Further from the North.
withdrawal of Federal troops from Malvern Hill — the murder of Gen. McCook--effect of the New orders relative to drafting — the Confederate steam ram Fingal, &c.
The news which we obtain from Northern papers to the 9th inst., will be found interesting.--The late action of the Federal Administration calling for 600,000 more troops to put down the ‘"rebellion,"’ and levying a heavy draft upon the people to make up the same, has created great alarm at the North; and so rapid has been the stampede of the citizens, that Lincoln has been compelled to issue coercive orders to force them to remain at home till the draft is filled. From McClellan's army we have little of interest. The latest dispatches represent his forces as having withdrawn from Malvern Hill. From the New York Herald's army correspondence we have the following, under date of ‘"Harrison's Landing, August 7 P. M.:"’
‘ The force under General Hooker, which went to Malvern Hill yesterday morning for a reconnaissance and a fight, has just returned to camp in good health and fine spirits. They got no sleep to speak of last night, as the preparations for the march homeward commenced about the time when the soldiers had laid down to rest. General Hooker had made preparations for an attack from the enemy the day before, and as they could not come to time, he concluded to return to camp. Accordingly, the column moved back to this place, having accomplished all that could be reasonably asked for.
In the first place, he offered them battle on one of their chosen fields, and could have given them a lively turn had they accepted it; but they did not attack him.
During the evening the rebel pickets were pressed closely upon ours, and there was every indication that they would attack us early in the morning with overwhelming numbers. They intended, no doubt, to make the place too hot to hold General Hooker's ‘"army,"’ as the corps of which he was given the entire command was called. At this present writing they are, without doubt, in a terrible state of amazement at finding the birds have flown.
The homeward march was ‘"excellently ordered"’ and executed in the most ‘"excellent order."’ The assailable points on the route were properly guarded, and the troops marched back without suffering the slightest casualty, so far as I can learn.
Whatever was the object of the movement, in either or any case it was ordered well and well done, and proved a success. It has infused new life into the army, who will henceforth never flinch from meeting the rebels, no matter how great their numbers. They are ready to move at a moment's warning in any direction when led by brave men.
’ The army correspondent of the New York Express, writing from Harrison's Landing, says:
‘ The impression prevails here that Fort Darling is to be reduced, if its reduction is at all possible, and the movement on the south side of the James, it must be confessed, points in that direction. In consequence, we are in daily expectation of the appearance of the rebel ‘"monster"’ Richmond. Nothing has been seen of that craft yet, according to statements by naval officers, or at least further evidence is needed before they are satisfied that what has been seen is the new issue of ‘"iron clad."’--What a joke it would be if the rebels had been rigging up something very like an infernal machine, just to keep us in continual alarm until their great boat is ready. At the same time expect exciting news from the river at any moment. The Monitor still occupies the position of honor, supported by the Galena, and backed up by several saucy-looking gunboats. Our naval officers are very confident that the Richmond will be sunk or captured, and I am told that the Commodore is willing to trust the little Monitor alone with her. We await with some anxiety news of the result, for if the vessels meet it will have very much to do with the programme now being carried out by the Federal Generals.
’
The murder of Gen. Robt. L. M'Cook--excitement in Nashville.
From the Nashville correspondent of the Philadelphia Press, August 7th, we obtain the following account of the death of the Federal Gen. Robert L. McCook:‘ The city is in a perfect uproar of excitement over the details of the death of the brave Gen. Robert L. McCook, of Ohio. His remains arrived in town to-night, and are now lying at the Commercial Hotel.
I write this at midnight, and therefore am unable to send you as full particulars as I could wish. On Tuesday last Gen. Robert L. McCook, who was at the time very sick, was in an ambulance near Salem, Ala., on his way to his brigade. The ambulance was traveling over the usual military road, and, about ten o'clock in the morning, it arrived at a plantation where there was an abundance of water. After refreshing themselves they passed on with the wounded General. Intelligence of his whereabouts and condition was quickly spread, it is supposed; for before the ambulance had proceeded three miles the driver discovered that he was pursued by guerrillas.
