Late from the North.
Yankee Views of the situation of Affairs.
The following summary is taken from the New York Herald of the 15th inst:
The situation.
There is no stirring news from Yorktown to-day. Everything is progressing well and quietly there.The latest news from Fortress Monroe represents everything quiet there. The Merrimac has made no movement since Sunday.
A dispatch from Gen. Beauregard to the Norfolk papers, claiming a great victory for the rebels on Sunday week, and the capture of eight thousand Union troops, is without the slightest foundation.
All reports published by us and received also at the War Department, are to the effect that the rebels were completely defeated and driven back to Corinth, on the succeeding day, Monday.
Commodore Dupont reports to the Navy Department the capture of two schooners belonging to the rebels, loaded with rice and meal; also of a ship bound to Charleston from Calcutta, with over 2000 bales of gunny cloth, and a British sloop bound from Nassau to Charleston.
The future operations on the Mississippi since the capture of Island No.10 and the advance of our troops Southward, will be of an important character.
The progress of our army in Alabama is most satisfactory. A few days ago we were enabled to announce the occupation of Huntsville by General Mitchell. To day we can report a most important advance still farther South, on the authority of a dispatch received at the War Department from Nashville, stating that on Saturday morning two expeditions were started from Huntsville by railroad. One under Colonel Sill, of the 33d Ohio, went east to Stevenson, the junction of the Chattanooga with the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, at which point they seized 2,000 of the enemy, and returned without firing a shot. Colonel Sill captured five locomotives and a large amount of rolling stock. The other expedition, under Colonel Turchin, of the 19th Illinois, went west and arrived at Decatur in time to save the railroad bridge, which was then in flames.
Gen. Mitchell now holds 100 miles of the Memphis and Charleston road, thus securing our position at Huntsville and its vicinity.
By the arrival of the Norwegian at Portland last night, we have five days later news from Europe. The question of iron batteries was the all-absorbing topic in England, since the intelligence of the feat of the Monitor in Hampton Roads had been received. All the leading journals are urging the necessity of constructing iron vessels.
The Morning Post calls attention to the improvements which this country is making in ordnance, the weight of the shot thrown by the Monitor being nearly double that used on board any of the British ships.
The brigs Adelaide and Mary Wright arrived at Liverpool on the 2d instant, from Charleston, having run the blockade. They had cargoes comprising 14,000 bales of cotton, 200 boxes of tobacco, and a quantity of rosin. They reported that a bark and four schooners laden with rosin had run the blockade in company with them, and further that the sunken stone fleet in Charleston harbor is breaking up and the timbers of the whalers floating about the harbor.
With regard to the Mexican question we have only the statement of the Paris Patris that the French and Spanish Governments intend signing a new treaty for the regulation of joint action in Mexico.
[from the Norfolk day book]
In an article headed ‘"Yorktown and Norfolk — The Rebellion in a New Phase,"’ the Herald of the 15th, holds out rather poor encouragement to the Feds to hope for a victory at Yorktown. McClellan is placed in front of a terrible army of rebels well entrenched, which, according to the Herald, was not dreamed of, and it wants to know where the rebels obtained their information that that would be the road to Richmond that they should have so well prepared themselves for the resistance of the Northern troops. Allusion is then made to the fact that our ‘"sea monster,"’ the Merrimac, renders all help to McClellan from wooden gunboats out of the question, and says while the Merrimac remains intact and afloat she is worth an army of 50,000 men in the defence of Yorktown.Reference to the Merrimac brings up Norfolk, and the Herald is bitter in its denunciation of Secretary Welles for allowing the Yard at this place to remain so long in the hands of the rebels — furnishing them as it has with their large guns, &c. Bennett says that Norfolk might have been re-captured with ease at any time between August and December last, and thinks had it been done ‘"we should have had no difficulty whatever in the occupation of Yorktown."’
In another article, on the recent naval scenes in Hampton Roads, the Herald says:
‘ "Nor does the criminality of the Navy Department end here. It is not only responsible for the continued and threatening appearance of the Merrimac, but also for the very existence of that vessel. Five months ago Norfolk could have been taken, and again and again Gen. Wool has asked permission to capture it, but has been refused. During that time the Merrimac has been preparing, and now it takes vast preparation to destroy her and save the Union fleet, when long ago, she could have been seized at her dock by the Union forces.--More than this, the Navy Department is responsible for all the loss of time and Life required now to capture. Yorktown and Norfolk, since the intention of the rebels to fortify and defend these places even at the cost of evacuating Manassas was anticipated by Gen. Wool and could have been prevented had the department allowed it"
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