From the North.
The three months men enlisted by Lincoln are returning, but only to be caught by the draft. Three New York regiments returned there on the 3d inst. The following extraordinary dispatch appears in one of the Northern papers of the 4th. What ‘"mob"’ is meant does not appear:Philadelphia. Sept. 3.--The dispatch telegraphed from here on Monday or Tuesday, that the New York Tribune had been ordered to be closed, had no foundation. The statement was made with no other purpose than to appease the mob.
The War in Virginia — desperate situation of the rebel army.
[From the New York Herald, Sept. 3.] Our latest intelligence direct from the army of General Pope is that he has advanced two miles from Centreville towards the late battle ground, without any corresponding movement of the enemy. He is ready for them; but they are evidently beginning to realize their desperate situation.Their failure to follow up on Sunday morning their partial success of Saturday was a confession that their grand enterprise had failed. Every day which has followed has been equal to the addition of twenty five thousand men to General Pope's army, while it is altogether probable that Lee's daily reinforcements have been less than twenty-five hundred; for between Manassas and Richmond, including that city, he had only a few thousand reserves at his command. We dare say that Gen. Pope fully comprehends his advantage in this respect, and that he is not disposed to lose his opportunity for a decisive reckoning. The two armies will not remain very long confronting each other.
As a boss of operations, Manassas has ceased to be tenable to a rebel army. Last year it was in the midst of an extensive region, abounding in wheat, corn, rye, oats, beef, pork, and mutton, equal to the wants of a considerable army for a twelve month, but now all that vast region is exhausted, and for military purposes Manassas Junction is in the midst of a desert. Gen. Lee, with his great army, even it undisturbed, cannot remain there. He must advance or fall back. His direct advance has been arrested. He must, therefore, endeavor to push across the Upper Potomac for a raid among the granaries of Maryland, or move back into the Shenandoah valley, or turn his face again towards Richmond, or run the hazards of a demoralized army from starvation or a crushing defeat.
The encouraging information received at the War Department from General Pope and General Banks, ‘"which cannot now be made public,"’ we accept as signifying that the departure of General Lee from Manassas will, perhaps, be precipitated. It has been reported that the rebels have some thousands of negroes engaged in the construction of fortifications at all the passes of the Rappahannock, and that river is to be their next line of defence. We dare say, however, that if decisively routed from their present position, as we expect they will be, the remnants of the rebel army from Manassas, as in their first retreat, will push on as fast as possible to Richmond.
Meantime the gunboats from Com. Wilkes's squadron, which have been ordered up the Potomac, will doubtless attend to any experiments that may be made by the rebels on the lower river to cross over into Maryland or to interrupt the passage of our transports. Let this suffice to quiet the nerves of such timid souls as may imagine that these gunboats are intended to shell the rebels out of Washington, should they get in by the back door. The gunboats could shell them out very effectively; but in the rear, as in the front, Washington is secured by a line of formidable fortifications. Better than all, however, General Pope's army would now be equal to all emergencies, without a solitary fort in the front or rear of Washington.
Under the disorganizing counsels of the Abolition brigade of Congress, headed by the Wilsons, Wades, Chandlers, Sumners, and Lovejoys, we find the war in Virginia in the first week of September, 1862, somewhat as it was this time a year ago. But the Administration has learned wisdom from experience, and the counsels of wiser men than our Abolition leaders now prevail. The removal of General McClellan's army from the Richmond peninsula was a hazardous experiment; and but for the good management of that evacuation, and the skill and bravery of General Pope and his noble army, it would, perhaps, have been a fatal experiment to the cause of the Union. We have escaped as by a miracle the danger which menaced our national capital; and now, with our new volunteers coming forward by thousands, the game is entirely in our own hands once more.
In the West, as in the East, the daring movements of the rebels towards the free States are exciting some alarm. But, with the men and the means at our command to punish their insolence, there is no occasion for fear. It is the last desperate struggle, the last trick of the rebel leaders to save their sinking cause. An intelligent traveler, just in from the Southwest, informs us that the rebel army has already absorbed the able-bodied men of the revolted States; that nothing but old men, women, and children are there to be found at home; that there is nothing left in those States with which to clothe the troops of the rebellion for a winter campaign, and that if, in the meantime, the rebels are defeated in a single decisive battle or any moment, the war is substantially at an end.
Let us, then, hurry forward our new troops, and begin the work before us, in the total expulsion of the rebel army from Virginia.
The death of Gen. Kearney.
A letter to the New York Herald, from Washington, says the death of Gen. Kearney has ‘"struck all classes with sadness, for of all the officers engaged the death of none could be more deeply lamented."’ A letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer gives a rather fuller account of his death than has been published. It says:‘ While the firing was in progress Gen. Birney, who at the time was near to Gen. Kearney, pointed out to him a position on their right flank from which Gen. Stevens's division had retreated, thereby leaving a gap. As Gen. Kearney had previously understood from Gen. Reno (the latter himself so believing) that the gap left by the retreat of Gen. Stevens had been filled, as well as believing it impossible that anybody could be driven from so strong a position he at once started off at a full gallop, unaccompanied by either aid or orderly, (they had been sent to other parts of the field with orders,) and rode into the gap.
This was the last seen of General Kearney alive. The first knowledge that they had in reference to him was a flag of truce sent by the rebels, and directed to General Heintzelman. It came into the camp the next morning, bearing the dead body of the loved but now lamented Kearney. It was placed at once under the charge of Dr. Pancoast, the able Division Surgeon, and by him taken to Washington, where it is now being embalmed before being sent to his late home.
