Northern papers of the 9th inst. have been received at this office through the courtesy of the officers of the Exchange Bureau. We make a summary of the news they contain:
The Siege of Charleston — capture of the rifle pits.
A correspondent of the New York Times, writing from off Charleston on the 28th ult., gives an account of the capture of the rifle pits in front of Fort Wagner. He says:‘ After fifteen minutes of deafening cannonading, our guns having been replied to by the enemy from Wagner, Gregg, and Simpkins, the firing on our side was directed particularly to points beyond the ridge, and the 24th Massachusetts, who were near at hand were ordered to dash forward and seize that ground. In a moment the men leaped over the parallel and in another moment were passing up the ridge.
’ One company of the 61st North Carolina were in the rifle pits, but before they knew their own senses were surrounded and taken prisoners. Our men then placed themselves in a state of defence by throwinng up an earthwork which had increased before morning to the dimensions of a parallel, making a number of five in the series. It cannot be said the company of North Carolinas fought obstinately, in the defence of the ridge, for they, in the first place, were too few in numbers, and in the second place were too quickly surrounded. What our men had most to fear was the canister and grape from Wagner. The range was short — only 140 yards--and it required a lively handling of spades to put up a protection. From the time the guns were opened to the moment the 24th were on the summit of the ridge, thirty minutes had elapsed. The regiment lost two killed, eight wounded, and one missing. The rebel loss was four killed, eight wounded, and sixty-eight prisoners, including two Lieutenants. In fact, the entire rebel company, with the exception of the Captain and two or three privates, were either killed, wounded, or captured.
We gained a portion of ground, the possession of which enabled the engineers to go on with the approaches toward Wagner.--We now have the fifth parallel and a sap extending therefrom, the head of which is but one hundred yards from the rebel fort. Numerous rifle pits of the enemy, which were filled with sharpshooters, have been leveled, and he has been forced to contract his boundary limits. In a word, we have materially added to our chances of a speedy capture of Wagner.
The Boston Journal has the following about the shelling of Charleston:
‘ Our readers will be pleased to learn that General Gillmore has no less than thirty Parrott guns mounted that will throw shells plump into Charleston. Also that the use of Greek fire shells to bombard that rebel stronghold was personally ordered by President Lincoln. The Greek fire burns for 20 minutes. It will burn on the water as well as on land, and each shell covers a surface of one hundred square feet with flame. The shell bursts into about one hundred and twenty pieces, or ten times as many as the ordinary shell. Of course the effect of these shells will be to set Charleston in flames, which nothing can subdue.
’ In addition to the Greek fire shells, a large quantity of improved shrapnel shells, made by the inventor of the Greek fire shell, and containing from five hundred to one thousand bullets each, have been sent to Morris Island, to be transferred thence into the rebellious city in a manner not very pleasing to the enemy. These shells are fired with time fuses, and are very destructive of life.
Correspondence between Fernando Wood and Lincoln on the question of an amnesty to the Confederate States.
Fernando Wood publishes in the New York papers of Tuesday his correspondence with Lincoln in December last. The first letter is that of Wood to Lincoln, informing him that somebody has told him (Wood) that the Confederate Senators were anxious to return to the Yankee Senate if Lincoln would grant an amnesty to the South, and asking Lincoln to allow a correspondence with the said Senators, the correspondence to "pass through the hands of the President of the United States." Lincoln thus replies:
Executive Mansion,
Dear Sir — Your letter of the 8th, with the accompanying note of the same date, was received yesterday.The most important paragraph in the letter, as I consider, is in these words: "On the 25th of November last. I was advised by an authority which I deemed likely to be well informed, as well as reliable and truthful, that the Southern States would send representatives to the next Congress, provided that a full and general amnesty should permit them to do so. No guarantee or terms were asked for other than the amnesty referred to."
I strongly suspect your information will prove to be groundless; nevertheless, I thank you for communicating it to me. Understanding the phrase in the paragraph above quoted-- "the Southern States would send representatives to the next Congress"--to be substantially the same as that "the people of the Southern States would cease resistance, and would reinaugurate, submit to, and sustain the national authority-within the limits of such States, under the Constitution of the United States." I say that in such case the war would cease on the part of the United States; and that if within a reasonable time "a full and general amnesty" were necessary to such end, it would not be withheld.
I do not think it would be proper now to communicate this, formally or informally, to the people of the Southern States. My belief is that they already know it; and when they choose, if ever, they can communicate with me unequivocally. Nor do I think it proper now to suspend military operations to try any experiment of negotiation.
I should, nevertheless, receive with great pleasure the exact information you now have and also such other as you may in any way obtain. Such information might be more valuable before the 1st of January than afterward.
While there is nothing in this letter which I shall dread to see in history, it is perhaps better for the present that its existence should not become public. I therefore have to request that you will regard it as confidential.
A Lincoln.
Northern Politics.
