was visible near midnight.
’
later from Bowling Green, Ky.--movements of Gen. Zollicoffer --the Provisional Legislature.
The Bowling Green correspondent of the Nashville Union writes, under date of the 4th instant, as follows:
‘ Information of an official character has reached here that Gen. Zollicoffer, with a large force, has retired from Cumberland Gap and is at Burksville, on the North bank of Cumberland river, about one hundred and twenty miles southeast of this place. Gen. Geo. B. Crittenden has assumed command of the remaining forces at Cumberland Gap, numbering, in addition to late reinforcements, a larger army than that of the late commandant.
The statement as to the whereabouts of Gen. Zollicoffer will, it is believed, be found correct, as gentlemen direct from Barren county report his pickets as having advanced thirty miles from Banksville.
A reliable citizen of Hardin county, who left Elizabethtown last Saturday, reports the larger portion of Gen. Buell's army, numbering full thirty thousand men, at Camp Nevin, near Nolin; where they are making extensive preparations for wintering. The railroad bridge over Nolin creek, lately destroyed by Southern-Rights citizens of Kentucky, and afterwards rebuilt under direction of Gen. Roussean, was washed away last Friday, the creek, owing to the recent heavy rains, having swollen to an unusual height.
It is reported that 4,000 Federalists are at Upton Staten, distant about ten miles from Green river, and that since the destruction of the bridge they are greatly exercised as to how, in the case of an attack, a junction can be made with their comrades in Nolin and iniquity.
A gentleman direct from Meade county states that the Lincolnites, with the exception of a few home guards, have vacated that locality. Hon. C. Reed, ex-member of the Legislature from Meade county, was arrested a few days since while endeavoring to make his way to our lines. Not wishing to be lodged in jail, a proposition was made to his captors that if he were released $100 would be given them. The terms were agreed upon, and Mr. Reed permitted to depart unmolested.
Legislation in the right direction was taken by the Council of the Provisional Government yesterday, in regard to the purchase and sale of Tennessee money. The act, which is passed, and goes into immediate operation, provides for the levying of a tax of twenty-five dollars per week upon all brokers engaged in the thieving business of making a livelihood from the necessities of the people and times. This laudable move will have the desired effect of closing the innumerable monied butcher shops here, and place upon an equality all Southern moneys, and at the same time raise its value to an approximation of its real worth.
It is understood that the price of pork will be regulated by the Council, and fixed at seven dollars and fifty cents per hundred.
’
A British man-of-war off Charleston, S. C.
The Charleston Courier, of the 9th, says:‘ The English steam ship-of-war Racer, of eleven guns, Capt. Algernon Lyons, arrived off this harbor on Friday afternoon last. She left New York on Tuesday, and has brought dispatches to Her Britannie Majesty's Consul. The latter visited her on Saturday morning in the steamer Carolina, and the Racer soon after left for Port Royal, from which place she is expected to return this day and will soon after sail for New York.
’
The fleet off Charleston.
The Courier, of the 9th, says:‘ On Saturday last there were in sight near this harbor, the following Lincoln vessels: --The steamship Susquehanna, two side-wheel gun-boats, a store ship, a large schooner, supposed to be laden with coal, and the Swedish bark Minoan. We hear that this last vessel was bound to this port, supposing there was no blockade, which want of information will be unfortunate for her owners, as she will no doubt be seized.
’
From Fort Holt, Ky--two Lincolnites killed.
From the Columbus (Ky.) Confederate News, of the 6th inst., we take the following:‘ We have just received additional news that it has been admitted at Camp Holl that two men were killed by the firing from one of our gun-boats, "Gen. Polk," last Sunday. It is said to have been occasioned by a plug bomb, which fell inside the fort and exploded.
’
Old Harvey brown dead.
The Montgomery Mail, of the 6th instant, says:‘ There has been a rumor upon our streets several days that Col. Brown, of Fort Pickens, has died of a wound received in the late fight below Pensacola. Passengers up from that city this morning, say the report is firmly believed, but not positively known to be true.
’
Rich Scenes Occurring among the Lincoln soldiery.
The following article which we take from the Columbus (Ky.) Confederate News, of the 14th inst., shows with what prominence the negro question figures in the Lincoln movements in Kentucky:‘ There is at Fort Holt a regiment commanded by Col. Cook, and another commanded by Col. Johnson,--the former Abolition, the latter Southern Illinoisan, and nearly honest enough to belong to the Southern army. It fell out a few days since that a runaway slave was pursued into the camp by a Union man, with an order from Gen. Grant for his surrender. Notice being had of this, the fellow was run to the woods by his friends of Cook's regiment, a coward of was publicly ordered for the negro's return. This stimula- ted the other regiment, and they swore they would have the negro and return him to his owner.
The Abe's men proper swore that no such thing should be done. In a few days after, the ‘"bone of contention"’ was discovered in the camp of his friends, and his capture was resolved upon by the other regiment. They went over accordingly, prepared to execute their honest purpose. As they approached the negro, the wink was given him to run.--He took to his heels, but alas! too late. The Southern Illinois boys determined not to be made fools of in that way, turned loose upon the intuitive and brought him down with seven buck shots in his body.
Now commenced a scene that baffles description. A general fight ensued, in which several were slain on both sides, and the animosity between the regiments has become such that the soldiers in each shoot the other whenever an opportunity presents itself.