The missile which caused his death was a Minnie rifle ball, and was doubtless fire by some one of the enemy's sharpshooters, he being concealed at a point in some gully or rifle pit lower than the General, as the shot entered his body just below the hip and came out through the left lung. He probably did not survive long after being wounded.
’
The situation at Cumberland Gap.
A correspondent writing from Cumberland Gap, on the 19th ult., says:‘ We continue to have pretty good evidences of a heavy force in front, and at least a body of eight thousand men in our rear, in addition to the parties crowding into Kentucky some distance west of our communications with Lexington and Cincinnati.--This evening we learn that all our wagons and supplies between here and Barboursville are safe.--Large trains have just arrived. The enemy may surround us and worry us at will, for at least thirty days with fifty thousand men, without doing us serious injury. Our batteries, rifle pits, and sharp-shooters are in such a state of readiness and efficiency that all the army feel that they are ready for the conflict; and the opinion is next to universal that the rebels cannot bring an army against our Gibraltar of sufficient strength to do us much injury. We think they are after our food. If the Buckeyes and Cornerackers bestir themselves they may wreath their brows with many honors by hastening in this direction. A week's rapid marching and efficient fighting would cut off the retreat of the rebels in our rear, and forever extinguish their hopes of the blue grass region of Kentucky. In deed, the right way to protect the towns and cities of Ohio and Kentucky is to push an army through the latter State, and on to the line of railroad between Memphis, Knoxville, and Richmond. Until that is done, small armies in this region will always be a prey to guerrilla bands and bushwhackers.
General Morgan has never had an army here large enough to guard this point and his rear, when he should have had, in addition to that, troops sufficient to march on without hesitation to Knoxville. Two months ago this could and would have been done with less than half the force now requisite. Delays are dangerous.
’ The Cincinnati Enquirer thus explains the condition of affairs in Kentucky and Tennessee:
‘ The number of the enemy on the south side of Cumberland Gap is computed to be 75,000, in command of Generals Floyd and Kirby Smith, while at Chattanooga there is a reserve of 30,000, under Gen. Bragg, to hold in check Gen. Buell, who is marching up with his entire division to confront Gen. Bragg, who is believed to be moving toward Kentucky or for Nashville. Buell and his army passed through Decherd, forty miles northwest of Chattanooga, on Saturday, and on Monday was within ten miles of the enemy.
As communication with Nashville is cut off by railroad and the river, and the troops around Nashville are subsisting on half rations, the transportation of supplies to Buell's forces will cause considerable anxiety, as hitherto they were forwarded via Memphis. The indications are that an immediate engagement will take place between Buell and Bragg, and the forces on the other side of the Gap and Gen. G. W. Morgan. Scott's army, in front of the Gap, is being reinforced; but Gen. Wright, who is in Frankfort, controlling in person all Federal movements, will undoubtedly, through Gen. Nelson, drive Scott out of the State, and open up the road between Lexington and the Gap. Many
days cannot elapse without a formidable retreat of the enemy from Kentucky and East Tennessee, or a terrible battle.
’
Confederate postage stamps captured.
The unloading of the prize steamer Bermuda, now lying at Philadelphia, is progressing. Another discovery has been made by the prize commissioner superintending the unloading — that of 26 boxes, each about one foot square, banded with iron, and sealed on the edges. Each box was marked ‘"P. O. D."’ This excited suspicion, and one of the boxes was opened and found to contain four tin cases; and these being opened, there came to light sheets of Confederate postage, stamps--five cents. The engraving is well executed. The box contained $10,000 worth of the stamps, and if the others contain the same quantity, the whole value (to the Confederates) will be $260,000. There have also been found coils of a submarine telegraph cable.
How Jackson got into Pope's rear — Strategy of the Confederate leaders.
The Alexandria correspondent of the Philadelphia Press vouches for the correctness of the following statements:‘ Of course the principal topic is how Jackson managed to get around the right wing of General Pope's army, and make his raid upon Manassas Junction, for the purpose of operating in the rear of General Pope's army, while General Lee made the attack on the front. All the six days fighting of our army on the Rappahannock is now known to have been merely a feint on the part of the rebels, and their supposed retreating towards Sperryville via Little Washington was also intended for the same purpose. Instead of the whole rebel army moving back, General Lee carefully concealed his main force along the banks of the Rappahannock, while he sent Jackson to Warrenton with 40,000 men, 5,000 of whom were cavalry, under Colonel Lee, to march along the country between the Blue Ridge and Bull Run range of mountains.
Jackson concentrated his forces at White Plains and Salem, and sent his cavalry through to reconnoitre. Soon he followed with his infantry, and coming through Thoroughfare Gap he made a forced march until he reached Centreville. From this place he was within striking distance of General Pope's rear, and he improved it, no doubt thinking that he could annihilate the army of Virginia before it could have any succor from Washington.--The cavalry dashes of Col. Lee were thought by some to be too daring if he was not confident of having infantry to support him in case of an emergency, but so far as I could hear our officers did not share the same opinion.
The rebel cavalry, by their attack on our forces on Tuesday night, created such a panic among our troops that the rebel cavalry had it all their own way, and during the night they held high revel in our camp. The battery of artillery they had captured they placed in a favorable position and drew their cavalry up in line of battle, so that it could be concealed from our forces. Some of their guns were placed in a fort, and the others were planted so that if our forces should make an attack on their position they could concentrate a cross fire upon us. The best riflemen in the command were picked out and posted in the rifle pits, which are very numerous in that locality.
’