It was impossible to think of flight, and Gen. McCook's condition prohibited any idea of rescuing him. The guerilla leader ordered the ambulance to stop, the assassins at the same time surrounding it. The vehicle was then upset, and the sick officer turned into the road. While on his knees, helpless, sick, and pleading for quarter, he was fired at by a ruffian, and shot through the side.
The wound was fatal, Gen. McCook surviving it but a few hours. He bore his sufferings heroically, and to the last manifested an undaunted spirit. His last words were, ‘"Tell Aleck (alluding to his brother, Gen. Alexander McDowell McCook) and the rest that I have tried to live like a man, and do my duty."’
’ When the news of the murder became known among the camps the excitement was intense. The 9th Ohio, McCook's own regiment, on learning of the assassination, marched back to the scene of the occurrence, burned every house in the neighborhood and laid waste the lands. Several men who were implicated in the murder were taken out and hung to trees by the infuriated soldiery.
The guerrilla feeling throughout the State is increasing rapidly, and bands of these robbers are forming in every hamlet. The train I came down in from Battle creek was fired into at different points. No damage was done to the persons of any of the passengers.
The train for Columbia to-day was fired into by guerrilla parties, at various points on the road, and one man was killed and thirteen wounded.
Companies are forming here to assist in the capture of guerrillas near the city.
As I write this dispatch the excitement is increasing in the city, and the streets are alive with the populace. Amazement and revenge are pictured upon every countenance. The death of Gen. McCook will be remembered here, and a terrible retribution will fail upon his assassins.
Gov. Johnson and other prominent Union men have called to view the remains. The Governor was visibly affected by the sight of the corpse of his late friend.
It is rumored that a number of prominent Secessionists in this city have been shot to-night by exasperated Unionists.
Effect of the New orders Relative to drafting.
A large number of applications were to-day made to the State Department for passports, but refused.
Numerous applications having been made to the War Department by railroad companies to exempt their employees from the militia, it has been decided that none but locomotive engineers in actual employment when the draft was made can be exempted.
The exception of telegraph operators is upon the ground that they are practicing an art necessary to military operations, and which, being known to comparatively few persons, their places cannot be supplied.
The reasons for the draft.
The following are the chief reasons which prompted Lincoln to resort to drafting:
- First. The representations of New York bankers and capitalists, repeated by one Committee after another, from week to week, and of late with special urgency, that the finances of the country could not stand the slow and extravagant war policy that was being pursued. They demanded, in the strongest possible terms, that the utmost energy of the nation should be put forth, that National exhaustion and the drain of the money might be stopped at once by ending the war.
- Second. The urgency of the radical Republicans, who complained bitterly of the President's failure to meet their views on certain points of his policy, and who demanded that if the President would not take their policy, he should at least, if he expected the support of a large portion of the party that elected him, inaugurate some vigorous measures.--A very heated interview of this kind last week left the President convinced that he could not keep the loyal people of the North united in support of his measures, unless promptly convinced of their being adequate to the crisis.
- Third. Besides the representations of the politicians, the universal demand of the people that the Government should adopt measures likely to secure success.
- Fourth. The belief that the rebels had now got their army up to the largest possible number, and were so exhausted that such a force as we could now bring into the field would utterly crush the rebellion.
From Missouri — defeat of guerrilla parties — summary execution by citizens.
After retreating 40 miles from Forsyth, on the White river, Buck attacked them at daylight on the morning of the 4th, and killed three of them, wounded seven, and captured 25 horses, 20 guns, most of the clothing and saddles of the men, with 200 letters, and the original authority from the War Department of the Confederate States authorizing Col. Lawther to organize a regiment of partisan rangers for service in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois.
Coffee, Hughes and Tracey are making strong efforts to get a foisting in the State, but the activity of our troops has so far prevented it.
The citizens are being rapidly enrolled in the State militia. Thirty-five companies have already been organized, 15 of which have been armed, and are now chasing guerillas and assisting our troops to maintain quiet.
There is an excited state of feeling, and ‘"death to the guerillas"’ is the motto. Seven guerillas were hung in one day by a party of citizens, who joined together for a fox chase.
Hudson, Mo., Aug. 7.--Colonel McNeill's forces came up with parties of guerrillas a few miles northeast of Kirksville, in Adair county, yesterday morning, and followed them skirmishing into the town, where a general fight ensued, in which the rebels lost 150 killed, forty wagons of supplies, and ten wagon loads of arms. Porter's forces are scattered.