’
A rebel letter — the Louisville Journal Wealthy.
The Louisville Journal publishes the following letter from Col. John S. Williams, and of course becomes virtually indignant. The Journal says:‘ We find in the Maysville Eagle the following copy of a letter from John S. Williams, which was taken from the person of ex-State Senator Henry M. Rust, who was killed at the battle of Ivy Mountain, near Pikesville.--The Eagle says the original is in the possession of the Hon. W. H. Wadsworth, and by "sweeping the mountains of every foe" is plainly meant that he designed to drive every Union man from his home before he commenced the same work of the devil in the Blue Grass region:
’
--I am in receipt of your of yesterday.
The army we are rallying here is intended to defend the mountains. We shall sweep the mountains of every foe before we move forward. The right mode for the mountain people to defend their homes is to come in at once and bring their guns. I received instructions from Richmond yesterday to muster in for twelve months.
Get up a force at once; a force strong enough to defend Pike county. I want a force at Pikesville immediately. I will muster them there for twelve months.
Attend to this at once; no time is to be lost. Don't rest a moment until it is done.
John S. Williams.
Victory of death.
The following are the concluding pages of the inaugural address of Gov. Brown, of Georgia. The Governor but gives expression to the unalterable determination of each and all of us:‘ Were we disposed to yield, it is now too late to calculate the cost of submission. He would but feebly enumerate the results of our subjugation, who would remind us that it would fasten upon us the entire expense of the war — load our industry and that of our posterity for generations to come with burdens and taxation too grievous to be borne — subject us to military despotism, and compel us to maintain standing armies quartered among us, to insult us with their insolence, while they riveted more securely the chains of our bondage — deprive us of our self-respect, and break our spirits with the crushing weight of our degradation.
Sooner than submit to this, let the last man in the Confederacy die nobly at the point of the bayonet, and let our wives and our children, and all the property we possess, perish together on one common funeral pile; and let the winds that pass over our graves, and chant our funeral dirge, tell to other generations in other climes, that we lived freemen, and we died freemen.
’
From Paducah, Ky.
The Confederate News, published at Columbus, Ky., furnishes us with the following paragraph:‘ Our information from this place is quite recent. We feel authorized in saying that there is no force at Paducah, such as would indicate an advance movement from that quarter.
If the half that is told us of the demoralization of the army there, resulting from the known rupture between Gens. Smith and Payne be true, they will have enough to do to take care of themselves.
Gen. Smith and Payne are at open enmity, and their friends, instead of hoping or endeavoring to heal the breach, are engaged in widening it by letters containing matter of crimination and recrimination, as bitter as hate itself.
’
Jeff. Thompson Turns up again — he Captures another steamer.
This indefatigable patriot is never idle, and whenever we hear from him, we find that his energies have been successful in advancing the cause of the South. From the Confederate News, of Columbus, Ky., Dec. 4, we take the following paragraph:‘ A few days since Gen. Thompson, by a stratagem, captured the steamer Empress, on her trip from St. Louis to Cairo. Jeff only got 400 cavalry horses and some other valuables, took the crew prisoners, and set fire to and burned the boat. This information we derive from a gentleman from the other side of the river, and who knows.
’
Another gun-boat.
The Confederate News, of the 4th inst., says:‘ There is a large, black, ugly looking customer lying at anchor opposite our wharf, in just about the same place in which the Northern gun-boat A. O. Tyler lay on the 1st September. This boat is a novelty to us. She looks for all the world like she felt inclined to start of her own accord, and go right into Abe's dominion. This makes our fleet five in all at Columbus.
’
Contrabands.
The Louisville Journal publishes the following, without the slightest rebuke of the outrage. It will next excuse and then defend Jennison, the Jayhawker, for stealing Missourians' negroes:‘ Thirty-eight negroes arrived in Leavenworth on Sunday, the 17th, having been freed by Jennison, and a great number went to Lawrence. Millions of dollars worth of this kind of property are now running about in Kansas. Leavenworth is crowded with them, and Lawrence has a larger number.
’
The prisoners confined at Newport Barracks.
The Louisville Journal says:‘ The prisoners confined at Newport Barracks, Ky., recently captured at Piketon, have made a proposition to enlist as soldiers in the United States army. They claim that they were misled by bad and designing men, and that if they could regain their former footing they would pursue a different course.
’
Another flag of Truck.
The Confederate News, of the 5th inst., says:‘ About three o'clock P. M. yesterday, a Federal steamer came in sight above town with the white flag afloat. As usual, curiosity was on tiptoe. Multitudes crowded the wharf, the eminences, and even the housetops. The Yazoo, having a portion of the staff of Gen. Pillow and perhaps other officers, went up to the flag.
On her return she brought with her about 150 good fellows who had been made prisoners at Camp Jackson, who by the unremitting exertions of Gen. Frost have at last been enabled to set their foot on Dixie's Land.
’
From East Tennessee.
The Columbus (Ky.) Confederate News, of the 5th inst, says:‘ As we expected, the information last night fails utterly of any confirmation of the report of an outbreak of Unionists in East Tennessee. The reported attack at Morristown was a canard. Everything in that region is quiet; insurrection is effectually quelled.
’
