Latest Northern news.
interesting details.
From late Northern papers we make up the following summary of interesting news:
Letter from a Richmond prisoner.
Letters have been received in Philadelphia from Alva L. Morris, a member of the California regiment, and now a prisoner at Richmond. After speaking of the fight at Ball's Bluff, he says:‘ We were marched off to Leesburg, under guard of the Eighteenth Mississippi Regiment a set of gentlemen, who treated us very kindly. We were worn out by fatigue, but had to march all night, and all day Thursday, in a drenching rain. Thursday night, at 7 o'clock, we stopped on the Bull Run battle-field, and had the first meal I had eaten since Monday morning. It consisted of hot corn bread and excellent boiled bacon — nothing ever tasted better. We bivouacked on the battle-field, and at daylight started for Manassas. Arrived there at about 11 o'clock; our names were taken; we were placed in the guard-house till evening, when we took the cars for Richmond. We arrived here about 3 P. M. of Thursday, and were established in quarters in one of R. A. Mayo's tobacco warehouses. In about a week we were removed to another, on the right of the first, and yesterday were removed to the building occupied by the Bull Run prisoners all summer. It is an old building, but stands high, and is healthy.
We get half a loaf of good fresh bread, and plenty of boiled beef for breakfast, and half a loaf of bread and a tin-cup full of soup for supper. In the other building we had breakfast at 11 o'clock A. M., and supper at 5 o'clock P. M.; here, breakfast at 8 ½, and supper at 3 P. M. Our appetites are so good that we have to buy both bread and molasses to make up. There are two of my old teammates with me, George S. Massey and James C. Hufty.
Corporal Will. H. Cox, of Company A, is here, and we spend about one-third of our time in walking the floor, and talking over the chances of being exchanged or getting off on ‘"parole of honor."’
Co. C, 1st California Regiment.
Proclamation of General Phelps to the people of the Southwest.
One Gen. Phelps, of the old army, and a Vermonter by birth, has been assigned by Lincoln to the command of the Yankee troops at Ship Island, Gulf of Mexico. On arriving there, he issued a proclamation, the first paragraph of which is as follows:
Headquarters Middlesex Brigade,Ship Island, Miss., Dec. 14, 1861.
To the Loyal Citizens of the Southwest:
Without any desire of my own, but contrary to my private inclination, I again find myself among you as a military officer of the Government.
A proper respect for my fellow-countrymen renders it not out of place that I should make known to you the motives and principles by which my command will be governed.
We believe that every State that has been admitted as a slave State into the Union, since the adoption of the Constitution, has been so admitted in direct violation of that Constitution.
We believe that the slave States which existed, as such, at the adoption of our Constitution, are, by becoming parties to that compact, under the highest obligations of honor and morality to abolish slavery.
To the Loyal Citizens of the Southwest:
This is quite enough for a sample of his insane twaddle. We annex the remarks of the Baltimore News Sheet on this famous proclamation:
‘ The proclamation of Gen. Phelps, now in command at Ship Island, is one of the most extraordinary documents which this war has given birth. After declaring his intention to make known to the people of the Southwest the motives and principles by which his command will be governed, he states that the creed of himself and that of the troops under him is that every slave State admitted into the Union since the adoption of the Constitution, has been admitted in direct violation of the Constitution, and that the original slave States in becoming parties to the Federal compact were bound in honor to abolish slavery. He assumes that slave labor is a monopoly which excludes the free labor of the North from entering into competition with it; and that the purpose for which the Federal troops were sent South is to revolutionize slavery out of existence.
The New York Times denies that General Phelps has any authority for the line of policy he prescribes for himself, and alleges that he "misrepresents the aims of the Government precisely as the more malignant Secessionists of the South misrepresenting them — a coincidence," says the Times, "which cannot but be productive of mischievous and embarrassing results." Even the Tribune sneeringly speaks of the proclamation in question "as another illustration of the infelicity of our commanders in this species of composition."
’
Details of news from Washington.
We copy the following from the Washington Star, of last evening:‘ The only arrival since our last report is that of the Mount Washington, which went down on Saturday morning, returning that evening. Messrs. Hale, Clark, Edwards, Rice, of Massachusetts; Rollins, of New Hampshire, and others, went down on the Mount Washington, and after passing Stump Point the steamer was stopped, it not being deemed expedient to expose her to the enemy's fire, and the party took to the boats and proceeded to Budd's Ferry. Two shots were fired by the rebels at the boats, but without effect, both going wide of their mark. It is thought the design of the enemy was not so much to injure the party as it was to draw the steamer down within range to pick up the boats. The Mount Washington reports all quiet with the flotilla. In coming up she met the Hugh Jenkins, with a number of schooners and smaller vessels in tow.