St. Louis, Mo., Aug. 8.--General Merrill, during active operations against guerrillas in the northeast, will call able bodied loyal men to his assistance, and subsist his command off the Secessionists.
The jurisdiction of the Provost Marshal General of this State has been extended over Illinois and Iowa.
Recruiting in this city is progressing very satisfactorily, and there is but little doubt that the eight regiments called for under the President's first proclamation will now be full. Recruits from the country are coming in rapidly, and people are fast placing themselves on one side or the other.
The Expedition to the Indian Nation.
The destruction of the Golden Gate — Safety of some of her passengers.
Northern papers of the 9th contain but little additional news concerning the destruction of the Golden Gate. The latest dispatches from San Francisco report that--On the 27th ult., at a quarter to five P. M., when fifteen miles north of Manzanilla, while the passengers were dining, an alarm of fire was heard.--The steamer was promptly headed for the shore, three and a half miles distant, the flames meanwhile making fearful headway.
At a quarter after five the upper deck fell in.
Soon after, the steamer struck the beach, and the passengers and crew who had not got into the boats, jumped overboard and endeavored to swim ashore.
About one hundred, including five children, swam or were washed ashore alive.
The ship burned to the water's edge, and soon disappeared.
Those passengers who reached the shore made their way near to Manzanilla, where they arrived on the 28th, just as the steamer St. Louis arrived up from Panama.
Some few others escaped to Manzanilla in boats. One boat, with thirty persons on board, has not been heard from, but probably made the shore south of Manzanilla.
The St. Louis arrived here to-night, bringing seventy-eight of the Golden Gate's passengers — all that are known to be saved — and a portion of the crew.
Captain Hudson, with a portion of the crew, remained at Manzanilla, to look after the missing passengers.
A dispatch states that the ship's papers were lost.
The New Cofederate steam ram Fingal--the Yankees in great Trepidation.
The Federal forces at Hilton Head, South Carolina, have been recently thrown into a perfect fever of excitement on account of the completion of, and anticipated attack from, the new Confederate steam ram Fingal. Instead of anticipating a life of ease and indolence the summer through, both the land and naval forces at Port Royal are in momentary expectation of an exchange of compliments with this new and unsurpassed specimen of Southern enterprise. From the Hilton Head correspondence of the New York Herald, under date August 2, we extract the following:‘ The note of alarm has been sounded. Unless some Monitor comes to our succor, the fair weather yachts now reposing on the placid bosom of Port Royal bay have before them an excellent opportunity of learning what it is to be blown out of the water. The rebels have completed their ram. It has been manned and armed, and is now ready for sea. With an enterprise, perseverance, and determination, which are yet to be met by a corresponding activity on the part of our Government, but with resources insignificant in comparison with our own they have again succeeded in constructing an engine of war whose advent will find us powerless for resistance.
’ For several days we have noticed a growing boldness on the rebel side. We have seen them defiantly coming down the Savannah river, replacing the buoys, taking soundings, and making most careful and minute observations. Through the strong glasses of the signal station at Fort Pulaski we have watched the crews of the blockade ships as they bent their sails at the city wharves, and have noticed the unusual activity with which flatboats were multiplied and lighters have increased. Word has come to us, too, of the condition of the naval monster, and the fact that it was to be used against us at an early day has not been unknown.
Day before yesterday she first came under the fire of Pulaski. She was feeling her way, apparently unmindful of the shot from our heaviest guns. Of course the intelligence was not long in reaching Hilton Head. From that moment such preparations as we have been able to make for a proper reception have been in progress. The heaviest of our transport steamers have been placed under the orders of Admiral Dupont. Gunboats have been stationed at each approach, and new signal lines have placed them in instant communication with headquarters. We shall know when the ram passes Pulaski what direction she takes, and what her evident purpose is, long before we see her. Meanwhile the rebels are concentrating at Bluffton, at Hardeesville, and at Grahamsville. It is apparently their plan first to destroy our fleet, and then to move the Fingal around to Seabrook, and there cover the landing of their forces.