The National Committee of the Douglas and Breckinridge wings of the Democratic organization met at the St. Nicholas Hotel, New York, on Monday, and organized by electing Aaron Ward President. Among the Douglas delegates were Thomas M. Lanahan, of Baltimore; August Belmont of New York; Thomas Cottman, of Louisiana, and Senator McDougall, of California. The Breckinridge faction included among others C. S. Stansbury, of Maryland; T. B. Florence, of Pennsylvania, and Augustus Schell, of New York. Prominent among the invited guests were Fernando and Ben Wood, Captain Rynders, Dean Richmond, James Brooks, and John McKcon. Washington and Philadelphia were suggested as places of holding a National Democratic Convention, but the resolution was finally withdrawn, when the Convention, by general consent, agreed that the two committees should meet at some time and place for the meeting of the Democratic National Convention, and that they be requested to invite persons of all parties to participate in nominating some conservative man for President, after which they adjourned.
Conflict of authority in Ohio.
A dispatch to the St. Louis Democrat, dated Dayton, Sept. 2d, says:‘ S. Huber and Tom Speelman, who shot 2d Lieut. George L. Waterman, are now in military custody. The civil authorities de- manded them for trial upon a writ of habeas corpus this evening. Brig. Gen. Cox was telegraphed at Cincinnati to-day regarding it, but has refused to surrender them, whereupon the militia have been called into requisition this evening to take them by force. The city is now in a blaze, bands of music are playing in front of the Court-House. Along the streets the mob element runs high. The militia are now gathering at their headquarters. The result of to-night can only be conjectured so far.
’ As the butternut Vallandigham meeting were on their way home last evening, on the Lebanon pike, nine miles south of Dayton, they applied the torch to the barn of a very prominent Union man, (his name I have not learned) consuming the barn with its contents. Several cows, oxen, horses, and two mules were burned alive. The property is supposed to be insured. Total loss not known.
Commencement of a War between Japan and the Treaty Powers.
News from Japan, of a highly important character, to the 24th of July, is received by way of San Francisco. Actual hostilities between the Japanese and the Treaty Powers had commenced. On the 15th of July an English ship, bound from Nagasaki to Kanazawa by an inland passage, was fired upon by Japanese forts and vessels, which had previously fired upon the American ship Pembroke.She was much injured, and had four men killed and six wounded. Subsequently the American steamer Wyoming visited the place to punish the Japanese for firing upon the Pembroke. She blew up one Japanese steamer and sank another, and silenced nearly all the neighboring forts. She received twenty shots, and had five men killed and six wounded. The forts were afterward attack by two British war vessels, and after a bombardment, a detachment of British troops were landed, who destroyed the fortifications and an adjacent village. The Japanese showed very little fight.
The War in Arkansas--Alleged Defeat of the Confederates.
A dispatch from Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, dated the 29th ult., via Leavenworth, 5th inst., says:‘ Gen. Blunt, with his army, forty-five hundred strong, including twenty pieces of artillery, crossed the Arkansas river on the 22d, and offered battle to the rebel Generals Steele and Cooper, who had massed on his front 11,000 men. After a faint show of resistance the enemy commenced a retreat, which soon turned into a disorderly flight. They abandoned all their property. Blunt pursued them a hundred miles south of the Arkansas, to Perryville, which is only fifty miles from the Red river. At this point he captured and destroyed their commissary depot. They continued their flight to Boggy depot, on Red river. The Indian Territory is now clear of rebels. Blunt is marching on Fort Smith, which will doubtless fall without a struggle.
’
Burnside's operations in Tennessee.
A Washington telegram, dated the 7th inst., says:‘ Official information is received here from Gen. Burnside up to the 4th or 5th inst., stating that part of his cavalry forces had arrived at Knoxville, while others were at Morristown and Loudoun, on the line of the East Tennessee and Virginia railroad, which towns are northeast and southwest respectively from Knoxville.
’ It is represented that when Gen. Burnside arrived before Kingston the enemy fell back and retreated. At this point a cavalry force, sent out from Gen. Rosecrans's army at Chattanooga, eighty miles to the south, joined Gen. Burnside's forces. The latter pushed on his column to Loudoun, where a sharp fight took place, but the enemy was completely routed, with considerable loss. Our casualties in all the skirmished were trifling. Gen. Burnside met with slight resistance before occupying Knoxville.
Miscellaneous.
Newbern (N. C.) advices to September 6th state that Hon. David Heaton, a representative of the Treasury Department, left there on the 2d inst. for Washington on important business of a commercial and civil character.Gens. Grant and Thomas have gone to New Orleans. Grant is to command all the Mississippi region. Gen. Banks, it is said, is to go to Texas.
The steamer Sunbeam was lost in Lake Superior on the 28th ult., and thirty-five persons drowned.
Imboden attacked Maj. Stevens at Moorefield, Hardy county, Va., on the 6th, and routed his command.
On Friday 800 conscripts sailed from Boston to join the army.
Seven deserters from Kentucky Union regiments were shot at Munfordsville on Friday last.
The new projectiles thrown into Charleston are an invention of a son of James G. Birney, the Abolitionist.
Gold was quoted in New York on the afternoon of the 9th inst. at 131a133.