A man came within General Hennzelman's lines to-day who left Alexandria in July for more distant Southern quarters. He stated that he had been living in Charlottesville for some time; that no rebel troops had recently gone South from the Potomac, but during the last three weeks two Georgia regiments had been added to it; that the sickness in the army was great, the average from Manassas and Centreville being a car load of invalids a day conveyed to the hospitals at Charlottesville; that he made three attempts to pass the rebel line before he succeeded in making his escape, being obliged to take the woods in order to avoid skirmishing parties.
The Reliance came up from the Potomac flotilla yesterday, and states that two new rebel batteries are erected above those heretofore reported. One of them is nearly opposite the station of the flotilla at Indian Head, and the other nearly opposite the mouth of Mota woman creek. At both batteries heavy guns are mounted evidently, as they threw shot over upon the Maryland shore.
The steamtug Pussey left Indian Head last night and reached the Navy-Yard early this morning. When she left, the Harriet Lane and Yankee were near Indian Head, and the Anacostia, Resolute, Reliance, Jacob Bell, Stepping Stones, Murray, and the Herbert, were between the new batteries above mentioned and the station of the rebel steamer George Page in Quantico creek.
The Union, Freeborn, and Satellite, are below Quantico.
The Reliance was to have run the blockade last night.
’
The Europa at Boston — special British and American messengers.
Within 30 minutes after the Europa touched at Halifax, the British steam sloop-of-war Rinaldo, 17 guns, lying in port, got up steam and left, in pursuance of some order, it is supposed, brought by the Queen's messenger, to communicate with the Admiral of the British North American squadron.
Detention of the Cunard Mail steamer Aprica.
The steamer Africa, which was advertised to leave at 8 o'clock Tuesday morning, will not take passengers on board until 4 o'clock of the afternoon of Thursday. The following placard appears posted on the wall inside the wharf:‘ Notice to Passengers--Passengers are requested to be on the Jersey City wharf at 4 o'clock on Thursday afternoon, from whence they will be taken by a tug-boat to the mail steamer Africa, previous to her sailing for Liverpool.
The above announcement has caused various rumors and reports to be circulated and many surmises are rite in respect to the ship not sailing on her usual day; but there can be no doubt whatever the orders must have been received from Lord Lyons at Washington which causes the Africa to wait for important dispatches from that English official.
The 62d and 63d, British regiments are under orders for Canada.
Capt. Seymour, the Queen's messenger, also a special messenger from Minister Adams left this afternoon by the shore route, via New York, direct for Washington.
The leading features of the news have been anticipated from Halifax and Cape Race.
The mails by the Europa will reach New York early to-morrow morning.
’
The battle at Alleghany Mountain.
The Baltimore News Sheet, formerly the Exchanges, after giving the Federal lying account of the above battle, says:‘ From private sources, by way of Washington, we learn that the fight between the Confederate forces, under Col. Ed. Johnson, and the Federal troops, under Gen. Milroy, at Valley Mountain, Pocahontas county, Va., was a sanguinary conflict. After hours of fighting the Federal forces were badly beaten, and put to utter rout Col. Johnson is in command of a Georgia regiment, and by seniority led the Confederate forces on the occasion referred to. The battle is reported to have been one of the most terrific of the war, and the slaughter most fearful. Advices were further received at Washington city, representing to the Government that the rout of the Federal troops was disgraceful.
’
Suspension of Specie Payment by the New York Bank.
The Baltimore News Sheet, of the 18th instant, says:‘ A telegram from New York this morning announced the suspension of specie payments by the New York banks, doubtless with a view to prevent the sending of funds out of the country, which was being done to a considerable extent, as the transactions in exchange there might indicate. This can have no material effect upon the financial affairs here, as it is well known that our banks e, and have been for many months past, in a state of suspension.
Stocks generally were firmer in New York to day. Virginia 6's advanced 1½ per cent.; North Carolina 6's two per cent; Erie 1½ per cent; New York Central, and Reading $2 Missouri and Tennessee 6's close at the same figure as on yesterday, but Canton declined ¼. The market closed steady at both boards
’
Battle on Green River, Ky.
The Democrat has advices of Union troops crossing Green River southward, all day with great rapidity.
The Democrat has also a business letter, dated Monday, which mentions no engagement in that vicinity.
The Twelfth Kentucky regiment, Colonel Haskins, is entrenched two miles south of Somerset.
All was quiet in the vicinity of Campbellsville up to the 16th.
Rumored battle at New Orleans--Confederate gun boats and troops sent to New Orleans — anticipated battle in Kentucky.