How the Admiral proposes to meet the Fingal it is not proper for me to reveal. It is sufficient for me to state that he believes at once in the impregnable nature of the craft, and in the reckless daring of her commander. Whether — in the event of her advent — he will remain on board the rudderless, helpless old Vermont, which at present is his flag ship, or betake himself to some one of the steamers in port, I do not know. I do know he thinks that unless some other means than those now at his disposal are supplied there is dire disaster in store for him.
To-night every transport has its fires lighted and steam ready; all are lying on spring cables, ready to move at a moment's notice. All civilians have been placed on shore, and to each man remaining on board has been given a life preserver. The gun boat Conemaugh, one of the new ‘"double enders,"’ lies quietly down the channel. Lanterns are swinging from the signal station, and from every elevated spot anxious eyes are peering through powerful lenses down the bay. Everybody is on the rampage about the ram.
The new rebel vessel has been constructed from the British steamer Fingal, which ran into Savannah early in the spring with a cargo of Enfield rifles, Blakely cannon, gray uniform cloth and salt.--The Fingal was then a new and staunch craft, just out of the shipyard at Glasgow; and it was understood at the time that she had been purchased by parties in Savannah, ultimately to become a portion of the Confederate navy. The Secessionists at once commenced the work of transforming her into an impregnable iron-clad — their object at that time being, apparently, the preservation of Pulaski.
The armament of the Fingal is as follow: Two one hundred-pound rifled guns; four fifty-pound rifled guns; six ten-inch columbiads; Two twenty-four-pounders for grape and canister — in all, fourteen heavy pieces. In shape she is similar to the Merrimac — differing from the latter, however, in her draft of water, which is much less than that of her ill-fated predecessor. She is heavily armored, and her portholes are protected by heavy wrought iron lids, so arranged as to close at the recoil of every gun. She has a missive beak at either end, and is moreover, provided with a scalding apparatus, with which to repel any attempt to board her. Her commander is J. Pembroke Jones, formerly of the United States Navy.
From Memphis.
A detachment of Indiana troops, under Colonel Fitch, has been sent out on the Jacksonport road from Helena, to intercept the Texans, which had not returned up to last night.
Arrest of Gen. Coombs's daughter.
From a Kentucky correspondent of a Northern paper, we learn that--Mrs. Mitchell, daughter of Gen. Leslie Coombs, was arrested at Lexington, Ky., on Thursday, by order of the military authorities, charged with having papers and letters in her possession, conveying information to the rebels. She was searched but no papers were found on her person.
Gen. Leslie Coombs Vindicates Mrs. Mitchell.
Gen. Leslie Coombs writes a sharp letter to the Cincinnati Commercial in defence of his daughter, Mrs. Mitchell. He says:‘ "No man doubts my loyalty. I saved Kentucky in 1860 against Buchanan and his infamous den of thieves at Washington, aided by Breckinridge and friends, and the State authorities in Kentucky. There is not a man of my name, as far as I know or have heard, in the rebel ranks. My father fought under Washington, and I have shed my own blood in the battle fields of my country. I claim, therefore, to have my children treated with common decency and humanity--especially my daughters."
’ Accompanying this letter was another to the Provost Marshal of Lexington, demanding upon what charges and information, and the reason why Mrs. Mitchell had been subjected to the terror and humiliation of an arrest in a foreign State, when alone, instead of at home, where she could always be found, if she had committed any offence against the Government. The Provost Marshal replies that he was not officially instrumental in the matter. Mrs. Mitchell is therefore completely exonerated.
Defeat of a guerrilla party.
Miscellaneous.
Hon. Sir Allan Napler McNabb died at his residence in Toronto, Canada, of gastric fever, on the 8th inst.Several arrests have already been made in New York under the order of the Secretary of War prohibiting citizens from leaving the country.
A large fire occurred in Philadelphia on the 8th inst., destroying property to the value of $10,000.
The National Republican, published at Washington, boldly declares — we quote its words — that ‘"the farce of restoring the old Union is played out."’
Isham Randolph Jefferson, a nephew and adopted son of Thomas Jefferson, died on the 6th of July, at his residence in Todd county, Kentucky, in the 71st year of his age. The personal resemblance which he bore to the great author of the Declaration of Independence is said to have been striking.