Gen. Buell is expected to take the field in Kentucky in person in a few days and it is reported that the Federal troops are crossing Green river. Buckner, with a Confederate army, is coming up by railroad to offer battle this side of Bowling Green, in Kentucky.
A grand review and inspection of 17,000 troops at Cairo, Bird's Point, and Fort Holt, took place yesterday.
News from Missouri.
Yankee Malignity in Literary Garb.
The Mobile Register has the following interesting article, prompted by the receipt of a recent number of Harper's Weekly:We have before us a copy of Harper's Weekly, of the date of November 30th. It is loaned to us by a friend, and we do not know how it was spirited over the border and through the lines of hostile armies.
The great feature in the ‘"illustrations"’ of the number is what the editor calls ‘"the glorious achievements of the great expedition"’ at Port Royal. A prodigious amount of artistic and pen and ink is expended in illustrating and bragging over the destruction of a couple of open mud batteries by the whole power of the Federal Navy. Verily, the Lincolnites are thankful for small favors when they come in the shape of military successes.
The tone of this well-known Weekly is bitter and vindictive in the extreme against the South. It is the spirit of a vengeful tyrant who would flay his enemies alive, provided he could catch them. Harper's Weekly evidently sighs the amiable wish of Nero as to his foes, that all Southern traitors and rebels had but one neck and he a sharp axe with which to chop it off. It glories over the knavery of stealing Mason and Slidell from beneath the folds of the British flag covering an unarmed ship. It is rejoiced to feel ‘"that the hand of a just Providence has been heavily laid of late, upon the wicked wretches (you and I, reader,) who have tried to destroy our Government."’
It boasts of Northern successes in the war, of their powers of aggression, their abundance of money, the growing favor of foreign nations to their cause, and the immense number of their troops — and, on the other hand, is joyful over the evident decay of rebel strength and defeat of rebel schemes. It tells of the distress in New Orleans, Mobile, and other cities, as ‘"without precedent in history"’--in short, according to Harper, we are at our last gasp and ready to give up or ‘"die in the last ditch."’
Harper is not quite so felicitous in his views of English affairs. They are admitted to be complicated and unsatisfactory, and while he maintains that England will not and cannot go to war on the rebellion question, he states distinctly that ‘"the alienation of the two nations (England and Lincolndom) is already accomplished."’
On the subject of an exchange of prisoners, Harper is foggy and unsettled. He ardently desires the release of the brave soldiers of the Union in rebel prisons, but grows squeamish at the thought of recognizing Jeff Davis as a live President, and his Government as a power. He does condescend to admit that Beauregard is a General, and rather gives in to that gallant soldier's sarcastic reply, when he dismissed the messengers who came to seek Col. Cameron's body after Manassas, with a letter addressed to ‘"whom it may concern."’ His reply was, ‘"It doesn't concern me."’ He reminds Abe that General Washington would not receive letters addressed to him by the enemy as George Washington, Esq. He thought he ought to be addressed as General of an army, because he was a General at the head of an army. Harper thinks the Feds had better give up that point and confess that Beauregard is ‘"some"’ General, and probably did have ‘"some"’ army at Bull Run.
Bitterness, delusion, falsehood and vain boasting, mark the character of this number of ‘"Harper's"’ from beginning to end.
The feeling in Cuba.
A correspondent of the Boston Daily Advertiser, writing from Havana, under date of Nov. 13, says:‘ As to the state of feeling in this region, On bans in general sympathise, as is well known, with the South. The more intelligent on board ship professed their regret at the unhappy contest now waging, and also professed sorrow that there should be those who, though they had been provoked, should be willing to devote to destruction so fine a fabric as the Union. But many were of the opinion that though numbers were on the side of the North, yet the South has energy and determination, and a unity of sentiment. There were those, however, who professed already to see the North prove itself no match for Southern arms, and to look forward to an indefinitely prolonged struggle, with no final result but in a recognition of the Confederacy.
There are those here who openly speak of the tables being turned, and of an aggressive South, and of a just retribution at the hands of the conquered. The language of some is excessively bitter. I now speak of our countrymen, and a man fears almost to express Union sentiments, as he will provoke anything but an agreeable conversation. I have heard it several times openly stated that there are three Confederate ships at Matinee with their flags that ships arrive and depart for Southern ports and a Cuban
friend of mine told me to-day that a friend of his from the South met him this morning and wished him to go about with him and interpret, as he was buying arms for the Confederacy. It is sa , also, that commanders have gone to Europe to take command of a navy prepared for them there, and that the blockade is constantly evaded. The cause of the Union suffers terribly here, and has been much affected by the reverses it has experienced. If it is here thought that the South is gradually getting the upper hand, this idea will speedily communicate itself to foreign countries. The North must put forth all her energies.
’
